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President_of_the_United_States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States

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

James_Buchanan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Buchanan

James Buchanan Jr. ( bew-KAN-ən; April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. Buchanan also served as the secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvania in both houses of the U.S. Congress. He was an advocate for states' rights, particularly regarding slavery, and minimized the role of the federal government preceding the Civil War. Buchanan was a lawyer in Pennsylvania and won his first election to the state's House of Representatives as a Federalist. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1820 and retained that post for five terms, aligning with Andrew Jackson's Democratic Party. Buchanan served as Jackson's minister to Russia in 1832. He won the election in 1834 as a U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and continued in that position for 11 years. He was appointed to serve as President James K. Polk's secretary of state in 1845, and eight years later was named as President Franklin Pierce's minister to the United Kingdom. Beginning in 1844, Buchanan became a regular contender for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. He was nominated and won the 1856 presidential election. As President, Buchanan intervened to assure the Supreme Court's majority ruling in the pro-slavery decision in the Dred Scott case. He acceded to Southern attempts to engineer Kansas' entry into the Union as a slave state under the Lecompton Constitution, and angered not only Republicans but also Northern Democrats. Buchanan honored his pledge to serve only one term and supported Breckinridge's unsuccessful candidacy in the 1860 presidential election. He failed to reconcile the fractured Democratic Party amid the grudge against Stephen Douglas, leading to the election of Republican and former Congressman Abraham Lincoln. Buchanan's leadership during his lame duck period, before the American Civil War, has been widely criticized. He simultaneously angered the North by not stopping secession and the South by not yielding to their demands. He supported the Corwin Amendment in an effort to reconcile the country. He made an unsuccessful attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter, but otherwise refrained from preparing the military. In his personal life, Buchanan never married and was the only U.S. president to remain a lifelong bachelor, leading some historians and authors to question his sexual orientation. His failure to forestall the Civil War has been described as incompetence, and he spent his last years defending his reputation. Historians and scholars rank Buchanan as among the worst presidents in American history. Early life Childhood and education James Buchanan Jr. was born into a Scottish-Irish family on April 23, 1791, in a log cabin on a farm called Stony Batter, near Cove Gap, Peters Township, in the Allegheny Mountains of southern Pennsylvania. He was the last president born in the 18th century and, until the election of Joe Biden in 2020, the only one born in Pennsylvania. Buchanan was the second of eleven children with six sisters and four brothers, and the eldest son of James Buchanan Sr. (1761–1821) and his wife Elizabeth Speer (1767–1833). James Buchanan Sr., was an Ulster-Scot from just outside Ramelton, a small town in the north-east of County Donegal in the north-west of Ulster, the northern province in Ireland, who emigrated to the newly formed United States in 1783, having sailed from Derry. He belonged to the Clan Buchanan, whose members had emigrated in large numbers from the Scottish Highlands to Ulster in the north of Ireland during the Plantation of Ulster in the seventeenth century and, later, largely because of poverty and persecution by the Crown due to their Presbyterian faith, had further emigrated in large numbers from Ulster to America from the early eighteenth century onwards. Shortly after Buchanan's birth, the family relocated to a farm near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and later settled in the town in 1794. His father became the area's wealthiest resident, working as a merchant, farmer, and real estate investor. Buchanan attributed his early education primarily to his mother, whereas his father had a greater influence on his character. His mother had discussed politics with him as a child and had an interest in poetry, quoting John Milton and William Shakespeare to Buchanan. Buchanan attended the Old Stone Academy in Mercersburg and then Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. In 1808, he was nearly expelled for disorderly conduct; he and his fellow students had attracted negative attention for drinking in local taverns, disturbing the peace at night and committing acts of vandalism, but he pleaded for a second chance and ultimately graduated with honors in 1809. Later that year, he moved to the state capital at Lancaster, to train as a lawyer for two and a half years with the well-known James Hopkins. Following the fashion of the time, Buchanan studied the United States Code and the Constitution of the United States as well as legal authorities such as William Blackstone during his education. Early law practice and Pennsylvania House of Representatives In 1812, Buchanan passed the bar exam and after being admitted to the bar, he remained in Lancaster, even when Harrisburg became the new capital of Pennsylvania. Buchanan quickly established himself as a prominent legal representative in the city. His income rapidly rose after he established his practice, and by 1821 he was earning over $11,000 per year (equivalent to $250,000 in 2023). At this time, Buchanan became a Freemason, and served as the Worshipful Master of Masonic Lodge No. 43 in Lancaster and as a District Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. Buchanan also served as chairman of the Lancaster chapter of the Federalist Party. Like his father, he supported their political program, which provided federal funds for building projects and import duties as well as the re-establishment of a central bank after the First Bank of the United States' license expired in 1811. He became a strong critic of Democratic-Republican President James Madison during the War of 1812. Although he did not himself serve in a militia during the War of 1812, during the British occupation he joined a group of young men who stole horses for the United States Army in the Baltimore area. He was the last president involved in the War of 1812. In 1814, he was elected for the Federalists to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, where he was the youngest member, and held this seat until 1816. Since the sessions in the Pennsylvania General Assembly lasted only three months, Buchanan continued practicing law at a profit by charging higher fees, and his service helped him acquire more clients. In 1815, Buchanan defended District Judge Walter Franklin in an impeachment trial before the Pennsylvania Senate, over alleged judicial misconduct. Impeachments were more common at the time because the line between abuse of office and a wrong legal decision was determined by the ruling parties' preferences and the popularity of the judge's decision. Buchanan persuaded the senators that only judicial crimes and clear violations of the law justified impeachment. Congressional career U.S. House of Representatives In the congressional elections of 1820, Buchanan ran for a seat in the House of Representatives. Shortly after his election victory, his father died in a carriage accident. As a young Representative, Buchanan was one of the most prominent leaders of the "Amalgamator party" faction of Pennsylvanian politics, named that because it was made up of both Democratic-Republicans and former Federalists, which transitioned from the First Party System to the Era of Good Feelings. During this era, the Democratic-Republicans became the most influential party. Buchanan's Federalist convictions were weak, and he switched parties after opposing a nativist Federalist bill. During the 1824 presidential election, Buchanan initially supported Henry Clay, but switched to Andrew Jackson (with Clay as a second choice) when it became clear that the Pennsylvanian public overwhelmingly preferred Jackson. After Jackson lost the 1824 election, he joined his faction, but Jackson had contempt for Buchanan due to his misinterpretation of his efforts to mediate between the Clay and Jackson camps. In Washington, Buchanan became an avid defender of states' rights, and was close with many southern Congressmen, viewing some New England Congressmen as dangerous radicals. Buchanan's close proximity to his constituency allowed him to establish a Democratic coalition in Pennsylvania, consisting of former Federalist farmers, Philadelphia artisans, and Ulster-Scots-Americans. In the 1828 presidential election, he secured Pennsylvania, while the "Jacksonian Democrats", an independent party after splitting from the National Republican Party, won an easy victory in the parallel congressional election. Buchanan gained most attention during an impeachment trial where he acted as prosecutor for federal district judge James H. Peck; however, the Senate rejected Buchanan's plea and acquitted Peck by a majority vote. He was appointed to the Agriculture Committee in his first year, and he eventually became chairman of the Judiciary Committee. In 1831, Buchanan declined a nomination for the 22nd United States Congress from his constituency consisting of Dauphin, Lebanon, and Lancaster counties. He still had political ambitions and some Pennsylvania Democrats put him forward as a candidate for the vice presidency in the 1832 election. Minister to Russia After Jackson was re-elected in 1832, he offered Buchanan the position of United States Ambassador to Russia. Buchanan was reluctant to leave the country, as the distant St. Petersburg was a kind of political exile, which was the intention of Jackson, who considered Buchanan to be an "incompetent busybody" and untrustworthy, but he ultimately agreed. His work focused on concluding a trade and shipping treaty with Russia. While Buchanan was successful with the former, negotiating an agreement on free merchant shipping with Foreign Minister Karl Nesselrode proved difficult. He had denounced Tsar Nicholas I as a despot merely a year prior during his tenure in Congress; many Americans had reacted negatively to Russia's reaction to the 1830 Polish uprising. U.S. Senator Buchanan returned home and lost the election in the State Legislature for a full six-year term in the 23rd Congress, but was appointed by the Pennsylvania state legislature to succeed William Wilkins in the U.S. Senate. Wilkins, in turn, replaced Buchanan as the ambassador to Russia. The Jacksonian Buchanan, who was re-elected in 1836 and 1842, opposed the re-chartering of the Second Bank of the United States and sought to expunge a congressional censure of Jackson stemming from the Bank War. Buchanan served in the Senate until March 1845 and was twice confirmed in office. To unite Pennsylvania Democrats at the State Convention, he was chosen as their candidate for the National Convention. Buchanan maintained a strict adherence to the Pennsylvania State Legislature's guidelines and sometimes voted against positions in Congress which he promoted in his own speeches, despite open ambitions for the White House. Buchanan was known for his commitment to states' rights and the Manifest Destiny ideology. He rejected President Martin Van Buren's offer to become United States Attorney General and chaired prestigious Senate committees such as the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Foreign Relations. Buchanan was one of only a few senators to vote against the Webster–Ashburton Treaty for its "surrender" of lands to the United Kingdom, as he demanded the entire Aroostook River Valley for the United States. In the Oregon Boundary Dispute, Buchanan adopted the maximum demand of 54°40′ as the northern border and spoke out in favor of annexing the Republic of Texas. During the contentious 1838 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election, Buchanan chose to support the Democratic challenger, David Rittenhouse Porter, who was elected by fewer than 5,500 votes as Pennsylvania's first governor under the state's revised Constitution of 1838. Buchanan also opposed a gag rule sponsored by John C. Calhoun that would have suppressed anti-slavery petitions. He joined the majority in blocking the rule, with most senators of the belief that it would have the reverse effect of strengthening the abolitionists. He said, "We have just as little right to interfere with slavery in the South, as we have to touch the right of petition." Buchanan thought that the issue of slavery was the domain of the states, and he faulted abolitionists for exciting passions over the issue. In the lead-up to the 1844 Democratic National Convention, Buchanan positioned himself as a potential alternative to former President Martin Van Buren, but the nomination went to James K. Polk, who won the election. Diplomatic career Secretary of State Buchanan was offered the position of Secretary of State in the Polk administration or, as the alternative, a seat on the Supreme Court, to compensate him for his support in the election campaign but also in order to eliminate him as an internal party rival. He accepted the State Department post and served for the duration of Polk's single term in office. During his tenure, the United States recorded its largest territorial gain in history through the Oregon Treaty and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which included territory that is now Texas, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. In negotiations with Britain over Oregon, Buchanan initially favored the 49th parallel as the boundary of Oregon Territory, while Polk called for a more northerly boundary line. When Northern Democrats rallied around the popular slogan Fifty-Four Forty or Fight ("54°40′ or war") in the 1844 election campaign, Buchanan adopted this position, but later followed Polk's direction, leading to the Oregon Compromise of 1846, which established the 49th parallel as the boundary in the Pacific Northwest. In regards to Mexico, Buchanan maintained a dubious view that its attack on American troops on the other side of the Rio Grande in April 1846 constituted a border violation and a legitimate reason for war. During the Mexican-American War, Buchanan initially advised against claiming territory south of the Rio Grande, fearing war with Britain and France. However, as the war came to an end, Buchanan changed his mind and argued for the annexation of further territory, arguing that Mexico was to blame for the war and that the compensation negotiated for the American losses was too low. Buchanan sought the nomination at the 1848 Democratic National Convention, as Polk had promised to serve only one term, but he only won the support of the Pennsylvania and Virginia delegations, so Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan was nominated. Civilian life and 1852 presidential election With the 1848 election of Whig Zachary Taylor, Buchanan returned to private life. Buchanan was getting on in years and still dressed in the old-fashioned style of his adolescence, earning him the nickname "Old Public Functionary" from the press. Slavery opponents in the North mocked him as a relic of prehistoric man because of his moral values. He bought the house of Wheatland on the outskirts of Lancaster and entertained various visitors while monitoring political events. During this period, Buchanan became the center of a family network consisting of 22 nieces, nephews and their descendants, seven of whom were orphans. He found public service jobs for some through patronage, and for those in his favor, he took on the role of surrogate father. He formed the strongest emotional bond with his niece Harriet Lane, who later became First Lady for Buchanan in the White House. In 1852, he was named president of the Board of Trustees of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, and he served in this capacity until 1866. Buchanan did not completely leave politics. He intended to publish a collection of speeches and an autobiography, but his political comeback was thwarted by the 1852 presidential election. Buchanan traveled to Washington to discuss Pennsylvania Democratic Party politics, which were divided into two camps led by Simon Cameron and George Dallas. He quietly campaigned for the 1852 Democratic presidential nomination. In light of the Compromise of 1850, which had led to the admission of California into the Union as a free state and a stricter Fugitive Slave Act, Buchanan now rejected the Missouri Compromise and welcomed Congress's rejection of the Wilmot Proviso, which prohibited slavery in all territories gained in the Mexican-American War. Buchanan criticized abolitionism as a fanatical attitude and believed that slavery should be decided by state legislatures, not Congress. He disliked abolitionist Northerners due to his party affiliation, and became known as a "doughface" due to his sympathy toward the South. Buchanan emerged as a promising candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, alongside Lewis Cass, Stephen Douglas, and William L. Marcy; however, the Pennsylvania convention did not vote unanimously in his favor, with over 30 delegates protesting against him. At the 1852 Democratic National Convention, he won the support of many southern delegates but failed to win the two-thirds support needed for the presidential nomination, which went to Franklin Pierce. Buchanan declined to serve as the vice presidential nominee, and the convention instead nominated his close friend, William R. King. Minister to the United Kingdom Pierce won the election in 1852, and six months later, Buchanan accepted the position of United States Minister to the United Kingdom, a position that represented a step backward in his career and that he had twice previously rejected. Buchanan sailed for England in the summer of 1853, and he remained abroad for the next three years. In 1850, the United States and Great Britain signed the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty, which committed both countries to joint control of any future canal that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through Central America. Buchanan met repeatedly with Lord Clarendon, the British foreign minister, in hopes of pressuring the British to withdraw from Central America. He was able to reduce British influence in Honduras and Nicaragua while also raising the kingdom's awareness of American interests in the region. He also focused on the potential annexation of Cuba, which had long interested him. At Pierce's prompting, Buchanan met in Ostend, Belgium, with U.S. Ambassador to Spain Pierre Soulé and U.S. Ambassador to France John Mason, to work out a plan for the acquisition of Cuba. A memorandum draft resulted, called the Ostend Manifesto, which proposed the purchase of Cuba from Spain, then in the midst of revolution and near bankruptcy. The document declared the island "as necessary to the North American republic as any of its present ... family of states". Against Buchanan's recommendation, the final draft of the manifesto suggested that "wresting it from Spain", if Spain refused to sell, would be justified "by every law, human and Divine". The manifesto was met with a divided response and was never acted upon. It weakened the Pierce administration and reduced support for Manifest Destiny. In 1855, as Buchanan's desire to return home grew, Pierce asked him to hold the fort in London in light of the relocation of a British fleet to the Caribbean. Election of 1856 Buchanan's service abroad allowed him to conveniently avoid the debate over the Kansas–Nebraska Act then roiling the country in the slavery dispute. While he did not overtly seek the presidency, he assented to the movement on his behalf. While still in England, he campaigned by praising John Joseph Hughes, who was Archbishop of New York, to a Catholic archbishop. The latter campaigned for Buchanan among high-ranking Catholics as soon as he heard about it. When Buchanan arrived home at the end of April 1856, he led on the first ballot, supported by powerful Senators John Slidell, Jesse Bright, and Thomas F. Bayard, who presented Buchanan as an experienced leader appealing to the North and South. The 1856 Democratic National Convention met in June 1856, producing a platform that reflected Buchanan's views, including support for the Fugitive Slave Law, which required the return of escaped slaves. The platform also called for an end to anti-slavery agitation and U.S. "ascendancy in the Gulf of Mexico". President Pierce hoped for re-nomination, while Senator Stephen A. Douglas also loomed as a strong candidate. He won the nomination after seventeen ballots after Douglas' resignation. He was joined on the ticket by John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky in order to maintain regional proportional representation, placating supporters of Pierce and Douglas, also allies of Breckinridge. Buchanan faced two candidates in the general election: former Whig President Millard Fillmore ran as the candidate for the anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant American Party (or "Know-Nothing"), while John C. Frémont ran as the Republican nominee. The contrast between Buchanan and Frémont was particularly stark, with opposing caricaturists drawing the Democratic candidate as a fussy old man in drag. Buchanan did not actively campaign, but he wrote letters and pledged to uphold the Democratic platform. In the election, he carried every slave state except for Maryland, as well as five slavery-free states, including his home state of Pennsylvania. He won 45 percent of the popular vote and decisively won the electoral vote, taking 174 of 296 votes. His election made him the first president from Pennsylvania. In a combative victory speech, Buchanan denounced Republicans, calling them a "dangerous" and "geographical" party that had unfairly attacked the South. He also declared, "the object of my administration will be to destroy sectional party, North or South, and to restore harmony to the Union under a national and conservative government." He set about this initially by feigning a sectional balance in his cabinet appointments. Presidency (1857–1861) Inauguration Buchanan was inaugurated on March 4, 1857, taking the oath of office from Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. In his lengthy inaugural address, Buchanan committed himself to serving only one term, as his predecessor had done. He abhorred the growing divisions over slavery and its status in the territories, saying that Congress should play no role in determining the status of slavery in the states or territories. He proposed a solution based on the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which stated that the principle of popular sovereignty was decisive, and Congress had no say in the matter. Buchanan recommended that a federal slave code be enacted to protect the rights of slaveowners in federal territories. He alluded to a then-pending Supreme Court case, Dred Scott v. Sandford, which he said would permanently settle the issue of slavery. Dred Scott was a slave who was temporarily taken from a slave state to a free territory by his owner, John Sanford. After Scott returned to the slave state, he filed a petition for his freedom based on his time in the free territory. Associate Justice Robert C. Grier leaked the decision in the "Dred Scott" case early to Buchanan. In his inaugural address, Buchanan declared that the issue of slavery in the territories would be "speedily and finally settled" by the Supreme Court. According to historian Paul Finkelman: Buchanan already knew what the Court was going to decide. In a major breach of Court etiquette, Justice Grier, who, like Buchanan, was from Pennsylvania, had kept the President-elect fully informed about the progress of the case and the internal debates within the Court. When Buchanan urged the nation to support the decision, he already knew what Taney would say. Republican suspicions of impropriety turned out to be fully justified. Historians agree that the court decision was a major disaster because it dramatically inflamed tensions, leading to the Civil War. In 2022, historian David W. Blight argued that the year 1857 was, "the great pivot on the road to disunion...largely because of the Dred Scott case, which stoked the fear, distrust and conspiratorial hatred already common in both the North and the South to new levels of intensity." Personnel Cabinet and administration As his inauguration approached, Buchanan sought to establish an obedient, harmonious cabinet to avoid the in-fighting that had plagued Andrew Jackson's administration. The cabinet's composition had to do justice to the proportional representation within the party and between the regions of the country. Buchanan first worked on this task in Wheatland until he traveled to the capital in January 1857. There, like many other guests at the National Hotel, he contracted severe dysentery, from which he did not fully recover until several months later. Dozens of those who fell ill died, including Buchanan's nephew and private secretary Eskridge Lane. The cabinet selection was disastrous, with four Southern ministers being large-scale slaveholders who later became loyal to the Confederate States of America. Secretary of the Treasury Howell Cobb was considered the greatest political talent in the Cabinet, while the three department heads from the northern states were all considered to be doughfaces. His objective was to dominate the cabinet, and he chose men who would agree with his views. Buchanan had a troubled relationship with his vice president from the beginning, when he did not receive him during his inaugural visit but referred him to his niece and First Lady, which Breckinridge never forgave him for and saw as disrespectful. He left out the influential Stephen A. Douglas, who had made Buchanan's nomination possible by resigning at the National Convention the previous year, when filling the post. Concentrating on foreign policy, he appointed the aging Lewis Cass as Secretary of State. Buchanan's appointment of Southerners and their allies alienated many in the North, and his failure to appoint any followers of Douglas divided the party. Outside of the cabinet, he left in place many of Pierce's appointments but removed a disproportionate number of Northerners who had ties to Democratic opponents Pierce or Douglas. Judicial appointments Buchanan appointed one Justice, Nathan Clifford, to the Supreme Court of the United States. He appointed seven other federal judges to United States district courts. He also appointed two judges to the United States Court of Claims. Intervention in the Dred Scott case The case of Dred Scott v. Sandford, to which Buchanan referred to in his inaugural address, dated back to 1846. Scott sued for his release in Missouri, claiming he lived in service to the proprietor in Illinois and Wisconsin Territory. The case reached the Supreme Court and gained national attention by 1856. Buchanan consulted with Judge John Catron in January 1857, inquiring about the outcome of the case and suggesting that a broader decision, beyond the specifics of the case, would be more prudent. Buchanan hoped that a broad decision protecting slavery in the territories could lay the issue to rest, allowing him to focus on other issues. Catron replied on February 10, saying that the Supreme Court's Southern majority would decide against Scott, but would likely have to publish the decision on narrow grounds unless Buchanan could convince his fellow Pennsylvanian, Justice Robert Cooper Grier, to join the majority of the court. Buchanan then wrote to Grier and prevailed upon him, providing the majority leverage to issue a broad-ranging decision sufficient to render the Missouri Compromise of 1820 unconstitutional. Two days after Buchanan was sworn in as president, Chief Justice Taney delivered the Dred Scott decision, which denied the petitioner's request to be set free from slavery. The ruling broadly asserted that Congress had no constitutional power to exclude slavery in the territories. According to this decision, slaves were forever the property of their owners without rights and no African American could ever be a full citizen of the United States, even if they had full civil rights in a state. Buchanan's letters were not made public at the time, but he was seen conversing quietly with the Chief Justice during his inauguration. When the decision was issued, Republicans began spreading the word that Taney had informed Buchanan of the impending outcome. Rather than destroying the Republican platform as Buchanan had hoped, the decision infuriated Northerners, who condemned it. Panic of 1857 The Panic of 1857 began in the summer of that year, when the New York branch of Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company announced its insolvency. The crisis spread rapidly, and by the fall, 1,400 state banks and 5,000 businesses had gone bankrupt. Unemployment and hunger became common in northern cities, but the agricultural south was more resilient. Buchanan agreed with the southerners who attributed the economic collapse to over-speculation. Buchanan acted in accordance with Jacksonian Democracy principles, which restricted paper money issuance, and froze federal funds for public works projects, causing resentment among some of the population due to his refusal to implement an economic stimulus program. While the government was "without the power to extend relief", it would continue to pay its debts in specie, and while it would not curtail public works, none would be added. In hopes of reducing paper money supplies and inflation, he urged the states to restrict the banks to a credit level of $3 to $1 of specie and discouraged the use of federal or state bonds as security for bank note issues. The economy recovered in several years, though many Americans suffered as a result of the panic. Buchanan had hoped to reduce the deficit, but by the time he left office the federal budget grew by 15%. Utah War In the spring of 1857, the Latter-day Saints and their leader Brigham Young had been challenging federal representatives in Utah Territory, causing harassment and violence against non-Mormons. Young harassed federal officers and discouraged outsiders from settling in the Salt Lake City area. In September 1857, the Utah Territorial Militia, associated with the Latter-day Saints, perpetrated the Mountain Meadows massacre, in which Young's militia attacked a wagon train and killed 125 settlers. Buchanan was offended by the militarism and polygamous behavior of Young. With reports of violence against non-Mormons, Buchanan authorized a military expedition into Utah Territory in late March 1857 to replace Young as governor. The force consisted of 2,500 men, including Alfred Cumming and his staff, and was commanded by General William S. Harney. Complicating matters, Young's notice of his replacement was not delivered because the Pierce administration had annulled the Utah mail contract, and Young portrayed the approaching forces as an unauthorized overthrow. Buchanan's personnel decision incited resistance from the Mormons around Young, as Harney was known for his volatility and brutality. In August 1857, Albert S. Johnston replaced him for organizational reasons. Young reacted to the military action by mustering a two-week expedition, destroying wagon trains, oxen, and other Army property. Buchanan then dispatched Thomas L. Kane as a private agent to negotiate peace. The mission was successful, a peaceful agreement to replace Governor Young with Cumming was reached, and the Utah War ended. The President granted amnesty to inhabitants affirming loyalty to the government, and placed the federal troops at a peaceable distance for the balance of his administration. Buchanan did not comment on the conflict again until his State of the Union Address in December 1857, leaving open the question of whether it was a rebellion in Utah. One of Buchanan's last official acts in March 1861 was to reduce the size of Utah Territory in favor of Nevada, Colorado, and Nebraska. While the Latter-day Saints had frequently defied federal authority, some historians consider Buchanan's action was an inappropriate response to uncorroborated reports. Transatlantic telegraph cable Buchanan was the first recipient of an official telegram transmitted across the Atlantic. Following the dispatch of test and configuration telegrams, on August 16, 1858 Queen Victoria sent a 98-word message to Buchanan at his summer residence in the Bedford Springs Hotel in Pennsylvania, expressing hope that the newly laid cable would prove "an additional link between the nations whose friendship is founded on their common interest and reciprocal esteem". Queen Victoria's message took 16 hours to send. Buchanan responded: "It is a triumph more glorious, because far more useful to mankind, than was ever won by conqueror on the field of battle. May the Atlantic telegraph, under the blessing of Heaven, prove to be a bond of perpetual peace and friendship between the kindred nations, and an instrument destined by Divine Providence to diffuse religion, civilization, liberty, and law throughout the world." Bleeding Kansas and constitutional dispute The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 created the Kansas Territory and allowed the settlers there to decide whether to allow slavery. This resulted in violence between "Free-Soil" (antislavery) and pro-slavery settlers, which developed into the "Bleeding Kansas" period. The antislavery settlers, with the help of Northern abolitionists, organized their own territorial government in Topeka. The more numerous proslavery settlers, many from the neighboring slave state Missouri, established a government in Lecompton, giving the Territory two different governments for a time, with two distinct constitutions, each claiming legitimacy. The admission of Kansas as a state required a constitution be submitted to Congress with the approval of a majority of its residents. Under President Pierce, a series of violent confrontations escalated over who had the right to vote in Kansas. The situation drew national attention, and some in Georgia and Mississippi advocated secession should Kansas be admitted as a free state. Buchanan chose to endorse the pro-slavery Lecompton government. Buchanan appointed Robert J. Walker to replace John W. Geary as Territorial Governor, and there ensued conflicting referendums from Topeka and Lecompton, where election fraud occurred. In October 1857, the Lecompton government framed the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution that agreed to a referendum limited solely to the slavery question. However, the vote against slavery, as provided by the Lecompton Convention, would still permit existing slaves, and all their issue, to be enslaved, so there was no referendum that permitted the majority anti-slavery residents to prohibit slavery in Kansas. As a result, anti-slavery residents boycotted the referendum since it did not provide a meaningful choice. Despite the protests of Walker and two former Kansas governors, Buchanan decided to accept the Lecompton Constitution. In a December 1857 meeting with Stephen A. Douglas, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, Buchanan demanded that all Democrats support the administration's position of admitting Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution. On February 2, he transmitted the Lecompton Constitution to Congress. He also transmitted a message that attacked the "revolutionary government" in Topeka, conflating them with the Mormons in Utah. Buchanan made every effort to secure congressional approval, offering favors, patronage appointments, and even cash for votes. The Lecompton Constitution won the approval of the Senate in March, but a combination of Know-Nothings, Republicans, and Northern Democrats defeated the bill in the House. Buchanan never forgave Douglas, as the Northern Democrats' rejection was the deciding factor in the House's decision, and he removed all Douglas supporters from his patronage in Illinois and Washington, D.C., installing pro-administration Democrats, including postmasters. Rather than accepting defeat, Buchanan backed the 1858 English Bill, which offered Kansas immediate statehood and vast public lands in exchange for accepting the Lecompton Constitution. In August 1858, Kansans by referendum strongly rejected the Lecompton Constitution. The territory received an abolitionist constitution, which was bitterly opposed in Congress by representatives and senators from the southern states until Kansas was admitted to the Union in January 1861. The dispute over Kansas became the battlefront for control of the Democratic Party. On one side were Buchanan, the majority of Southern Democrats, and the "doughfaces". On the other side were Douglas and the majority of northern Democrats, as well as a few Southerners. Douglas's faction continued to support the doctrine of popular sovereignty, while Buchanan insisted that Democrats respect the Dred Scott decision and its repudiation of federal interference with slavery in the territories. 1858 mid-term elections Douglas's Senate term was coming to an end in 1859, with the Illinois legislature, elected in 1858, determining whether Douglas would win re-election. The Senate seat was the primary issue of the legislative election, marked by the famous debates between Douglas and his Republican opponent for the seat, Abraham Lincoln. Buchanan, working through federal patronage appointees in Illinois, ran candidates for the legislature in competition with both the Republicans and the Douglas Democrats. This could easily have thrown the election to the Republicans, and showed the depth of Buchanan's animosity toward Douglas. In the end, Douglas Democrats won the legislative election and Douglas was re-elected to the Senate. In that year's elections, Douglas forces took control throughout the North, except in Buchanan's home state of Pennsylvania. Buchanan's support was otherwise reduced to a narrow base of southerners. The division between northern and southern Democrats allowed the Republicans to win a plurality of the House in the 1858 elections, and allowed them to block most of Buchanan's agenda. Buchanan, in turn, added to the hostility with his veto of six substantial pieces of Republican legislation. Among these measures were the Homestead Act, which would have given 160 acres of public land to settlers who remained on the land for five years, and the Morrill Act, which would have granted public lands to establish land-grant colleges. Buchanan argued that these acts were unconstitutional. In the western and northwestern United States, where the Homestead Act was very popular, even many Democrats condemned the president's policies, while many Americans who considered education an important asset resented Buchanan's veto of agricultural colleges. Foreign policy Buchanan took office with an ambitious foreign policy, designed to establish U.S. hegemony over Central America at the expense of Great Britain. Buchanan sought to revitalize Manifest Destiny and to enforce the Monroe Doctrine, which had been under attack from the Spanish, French, and especially the British in the 1850s. He hoped to re-negotiate the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty to counter European imperialism in the Western Hemisphere, which he thought limited U.S. influence in the region. He also sought to establish American protectorates over the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora to secure American citizens and investments, and most importantly, he hoped to achieve his long-term goal of acquiring Cuba. However, Buchanan's ambitions in Cuba and Mexico were largely blocked by the House of Representatives. After long negotiations with the British, he convinced them to cede the Bay Islands to Honduras and the Mosquito Coast to Nicaragua. In 1858, Buchanan ordered the Paraguay expedition to punish Paraguay for firing on the USS Water Witch, ordering 2,500 marines and 19 warships there. This costly expedition took months to reach Asunción, which successfully resulted in a Paraguayan apology and payment of an indemnity. The chiefs of Raiatea and Tahaa in the South Pacific, refusing to accept the rule of King Tamatoa V, unsuccessfully petitioned the United States to accept the islands under a protectorate in June 1858. Buchanan also considered buying Alaska from the Russian Empire, as whaling in the waters there had become of great economic importance to the United States. Buchanan fueled this by spreading the rumor to the Russian ambassador Eduard de Stoeckl in December 1857 that a large amount of Mormons intended to emigrate to Russian Alaska. In the winter of 1859, an initial purchase offer of $5,000,000 (equivalent to $169,560,000 in 2023) was made. Although the project ultimately failed due to the reservations of Foreign Minister Alexander Gorchakov, the talks formed the basis for the later negotiations to purchase Alaska. Buchanan sought trade agreements with the Qing Dynasty and Japan. In China, his envoy William Bradford Reed succeeded in having the United States included as a party to the Treaty of Tianjin. In May 1860, Buchanan received a Japanese delegation consisting of several princes who carried the Harris Treaty negotiated by Townsend Harris for mutual ratification. Buchanan was offered a herd of elephants by King Rama IV of Siam, though the letter arrived after Buchanan's departure from office and Buchanan's successor Abraham Lincoln declined the offer stating that the U.S. had an unsuitable climate. Other presidential pets included a pair of bald eagles and a Newfoundland dog. Covode Committee In March 1860, the House impaneled the Covode Committee to investigate the Buchanan administration's patronage system for alleged impeachable offenses, such as bribery and extortion of representatives. Buchanan supporters accused the committee, consisting of three Republicans and two Democrats, of being blatantly partisan, and claimed its chairman, Republican Rep. John Covode, was acting on a personal grudge stemming from a disputed land grant designed to benefit Covode's railroad company. The Democratic committee members, as well as Democratic witnesses, were enthusiastic in their condemnation of Buchanan. The committee was unable to establish grounds for impeaching Buchanan; however, the majority report issued on June 17 alleged corruption and abuse of power among members of his cabinet. The committee gathered evidence that Buchanan had tried to bribe members of Congress in his favor through intermediaries in the spring of 1858 in connection with the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution of Kansas, and threatened their relatives with losing their posts if they did not vote in favor of the Lecompton Constitution. Witnesses also testified that the federal government used public funds to strengthen the intra-party faction of Douglas's opponents in Illinois. The Democrats pointed out that evidence was scarce, but did not refute the allegations; one of the Democratic members, Rep. James Robinson, stated that he agreed with the Republicans, though he did not sign it. The public was shocked by the extent of the bribery, which affected all levels and agencies of government. Buchanan claimed to have "passed triumphantly through this ordeal" with complete vindication. Republican operatives distributed thousands of copies of the Covode Committee report throughout the nation as campaign material in that year's presidential election. Election of 1860 As he had promised in his inaugural address, Buchanan did not seek re-election. He went so far as to tell his ultimate successor, "If you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland, you are a happy man." At the 1860 Democratic National Convention in Charleston, the party split over the issue of slavery in the territories, damaging Buchanan's reputation as the main person responsible for this issue. Though Douglas led after every ballot, he was unable to win the two-thirds majority required. The convention adjourned after 53 ballots, and re-convened in Baltimore in June. After Douglas finally won the nomination, several Southerners refused to accept the outcome, and nominated Vice President Breckinridge as their own candidate. Douglas and Breckinridge agreed on most issues except the protection of slavery. Buchanan, nursing a grudge against Douglas, failed to reconcile the party, and tepidly supported Breckinridge. With the splintering of the Democratic Party, Republican nominee Abraham Lincoln won a four-way election that also included John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party. Lincoln's support in the North was enough to give him an Electoral College majority. Buchanan became the last Democrat to win a presidential election until Grover Cleveland in 1884. As early as October, the army's Commanding General, Winfield Scott, an opponent of Buchanan, warned him that Lincoln's election would likely cause at least seven states to secede from the union. He recommended that massive amounts of federal troops and artillery be deployed to those states to protect federal property, although he also warned that few reinforcements were available. Since 1857, Congress had failed to heed calls for a stronger militia and allowed the army to fall into deplorable condition. Buchanan distrusted Scott and ignored his recommendations. After Lincoln's election, Buchanan directed Secretary of War John B. Floyd to reinforce southern forts with such provisions, arms, and men as were available; however, Floyd persuaded him to revoke the order. Secession With Lincoln's victory, talk of secession and disunion reached a boiling point, putting the burden on Buchanan to address it in his final speech to Congress on December 10. In his message, which was anticipated by both factions, Buchanan denied the right of states to secede but maintained the federal government was without power to prevent them. He placed the blame for the crisis solely on "intemperate interference of the Northern people with the question of slavery in the Southern States," and suggested that if they did not "repeal their unconstitutional and obnoxious enactments ... the injured States, after having first used all peaceful and constitutional means to obtain redress, would be justified in revolutionary resistance to the Government of the Union." Buchanan's only suggestion to solve the crisis was "an explanatory amendment" affirming the constitutionality of slavery in the states, the fugitive slave laws, and popular sovereignty in the territories. His address was sharply criticized both by the North, for its refusal to stop secession, and the South, for denying its right to secede. Five days after the address was delivered, Treasury Secretary Howell Cobb resigned, as his views had become irreconcilable with the President's. Even as the formation of the Confederacy by the secessionist states became increasingly apparent in the winter of 1860, the president continued to surround himself with Southerners and ignore the Republicans. South Carolina, long the most radical Southern state, seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. However, Unionist sentiment remained strong among many in the South, and Buchanan sought to appeal to the Southern moderates who might prevent secession in other states. He met with South Carolinian commissioners in an attempt to resolve the situation at Fort Sumter, which federal forces remained in control of despite its location in Charleston, South Carolina. Buchanan saw Congress, not himself, as responsible for finding a solution to the secession crisis. As a compromise for the southern states, Buchanan envisioned the adoption of amendments to the United States Constitution that would guarantee the right to slavery in the southern states and territories and strengthen the right of slave owners to reclaim escaped slaves as property in the northern states. He refused to dismiss Interior Secretary Jacob Thompson after the latter was chosen as Mississippi's agent to discuss secession, and he refused to fire Secretary of War John B. Floyd despite an embezzlement scandal. Floyd ended up resigning, but not before sending numerous firearms to Southern states, where they eventually fell into the hands of the Confederacy. Despite Floyd's resignation, Buchanan continued to seek the advice of counselors from the Deep South, including Jefferson Davis and William Henry Trescot. Buchanan's friend Rose O'Neal Greenhow took advantage of the proximity to the president and spied for the Confederacy, which had already established a sophisticated network for gathering information from its eventual opponent before its formation. Efforts were made in vain by Sen. John J. Crittenden, Rep. Thomas Corwin, and former president John Tyler to negotiate a compromise to stop secession, with Buchanan's support. Failed attempts were also made by a group of governors meeting in New York. Buchanan secretly asked President-elect Lincoln to call for a national referendum on the issue of slavery, but Lincoln declined. In December 1860, when the second session of the 36th Congress was convened, The Committee of Thirty-Three was established by the House of Representatives to prevent further states from seceding. They proposed the Corwin Amendment, which would bar Congress from interfering with slavery in states. Despite opposition from Republicans, it passed both houses of Congress and was proposed to states for ratification, but it was never ratified by the requisite number of states. Despite the efforts of Buchanan and others, six more slave states seceded by the end of January 1861. Buchanan replaced the departed Southern cabinet members with John Adams Dix, Edwin M. Stanton, and Joseph Holt, all of whom were committed to preserving the Union. When Buchanan considered surrendering Fort Sumter, the new cabinet members threatened to resign, and Buchanan relented. On January 5, Buchanan decided to reinforce Fort Sumter, sending the Star of the West with 250 men and supplies. However, he failed to ask Major Robert Anderson to provide covering fire for the ship, and it was forced to return North without delivering troops or supplies. Buchanan chose not to respond to this act of war, and instead sought to find a compromise to avoid secession. He received a March 3 message from Anderson, that supplies were running low, but the response became Lincoln's to make, as the latter succeeded to the presidency the next day. States admitted to the Union Three new states were admitted to the Union while Buchanan was in office: Minnesota – May 11, 1858 Oregon – February 14, 1859 Kansas – January 29, 1861 Final years and death (1861–1868) After leaving office, Buchanan retired to private life in Wheatland, where he spent most of his time in his study, reading books and writing letters. The Civil War erupted within two months of Buchanan's retirement. He supported the Union and the war effort, writing to former colleagues that, "the assault upon Sumter was the commencement of war by the Confederate states, and no alternative was left but to prosecute it with vigor on our part." Buchanan supported Lincoln's introduction of universal conscription in the northern states, but was an opponent of his Emancipation Proclamation. Although he recognized constitutional violations in some of the president's executive orders, he never criticized them in public. He also wrote a letter to his fellow Pennsylvania Democrats in Harrisburg, urging them and all young men to enlist in the Union army and "join the many thousands of brave & patriotic volunteers who are already in the field." Buchanan was dedicated to defending his actions prior to the Civil War, which was referred to by some as "Buchanan's War". He received hate mail and threatening letters daily, and stores in Lancaster displayed Buchanan's likeness with the eyes inked red, a noose drawn around his neck and the word "TRAITOR" written across his forehead. The Senate proposed a resolution of condemnation which ultimately failed, and newspapers accused him of colluding with the Confederacy. His former cabinet members, five of whom had been given jobs in the Lincoln administration, refused to defend Buchanan publicly. Buchanan became distraught by the vitriolic attacks levied against him, and fell sick and depressed. In October 1862, he defended himself in an exchange of letters with Winfield Scott, published in the National Intelligencer. He soon began writing his fullest public defense, in the form of his memoir Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of Rebellion, which was published in 1866, one year after the Civil War ended. Buchanan attributed secession to the "malign influence" of Republicans and the abolitionist movement. He discussed his foreign policy successes and expressed satisfaction with his decisions, even during the secession crisis. He blamed Robert Anderson, Winfield Scott, and Congress for the unresolved issue. Two years after the publication of the memoir, Buchanan caught a cold in May 1868, which quickly worsened due to his advanced age. He died on June 1, 1868, of respiratory failure at the age of 77 at his home at Wheatland. He was interred in Woodward Hill Cemetery in Lancaster. Political views Buchanan was often considered by anti-slavery northerners a "doughface", a northerner with pro-southern principles. Buchanan's sympathies for the Southern states went beyond political expediency for his path to the White House. He identified with cultural and social values that he found reflected in the honor code and lifestyle of the planter class and with which he increasingly came into contact in his retirement community beginning in 1834. Shortly after his election, he said that the "great object" of his administration was "to arrest, if possible, the agitation of the Slavery question in the North and to destroy sectional parties". Although Buchanan was personally opposed to slavery, he believed that the abolitionists were preventing the solution to the slavery problem. He stated, "Before [the abolitionists] commenced this agitation, a very large and growing party existed in several of the slave states in favor of the gradual abolition of slavery; and now not a voice is heard there in support of such a measure. The abolitionists have postponed the emancipation of the slaves in three or four states for at least half a century." In deference to the intentions of the typical slaveholder, he was willing to provide the benefit of the doubt. In his third annual message to Congress, the president claimed that the slaves were "treated with kindness and humanity. ... Both the philanthropy and the self-interest of the master have combined to produce this humane result." Buchanan thought restraint was the essence of good self-government. He believed the constitution comprised "... restraints, imposed not by arbitrary authority, but by the people upon themselves and their representatives. ... In an enlarged view, the people's interests may seem identical, but to the eye of local and sectional prejudice, they always appear to be conflicting ... and the jealousies that will perpetually arise can be repressed only by the mutual forbearance which pervades the constitution." Regarding slavery and the Constitution, he stated: "Although in Pennsylvania we are all opposed to slavery in the abstract, we can never violate the constitutional compact we have with our sister states. Their rights will be held sacred by us. Under the constitution it is their own question; and there let it remain." One of the prominent issues of the day was tariffs. Buchanan was conflicted by free trade as well as prohibitive tariffs, since either would benefit one section of the country to the detriment of the other. As a senator from Pennsylvania, he said: "I am viewed as the strongest advocate of protection in other states, whilst I am denounced as its enemy in Pennsylvania." Buchanan was also torn between his desire to expand the country for the general welfare of the nation, and to guarantee the rights of the people settling particular areas. On territorial expansion, he said, "What, sir? Prevent the people from crossing the Rocky Mountains? You might just as well command the Niagara not to flow. We must fulfill our destiny." On the resulting spread of slavery, through unconditional expansion, he stated: "I feel a strong repugnance by any act of mine to extend the present limits of the Union over a new slave-holding territory." For instance, he hoped the acquisition of Texas would "be the means of limiting, not enlarging, the dominion of slavery." Personal life Buchanan suffered from esotropia. In addition, one eye was short-sighted and the other far-sighted. To cover this, he bent his head forward and leaned it to one side during social interactions. This led to ridicule, which Henry Clay, among others, used ruthlessly during a congressional debate. In 1818, Buchanan met Anne Caroline Coleman at a grand ball in Lancaster, and the two began courting. Anne was the daughter of the wealthy iron manufacturer Robert Coleman; Robert, like Buchanan's father, was from County Donegal in Ulster. Anne was also the sister-in-law of Philadelphia judge Joseph Hemphill, one of Buchanan's colleagues. By 1819, the two were engaged, but spent little time together. Buchanan was busy with his law firm and political projects during the Panic of 1819, which took him away from Coleman for weeks at a time. Rumors abounded, as some suggested that he was involved with other (unidentified) women. Letters from Coleman revealed she was aware of several rumors, and she accused him of only being interested in her money. She broke off the engagement, and soon afterward, on December 9, 1819, inexplicably died of "hysterical convulsions" resulting from an overdose of laudanum, at the age of 23. It was never established if the drug was taken by instruction, by accident, or by intent. Buchanan wrote to her father for permission to attend the funeral, which was refused. At the time of her funeral, he said that, "I feel happiness has fled from me forever." Afterwards, Buchanan claimed that he remained unmarried out of devotion to his only love, who had died young. In 1833 and the 1840s, he spoke of plans to marry, but these came to nothing and may merely have been due to his ambitions for a seat in the federal Senate or the White House. In the latter case, the aspirant was 19-year-old Anna Payne, the niece of former First Lady Dolley Madison. During his presidency, an orphaned niece, Harriet Lane, whom he had adopted, served as official White House hostess. There was an unfounded rumor that he had an affair with President Polk's widow, Sarah Childress Polk. Buchanan had a close relationship with William Rufus King, which became a popular target of gossip. King was an Alabama politician who briefly served as vice president under Franklin Pierce. Buchanan and King lived together in a Washington boardinghouse and attended social functions together from 1834 until 1844. Such a living arrangement was then common, though Buchanan once referred to the relationship as a "communion". Andrew Jackson mockingly called them "Miss Nancy" and "Aunt Fancy", the former being a 19th-century euphemism for an effeminate man. Buchanan's Postmaster General, Aaron V. Brown, also referred to King as "Aunt Fancy", as well as Buchanan's "better half", and "wife". King died of tuberculosis shortly after Pierce's inauguration, four years before Buchanan became president. Buchanan described him as "among the best, the purest and most consistent public men I have known". Biographer Baker opines that both men's nieces may have destroyed correspondence between the two men. However, she believes that their surviving letters illustrate only "the affection of a special friendship". Buchanan's lifelong bachelorhood after Anne Coleman's death has drawn interest and speculation. Some conjecture that Anne's death merely served to deflect questions about Buchanan's sexuality and bachelorhood. One of his biographers, Jean Baker, suggests that Buchanan was celibate, if not asexual. Several writers have surmised that he was homosexual, including James W. Loewen, Robert P. Watson, and Shelley Ross. Loewen indicated that Buchanan, late in life, wrote a letter acknowledging that he might marry a woman who could accept his "lack of ardent or romantic affection". Legacy Historical reputation Though Buchanan predicted that "history will vindicate my memory," historians have criticized Buchanan for his unwillingness or inability to act in the face of secession. Historical rankings of presidents of the United States without exception place Buchanan among the least successful presidents. When scholars are surveyed, he ranks at or near the bottom in terms of vision/agenda-setting, domestic leadership, foreign policy leadership, moral authority, and positive historical significance of their legacy. According to surveys taken by American scholars and political scientists between 1948 and 1982, Buchanan ranks every time among the worst presidents of the United States, alongside Harding, Fillmore and Nixon. Buchanan biographer Philip S. Klein focused in 1962, during the Civil Rights movement, upon challenges Buchanan faced: Buchanan assumed leadership ... when an unprecedented wave of angry passion was sweeping over the nation. That he held the hostile sections in check during these revolutionary times was in itself a remarkable achievement. His weaknesses in the stormy years of his presidency were magnified by enraged partisans of the North and South. His many talents, which in a quieter era might have gained for him a place among the great presidents, were quickly overshadowed by the cataclysmic events of civil war and by the towering Abraham Lincoln. Biographer Jean Baker is less charitable to Buchanan, saying in 2004: Americans have conveniently misled themselves about the presidency of James Buchanan, preferring to classify him as indecisive and inactive ... In fact Buchanan's failing during the crisis over the Union was not inactivity, but rather his partiality for the South, a favoritism that bordered on disloyalty in an officer pledged to defend all the United States. He was that most dangerous of chief executives, a stubborn, mistaken ideologue whose principles held no room for compromise. His experience in government had only rendered him too self-confident to consider other views. In his betrayal of the national trust, Buchanan came closer to committing treason than any other president in American history.Other historians, such as Robert May, argued that his politics were "anything but pro-slavery", nevertheless, a very negative view is to be found in Michael Birkner's works about Buchanan. For Lori Cox Han, he ranks among scholars "as either the worst president in [American] history or as part of a lowest ranking failure category". Memorials A bronze and granite memorial near the southeast corner of Washington, D.C.'s Meridian Hill Park was designed by architect William Gorden Beecher and sculpted by Maryland artist Hans Schuler. It was commissioned in 1916 but not approved by the U.S. Congress until 1918, and not completed and unveiled until June 26, 1930. The memorial features a statue of Buchanan, bookended by male and female classical figures representing law and diplomacy, with engraved text reading: "The incorruptible statesman whose walk was upon the mountain ranges of the law," a quote from a member of Buchanan's cabinet, Jeremiah S. Black. An earlier monument was constructed in 1907–1908 and dedicated in 1911, on the site of Buchanan's birthplace in Stony Batter, Pennsylvania. Part of the original 18.5-acre (75,000 m2) memorial site is a 250-ton pyramid structure that stands on the site of the original cabin where Buchanan was born. The monument was designed to show the original weathered surface of the native rubble and mortar. Three counties are named in his honor, in Iowa, Missouri, and Virginia. Another in Texas was christened in 1858 but renamed Stephens County, after the newly elected vice president of the Confederate States of America, Alexander Stephens, in 1861. The city of Buchanan, Michigan, was also named after him. Several other communities are named after him: the unincorporated community of Buchanan, Indiana, the city of Buchanan, Georgia, the town of Buchanan, Wisconsin, and the townships of Buchanan Township, Michigan, and Buchanan, Missouri. James Buchanan High School is a small, rural high school located on the outskirts of his childhood hometown, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. Popular culture depictions Buchanan and his legacy are central to the film Raising Buchanan (2019). He is portrayed by René Auberjonois. See also Historical rankings of presidents of the United States List of presidents of the United States List of presidents of the United States by previous experience Presidents of the United States on U.S. postage stamps List of federal political sex scandals in the United States References Works cited Further reading External links United States Congress. "James Buchanan (id: B001005)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. James Buchanan: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress The James Buchanan papers, spanning the entirety of his legal, political and diplomatic career, are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. University of Virginia article: Buchanan biography Wheatland James Buchanan at Tulane University Essay on James Buchanan and his presidency from the Miller Center of Public Affairs Buchanan's Birthplace State Park, Franklin County, Pennsylvania "Life Portrait of James Buchanan", from C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits, June 21, 1999 Primary sources Works by James Buchanan at Project Gutenberg Works by James Buchanan at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Works by or about James Buchanan at the Internet Archive James Buchanan Ill with Dysentery Before Inauguration: Original Letters Shapell Manuscript Foundation Mr. Buchanans Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion. President Buchanans memoirs. Inaugural Address Archived August 9, 2020, at the Wayback Machine Fourth Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1860

Harriet_Lane

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Lane

Harriet Rebecca Lane Johnston (May 9, 1830 – July 3, 1903) acted as first lady of the United States during the administration of her uncle, lifelong bachelor president James Buchanan, from 1857 to 1861. She has been described as the first of the modern first ladies, being a notably charming and diplomatic hostess, whose dress-styles were copied, and who promoted deserving causes. In her will, she left funds for a new school on the grounds of Washington National Cathedral. Several ships have been named in her honor, including the cutter USCGC Harriet Lane, still in service. Status Lane is the only person to have served as First Lady to a bachelor president, Buchanan being the only U.S. president never to have married. She is among 11 women who have served as First Lady, but were not married to the president, with most of the other women being relatives of widowed presidents. Early life Harriet Lane's family was from Franklin County, Pennsylvania. She was the youngest child of Elliott Tole Lane, a merchant, and Jane Ann Buchanan Lane. She lost her mother when she was nine; when her father's death two years later made her an orphan, she requested that her favorite uncle, James Buchanan, be appointed as her legal guardian. Buchanan, an unmarried Democratic senator from Pennsylvania, indulged his niece and her sister, enrolling them in boarding schools in Charles Town, Virginia (later for two years at the Georgetown Visitation Monastery in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C.) By this time, Buchanan was Secretary of State, and, as he had promised, he introduced her to fashionable and political circles. In 1854, she joined him in London, where he was minister to the Court of St. James's. Queen Victoria gave "dear Miss Lane" the rank of ambassador's wife; admiring suitors gave her the fame of a beauty. In appearance "Hal" Lane was of medium height, with masses of light, almost golden-colored hair. She had eyes that were described as "violet colored". Acting First Lady of the United States The capital welcomed its new "Democratic Queen" to the White House in 1857. Harriet was a popular hostess during the four years of the Buchanan presidency. Women copied her hair and clothing styles (especially when she lowered the neckline on her inaugural gown by 2.5 inches), parents named their daughters for her, and a popular song ("Listen to the Mockingbird") was dedicated to her. While in the White House, she used her position to promote social causes, such as improving the living conditions of Native Americans in reservations. She also made a point of inviting artists and musicians to White House functions. For both her popularity and her advocacy work, she has been described as the first of the modern first ladies, and her popularity at the time is compared to that of Jacqueline Kennedy in the 1960s. The presidential yacht was named for her—the first of several ships to be named after her, one of which remains in service. As sectional tensions increased, she worked out seating arrangements for her weekly formal dinner parties with special care, to give dignitaries their proper precedence and still keep political foes apart. Her tact did not falter, but her task became impossible—as did her uncle's. Seven states had seceded by the time Buchanan retired from office and returned with his niece to his spacious country home, Wheatland, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In the 1982 Siena College Research Institute survey asking historians to assess American first ladies, Lane and several other "acting" first ladies were included. The first ladies survey, which has been conducted periodically since, ranks first ladies according to a cumulative score on the independent criteria of their background, value to the country, intelligence, courage, accomplishments, integrity, leadership, being their own women, public image, and value to the president. In the 1982 survey, out of 42 first ladies and acting first ladies, Lane was assessed as the 29th most highly regarded among historians. Acting first ladies such as Lane have been excluded from subsequent iterations of this survey. Romance and marriage During her time in England, Sir Fitzroy Kelly, then Prime Minister Palmerston's attorney general, proposed marriage to her; Queen Victoria was strongly in favor of this match, as it would keep Lane in England. Lane considered the advantages of a number of bachelors. Her uncle cautioned Lane against "rushing precipitately into matrimonial connections" as his ward found her potential suitors "pleasant but dreadfully troublesome". Lane eventually married Baltimore banker Henry Elliott Johnston at the age of 36. They had two sons: James Buchanan Johnston (1866–1881) and Henry Elliot Johnston (1869–1882), but within the 18 years from 1867 to 1885, her uncle, her husband, and her children all died. Later life and death Harriet wrote her will in 1895 and lived another eight years, during which the country's general prosperity greatly increased the value of her estate. She added a codicil in 1899 directing that a school building be constructed on the grounds of the Washington National Cathedral property and asked that it be called the Lane-Johnston Building "to the end that the family names of my husband and myself may be associated with the bequest made in loving memory of our sons." A codicil of 1903 increased her gift by one third but said that only half the total was to be spent on the building. The remainder was "specially to provide for the free maintenance, education and training of choirboys, primarily those in service of the Cathedral." This bequest founded the prestigious boys' school that today is called St. Albans School, which opened in October 1909. At Harriet Lane Johnston's funeral, services were conducted by Bishop Satterlee and Canon DeVries of the Washington National Cathedral. She was buried in Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland, her grave marked with a Celtic cross like the Peace Cross on the cathedral close. In 1905, guests were invited to see the cornerstone of the first St. Albans School building, laid for what the invitation referred to as "The Lane Johnston Choir School for Boys of the Washington Cathedral". Legacy Lane left bequests in her will that established a children's hospital and a boys' school, and she donated her collection of artwork to the Smithsonian. Several Navy and Coast Guard ships have been named in her honor. Her birthplace, the Lane House, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Hospital and school She dedicated $400,000 (equivalent to $13,600,000 in 2023) to establish the Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland as a memorial to two sons who had died in childhood. In October 1912 the Harriet Lane Home officially opened. It was the first children's clinic in the United States that was associated with a medical school. Eventually treating over 60,000 children a year, the Harriet Lane Home became a pioneer treatment, teaching, and research clinic. From 1930 to 1963 Helen Taussig, who helped to develop the blue baby operation, headed the pediatric cardiac clinic. Child psychiatrist Leo Kanner did studies of autistic children. Lawson Wilkins established an endocrine clinic that developed procedures used universally to treat children with certain glandular disorders, including dwarfism. John E. Bordley and William G. Hardy broke ground in detecting hearing impairments in very young children. It became a renowned pediatric facility; the Harriet Lane Outpatient Clinics serve thousands of children today, and the widely used manual for pediatric house officers, The Harriet Lane Handbook, bears her name. The Harriet Lane Outpatient Clinics continue to operate in countries throughout the world. The pediatric medicine Harriet Lane Handbook series continues in print and online, with multiple titles. The original title (subtitled A Manual for Pediatric House Officers) is in its 22nd edition, published by Mosby. Art collection She had an art collection based on European works which she left to the U.S. government. The Smithsonian Institution called her the "First Lady of the National Collection of Fine Arts" after her collection was accepted into public ownership. Namesake ships The United States Coast Guard has had three cutters named in her honor. The first was the USRC Harriet Lane, commissioned into the United States Revenue Cutter Service (predecessor of the USCG) in 1857. This cutter was transferred to the United States Navy in 1861 because of the American Civil War. The second cutter named for Harriet Lane was the 125 foot USCGC Harriet Lane (WSC-141), commissioned in 1926 and decommissioned in 1946. The third cutter named for Harriet Lane is the USCGC Harriet Lane (WMEC-903). The cutter was commissioned in May 1984, and as of 2021, is still in active service. Footnotes References Further reading Balcerski, Thomas J. "Harriet Rebecca Lane Johnston." in A Companion to First Ladies (2016): 197-213. Rosenberger, Homer Tope. "To what Extent Did Harriet Lance Influence the Public Policies of James Buchanan?" Lancaster County Historical Society, 1970. online Updike, John (1974). Buchanan Dying (play). (Ms. Johnston is a character in Updike's fictional play about President Buchanan.) External links Works by or about Harriet Lane at the Internet Archive "Harriet Lane". First Ladies: Influence & Image. firstladies.org. CNN.

List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States_who_died_in_office

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States_who_died_in_office

Since the office was established in 1789, 45 persons have served as president of the United States. Of these, eight have died in office: four were assassinated, and four died of natural causes. In each of these instances, the vice president has succeeded to the presidency. This practice is now governed by Section One of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1967, which declares that, "the Vice President shall become President" if the president is removed from office, dies, or resigns. The initial authorization for this practice was provided by Article II, Section 1, Clause 6, of the U.S. Constitution. The first incumbent U.S. president to die was William Henry Harrison, on April 4, 1841, only one month after Inauguration Day. He died from complications of what at the time was believed to be pneumonia. The second American president to die in office, Zachary Taylor, died on July 9, 1850, from acute gastroenteritis. Abraham Lincoln was the first U.S. president to be killed while in office. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth on the night of April 14, 1865, and died the following morning. Sixteen years later, on July 2, 1881, James A. Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, surviving for over two months before dying on September 19, 1881. On September 14, 1901, William McKinley died, eight days after being shot by Leon Czolgosz. Next, Warren G. Harding suffered a heart attack, and died on August 2, 1923. On April 12, 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt (who had just begun his fourth term in office) collapsed and died as a result of a cerebral hemorrhage. The most recent U.S. president to die in office was John F. Kennedy, who was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. 1841: William Henry Harrison On March 26, 1841, William Henry Harrison became ill with a cold after being caught in a torrential downpour without cover. His symptoms grew progressively worse over the ensuing two days, at which time a team of doctors was called in to treat him. After making a diagnosis of right lower lobe pneumonia, they proceeded to place heated suction cups on his bare torso and to administer a series of bloodlettings, to supposedly draw out the disease. When those procedures failed to bring about improvement, the doctors treated him with ipecac, Castor oil, calomel, and finally with a boiled mixture of crude petroleum and Virginia snakeroot. All this only weakened Harrison further. Initially, no official announcement was made concerning Harrison's illness, which, the longer he remained out of public view, fueled public speculation and concern. By the end of the month large crowds were gathering outside the White House, holding vigil while awaiting any news about the president's condition. On the evening of April 4, 1841, nine days after becoming ill, and exactly one month after taking the oath of office, Harrison died at age 68. His last words were to his attending doctor, though assumed to be directed at Vice President John Tyler: Sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more. A 30-day period of mourning commenced following the president's death. Various public ceremonies, modeled after European royal funeral practices, were held. An invitation-only funeral service was also held, on April 7 in the East Room of the White House, after which Harrison's coffin was brought to Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., where it was placed in a temporary receiving vault. That June, Harrison's body was transported by train and river barge to North Bend, Ohio. Then, on July 7, 1841, the nation's 9th president was buried in a family tomb at the summit of Mt. Nebo, overlooking the Ohio River – the William Henry Harrison Tomb State Memorial. Harrison's death sparked a brief constitutional crisis regarding succession to the presidency, as the U.S. Constitution was unclear as to whether Vice President John Tyler should assume the office of president or merely execute the duties of the vacant office. Tyler claimed a constitutional mandate to carry out the full powers and duties of the presidency and took the presidential oath of office, setting an important precedent for an orderly transfer of presidential power when a president leaves office intra-term. Coincidentally, all but one of the presidents who later died in office had, like Harrison, won a presidential election in a year ending in a zero (1840 through 1960). This pattern of tragedies came to be known as the Curse of Tippecanoe, or the Curse of Tecumseh, the name of the Shawnee leader against whom Harrison fought in the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe. Also sometimes referred to as the Zero Factor legend, the pattern was disrupted by Ronald Reagan, who survived an assassination attempt in 1981 (69 days after taking office) and lived to complete two full terms. 1850: Zachary Taylor Zachary Taylor was known to have consumed copious amounts of ice water, cold milk, green apples, and cherries on July 4, 1850, after attending holiday celebrations and the laying of the cornerstone of the Washington Monument. That same evening, he became severely ill with an unknown digestive ailment. Doctors used popular treatments of the time. On the morning of July 9, the president asked his wife Margaret not to grieve saying: I have always done my duty, I am ready to die. My only regret is for the friends I leave behind me. Taylor died late that evening, five days after becoming ill, at age 65. Contemporary reports listed the cause of death as "bilious diarrhea or a bilious cholera." He was succeeded by Vice President Millard Fillmore. Taylor's funeral took place on July 13, and like Harrison's nine years earlier, was held in the East Room of the White House. Afterward, an estimated 100,000 people gathered along the funeral route to Congressional Cemetery where his coffin was placed temporarily in the Public Vault; that October it was transported to Louisville, Kentucky. On November 1, 1850, Taylor was buried in his family's burial ground on the Taylor estate, Springfield, which became the Zachary Taylor National Cemetery. Almost immediately after his death, rumors began to circulate that Taylor had been poisoned by pro-slavery Southerners, and various conspiracy theories persisted into the late-20th century. The cause of Taylor's death was definitively established in 1991, when his remains were exhumed and an autopsy conducted by Kentucky's chief medical examiner. Subsequent neutron activation analysis conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory revealed no evidence of poisoning, as arsenic levels were too low. The analysis concluded Taylor had contracted cholera morbus (acute gastroenteritis), as Washington had open sewers, and his food or drink may have been contaminated. 1865: Abraham Lincoln The assassination of Abraham Lincoln took place on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, as the Civil War was drawing to a close. He died the following morning at the age of 56. The assassination occurred five days after General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant and the Army of the Potomac following the Battle of Appomattox Court House. Lincoln was the first American president to be killed by an assassin. (The first U.S. president to be confronted by a would-be assassin was Andrew Jackson 30 years earlier, in January 1835.) The assassination of President Lincoln was planned and carried out by the well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, vehement in his denunciation of Lincoln, and a strong opponent of the abolition of slavery in the United States. Booth and a group of co-conspirators originally plotted to kidnap Lincoln, but later planned to kill him, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William H. Seward in a bid to help the Confederacy's cause. Johnson's would-be-assassin, George Atzerodt did not carry out his part of the plan, and Johnson succeeded Lincoln as president while Lewis Powell only managed to wound Seward. Lincoln was shot once in the back of his head while watching the play Our American Cousin with his wife Mary Todd Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on the night of April 14, 1865. An army surgeon who happened to be at Ford's, Doctor Charles Leale, assessed Lincoln's wound as mortal. The unconscious president was then carried across the street from the theater to the Petersen House, where he remained in a coma for eight hours before dying the following morning. Within two weeks of the manhunt for Lincoln's killers, on April 26, 1865, Booth and David Herold were caught in a tobacco barn in Port Conway, Virginia. While Herold surrendered, Booth was shot to death by Boston Corbett, a Union Corporal. A three-week series of official functions were held following the president's death. He lay in state in the East Room of the White House which was open to the public on April 18. A funeral service was held the next day, and then the coffin was transported in a procession down Pennsylvania Avenue to the United States Capitol, where a ceremonial burial service was held in the rotunda. After lying in state at the Capitol, Lincoln's remains were transported by train to Springfield, Illinois, for burial. He was interred on May 4, 1865, at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield – the Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site since 1895. 1881: James A. Garfield The assassination of James A. Garfield happened in Washington, D.C., on July 2, 1881. Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau at 9:30 a.m., less than four months into his term as the nation's 20th president. He died 11 weeks later on September 19, 1881, at the age of 49. Vice President Chester A. Arthur succeeded him as president. Garfield was scheduled to leave Washington on July 2, 1881, for his summer vacation. On that day, Guiteau lay in wait for the president at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station, on the southwest corner of present-day Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. President Garfield came to the Sixth Street Station on his way to his alma mater, Williams College, where he was scheduled to deliver a speech. Garfield was accompanied by two of his sons, James and Harry, and Secretary of State James G. Blaine. Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln waited at the station to see the president off. Garfield had no bodyguard or security detail; with the exception of Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, early U.S. presidents never used any guards. As President Garfield entered the waiting room of the station, Guiteau stepped forward and pulled the trigger from behind at point-blank range. "My God, what is that?!" Garfield cried out, flinging up his arms. Guiteau fired again and Garfield collapsed. One bullet grazed Garfield's shoulder; the other hit him in the back, passing the first lumbar vertebra but missing the spinal cord before coming to rest behind his pancreas. Garfield, conscious but in shock, was carried to an upstairs floor of the train station. Lincoln sent for D.C. Bliss, a prominent Washington physician, who soon arrived and examined Garfield's wounds several times, probing for the bullet that remained lodged in the president's body with his fingers and metal probes. Two additional doctors were summoned, and they also probed the entry wound. Eventually there were about twenty people in the room, including at least ten physicians. As Garfield was being cared for, Lincoln, thinking back to the death of his father, said "How many hours of sorrow I have passed in this town." Garfield was carried back to the White House. Although doctors told him that he would not survive the night, the president remained conscious and alert. The next morning his vital signs were good and doctors began to hope for recovery. A long vigil began, with Garfield's doctors issuing regular bulletins that the American public followed closely throughout the summer of 1881. His condition fluctuated. Fevers came and went. Garfield struggled to keep down solid food and spent most of the summer eating little, and that only liquids. Garfield had been a regular visitor to the shore town of Long Branch, New Jersey, one of the nation's premier summer vacation spots until World War I. In early September, it was decided to bring him to Elberon, a quiet beach town just to the south of Long Branch, in hopes that the beach air would help him recover. When they heard that the president was being brought to their town, local citizens built more than half a mile of tracks in less than 24 hours, enabling Garfield to be brought directly to the door of the oceanfront Franklyn cottage, rather than being moved by carriage from the local Elberon train station. However, Garfield died 12 days later. A granite marker on Garfield Road identifies the former site of the cottage, which was demolished in 1950. Throughout the five-month drama, anxious Americans across the country were kept informed of developments by the news media. The publisher of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Miriam Leslie, was especially quick to publish fully illustrated accounts of key moments, from Garfield's shooting to the embalming of his body. Chester Arthur was at his home in New York City on the night of September 19, when word came that Garfield had died. After first getting the news, Arthur said "I hope—my God, I do hope it is a mistake." But confirmation by telegram came soon after. Arthur took the presidential oath of office, administered by a New York Supreme Court judge, then left for Long Branch to pay his respects before traveling on to Washington. Garfield's body was taken to Washington, where it lay in state for two days in the Capitol Rotunda before being taken to Cleveland, where the funeral was held on September 26. When the tracks that had been hastily built to the Franklyn cottage were later torn up, actor Oliver Byron bought the wooden ties, and had local carpenter William Presley build them into a small tea house, in commemoration of the president. The red & white (originally red, white & blue) "Garfield Tea House" still survives, resting a couple of blocks away from the site of the cottage on the grounds of the Long Branch Historical Museum, a former Episcopal Church. The church is nicknamed "The Church of the Presidents," as it had been attended by, in addition to Garfield, presidents Chester A. Arthur, Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison, Rutherford Hayes, William McKinley, and Woodrow Wilson, during their own visits to Long Branch. 1901: William McKinley William McKinley was assassinated on September 6, 1901, inside the Temple of Music on the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley was shaking hands with the public when Leon Czolgosz, a Polish-American anarchist, shot him. The 58-year-old president died eight days later on September 14 from gangrene caused by the bullet wounds. McKinley had been elected for a second term in 1900. He enjoyed meeting the public, and was reluctant to accept the security available to his office. The secretary to the president, George B. Cortelyou, feared an assassination attempt would take place during a visit to the Temple of Music, and twice took it off the schedule. McKinley restored it each time. Czolgosz had lost his job during the economic Panic of 1893 and turned to anarchism, a political philosophy whose adherents had previously killed foreign leaders. Regarding McKinley as a symbol of oppression, Czolgosz felt it was his duty as an anarchist to kill him. Unable to get near McKinley during the earlier part of the presidential visit, Czolgosz shot McKinley twice as the President reached to shake his hand in the reception line at the temple. One bullet grazed McKinley; the other entered his abdomen and was never found. McKinley initially appeared to be recovering, but took a turn for the worse on September 13 as his wounds became gangrenous, and died early the next morning; Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded him. Roosevelt was hiking near the top of Mt. Marcy, in New York's Adirondack region, when a runner located him to convey the news. After McKinley's murder, for which Czolgosz was put to death in the electric chair, the United States Congress passed legislation to officially charge the Secret Service with the responsibility for protecting the president. 1923: Warren G. Harding Warren G. Harding died from a sudden heart attack in his hotel suite while visiting San Francisco on the evening of August 2, 1923, at the age of 57. His death quickly led to theories that he had been poisoned or committed suicide. Rumors of poisoning were fueled, in part, by a book called The Strange Death of President Harding by private detective and former Ohio Gang member Gaston Means, who suggested First Lady Florence Harding had poisoned her husband after learning of his infidelity. Mrs. Harding's refusal to allow an autopsy on President Harding only added to the speculation. According to the physicians attending Harding, however, the symptoms in the days prior to his death all pointed to congestive heart failure. Harding's biographer, Samuel H. Adams, concluded that "Warren G. Harding died a natural death which, in any case, could not have been long postponed." Immediately after President Harding's death, Mrs. Harding returned to Washington, D.C., and briefly stayed in the White House with the new president Calvin Coolidge and first lady. For a month, former first lady Harding gathered and destroyed by fire President Harding's correspondence and documents, both official and unofficial. Upon her return to Marion, Ohio, Mrs. Harding hired a number of secretaries to collect and burn President Harding's personal papers. According to Mrs. Harding, she took these actions to protect her husband's legacy. The remaining papers were held and kept from public view by the Harding Memorial Association in Marion. 1945: Franklin D. Roosevelt On March 29, 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt went to the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia, to rest before his anticipated appearance at the founding conference of the United Nations in late April in San Francisco. At around 1:00 pm on April 12, Roosevelt said, "I have a terrific pain in the back of my head," which were his last words. He then slumped forward in his chair, unconscious, and was carried into his bedroom. The president's attending cardiologist, Howard Bruenn, diagnosed a massive cerebral hemorrhage (stroke). The 63-year-old Roosevelt died a few hours later, without regaining consciousness. As Allen Drury later said, "so ended an era, and so began another." After Roosevelt's death, an editorial in The New York Times declared, "Men will thank God on their knees a hundred years from now that Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the White House." In his later years at the White House, when Roosevelt was increasingly overworked, his daughter Anna Roosevelt Boettiger had moved in to provide her father companionship and support. Anna had also arranged for her father to meet with his former mistress, the then widowed Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd. A close friend of both Roosevelt and Mercer who was present, Elizabeth Shoumatoff, rushed Mercer away to avoid negative publicity and implications of infidelity. When Eleanor heard about her husband's death, she was also faced with the news that Anna had been arranging these meetings with Mercer and that Mercer had been with Franklin when he died. On the morning of April 13, Roosevelt's body was placed in a flag-draped coffin and loaded onto the presidential train. After a White House funeral on April 14, Roosevelt was transported back to Hyde Park by train, guarded by four servicemen, one each from the Army, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard. As was his wish, Roosevelt was buried in the Rose Garden of the Springwood estate, the Roosevelt family home in Hyde Park on April 15. Eleanor died in November 1962 and was buried next to him. Roosevelt's death was met with shock and grief across the U.S. and around the world. His declining health had not been known to the general public. Roosevelt had been president for more than 12 years, longer than any other person, and had led the country through some of its greatest crises to the impending defeat of Nazi Germany and within sight of the defeat of Japan as well. Less than a month after his death, on May 8, the war in Europe ended. President Harry S. Truman dedicated Victory in Europe Day and its celebrations to Roosevelt's memory, and kept the flags across the U.S. at half-staff for the remainder of the 30-day mourning period. In doing so, Truman said that his only wish was "that Franklin D. Roosevelt had lived to witness this day." 1963: John F. Kennedy The most recent U.S. president to die in office is John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. He was fatally shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, who fired three shots from a sixth floor window of the Texas School Book Depository at 12:30 p.m. as the presidential motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza. Riding in the vehicle with the president were First Lady Jackie Kennedy, Texas governor John Connally, and Connally's wife Nellie; Governor Connally was also seriously wounded in the attack. The motorcade rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital, where Kennedy was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later, at the age of 46. Connally recovered from his injuries. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was a few cars behind the president in the motorcade, became U.S. president upon Kennedy's death. He took the presidential oath of office onboard Air Force One as it sat on the runway at Dallas Love Field. Oswald was arrested by the Dallas Police Department that afternoon, and was charged under Texas state law with the murder of Kennedy, as well as that of Dallas policeman J. D. Tippit, who had been fatally shot a short time after the assassination. Two days later, on November 24, 1963, as live television cameras were covering his transfer from the city jail to the county jail, Oswald was fatally shot in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters by Dallas nightclub operator Jack Ruby. Ruby was convicted of Oswald's murder, though it was later overturned on appeal, and Ruby died in prison in 1967 while awaiting a new trial. In 1964, after a 10-month investigation into the assassination, the Warren Commission concluded that President Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald and that Oswald had acted entirely alone. It also concluded that Jack Ruby acted alone when he killed Oswald in police custody. Nonetheless, speculation over "what really happened" on November 22, 1963, in Dallas captured the public imagination during the decades that followed. Polls conducted from 1966 to 2004 found that as many as 80 percent of Americans have suspected that there was a criminal conspiracy or cover-up. Numerous books, films, television specials and websites have examined the assassination in minute detail, and numerous conspiracy theories have been advanced. Parties as varied as the FBI, the CIA, the Mafia, the Cuban and the Soviet governments, along with Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson, have been identified as Suspect. In an article published prior to the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination, author Vincent Bugliosi estimates that a total of 42 groups, 82 assassins, and 214 people have been accused in conspiracy theories challenging the "lone gunman" theory. See also List of United States presidential assassination attempts Curse of Tippecanoe Notes References Bibliography Bauer, K. Jack (1985). Zachary Taylor: Soldier, Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest. Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 0-8071-1237-2. Cleaves, Freeman (1939). Old Tippecanoe: William Henry Harrison and His Time. New York, NY: C. Scribner's Sons. Leech, Margaret (1959). In the Days of McKinley. New York: Harper and Brothers. pp. 594–600. OCLC 456809. McCullough, David (1992). Truman. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-86920-5. Millard, Candice (2011). Destiny of the Republic. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-53500-7. Miller, Scott (2011). The President and the Assassin. New York: Random House. pp. 56–60. ISBN 978-1-4000-6752-7. Peskin, Allan (1978). Garfield. Kent State University Press. ISBN 0-87338-210-2. Vowell, Sarah (2005). Assassination Vacation. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-6003-1. External links The Mortal Presidency Archived June 3, 2015, at the Wayback Machine (Shapell Manuscript Foundation)

James_A._Garfield

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Garfield

James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 1881 until his assassination in September that year. A preacher, lawyer, and Civil War general, Garfield served nine terms in the United States House of Representatives and is the only sitting member of the House to be elected president. Before his candidacy for the presidency, he had been elected to the U.S. Senate by the Ohio General Assembly—a position he declined when he became president-elect. Garfield was born into poverty in a log cabin and grew up in northeastern Ohio. After graduating from Williams College, he studied law and became an attorney. He was a preacher in the Stone–Campbell Movement and president of the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, affiliated with the Disciples. Garfield was elected as a Republican member of the Ohio State Senate in 1859, serving until 1861. He opposed Confederate secession, was a major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and fought in the battles of Middle Creek, Shiloh, and Chickamauga. He was elected to Congress in 1862 to represent Ohio's 19th district. Throughout his congressional service, he firmly supported the gold standard and gained a reputation as a skilled orator. He initially agreed with Radical Republican views on Reconstruction but later favored a Moderate Republican–aligned approach to civil rights enforcement for freedmen. Garfield's aptitude for mathematics extended to his own proof of the Pythagorean theorem, which he published in 1876. At the 1880 Republican National Convention, delegates chose Garfield, who had not sought the White House, as a compromise presidential nominee on the 36th ballot. In the 1880 presidential election, he conducted a low-key front porch campaign and narrowly defeated the Democratic nominee, Winfield Scott Hancock. Garfield's accomplishments as president included his assertion of presidential authority against senatorial courtesy in executive appointments, a purge of corruption in the Post Office, and his appointment of a Supreme Court justice. He advocated for agricultural technology, an educated electorate, and civil rights for African Americans. He also proposed substantial civil service reforms, which were passed by Congress in 1883 as the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act and signed into law by his successor, Chester A. Arthur. Garfield was a member of the intraparty "Half-Breed" faction who used the powers of the presidency to defy the powerful "Stalwart" Senator Roscoe Conkling from New York. He did this by appointing Blaine faction leader William H. Robertson to the lucrative post of Collector of the Port of New York. The ensuing political battle resulted in Robertson's confirmation and the resignations of Conkling and Thomas C. Platt from the Senate. On July 2, 1881, Charles J. Guiteau, a disappointed and delusional office seeker, shot Garfield at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington. The wound was not immediately fatal, but an infection caused by his doctors' unsanitary methods in treating the wound killed Garfield on September 19. Due to his brief tenure in office, historians tend to rank Garfield as a below-average president, though he has earned praise for anti-corruption and pro-civil rights stances. Childhood and early life James Abram Garfield was born the youngest of five children on November 19, 1831, in a log cabin in Orange Township, now Moreland Hills, Ohio. Garfield's ancestor Edward Garfield migrated from Hillmorton, Warwickshire, England, to Massachusetts around 1630. James's father Abram was born in Worcester, New York, and came to Ohio to woo his childhood sweetheart, Mehitabel Ballou, only to find her married. He instead wed her sister Eliza, who was born in New Hampshire. James was named after an earlier son of Eliza and Abram who had died in infancy. In early 1833, Abram and Eliza Garfield joined a Stone-Campbell church, a decision that influenced their youngest son's life. Abram died later that year, and James was raised in poverty in a household led by his strong-willed mother. He was her favorite child and the two remained close for the rest of his life. Eliza remarried in 1842, but soon left her second husband, Warren (or Alfred) Belden, and a scandalous divorce was awarded in 1850. James took his mother's side in the matter and noted Belden's 1880 death with satisfaction in his diary. Garfield also enjoyed his mother's stories about his ancestry, especially those about his Welsh great-great-grandfathers and an ancestor who served as a knight of Caerphilly Castle. Poor and fatherless, Garfield was mocked by his peers and became sensitive to slights throughout his life; he sought escape through voracious reading. He left home at age 16 in 1847 and was rejected for work on the only ship in port in Cleveland. Garfield instead found work on a canal boat, managing the mules that pulled it. Horatio Alger later used this labor to good effect when he wrote Garfield's campaign biography in 1880. After six weeks, illness forced Garfield to return home, and during his recuperation, his mother and a local school official secured his promise to forgo canal work for a year of school. In 1848, he began at Geauga Seminary, in nearby Chester Township, Geauga County, Ohio. Garfield later said of his childhood, "I lament that I was born to poverty, and in this chaos of childhood, seventeen years passed before I caught any inspiration ... a precious 17 years when a boy with a father and some wealth might have become fixed in manly ways." Education, marriage and early career Garfield attended Geauga Seminary from 1848 to 1850 and learned academic subjects for which he had not previously had time. He excelled as a student and was especially interested in languages and elocution. He began to appreciate the power a speaker had over an audience, writing that the speaker's platform "creates some excitement. I love agitation and investigation and glory in defending unpopular truth against popular error." Geauga was coeducational, and Garfield was attracted to one of his classmates, Lucretia Rudolph, whom he later married. To support himself at Geauga, he worked as a carpenter's assistant and teacher. The need to go from town to town to find work as a teacher aggravated Garfield, and he developed a dislike of what he called "place-seeking", which became, he said, "the law of my life." In later years, he astounded his friends by disregarding positions that could have been his with little politicking. Garfield had attended church more to please his mother than to worship God, but in his late teens he underwent a religious awakening. He attended many camp meetings, which led to his being born again on March 4, 1850, when he was baptized into Christ by being submerged in the icy waters of the Chagrin River. After he left Geauga, Garfield worked for a year at various jobs, including teaching jobs. Finding that some New Englanders worked their way through college, Garfield determined to do the same and sought a school that could prepare him for the entrance examinations. From 1851 to 1854, he attended the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (later named Hiram College) in Hiram, Ohio, a school founded by and still affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). While there, he was most interested in the study of Greek and Latin but was inclined to learn about and discuss any new thing he encountered. Securing a position on entry as janitor, he obtained a teaching position while he was still a student there. Lucretia Rudolph also enrolled at the Institute and Garfield wooed her while teaching her Greek. He developed a regular preaching circuit at neighboring churches and, in some cases, earned one gold dollar per service. By 1854, Garfield had learned all the Institute could teach him and was a full-time teacher. Garfield then enrolled at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, as a third-year student; he received credit for two years' study at the Institute after passing a cursory examination. Garfield was also impressed with the college president, Mark Hopkins, who had responded warmly to Garfield's letter inquiring about admission. He said of Hopkins, "The ideal college is Mark Hopkins on one end of a log with a student on the other." Hopkins later said of Garfield in his student days, "There was a large general capacity applicable to any subject. There was no pretense of genius, or alternation of spasmodic effort, but a satisfactory accomplishment in all directions." After his first term, Garfield was hired to teach penmanship to the students of nearby Pownal, Vermont, a post Chester A. Arthur previously held. Garfield graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Williams in August 1856, was named salutatorian, and spoke at the commencement. His biographer Ira Rutkow writes that Garfield's years at Williams gave him the opportunity to know and respect those of different social backgrounds, and that, despite his origin as an unsophisticated Westerner, socially conscious New Englanders liked and respected him. "In short," Rutkow writes, "Garfield had an extensive and positive first experience with the world outside the Western Reserve of Ohio." Upon his return to Ohio, the degree from a prestigious Eastern college made Garfield a man of distinction. He returned to Hiram to teach at the Institute and in 1857 was made its principal, though he did not see education as a field that would realize his full potential. The abolitionist atmosphere at Williams had enlightened him politically, after which he began to consider politics as a career. He campaigned for Republican presidential candidate John C. Frémont in 1856. In 1858, he married Lucretia, and they had seven children, five of whom survived infancy. Soon after the wedding, he registered to read law at the office of attorney Albert Gallatin Riddle in Cleveland, though he did his studying in Hiram. He was admitted to the bar in 1861. Local Republican leaders invited Garfield to enter politics upon the death of Cyrus Prentiss, the presumptive nominee for the local state senate seat. He was nominated at the party convention on the sixth ballot and was elected, serving from 1860 to 1861. Garfield's major effort in the state senate was an unsuccessful bill providing for Ohio's first geological survey to measure its mineral resources. Civil War After Abraham Lincoln's election as president, several Southern states announced their secession from the Union to form a new government, the Confederate States of America. Garfield read military texts while anxiously awaiting the war effort, which he regarded as a holy crusade against the Slave Power. In April 1861, the rebels bombarded Fort Sumter, one of the South's last federal outposts, beginning the Civil War. Although he had no military training, Garfield knew his place was in the Union Army. At Governor William Dennison's request, Garfield deferred his military ambitions to remain in the legislature, where he helped appropriate the funds to raise and equip Ohio's volunteer regiments. When the legislature adjourned Garfield spent the spring and early summer on a speaking tour of northeastern Ohio, encouraging enlistment in the new regiments. Following a trip to Illinois to purchase muskets, Garfield returned to Ohio and, in August 1861, received a commission as a colonel in the 42nd Ohio Infantry regiment. The 42nd Ohio existed only on paper, so Garfield's first task was to fill its ranks. He did so quickly, recruiting many of his neighbors and former students. The regiment traveled to Camp Chase, outside Columbus, Ohio, to complete training. In December, Garfield was ordered to bring the 42nd to Kentucky, where they joined the Army of the Ohio under Brigadier General Don Carlos Buell. Buell's command Buell quickly assigned Garfield the task of driving Confederate forces out of eastern Kentucky, giving him the 18th Brigade for the campaign, which, besides his own 42nd, included the 40th Ohio Infantry, two Kentucky infantry regiments and two cavalry units. They departed Catlettsburg, Kentucky, in mid-December, advancing through the valley of the Big Sandy River. The march was uneventful until Union forces reached Paintsville, Kentucky, on January 6, 1862, where Garfield's cavalry engaged the rebels at Jenny's Creek. Confederate troops under Brigadier General Humphrey Marshall held the town in numbers roughly equal to Garfield's own, but Garfield positioned his troops so as to deceive Marshall into believing the rebels were outnumbered. Marshall ordered his troops to withdraw to the forks of Middle Creek, on the road to Virginia, and Garfield ordered his troops to take up the pursuit. They attacked the rebel positions on January 9, 1862, in the Battle of Middle Creek, the only pitched battle Garfield commanded personally. At the fighting's end, the Confederates withdrew from the field and Garfield sent his troops to Prestonsburg to reprovision. In recognition of his success, Garfield was promoted to brigadier general. After Marshall's retreat, Garfield's command was the sole remaining Union force in eastern Kentucky and he announced that any men who had fought for the Confederacy would be granted amnesty if they returned to their homes, lived peaceably, and remained loyal to the Union. The proclamation was surprisingly lenient, as Garfield now believed the war was a crusade for eradication of slavery. Following a brief skirmish at Pound Gap, the last rebel units in the area were outflanked and retreated to Virginia. Garfield's promotion gave him command of the 20th Brigade of the Army of the Ohio, which received orders to join Major General Ulysses S. Grant's forces as they advanced on Corinth, Mississippi, in early 1862. Before the 20th Brigade arrived, however, Confederate forces under General Albert Sidney Johnston surprised Grant's men in their camps, driving them back. Garfield's troops received word of the battle and advanced quickly, joining the rest of the army on the second day to drive the Confederates back across the field and into retreat. The action, later known as the Battle of Shiloh, was the bloodiest of the war to date; Garfield was exposed to fire for much of the day, but emerged uninjured. Major General Henry W. Halleck, Grant's superior, took charge of the combined armies and advanced ponderously toward Corinth; when they arrived, the Confederates had fled. That summer, Garfield suffered from jaundice and significant weight loss. He was forced to return home, where his wife nursed him back to health. While he was home, Garfield's friends worked to gain him the Republican nomination for Congress, but he refused to campaign with the delegates. He returned to military duty that autumn and went to Washington to await his next assignment. During this period of idleness, a rumor of an extramarital affair caused friction in the Garfields' marriage until Lucretia eventually chose to overlook it. Garfield repeatedly received tentative assignments that were quickly withdrawn, to his frustration. In the meantime, he served on the court-martial of Fitz John Porter for his tardiness at the Second Battle of Bull Run. He was convinced of Porter's guilt and voted with his fellow generals to convict Porter. The trial lasted almost two months, from November 1862 to January 1863, and, by its end, Garfield had procured an assignment as chief of staff to Major General William S. Rosecrans. Chief of staff for Rosecrans Generals' chiefs of staff were usually more junior officers, but Garfield's influence with Rosecrans was greater than usual, with duties extending beyond communication of orders to actual management of his Army of the Cumberland. Rosecrans had a voracious appetite for conversation, especially when unable to sleep; in Garfield, he found "the first well read person in the Army" and the ideal candidate for discussions that ran deep into the night. They discussed everything, especially religion, and the two became close despite Garfield's being 12 years his junior. Rosecrans, who had converted from Methodism to Roman Catholicism, softened Garfield's view of his faith. Garfield recommended that Rosecrans replace wing commanders Alexander McCook and Thomas Crittenden, as he believed they were ineffective, but Rosecrans ignored the suggestion. With Rosecrans, Garfield devised the Tullahoma Campaign to pursue and trap Confederate General Braxton Bragg in Tullahoma. After initial Union success, Bragg retreated toward Chattanooga, where Rosecrans stalled and requested more troops and supplies. Garfield argued for an immediate advance, in line with demands from Halleck and Lincoln. After a council of war and lengthy deliberations, Rosecrans agreed to attack. At the ensuing Battle of Chickamauga on September 19 and 20, 1863, confusion among the wing commanders over Rosecrans's orders created a gap in the lines, resulting in a rout of the right flank. Rosecrans concluded that the battle was lost and fell back on Chattanooga to establish a defensive line. Garfield, however, thought part of the army had held and, with Rosecrans's approval, headed across Missionary Ridge to survey the scene. Garfield's hunch was correct. Consequently, his ride became legendary and Rosecrans's error reignited criticism about the latter's leadership. While Rosecrans's army had avoided disaster, they were stranded in Chattanooga, surrounded by Bragg's army. Garfield sent a telegram to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton alerting Washington to the need for reinforcements to avoid annihilation. Lincoln and Halleck responded to the request for reinforcements by sending 20,000 troops to Garfield by rail within nine days. In the meantime, Grant was promoted to command of the western armies and quickly replaced Rosecrans with George H. Thomas. Garfield was ordered to report to Washington, where he was promoted to major general. According to historian Jean Edward Smith, Grant and Garfield had a "guarded relationship" since Grant promoted Thomas, rather than Garfield, to command of the Army of the Cumberland after Rosecrans's dismissal. Congressional career Election in 1862; Civil War years While he served in the Army in early 1862, friends of Garfield approached him about running for Congress from Ohio's newly redrawn and heavily Republican 19th district. He worried that he and other state-appointed generals would receive obscure assignments, and running for Congress would allow him to resume his political career. That the new Congress would not hold its first regular session until December 1863 allowed him to continue his war service for a time. Home on medical leave, he refused to campaign for the nomination, leaving that to political managers who secured it at the local convention in September 1862 on the eighth ballot. In the October general election, he defeated D.B. Woods by a two-to-one margin for a seat in the 38th Congress. Days before his Congressional term began, Garfield lost his eldest daughter, three-year-old Eliza, and became anxious and conflicted, saying his "desolation of heart" might require his return to "the wild life of the army." He also assumed that the war would end before his joining the House, but it had not, and he felt strongly that he belonged in the field, rather than in Congress. He also thought he could expect a favorable command, so he decided to see President Lincoln. During their meeting, Lincoln recommended he take his House seat, as there was an excess of generals and a shortage of administration congressmen, especially those with knowledge of military affairs. Garfield accepted this recommendation and resigned his military commission to do so. Garfield met and befriended Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, who saw Garfield as a younger version of himself. The two agreed politically and both were part of the Radical wing of the Republican Party. Once he took his seat in December 1863, Garfield was frustrated at Lincoln's reluctance to press the South hard. Many radicals, led in the House by Pennsylvania's Thaddeus Stevens, wanted rebel-owned lands confiscated, but Lincoln threatened to veto any bill that proposed to do so on a widespread basis. In debate on the House floor, Garfield supported such legislation and, discussing England's Glorious Revolution, hinted that Lincoln might be thrown out of office for resisting it. Garfield had supported Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and marveled at the "strange phenomenon in the world's history, when a second-rate Illinois lawyer is the instrument to utter words which shall form an epoch memorable in all future ages." Garfield not only favored the abolition of slavery, but also believed the leaders of the rebellion had forfeited their constitutional rights. He supported the confiscation of Southern plantations and even exile or execution of rebellion leaders as a means to ensure a permanent end to slavery. Garfield felt Congress had an obligation "to determine what legislation is necessary to secure equal justice to all loyal persons, without regard to color." He was more supportive of Lincoln when he took action against slavery. Garfield showed leadership early in his congressional career; he was initially the only Republican vote to terminate the use of bounties in military recruiting. Some financially able recruits had used the bounty system to buy their way out of service (called commutation), which Garfield considered reprehensible. He gave a speech pointing out the flaws in the existing conscription law: 300,000 recruits had been called upon to enlist, but barely 10,000 had done so, with the remainder claiming exemption, providing money, or recruiting a substitute. Lincoln appeared before the Military Affairs committee on which Garfield served, demanding a more effective bill; even if it cost him reelection, Lincoln was confident he could win the war before his term expired. After many false starts, Garfield, with Lincoln's support, procured the passage of a conscription bill that excluded commutation. Under Chase's influence, Garfield became a staunch proponent of a dollar backed by a gold standard, and strongly opposed the "greenback". He also accepted the necessity of suspension of payment in gold or silver during the Civil War with strong reluctance. He voted with the Radical Republicans in passing the Wade–Davis Bill, designed to give Congress more authority over Reconstruction, but Lincoln defeated it with a pocket veto. Garfield did not consider Lincoln very worthy of reelection, but there seemed to be no viable alternative. "He will probably be the man, though I think we could do better", he said. Garfield attended the party convention and promoted Rosecrans as Lincoln's running mate, but delegates chose Military Governor of Tennessee Andrew Johnson. Lincoln was reelected, as was Garfield. By then, Chase had left the Cabinet and been appointed Chief Justice, and his relations with Garfield became more distant. Garfield took up the practice of law in 1865 to improve his personal finances. His efforts took him to Wall Street where, the day after Lincoln's assassination, a riotous crowd drew him into an impromptu speech to calm their passions: "Fellow citizens! Clouds and darkness are round about Him! His pavilion is dark waters and thick clouds of the skies! Justice and judgment are the establishment of His throne! Mercy and truth shall go before His face! Fellow citizens! God reigns, and the Government at Washington still lives!" The speech, with no mention or praise of Lincoln, was, according to Garfield biographer Robert G. Caldwell, "quite as significant for what it did not contain as for what it did." In the following years, Garfield had more praise for Lincoln; a year after Lincoln's death, Garfield said, "Greatest among all these developments were the character and fame of Abraham Lincoln," and in 1878 he called Lincoln "one of the few great rulers whose wisdom increased with his power". When in Washington, Garfield attended Vermont Avenue Christian Church, which later became National City Christian Church, a building constructed and funded by the Disciples. Reconstruction In 1864, the U.S. Senate passed the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery throughout the Union. The bill failed to pass the House by a two-thirds majority until January 31, 1865, when it was then sent to the states for ratification. The Amendment opened other issues concerning African American civil rights. Garfield asked, "[What] is freedom? Is it the bare privilege of not being chained?...If this is all, then freedom is a bitter mockery, a cruel delusion." Garfield supported black suffrage as firmly as he supported abolition. President Johnson sought the rapid restoration of the Southern states during the months between his accession and the meeting of Congress in December 1865; Garfield hesitantly supported this policy as an experiment. Johnson, an old friend, sought Garfield's backing and their conversations led Garfield to assume Johnson's differences with Congress were not large. When Congress assembled in December (to Johnson's chagrin, without the elected representatives of the Southern states, who were excluded), Garfield urged conciliation on his colleagues, although he feared that Johnson, a former Democrat, might join other Democrats to gain political control. Garfield foresaw conflict even before February 1866, when Johnson vetoed a bill to extend the life of the Freedmen's Bureau, charged with aiding the former slaves. By April, Garfield had concluded that Johnson was either "crazy or drunk with opium." The conflict between Congress and President Johnson was the major issue of the 1866 campaign, with Johnson taking to the campaign trail in a Swing Around the Circle and Garfield facing opposition within the Republican party in his home district. With the South still disenfranchised and Northern public opinion behind the Republicans, they gained a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress. Garfield, having overcome his challengers at the district nominating convention, won reelection easily. Garfield opposed the proposed impeachment of Johnson initially when Congress convened in December 1866, but supported legislation to limit Johnson's powers, such as the Tenure of Office Act, which restricted Johnson's ability to remove presidential appointees. Distracted by committee duties, Garfield spoke about these bills rarely, but was a loyal Republican vote against Johnson. On January 7, 1867, Garfield voted in support of the resolution that launched the first impeachment inquiry against Johnson (run by the House Committee on the Judiciary). On December 7, 1867, he voted against the unsuccessful resolution to impeach Johnson that the House Committee on the Judiciary had sent the full House. On January 27, 1868, he voted to pass the resolution that authorized the second impeachment inquiry against Johnson (run by the House Select Committee on Reconstruction). Due to a court case, he was absent on February 24, 1868, when the House impeached Johnson, but gave a speech aligning himself with Thaddeus Stevens and others who sought Johnson's removal shortly thereafter. Garfield was present on March 2 and 3, 1868, when the House voted on specific articles of impeachment, and voted in support of all 11 articles. During the March 2 debate on the articles, Garfield argued that what he characterized as Johnson's attempts to render Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and William H. Emory personal tools of his demonstrated Johnson's intent to disregard the law and override the Constitution, suggesting that Johnson's trial perhaps could be expedited to last only a day in order to hasten his removal. When Johnson was acquitted in his trial before the Senate, Garfield was shocked and blamed the outcome on the trial's presiding officer, Chief Justice Chase, his onetime mentor. By the time Grant succeeded Johnson in 1869, Garfield had moved away from the remaining radicals (Stevens, their leader, had died in 1868). By this time, many in the Republican Party wanted to remove the "Negro question" from national affairs. Garfield hailed the ratification of the 15th Amendment in 1870 as a triumph and favored Georgia's readmission to the Union as a matter of right, not politics. An influential Republican, Garfield said, "[The] Fifteen Amendment confers on the African race the care of its own destiny. It places their fortunes in their own hands." In 1871, Congress took up the Ku Klux Klan Act, which was designed to combat attacks on African Americans' suffrage rights. Garfield opposed the act, saying, "I have never been more perplexed by a piece of legislation." He was torn between his indignation at the Klan, whom he called "terrorists", and his concern for the power given the president to enforce the act through suspension of habeas corpus. Tariffs and finance Throughout his political career, Garfield favored the gold standard and decried attempts to increase the money supply through the issuance of paper money not backed by gold, and later, through the free and unlimited coinage of silver. In 1865, he was put on the House Ways and Means Committee, a long-awaited opportunity to focus on financial and economic issues. He reprised his opposition to the greenback, saying, "Any party which commits itself to paper money will go down amid the general disaster, covered with the curses of a ruined people." In 1868 Garfield gave a two-hour speech on currency in the House, which was widely applauded as his best oratory to that point; in it, he advocated a gradual resumption of specie payments, that is, the government paying out silver and gold, rather than paper money that could not be redeemed. Tariffs had been raised to high levels during the Civil War. Afterward, Garfield, who made a close study of financial affairs, advocated moving toward free trade, though the standard Republican position was a protective tariff that would allow American industries to grow. This break with his party likely cost him his place on the Ways and Means Committee in 1867, and though Republicans held the majority in the House until 1875, Garfield remained off that committee. Garfield came to chair the powerful House Appropriations Committee, but it was Ways and Means, with its influence over fiscal policy, that he really wanted to lead. One reason he was denied a place on Ways and Means was the opposition of the influential Republican editor Horace Greeley. Starting in January 1870, Garfield, then chairman of the House Banking Committee, led an investigation into the Black Friday Gold Panic scandal. In 1869, during Grant's first term in office, two New York conspirators, Jay Gould and James Fisk, launched a scheme to corner the gold market. The conspiracy was broken on Friday, September 24, 1869, when Grant and Treasury Secretary George Boutwell released gold into the market, causing widespread financial panic. During the investigation, rumors spread that Grant's family might have been involved. In order not to force Grant's wife to testify, Garfield had a private meeting with Grant at the White House. When Garfield showed Grant testimony about him and his family, Grant thanked Garfield but refused to read it or give a response. Grant personally resented Garfield for investigating Black Friday and his wife Julia concerning possible involvement in the scandal. Garfield's investigation and final majority report, released on September 12, 1870, were thorough but found no indictable offenses and exonerated Grant and Julia of wrongdoing. Garfield thought the scandal was enabled by the greenbacks that financed the speculation. Garfield was not at all enthused about President Grant's reelection in 1872—until Greeley, who emerged as the candidate of the Democrats and Liberal Republicans, became the only serious alternative. Garfield said, "I would say Grant was not fit to be nominated and Greeley is not fit to be elected." Both Grant and Garfield were overwhelmingly reelected. Crédit Mobilier scandal; salary grab The Crédit Mobilier of America scandal involved corruption in the financing of the Union Pacific Railroad, part of the transcontinental railroad which was completed in 1869. Union Pacific officers and directors secretly purchased control of the Crédit Mobilier of America company, then contracted with it to undertake construction of the railroad. The railroad paid the company's grossly inflated invoices with federal funds appropriated to subsidize the project, and the company was allowed to purchase Union Pacific securities at par value, well below the market rate. Crédit Mobilier showed large profits and stock gains, and distributed substantial dividends. The high expenses meant Congress was called upon to appropriate more funds. One of the railroad officials who controlled Crédit Mobilier was also a congressman, Oakes Ames of Massachusetts. He offered some of his colleagues the opportunity to buy Crédit Mobilier stock at par value, well below what it sold for on the market, and the railroad got its additional appropriations. The story broke in July 1872, in the middle of the presidential campaign. Among those named were Vice President Schuyler Colfax, Massachusetts Senator Henry Wilson (the Republican candidate for vice president), Speaker James G. Blaine of Maine, and Garfield. Greeley had little luck taking advantage of the scandal. When Congress reconvened after the election, Blaine, seeking to clear his name, demanded a House investigation. Evidence before the special committee exonerated Blaine. Garfield had said in September 1872 that Ames had offered him stock but he had repeatedly refused it. Testifying before the committee in January, Ames said he had offered Garfield ten shares of stock at par value, but that Garfield had never taken them or paid for them, though a year passed, from 1867 to 1868, before Garfield had finally refused. Appearing before the committee on January 14, 1873, Garfield confirmed much of this. Ames testified several weeks later that Garfield agreed to take the stock on credit, and that it was paid for by the company's huge dividends. The two men differed over $300 that Garfield received and later paid back, with Garfield deeming it a loan and Ames a dividend. Garfield's biographers have been unwilling to exonerate him in the scandal. Allan Peskin writes, "Did Garfield lie? Not exactly. Did he tell the truth? Not completely. Was he corrupted? Not really. Even Garfield's enemies never claimed that his involvement in the affair influenced his behavior." Rutkow writes, "Garfield's real offense was that he knowingly denied to the House investigating committee that he had agreed to accept the stock and that he had also received a dividend of $329." Caldwell suggests Garfield "told the truth [before the committee, but] certainly failed to tell the whole truth, clearly evading an answer to certain vital questions and thus giving the impression of worse faults than those of which he was guilty." That Crédit Mobilier was a corrupt organization had been a badly kept secret, even mentioned on the floor of Congress, and editor Sam Bowles wrote at the time that Garfield, in his positions on committees dealing with finance, "had no more right to be ignorant in a matter of such grave importance as this, than the sentinel has to snore on his post." Another issue that caused Garfield trouble in his 1874 reelection bid was the so-called "Salary Grab" of 1873, which increased the compensation for members of Congress by 50%, retroactive to 1871. As chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Garfield was responsible for shepherding the appropriations bill through the House; during the debate in February 1873, Massachusetts Representative Benjamin Butler offered the increase as an amendment, and despite Garfield's opposition, it passed the House and eventually became law. The law was very popular in the House, as almost half the members were lame ducks, but the public was outraged, and many of Garfield's constituents blamed him, though he personally refused to accept the increase. In a bad year for Republicans, who lost control of the House for the first time since the Civil War, Garfield had his closest congressional election, winning with only 57% of the vote. Floor leader; Hayes administration The Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives in 1875 meant the loss of Garfield's chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee, though the Democrats did put him on the Ways and Means Committee. With many of his leadership rivals defeated in the 1874 Democratic landslide, and Blaine elected to the Senate, Garfield was seen as the Republican floor leader, and the likely Speaker, should the party regain control of the chamber. Garfield thought the land grants given to expanding railroads was an unjust practice. He also opposed monopolistic practices by corporations, as well as the power sought by workers' unions. He supported the proposed establishment of the United States civil service as a means of ridding officials of the annoyance of aggressive office seekers. He especially wished to eliminate the practice of forcing government workers, in exchange for their positions, to kick back a percentage of their wages as political contributions. As the 1876 presidential election approached, Garfield was loyal to the candidacy of Senator Blaine, and fought for the former Speaker's nomination at the 1876 Republican National Convention in Cincinnati. When it became clear, after six ballots, that Blaine could not prevail, the convention nominated Ohio Governor Rutherford B. Hayes. Although Garfield had supported Blaine, he had kept good relations with Hayes, and wholeheartedly supported the governor. Garfield had hoped to retire from politics after his term expired to devote himself full-time to the practice of law, but to help his party, he sought re-election, and won it easily that October. Any celebration was short-lived, as Garfield's youngest son, Neddie, fell ill with whooping cough shortly after the congressional election, and soon died. When Hayes appeared to have lost the presidential election the following month to Democrat Samuel Tilden, the Republicans launched efforts to reverse the results in South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida, where they held the governorship. If Hayes won all three states, he would take the election by a single electoral vote. Grant asked Garfield to serve as a "neutral observer" of the recount in Louisiana. The observers soon recommended to the state electoral commissions that Hayes be declared the winner—Garfield recommended the entire vote of West Feliciana Parish, which had given Tilden a sizable majority, be thrown out. The Republican governors of the three states certified that Hayes had won their states, to the outrage of Democrats, who had the state legislatures submit rival returns, and threatened to prevent the counting of the electoral vote—under the Constitution, Congress is the final arbiter of the election. Congress then established an Electoral Commission, consisting of eight Republicans and seven Democrats, to determine the winner. Despite his objection to the Commission, Garfield was appointed to it. He felt Congress should count the vote and proclaim Hayes victorious. Hayes emerged the victor by a party line vote of 8–7. In exchange for recognizing Hayes as president, Southern Democrats secured the removal of federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction. Although an Ohio Senate seat would be vacated by the resignation of John Sherman to become Treasury Secretary, Hayes needed Garfield's expertise to protect him from the agenda of a hostile Congress, and asked him not to seek it. Garfield agreed. As Hayes's key legislator in the House, he gained considerable prestige and respect for his role there. When Congress debated the Bland–Allison Act, to have the government purchase large quantities of silver and strike it into legal tender dollar coins, Garfield opposed it as a deviation from the gold standard; it was enacted over Hayes's veto in February 1878. In 1876, Garfield purchased the property in Mentor that reporters later dubbed Lawnfield, where he conducted the first successful front porch campaign for the presidency. Hayes suggested that Garfield run for governor in 1879, seeing that as a road likely to take Garfield to the White House. Garfield preferred to seek election as a U.S. senator. Rivals were spoken of for the seat, such as Secretary Sherman, but he had presidential ambitions (for which he sought Garfield's support), and other candidates fell by the wayside. The General Assembly elected Garfield to the Senate in January 1880, though his term was not scheduled to commence until March 4, 1881. Legal career and other activities In 1865, Garfield became a partner in the law firm of a fellow Disciple of Christ, Jeremiah Black. They had much in common, except politics: Black was an avid Democrat, having served in the cabinet of President James Buchanan. The next year, Black was retained by some pro-Confederate northern civilians who had been found guilty of treason in a military court and sentenced to death. Black saw an opportunity to strike a blow against military courts and the Republicans. He had heard Garfield's military speeches, and learned of not only his oratory skills but also his resistance to expansive powers of military commissions. Black assigned the case to Garfield one week before arguments were to be made before the U. S. Supreme Court. When Black warned him of the political peril, Garfield responded, "It don't make any difference. I believe in English liberty and English law." In this landmark case, Ex parte Milligan, Garfield successfully argued that civilians could not be tried before military tribunals, despite a declaration of martial law, as long as civil courts were still operating. In his first court appearance, Garfield's oral argument lasted over two hours, and though his wealthy clients refused to pay him, he had established himself as a preeminent lawyer. During Grant's first term, Garfield was discontented with public service and in 1872 again pursued opportunities in the law. But he declined a partnership offer from a Cleveland law firm when told his prospective partner was of "intemperate and licentious" reputation. In 1873, after Chase's death, Garfield appealed to Grant to appoint Justice Noah H. Swayne Chief Justice, but Grant appointed Morrison R. Waite. In 1871, Garfield traveled to Montana Territory to negotiate the removal of the Bitterroot Salish tribe to the Flathead Indian Reservation. Having been told that the people would happily move, Garfield expected an easy task. Instead, he found the Salish determined to stay in their Bitterroot Valley homeland. His attempts to coerce Chief Charlo to sign the agreement nearly brought about a military clash. In the end, he convinced two subchiefs to sign and move to the reservation with a few of the Salish people. Garfield never convinced Charlo to sign, although the official treaty document voted on by Congress bore his forged mark. In 1876, Garfield developed a trapezoid proof of the Pythagorean theorem, which was published in the New England Journal of Education. Mathematics historian William Dunham wrote that Garfield's trapezoid work was "really a very clever proof." According to the Journal, Garfield arrived at the proof "in mathematical amusements and discussions with other members of congress." After his conversion experience in 1850, religious inquiry was a high priority for Garfield. He read widely and moved beyond the confines of his early experience as a member of the Disciples of Christ. His new, broader perspective was rooted in his devotion to freedom of inquiry and his study of history. The intensity of Garfield's religious thought was also influenced by his experience in combat and his interaction with voters. Presidential election of 1880 Republican nomination Having just been elected to the Senate with John Sherman's support, Garfield was committed to Sherman for the 1880 Republican presidential nomination. Before the convention began, however, a few Republicans, including Wharton Barker of Philadelphia, thought Garfield the best choice for the nomination. Garfield denied any interest in the position, but the attention was enough to make Sherman suspicious of his lieutenant's ambitions. Besides Sherman, the early favorites for the nomination were Blaine, former President Grant; several other candidates attracted delegates as well. The Republican Party at the time was split into two factions: the "Stalwarts", who supported the existing federal government patronage system, and the "Half-Breeds", who wanted civil service reform. As the convention began, New York Senator Roscoe Conkling, floor leader for the Stalwarts, who supported former President Ulysses S. Grant, proposed that the delegates pledge to back the eventual nominee in the general election. When three West Virginia delegates declined to be so bound, Conkling sought to expel them from the convention. Garfield rose to defend the men, giving a passionate speech in defense of their right to reserve judgment. The crowd turned against Conkling, and he withdrew the motion. The performance delighted Garfield's boosters, who were then convinced he was the only one who could attract a majority of the delegates' votes. After speeches in favor of the other front-runners, Garfield rose to place Sherman's name in nomination; his speech was well-received, but the delegates mustered little excitement for Sherman as the next president. The first ballot showed Grant leading with 304 votes to Blaine's 284, and Sherman's 93 votes placed him in a distant third. Subsequent ballots demonstrated a deadlock between Grant and Blaine, with neither having the 379 votes needed for nomination. Jeremiah McLain Rusk, a member of the Wisconsin delegation, and Benjamin Harrison, an Indiana delegate, sought to break the deadlock by shifting a few of the anti-Grant votes to a dark horse candidate—Garfield. Garfield gained 50 votes on the 35th ballot, and a stampede began. Garfield protested to the Ohio delegation that he did not seek the nomination and would not betray Sherman, but they overruled his objections and cast their ballots for him. In the next round of voting, nearly all the Sherman and Blaine delegates shifted their support to Garfield, giving him 399 votes, and the Republican nomination. Most of the Grant forces backed the former president to the end, creating a disgruntled Stalwart minority in the party. To obtain that faction's support for the ticket, Chester A. Arthur, a former New York customs collector and member of Conkling's political machine, was chosen as the vice presidential nominee. Campaign against Hancock Even with a Stalwart on the ticket, animosity between the Republican factions carried over from the convention, so Garfield traveled to New York to meet with party leaders. After convincing the Stalwart crowd to put aside their differences and unite for the coming campaign, Garfield returned to Ohio, leaving the active campaigning to others, as was traditional at the time. Meanwhile, the Democrats settled on their nominee, Major General Winfield Scott Hancock of Pennsylvania, a career military officer. Hancock and the Democrats expected to carry the Solid South, while much of the North was considered safe territory for Garfield and the Republicans; most of the campaign focused on a few close states, including New York and Indiana. Practical differences between the candidates were few, but Republicans began the campaign with the familiar theme of waving the bloody shirt. They reminded Northern voters the Democratic Party was responsible for secession and four years of civil war, and Democrats would reverse the gains of that war, dishonor Union veterans, and pay Confederate veterans pensions out of the federal treasury. Fifteen years had passed since the end of the war, and with Union generals at the head of both tickets, the bloody shirt was of diminishing value in exciting the voters. With a few months to go before the election, the Republicans switched tactics to emphasize the tariff. Seizing on the Democratic platform's call for a "tariff for revenue only", Republicans told Northern workers a Hancock presidency would weaken the tariff protection that kept them in good jobs. Hancock made the situation worse when, attempting to strike a moderate stance, he said, "The tariff question is a local question." The Republican ploy proved effective in uniting the North behind Garfield. Ultimately, of the more than 9.2 million popular votes cast, fewer than 2,000 separated the two candidates. But in the Electoral College, Garfield had an easy victory over Hancock, 214 to 155. The election made Garfield the only sitting member of the House ever to be elected to the presidency. Presidency (1881) Cabinet and inauguration Before his inauguration, Garfield was occupied with assembling a cabinet that might engender peace between the party's Conkling and Blaine factions. Blaine's delegates had provided much of the support for Garfield's nomination, so the Maine senator received the place of honor as Secretary of State. Blaine was not only the president's closest advisor, but he was also obsessed with knowing all that took place in the White House, and allegedly posted spies there in his absence. Garfield nominated William Windom of Minnesota as Secretary of the Treasury, William H. Hunt of Louisiana as Secretary of the Navy, Robert Todd Lincoln as Secretary of War, and Samuel J. Kirkwood of Iowa as Secretary of the Interior. New York was represented by Thomas Lemuel James as Postmaster General. Garfield appointed Pennsylvania's Wayne MacVeagh, an adversary of Blaine's, as Attorney General. Blaine tried to sabotage the appointment by convincing Garfield to name an opponent of MacVeagh, William E. Chandler, as Solicitor General under MacVeagh. Only Chandler's rejection by the Senate forestalled MacVeagh's resignation over the matter. Because Garfield was distracted by cabinet maneuvering, his inaugural address was a "compendium of platitudes" and fell below expectations. At one high point, however, Garfield emphasized the civil rights of African-Americans, saying "Freedom can never yield its fullness of blessings so long as the law or its administration places the smallest obstacle in the pathway of any virtuous citizen." After discussing the gold standard, the need for education, and an unexpected denunciation of Mormon polygamy, the speech ended. The crowd applauded, but the speech, according to Peskin, "however sincerely intended, betrayed its hasty composition by the flatness of its tone and the conventionality of its subject matter." Garfield's appointment of James infuriated Conkling, a factional opponent of the Postmaster General, who demanded a compensatory appointment for his faction, such as the position of Secretary of the Treasury. The resulting squabble occupied much of Garfield's brief presidency. The feud with Conkling reached a climax when the president, at Blaine's instigation, nominated Conkling's enemy, Judge William H. Robertson, to be Collector of the Port of New York. This was one of the prize patronage positions below cabinet level and was then held by Edwin A. Merritt. Conkling raised the time-honored principle of senatorial courtesy in an attempt to defeat the nomination, to no avail. Garfield, who believed the practice was corrupt, would not back down and threatened to withdraw all nominations unless Robertson was confirmed, intending to "settle the question whether the president is registering clerk of the Senate or the Executive of the United States." Ultimately, Conkling and his New York colleague, Senator Thomas C. Platt, resigned their Senate seats to seek vindication but found only further humiliation when the New York legislature elected others in their places. Robertson was confirmed as Collector and Garfield's victory was clear. To Blaine's chagrin, the victorious Garfield returned to his goal of balancing the interests of party factions and nominated a number of Conkling's Stalwart friends to offices. With his cabinet complete, Garfield had to contend with myriad office seekers. He exclaimed, "My God! What is there in this place that a man should ever get into it." Garfield's family happily settled into the White House, but he found presidential duties exasperating. Refinance of national debt Garfield ordered the Secretary of the Treasury William Windom to refund (refinance) the national debt by calling in outstanding U.S. bonds paying 6% interest. Holders would have the option of accepting cash or new bonds at 3%, closer to the interest rates of the time. Taxpayers were saved an estimated $10 million. By comparison, federal expenditures in 1881 were below $261 million (~$7.09 billion in 2023). Supreme Court nomination In 1880, President Hayes had nominated Stanley Matthews to the Supreme Court but the Senate declined to act on the nomination. In March 1881, Garfield re-nominated Matthews to the Court and the Senate confirmed Matthews by a vote of 24–23. According to The New York Times, "opposition to Matthews's Supreme Court appointment ... stemmed from his prosecution in 1859 of a newspaper editor who had assisted two runaway slaves." Because Matthews was "a professed abolitionist at the time, the matter was later framed as political expediency triumphing over moral principle." Matthews served on the Court until his death in 1889. Reforms Grant and Hayes had both advocated civil service reform, and by 1881 such reform associations had organized with renewed energy across the nation. Garfield sympathized with them, believing the spoils system damaged the presidency and often eclipsed more important concerns. Some reformers became disappointed when Garfield promoted limited tenure only to minor office seekers and gave appointments to his old friends. Corruption in the post office also cried out for reform. In April 1880, there had been a congressional investigation of corruption in the Post Office Department, where profiteering rings allegedly stole millions of dollars, securing bogus mail contracts on star routes. After obtaining contracts with the lowest bid, costs to run the mail routes would be escalated and profits would be divided among ring members. Shortly after taking office, Garfield received word of postal corruption by an alleged star route ringleader, Assistant Postmaster General Thomas J. Brady. Garfield demanded Brady's resignation and ordered prosecutions that ended in trials for conspiracy. When told that his party, including his campaign manager, Stephen W. Dorsey, was involved, Garfield directed that the corruption in the Post Office be rooted out "to the bone", regardless of where it might lead. Brady resigned and was indicted for conspiracy, though jury trials in 1882 and 1883 found Brady not guilty. Civil rights and education Garfield believed the key to improving the state of African American civil rights was government supported education. During Reconstruction, freedmen had gained citizenship and suffrage, which enabled them to participate in government, but Garfield believed their rights were being eroded by Southern white resistance and illiteracy, and he was concerned that blacks would become America's permanent "peasantry". He proposed a "universal" education system funded by the federal government. In February 1866, as a congressman from Ohio, Garfield and Ohio School Commissioner Emerson Edward White had drafted a bill for the National Department of Education. They believed that through the use of statistics they could push the US Congress to establish a federal agency for school reform. But by the time of Garfield's presidency, Congress and the northern white public had lost interest in African-American rights, and Congress did not pass federal funding for universal education during his term. Garfield also worked to appoint several African Americans to prominent positions: Frederick Douglass, recorder of deeds in Washington; Robert Elliot, special agent to the Treasury; John M. Langston, Haitian minister; and Blanche K. Bruce, register to the Treasury. Garfield believed Southern support for the Republican Party could be gained by "commercial and industrial" interests rather than race issues and began to reverse Hayes's policy of conciliating Southern Democrats. He appointed William H. Hunt, a Republican from Louisiana, as Secretary of the Navy. To break the hold of the resurgent Democratic Party in the Solid South, Garfield took patronage advice from Virginia Senator William Mahone of the biracial independent Readjuster Party, hoping to add the independents' strength to the Republicans' there. Foreign policy and naval reform Garfield had little foreign policy experience, so he leaned heavily on Blaine. They agreed on the need to promote freer trade, especially within the Western Hemisphere. Garfield and Blaine believed increasing trade with Latin America would be the best way to keep the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from dominating the region. And by encouraging exports, they believed they could increase American prosperity. Garfield authorized Blaine to call for a Pan-American conference in 1882 to mediate disputes among the Latin American nations and to serve as a forum for talks on increasing trade. At the same time, they hoped to negotiate a peace in the War of the Pacific then being fought by Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. Blaine favored a resolution that would result in Peru yielding no territory, but Chile by 1881 had occupied the Peruvian capital of Lima, and rejected any settlement that restored the previous status quo. Garfield sought to expand American influence in other areas, calling for renegotiation of the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty to allow the United States to construct a canal through Panama without British involvement and attempting to reduce British influence in the strategically located Kingdom of Hawaii. Garfield's and Blaine's plans for the United States' involvement in the world stretched even beyond the Western Hemisphere, as he sought commercial treaties with Korea and Madagascar. Garfield also considered enhancing U.S. military strength abroad, asking Navy Secretary Hunt to investigate the navy's condition with an eye toward expansion and modernization. In the end, these ambitious plans came to nothing after Garfield was assassinated. Nine countries had accepted invitations to the Pan-American conference, but the invitations were withdrawn in April 1882 after Blaine resigned from the cabinet and Arthur, Garfield's successor, cancelled the conference. Naval reform continued under Arthur, on a more modest scale than Garfield and Hunt had envisioned, ultimately ending in the construction of the Squadron of Evolution. Assassination Guiteau and shooting Charles J. Guiteau had followed various professions in his life, but in 1880 had determined to gain federal office by supporting what he expected would be the winning Republican ticket. He composed a speech, "Garfield vs. Hancock", and got it printed by the Republican National Committee. One means of persuading the voters in that era was through orators expounding on the candidate's merits, but with the Republicans seeking more famous men, Guiteau received few opportunities to speak. On one occasion, according to Kenneth D. Ackerman, Guiteau was unable to finish his speech due to nerves. Guiteau, who considered himself a Stalwart, deemed his contribution to Garfield's victory sufficient to justify his appointment to the position of consul in Paris, despite the fact that he spoke no French, nor any foreign language. One medical expert has since described Guiteau as possibly a narcissistic schizophrenic; neuroscientist Kent Kiehl assessed him as a clinical psychopath. One of Garfield's more wearying duties was seeing office-seekers, and he saw Guiteau at least once. White House officials suggested to Guiteau that he approach Blaine, as the consulship was within the Department of State. Blaine also saw the public regularly, and Guiteau became a regular at these sessions. Blaine, who had no intention of giving Guiteau a position he was unqualified for and had not earned, simply said the deadlock in the Senate over Robertson's nomination made it impossible to consider the Paris consulship, which required Senate confirmation. Once the New York senators had resigned, and Robertson had been confirmed as Collector, Guiteau pressed his claim, and Blaine told him he would not receive the position. Guiteau came to believe he had lost the position because he was a Stalwart. He decided the only way to end the Republican Party's internecine warfare was for Garfield to die—though he had nothing personal against the president. Arthur's succession would restore peace, he felt, and lead to rewards for fellow Stalwarts, including Guiteau. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln was deemed a fluke due to the Civil War, and Garfield, like most people, saw no reason the president should be guarded; his movements and plans were often printed in the newspapers. Guiteau knew Garfield would leave Washington for a cooler climate on July 2, 1881, and made plans to kill him before then. He purchased a gun he thought would look good in a museum, and followed Garfield several times, but each time his plans were frustrated, or he lost his nerve. His opportunities dwindled to one—Garfield's departure by train for New Jersey on the morning of July 2. Guiteau concealed himself by the ladies' waiting room at the Sixth Street Station of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad, from where Garfield was scheduled to depart. Most of Garfield's cabinet planned to accompany him at least part of the way. Blaine, who was to remain in Washington, came to the station to see him off. The two men were deep in conversation and did not notice Guiteau before he took out his revolver and shot Garfield twice, once in the back and once in the arm. Guiteau attempted to leave the station but was quickly captured. As Blaine recognized him, Guiteau was led away, and said, "I did it. I will go to jail for it. I am a Stalwart and Arthur will be President." News of his motivation to benefit the Stalwarts reached many with the news of the shooting, causing rage against that faction. Treatment and death Garfield was struck by two shots: one glanced off his arm while the other pierced his back, shattering a rib and embedding itself in his abdomen. "My God, what is this?" he exclaimed. Among those at the station was Robert Todd Lincoln, who was deeply upset, thinking back to when his father Abraham Lincoln was assassinated 16 years earlier. Garfield was taken on a mattress upstairs to a private office, where several doctors examined him. At his request, Garfield was taken back to the White House, and his wife, then in New Jersey, was sent for. Blaine sent word to Vice President Arthur in New York City, who received threats against his life because of his animosity toward Garfield and Guiteau's statements. Although Joseph Lister's pioneering work in antisepsis was known to American doctors, few of them had confidence in it, and none of his advocates were among Garfield's treating physicians. The physician who took charge at the depot and then at the White House was Doctor Willard Bliss. A noted physician and surgeon, Bliss was an old friend of Garfield, and about a dozen doctors, led by Bliss, were soon probing the wound with unsterilized fingers and instruments. Garfield was given morphine for the pain, and asked Bliss to frankly tell him his chances, which Bliss put at one in a hundred. "Well, Doctor, we'll take that chance." Over the next few days, Garfield made some improvement, as the nation viewed the news from the capital and prayed. Although he never stood again, he was able to sit up and write several times, and his recovery was viewed so positively that a steamer was fitted out as a seagoing hospital to aid with his convalescence. He was nourished on oatmeal porridge (which he detested) and milk from a cow on the White House lawn. When told that Indian chief Sitting Bull, a prisoner of the army, was starving, Garfield said, "Let him starve..." initially, but a few moments later said, "No, send him my oatmeal." X-ray imaging, which could have assisted physicians in precisely locating the bullet in Garfield's body, would not be invented for another 14 years. Alexander Graham Bell tried to locate the bullet with a primitive metal detector, but was unsuccessful, though the device had been effective when tested on others. But Bliss limited its use on Garfield, ensuring he remained in charge. Because Bliss insisted the bullet rested someplace it did not, the detector could not locate it. Bell shortly returned after adjusting his device, which emitted an unusual tone in the area where Bliss believed the bullet was lodged. Bliss took this as confirmation that the bullet was where he declared it to be. Bliss recorded the test as a success, saying it was: now unanimously agreed that the location of the ball has been ascertained with reasonable certainty, and that it lies, as heretofore stated, in the front wall of the abdomen, immediately over the groin, about five inches [130 mm] below and to the right of the navel. One means of keeping Garfield comfortable in Washington's summer heat was one of the first successful air conditioning units: air propelled by fans over ice and then dried reduced the temperature in the sickroom by 20 °F (11 °C). Engineers from the navy, and other scientists, worked together to develop it, though there were problems to solve, such as excessive noise and increased humidity. On July 23, Garfield took a turn for the worse when his temperature increased to 104 °F (40 °C); doctors, concerned by an abscess at the wound, inserted a drainage tube. This initially helped, and the bedridden Garfield held a brief cabinet meeting on July 29; members were under orders from Bliss to discuss nothing that might excite Garfield. Doctors probed the abscess, hoping to find the bullet; they likely made the infections worse. Garfield performed only one official act in August, signing an extradition paper. By the end of the month, he was much feebler than he had been, and his weight had decreased from 210 pounds (95 kg) to 130 pounds (59 kg). Garfield had long been anxious to escape hot, unhealthy Washington, and in early September the doctors agreed to move him to Elberon, part of Long Branch, New Jersey, where his wife had recovered earlier in the summer. He left the White House for the last time on September 5, traveling in a specially cushioned railway car; a spur line to the Francklyn Cottage, a seaside mansion given over to his use, was built in a night by volunteers. After arriving in Elberon the next day, Garfield was moved from the train car to a bedroom where he could see the ocean as officials and reporters maintained what became (after an initial rally) a death watch. Garfield's personal secretary, Joe Stanley Brown, wrote forty years later, "to this day I cannot hear the sound of the low slow roll of the Atlantic on the shore, the sound which filled my ears as I walked from my cottage to his bedside, without recalling again that ghastly tragedy." On September 18, Garfield asked Colonel A.F. Rockwell, a friend, if he would have a place in history. Rockwell assured him he would and told Garfield he had much work still before him. But his response was, "No, my work is done." The following day, Garfield, then suffering also from pneumonia and hypertension, marveled that he could not pick up a glass despite feeling well and went to sleep without discomfort. He awoke that evening around 10:15 p.m. complaining of great pain in his chest to his chief of staff General David Swaim, who was watching him, as he placed his hand over his heart. The president then requested a drink of water from Swaim. After finishing his glass, Garfield said, "Oh Swaim, this terrible pain—press your hand on it." As Swaim put his hand on Garfield's chest, Garfield's hands went up reflexively. Clutching his heart, he exclaimed, "Oh, Swaim, can't you stop this? Oh, oh, Swaim!" Those were Garfield's last words. Swaim ordered another attendant to send for Bliss, who found Garfield unconscious. Despite efforts to revive him, Garfield never awoke, and he was pronounced dead at about 10:30 p.m. Learning from a reporter of Garfield's death the following day, Chester A. Arthur took the presidential oath of office administered by New York Supreme Court Justice John R. Brady. According to some historians and medical experts, Garfield might have survived his wounds had the doctors attending him had at their disposal today's medical research, knowledge, techniques, and equipment. Standard medical practice at the time dictated that priority be given to locating the path of the bullet. Several of his doctors inserted their unsterilized fingers into the wound to probe for the bullet, a common practice in the 1880s. Historians agree that massive infection was a significant factor in Garfield's demise. Biographer Peskin said medical malpractice did not contribute to Garfield's death; the inevitable infection and blood poisoning that would ensue from a deep bullet wound resulted in damage to multiple organs and spinal fragmentation. Rutkow, a professor of surgery at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, has argued that starvation also played a role. Rutkow suggests "Garfield had such a nonlethal wound. In today's world, he would have gone home in a matter of two or three days." The conventional narrative regarding Garfield's post-shooting medical condition was challenged by Theodore Pappas and Shahrzad Joharifard in a 2013 article in The American Journal of Surgery. They argued that Garfield died from a late rupture of a splenic artery pseudoaneurysm, which developed secondary to the path of the bullet adjacent to the splenic artery. They also argued that his sepsis was actually caused by post-traumatic acute acalculous cholecystitis. Based on the autopsy report, the authors speculate that his gallbladder subsequently ruptured, leading to the development of a large bile-containing abscess adjacent to the gallbladder. Pappas and Joharifard say this caused the septic decline in Garfield's condition that was visible starting from July 23, 1881. Pappas and Joharifard also state that they don't believe that Garfield's doctors could have saved him even if they had been aware of his cholecystitis, since the first successful cholecystectomy (surgical removal of the gallbladder) was performed a year after Garfield's death. Guiteau was indicted on October 14, 1881, for the murder of the president. During his trial, Guiteau declared that he was not responsible for Garfield's death, admitting to the shooting but not the killing. In his defense, Guiteau wrote: "General Garfield died from malpractice. According to his own physicians, he was not fatally shot. The doctors who mistreated him ought to bear the odium of his death, and not his assailant. They ought to be indicted for murdering James A. Garfield, and not me." After a chaotic trial in which Guiteau often interrupted and argued, and in which his counsel used the insanity defense, the jury found him guilty on January 25, 1882, and he was sentenced to death by hanging. Guiteau may have had neurosyphilis, a disease that causes physiological mental impairment. He was executed on June 30, 1882. Funeral, memorials and commemorations Garfield's funeral train left Long Branch on the same special track that had brought him there, traveling over tracks blanketed with flowers and past houses adorned with flags. His body was transported to the Capitol and then continued on to Cleveland for burial. Shocked by his death, Marine Band leader John Philip Sousa composed the march "In Memoriam", which was played when Garfield's body was received in Washington, D.C. More than 70,000 citizens, some waiting over three hours, passed by Garfield's coffin as his body lay in state from September 21 to 23, 1881, at the United States Capitol rotunda; on September 25, in Cleveland, Garfield's casket was paraded down Euclid Avenue from Wilson Avenue to Public Square, with those in attendance including former presidents Grant and Hayes, and Generals William Sherman, Sheridan and Hancock. More than 150,000—a number equal to the city's population—likewise paid their respects, and Sousa's march was again played. Garfield's body was temporarily interred in the Schofield family vault in Cleveland's Lake View Cemetery until his permanent memorial was built. Memorials to Garfield were erected across the country. On April 10, 1882, seven months after Garfield's death, the U.S. Post Office Department issued a postage stamp in his honor. In 1884, sculptor Frank Happersberger completed a monument on the grounds of the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers. In 1887, the James A. Garfield Monument was dedicated in Washington. Another monument, in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park, was erected in 1896. In Victoria, Australia, Cannibal Creek was renamed Garfield in his honor. On May 19, 1890, Garfield's body was permanently interred, with great solemnity and fanfare, in a mausoleum in Lake View Cemetery. Attending the dedication ceremonies were former President Hayes, President Benjamin Harrison, and future president William McKinley. Garfield's Treasury Secretary, William Windom, also attended. Harrison said Garfield was always a "student and instructor" and that his life works and death would "continue to be instructive and inspiring incidents in American history". Three panels on the monument display Garfield as a teacher, Union major general, and orator; another shows him taking the presidential oath, and a fifth shows his body lying in state at the Capitol rotunda in Washington, D.C. Garfield's murder by a deranged office-seeker awakened public awareness of the need for civil service reform legislation. Senator George H. Pendleton, a Democrat from Ohio, launched a reform effort that resulted in the Pendleton Act in January 1883. This act reversed the "spoils system" where office seekers paid up or gave political service to obtain or keep federally appointed positions. Under the act, appointments were awarded on merit and competitive examination. To ensure the reform was implemented, Congress and Arthur established and funded the Civil Service Commission. The Pendleton Act, however, covered only 10% of federal government workers. For Arthur, previously known for having been a "veteran spoilsman", civil service reform became his most noteworthy achievement. A marble statue of Garfield by Charles Niehaus was added to the National Statuary Hall Collection in the Capitol in Washington D.C., a gift from the State of Ohio in 1886. Garfield is honored with a life-size bronze sculpture inside the Cuyahoga County Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Cleveland, Ohio. On March 2, 2019, the National Park Service erected exhibit panels in Washington to mark the site of his assassination. Legacy and historical view For a few years after his assassination, Garfield's life story was seen as an exemplar of the American success story—that even the poorest boy might someday become President of the United States. Peskin wrote: "In mourning Garfield, Americans were not only honoring a president; they were paying tribute to a man whose life story embodied their own most cherished aspirations." As the rivalry between Stalwarts and Half-Breeds faded from the scene in the late 1880s and after, so too did memories of Garfield. In the 1890s, Americans became disillusioned with politicians, and looked elsewhere for inspiration, focusing on industrialists, labor leaders, scientists, and others as their heroes. Increasingly, Garfield's short time as president was forgotten. The 20th century saw no revival for Garfield. Thomas Wolfe deemed the presidents of the Gilded Age, including Garfield, "lost Americans" whose "gravely vacant and bewhiskered faces mixed, melted, swam together". The politicians of the Gilded Age faded from the public eye, their luster eclipsed by those who had influenced America outside of political office during that time; the robber barons, the inventors, those who had sought social reform, and others who had lived as America rapidly changed. Current events and more recent figures occupied America's attention. According to Ackerman, "the busy Twentieth Century has made Garfield's era seem remote and irrelevant, its leaders ridiculed for their very obscurity." Garfield's biographers, and those who have studied his presidency, tend to think well of him, and that his presidency saw a promising start before its untimely end. Historian Justus D. Doenecke, while deeming Garfield a bit of an enigma, chronicles his achievements: "by winning a victory over the Stalwarts, he enhanced both the power and prestige of his office. As a man, he was intelligent, sensitive, and alert, and his knowledge of how government worked was unmatched." Doenecke criticizes Garfield's dismissal of Merritt in Robertson's favor, and wonders if the president was truly in command of the situation even after the latter's confirmation. In 1931, Caldwell wrote: "If Garfield lives in history, it will be partly on account of the charm of his personality—but also because in life and in death, he struck the first shrewd blows against a dangerous system of boss rule which seemed for a time about to engulf the politics of the nation. Perhaps if he had lived he could have done no more." Rutkow writes that "James Abram Garfield's presidency is reduced to a tantalizing 'what if.'" In 2002, historian Bernard A. Weisberger said, "[Garfield] was, to some extent, a perfect moderate. He read widely (and unobtrusively) without its visibly affecting his Christianity, his Republicanism, or his general laissez-faire orthodoxy. He was not so much a scholar in politics as a politic scholar." Peskin believes Garfield deserves more credit for his political career than he has received: "True, his accomplishments were neither bold nor heroic, but his was not an age that called for heroism. His stormy presidency was brief, and in some respects, unfortunate, but he did leave the office stronger than he found it. As a public man he had a hand in almost every issue of national importance for almost two decades, while as a party leader he, along with Blaine, forged the Republican Party into the instrument that would lead the United States into the twentieth century." Notes References Works cited Further reading Fuller, Corydon E. (2022) [1887]. Reminiscences of James A. Garfield. Hansebooks. ISBN 978-3-34807-944-0. Goodyear, C. W. (2023). President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster. Graff Henry F., ed. The Presidents: A Reference History (3rd ed. 2002) online Hammond, William A.; Ashhurst, Jr., John; Sims, J. Marion; Hodgen, John T. (December 1881). "The Surgical Treatment of President Garfield". The North American Review. 133 (301): 578–610. JSTOR 25101018. Houdek, John Thomas. "James A. Garfield and Rutherford B. Hayes: A Study in State and National Politics" (PhD dissertation, Michigan State University; Proquest Dissertations Publishing, 1970. 7111871). Menke, Richard. "Media in America, 1881: Garfield, Guiteau, Bell, Whitman." Critical Inquiry 31.3 (2005): 638–664. Millard, Candice (2012). Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President. New York, New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 978-0-7679-2971-4. North, Ira Lutts. "A rhetorical criticism of the speaking of James Abram Garfield, 1876-1880" (PhD dissertation, Louisiana State University; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1953. DP69446). Rushford, Jerry Bryant. "Political Disciple: The Relationship Between James A. Garfield And The Disciples Of Christ" (PhD dissertation, University of California, Santa Barbara; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1977. 7807029). Skidmore, Max J. "James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur." in Maligned Presidents: The Late 19th Century (Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2014) pp. 63–79. Sutton, Thomas C. "James A. Garfield." in The Presidents and the Constitution (Volume One. New York University Press, 2020) pp. 266–275. Uhler, Kevin A. "The demise of patronage: Garfield, the midterm election, and the passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Act" (PhD. Diss. The Florida State University, 2011) online. Vermilya, Daniel J. James Garfield and the Civil War: For Ohio and the Union (Arcadia Publishing, 2015). External links Garfield, James Abram, (1831–1881) Congressional Biography James Garfield: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress James A. Garfield at the Database of Classical Scholars [http://millercenter.org/president/garfield Brief essays on James A. Garfield and his administration from the Miller Center of Public Affairs "Life Portrait of James Garfield", from C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits, July 26, 1999 Works by or about James A. Garfield at the Internet Archive Works by James A. Garfield at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Notable alumni of Delta Upsilon fraternity, including Garfield James A. Garfield Personal Manuscripts James A. Garfield Collection at Williams College Chapin Library James A. Garfield Collection at Williams College Archives and Special Collections Official medical bulletins relating to the health of U.S. President James Garfield from the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Contains medical bulletins issued by attending physicians D. Hayes Agnes, J.K. Barnes, D. W. Bliss, Frank H. Hamilton, Robert Reyburn, and J.J. Woodward between July 6 – September 19, 1881.

Charlotte_Bront%C3%AB

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Bront%C3%AB

Charlotte Nicholls (née Brontë; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855), commonly known as Charlotte Brontë (, commonly ), was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature. She is best known for her novel Jane Eyre, which she published under the male pseudonym Currer Bell. Jane Eyre went on to become a success in publication, and is widely held in high regard in the gothic fiction genre of literature. Brontë enrolled in school at Roe Head, Mirfield, in January 1831, aged 14 years. She left the year after to teach her sisters, Emily and Anne, at home, then returned to Roe Head in 1835 as a teacher. In 1839, she undertook the role of governess for the Sidgwick family, but left after a few months. The three sisters attempted to open a school in Haworth but failed to attract pupils. Instead, they turned to writing; they each first published in 1846 under the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Although her first novel, The Professor, was rejected by publishers, her second novel, Jane Eyre, was published in 1847. The sisters admitted to their Bell pseudonyms in 1848, and by the following year were celebrated in London literary circles. Brontë was the last to die of all her siblings. She became pregnant shortly after her wedding in June 1854 but died on 31 March 1855, almost certainly from hyperemesis gravidarum, a complication of pregnancy which causes excessive nausea and vomiting. Early years and education Charlotte Brontë was born on 21 April 1816 in Market Street, Thornton (in a house now known as the Brontë Birthplace), west of Bradford in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the third of the six children of Maria (née Branwell) and Patrick Brontë (formerly surnamed Brunty), an Irish Anglican clergyman. In 1820 her family moved a few miles to the village of Haworth, on the edge of the moors, where her father had been appointed perpetual curate of St Michael and All Angels Church. Maria died of cancer on 15 September 1821, leaving five daughters, Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, and a son, Branwell, to be taken care of by her sister, Elizabeth Branwell. In August 1824, Patrick sent Charlotte, Emily, Maria, and Elizabeth to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in Lancashire. Charlotte maintained that the school's poor conditions permanently affected her health and physical development, and hastened the deaths of Maria (born 1814) and Elizabeth (born 1815), who both died of tuberculosis in May (Maria) and June (Elizabeth) 1825. After the deaths of his older daughters, Patrick removed Charlotte and Emily from the school. Charlotte used the school as the basis for Lowood School in Jane Eyre, which is similarly affected by tuberculosis that is exacerbated by the poor conditions. At home in Haworth Parsonage, Brontë acted as "the motherly friend and guardian of her younger sisters". Brontë wrote her first known poem at the age of 13 in 1829, and was to go on to write more than 200 poems in the course of her life. Many of her poems were "published" in their homemade magazine Branwell's Blackwood's Magazine, and concerned the fictional world of Glass Town. She and her surviving siblings – Branwell, Emily and Anne – created this shared world, and began chronicling the lives and struggles of the inhabitants of their imaginary kingdom in 1827. Charlotte, in private letters, called Glass Town "her 'world below', a private escape where she could act out her desires and multiple identities". Charlotte's "predilection for romantic settings, passionate relationships, and high society is at odds with Branwell's obsession with battles and politics and her young sisters' homely North Country realism, none the less at this stage there is still a sense of the writings as a family enterprise". However, from 1831 onwards, Emily and Anne 'seceded' from the Glass Town Confederacy to create a 'spin-off' called Gondal, which included many of their poems. After 1831, Charlotte and Branwell concentrated on an evolution of the Glass Town Confederacy called Angria. Christine Alexander, a Brontë juvenilia historian, wrote "both Charlotte and Branwell ensured the consistency of their imaginary world. When Branwell exuberantly kills off important characters in his manuscripts, Charlotte comes to the rescue and, in effect, resurrects them for the next stories [...]; and when Branwell becomes bored with his inventions, such as the Glass Town magazine he edits, Charlotte takes over his initiative and keeps the publication going for several more years".: 6–7  The sagas the siblings created were episodic and elaborate, and they exist in incomplete manuscripts, some of which have been published as juvenilia. They provided them with an obsessive interest during childhood and early adolescence, which prepared them for literary vocations in adulthood. Between 1831 and 1832, Brontë continued her education at a boarding school twenty miles away in Mirfield, Roe Head (now part of Hollybank Special School), where she met her lifelong friends and correspondents Ellen Nussey and Mary Taylor. In 1833 she wrote a novella, The Green Dwarf, using the name Wellesley. Around about 1833, her stories shifted from tales of the supernatural to more realistic stories. She returned to Roe Head as a teacher from 1835 to 1838. Unhappy and lonely as a teacher at Roe Head, Brontë took out her sorrows in poetry, writing a series of melancholic poems. In "We wove a Web in Childhood" written in December 1835, Brontë drew a sharp contrast between her miserable life as a teacher and the vivid imaginary worlds she and her siblings had created. In another poem "Morning was its freshness still" written at the same time, Brontë wrote "Tis bitter sometimes to recall/Illusions once deemed fair". Many of her poems concerned the imaginary world of Angria, often concerning Byronic heroes, and in December 1836 she wrote to the Poet Laureate Robert Southey asking him for encouragement of her career as a poet. Southey replied, famously, that "Literature cannot be the business of a woman's life, and it ought not to be. The more she is engaged in her proper duties, the less leisure will she have for it even as an accomplishment and a recreation." This advice she respected but did not heed. In 1839 Brontë took up the first of many positions as governess to families in Yorkshire, a career she pursued until 1841. In particular, from May to July 1839 she was employed by the Sidgwick family at their summer residence, Stone Gappe, in Lothersdale, where one of her charges was John Benson Sidgwick (1835–1927), an unruly child who on one occasion threw the Bible at Charlotte, an incident that may have been the inspiration for a part of the opening chapter of Jane Eyre in which John Reed throws a book at the young Jane. Brontë did not enjoy her work as a governess, noting her employers treated her almost as a slave, constantly humiliating her. She was of slight build and was less than five feet tall. Brussels and Haworth In 1842 Charlotte and Emily travelled to Brussels to enrol at the boarding school run by Constantin Héger (1809–1896) and his wife Claire Zoé Parent Héger (1804–1887). During her time in Brussels, Brontë, who favoured the Protestant ideal of an individual in direct contact with God, objected to the stern Catholicism of Madame Héger, which she considered a tyrannical religion that enforced conformity and submission to the Pope. In return for board and tuition Charlotte taught English and Emily taught music. Their time at the school was cut short when their aunt Elizabeth Branwell, who had joined the family in Haworth to look after the children after their mother's death, died of internal obstruction in October 1842. Charlotte returned alone to Brussels in January 1843 to take up a teaching post at the school. Her second stay was not happy: she was homesick and deeply attached to Constantin Héger. She returned to Haworth in January 1844 and used the time spent in Brussels as the inspiration for some of the events in The Professor and Villette. After returning to Haworth, Charlotte and her sisters made headway with opening their own boarding school in the family home. It was advertised as "The Misses Brontë's Establishment for the Board and Education of a limited number of Young Ladies" and inquiries were made to prospective pupils and sources of funding. But none were attracted and in October 1844, the project was abandoned. First publication In May 1846, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne self-financed the publication of a joint collection of poems under their assumed names Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. The pseudonyms veiled the sisters' sex while preserving their initials; thus Charlotte was Currer Bell. "Bell" was the middle name of Haworth's curate, Arthur Bell Nicholls whom Charlotte later married, and "Currer" was the surname of Frances Mary Richardson Currer who had funded their school (and maybe their father). Of the decision to use noms de plume, Charlotte wrote: Averse to personal publicity, we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because – without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called "feminine" – we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we had noticed how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the weapon of personality, and for their reward, a flattery, which is not true praise. Although only two copies of the collection of poems were sold, the sisters continued writing for publication and began their first novels, continuing to use their noms de plume when sending manuscripts to potential publishers. The Professor and Jane Eyre Brontë's first manuscript, 'The Professor', did not secure a publisher, although she was heartened by an encouraging response from Smith, Elder & Co. of Cornhill, who expressed an interest in any longer works Currer Bell might wish to send. Brontë responded by finishing and sending a second manuscript in August 1847. Six weeks later, Jane Eyre was published. It tells the story of a plain governess, Jane, who, after difficulties in her early life, falls in love with her employer, Mr Rochester. They marry, but only after Rochester's insane first wife, of whom Jane initially has no knowledge, dies in a dramatic house fire. The book's style was innovative, combining Romanticism, naturalism with gothic melodrama, and broke new ground in being written from an intensely evoked first-person female perspective. Brontë believed art was most convincing when based on personal experience; in Jane Eyre she transformed the experience into a novel with universal appeal. Jane Eyre had immediate commercial success and initially received favourable reviews. G. H. Lewes wrote that it was "an utterance from the depths of a struggling, suffering, much-enduring spirit", and declared that it consisted of "suspiria de profundis!" (sighs from the depths). Speculation about the identity and gender of the mysterious Currer Bell heightened with the publication of Wuthering Heights by Ellis Bell (Emily) and Agnes Grey by Acton Bell (Anne). Accompanying the speculation was a change in the critical reaction to Brontë's work, as accusations were made that the writing was "coarse", a judgement more readily made once it was suspected that Currer Bell was a woman. However, sales of Jane Eyre continued to be strong and may even have increased as a result of the novel developing a reputation as an "improper" book. A talented amateur artist, Brontë personally did the drawings for the second edition of Jane Eyre and in the summer of 1834 two of her paintings were shown at an exhibition by the Royal Northern Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Leeds. Shirley and bereavements In 1848 Brontë began work on the manuscript of her second novel, Shirley. It was only partially completed when the Brontë family suffered the deaths of three of its members within eight months. In September 1848 Branwell died of chronic bronchitis and marasmus, exacerbated by heavy drinking, although Brontë believed that his death was due to tuberculosis. Branwell may have had a laudanum addiction. Emily became seriously ill shortly after his funeral and died of pulmonary tuberculosis in December 1848. Anne died of the same disease in May 1849. Brontë was unable to write at this time. After Anne's death Brontë resumed writing as a way of dealing with her grief, and Shirley, which deals with themes of industrial unrest and the role of women in society, was published in October 1849. Unlike Jane Eyre, which is written in the first person, Shirley is written in the third person and lacks the emotional immediacy of her first novel, and reviewers found it less shocking. Brontë, as her late sister's heir, suppressed the republication of Anne's second novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, an action which had a deleterious effect on Anne's popularity as a novelist and has remained controversial among the sisters' biographers ever since. In society In view of the success of her novels, particularly Jane Eyre, Brontë was persuaded by her publisher to make occasional visits to London, where she revealed her true identity and began to move in more exalted social circles, becoming friends with Elizabeth Gaskell and Harriet Martineau whose sister Rachel had taught Gaskell's daughters. Brontë sent an early copy of Shirley to Martineau whose home at Ambleside she visited. The two friends shared an interest in racial relations and the abolitionist movement; recurrent themes in their writings. Brontë was also acquainted with William Makepeace Thackeray and G. H. Lewes. She never left Haworth for more than a few weeks at a time, as she did not want to leave her ageing father. Thackeray's daughter, writer Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie, recalled a visit to her father by Brontë: …two gentlemen come in, leading a tiny, delicate, serious, little lady, with fair straight hair and steady eyes. She may be a little over thirty; she is dressed in a little barège dress with a pattern of faint green moss. She enters in mittens, in silence, in seriousness; our hearts are beating with wild excitement. This then is the authoress, the unknown power whose books have set all London talking, reading, speculating; some people even say our father wrote the books – the wonderful books. …The moment is so breathless that dinner comes as a relief to the solemnity of the occasion, and we all smile as my father stoops to offer his arm; for, genius though she may be, Miss Brontë can barely reach his elbow. My own personal impressions are that she is somewhat grave and stern, specially to forward little girls who wish to chatter. …Everyone waited for the brilliant conversation which never began at all. Miss Brontë retired to the sofa in the study, and murmured a low word now and then to our kind governess… the conversation grew dimmer and more dim, the ladies sat round still expectant, my father was too much perturbed by the gloom and the silence to be able to cope with it at all… after Miss Brontë had left, I was surprised to see my father opening the front door with his hat on. He put his fingers to his lips, walked out into the darkness, and shut the door quietly behind him… long afterwards… Mrs Procter asked me if I knew what had happened. …It was one of the dullest evenings [Mrs Procter] had ever spent in her life… the ladies who had all come expecting so much delightful conversation, and the gloom and the constraint, and how finally, overwhelmed by the situation, my father had quietly left the room, left the house, and gone off to his club. Brontë's friendship with Elizabeth Gaskell, while not particularly close, was significant in that Gaskell wrote the first biography of Brontë after her death in 1855. Villette Brontë's third novel, the last published in her lifetime, was Villette, which appeared in 1853. Its main themes include isolation, how such a condition can be borne, and the internal conflict brought about by social repression of individual desire. Its main character, Lucy Snowe, travels abroad to teach in a boarding school in the fictional town of Villette, where she encounters a culture and religion different from her own and falls in love with a man (Paul Emanuel) whom she cannot marry. Her experiences result in a breakdown but eventually, she achieves independence and fulfilment through running her own school. A substantial amount of the novel's dialogue is in the French language. Villette marked Brontë's return to writing from a first-person perspective (that of Lucy Snowe), the technique she had used in Jane Eyre. Another similarity to Jane Eyre lies in the use of aspects of her own life as inspiration for fictional events, in particular her reworking of the time she spent at the pensionnat in Brussels. Villette was acknowledged by critics of the day as a potent and sophisticated piece of writing although it was criticised for "coarseness" and for not being suitably "feminine" in its portrayal of Lucy's desires. Marriage Before the publication of Villette, Brontë received an expected proposal of marriage from Irishman Arthur Bell Nicholls, her father's curate, who had long been in love with her. She initially refused him and her father objected to the union at least partly because of Nicholls's poor financial status. Elizabeth Gaskell, who believed that marriage provided "clear and defined duties" that were beneficial for a woman, encouraged Brontë to consider the positive aspects of such a union and tried to use her contacts to engineer an improvement in Nicholls's finances. According to James Pope-Hennessy in The Flight of Youth, it was the generosity of Richard Monckton Milnes that made the marriage possible. Brontë, meanwhile, was increasingly attracted to Nicholls and by January 1854, she had accepted his proposal. They gained the approval of her father by April and married on 29 June. Her father Patrick had intended to give Charlotte away, but at the last minute decided he could not, and Charlotte had to make her way to the church without him. Because her father did not attend it was Miss Wooler (Charlotte's former teacher at Roe Head School, and life-long friend), as "friend", who “gave away” Charlotte (Gaskell: Vol II, Chap XIII). The married couple took their honeymoon in Banagher, County Offaly, Ireland. By all accounts, her marriage was a success and Brontë found herself very happy in a way that was new to her. Death Brontë became pregnant soon after her wedding, but her health declined rapidly and, according to Gaskell, she was attacked by "sensations of perpetual nausea and ever-recurring faintness". She died, with her unborn child, on 31 March 1855, three weeks before her 39th birthday. Her death certificate gives the cause of death as phthisis, but biographers including Claire Harman and others suggest that she died from dehydration and malnourishment due to vomiting caused by severe morning sickness or hyperemesis gravidarum. Brontë was buried in the family vault in the Church of St Michael and All Angels at Haworth. The Professor, the first novel Brontë had written, was published posthumously in 1857. The fragment of a new novel she had been writing in her last years has been twice completed by recent authors, the more famous version being Emma Brown: A Novel from the Unfinished Manuscript by Charlotte Brontë by Clare Boylan in 2003. Most of her writings about the imaginary country Angria have also been published since her death. In 2018, The New York Times published a belated obituary for her. Religion The daughter of an Irish Anglican clergyman, Brontë was herself an Anglican. In a letter to her publisher, she claims to "love the Church of England. Her Ministers indeed, I do not regard as infallible personages, I have seen too much of them for that – but to the Establishment, with all her faults – the profane Athanasian Creed excluded – I am sincerely attached." In a letter to Ellen Nussey she wrote: If I could always live with you, and daily read the bible with you, if your lips and mine could at the same time, drink the same draught from the same pure fountain of Mercy – I hope, I trust, I might one day become better, far better, than my evil wandering thoughts, my corrupt heart, cold to the spirit, and warm to the flesh will now permit me to be. The Life of Charlotte Brontë Elizabeth Gaskell's biography The Life of Charlotte Brontë was published in 1857. It was an important step for a leading female novelist to write a biography of another, and Gaskell's approach was unusual in that, rather than analysing her subject's achievements, she concentrated on private details of Brontë's life, emphasising those aspects that countered the accusations of "coarseness" that had been levelled at her writing. The biography is frank in places, but omits details of Brontë's love for Héger, a married man, as being too much of an affront to contemporary morals and a likely source of distress to Brontë's father, widower, and friends. Mrs. Gaskell also provided doubtful and inaccurate information about Patrick Brontë, claiming that he did not allow his children to eat meat. This is refuted by one of Emily Brontë's diary papers, in which she describes preparing meat and potatoes for dinner at the parsonage. It has been argued that Gaskell's approach transferred the focus of attention away from the 'difficult' novels, not just Brontë's, but all the sisters', and began a process of sanctification of their private lives. Nussey letters Brontë held lifelong correspondence with her former schoolmate Ellen Nussey. 350 of the some 500 letters sent by Brontë to Nussey survive, whereas all of Nussey's letters to Brontë were burned at Nicholls's request. The surviving letters provide most of the information known on Charlotte Brontë's life and are the backbone of her autobiographies. Brontë's letters to Nussey seem to have romantic undertones: What shall I do without you? How long are we likely to be separated? Why are we to be denied each other's society- I long to be with you. Why are we to be divided? Surely, Ellen, it must be because we are in danger of loving each other too well- Ellen, I wish I could live with you always. I begin to cling to you more fondly than ever I did. If we had but a cottage and a competency of our own, I do think we might live and love on till Death without being dependent on any third person for happiness... how sorely my heart longs for you I need not say... Less than ever can I taste or know pleasure till this work is wound up. And yet I often sit up in bed at night, thinking of and wishing for you. Some scholars believe it is possible that Charlotte Brontë was in a romantic or sexual relationship with Ellen Nussey. Héger letters On 29 July 1913 The Times of London printed four letters Brontë had written to Constantin Héger after leaving Brussels in 1844. Written in French except for one postscript in English, the letters broke the prevailing image of Brontë as an angelic martyr to Christian and female duties that had been constructed by many biographers, beginning with Gaskell. The letters, which formed part of a larger and somewhat one-sided correspondence in which Héger frequently appears not to have replied, reveal that she had been in love with a married man, although they are complex and have been interpreted in numerous ways, including as an example of literary self-dramatisation and an expression of gratitude from a former pupil. In 1980 a commemorative plaque was unveiled at the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, on the site of the Madam Heger's school, in honour of Charlotte and Emily. Legacy Kazuo Ishiguro, when asked to name his favourite novelist, answered "Charlotte Brontë's recently edged out Dostoevsky...I owe my career, and a lot else besides, to Jane Eyre and Villette." Publications Juvenilia The Young Men's Magazine, Number 1 – 3 (August 1830) A Book of Ryhmes (1829) The Spell: 146  The Secret Lily Hart: 157  The Foundling Albion and Marina: 129  Tales of the Islanders Tales of Angria (written 1838–1839 – a collection of childhood and young adult writings including five short novels) Mina Laury: 119  Stancliffe's Hotel: 166  The Duke of Zamorna Henry Hastings: 15, 100  Caroline Vernon: 46  The Roe Head Journal Fragments: 147  Farewell to Angria The Green Dwarf, A Tale of the Perfect Tense was written in 1833 under the pseudonym Lord Charles Albert Florian Wellesley. It shows the influence of Walter Scott, and Brontë's modifications to her earlier gothic style have led Christine Alexander to comment that, in the work, "it is clear that Brontë was becoming tired of the gothic mode per se". "At the end of 1839, Brontë said goodbye to her fantasy world in a manuscript called Farewell to Angria. More and more, she was finding that she preferred to escape to her imagined worlds over remaining in reality – and she feared that she was going mad. So she said goodbye to her characters, scenes and subjects. [...] She wrote of the pain she felt at wrenching herself from her 'friends' and venturing into lands unknown". Novels Jane Eyre, published in 1847 Shirley, published in 1849 Villette, published in 1853 The Professor, written before Jane Eyre, was first submitted together with Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë. Subsequently, The Professor was resubmitted separately, and rejected by many publishing houses. It was published posthumously in 1857 Emma, unfinished; Brontë wrote only 20 pages of the manuscript, published posthumously in 1860. In recent decades at least two continuations of this fragment have appeared: Emma, by "Charlotte Brontë and Another Lady", published 1980; although this has been attributed to Elizabeth Goudge, the actual author was Constance Savery. Emma Brown, by Clare Boylan, published 2003 Poetry Bell, Currer; Bell, Ellis; Bell, Acton (1846). Poems. Selected Poems of the Brontës, Everyman Poetry (1997) Media portrayals In the 1946 Curtis Bernhardt film Devotion, a fictionalized biography of the Brontë sisters, Olivia de Havilland plays Charlotte. A November 15, 1953 episode of the Loretta Young Show, "The Bronte Story", features Loretta Young as Charlotte. The 2018 comic Die features a fictionalised version of Charlotte within the Brontes' fictional kingdom of Angria. In the 2022 Frances O'Connor film Emily, about Emily Brontë, Alexandra Dowling plays Charlotte. Notes References Sources Alexander, Christine (March 1993). "'That Kingdom of Gloo': Charlotte Brontë, the Annuals and the Gothic". Nineteenth-Century Literature. 47 (4): 409–436. doi:10.2307/2933782. JSTOR 2933782. Fraser, Rebecca (2008). Charlotte Brontë: A Writer's Life (2 ed.). New York: Pegasus Books LLC. p. 261. ISBN 978-1-933648-88-0. Lane, Margaret (1953). The Brontë Story: a reconsideration of Mrs. Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë. Miller, Lucasta (2002). The Brontë Myth. London: Vintage. ISBN 978-0-09-928714-8. Miller, Lucasta (2005). The Brontë Myth. New York: Anchor. ISBN 978-1400078356. Paddock, Lisa; Rollyson, Carl (2003). The Brontës A to Z. New York: Facts on File. ISBN 978-0-8160-4303-3. Phillips-Evans, James (2012). The Longcrofts: 500 Years of a British Family. Amazon. pp. 260–261. ISBN 978-1481020886. Potter, Dawn (Summer 2010). "Inventing Charlotte Brontë". The Sewanee Review. 118 (3): 393–399. doi:10.1353/sew.2010.0014. S2CID 161213323. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – via Wikisource. Further reading The Letters of Charlotte Brontë, 3 volumes edited by Margaret Smith, 2007 The Life of Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, 1857 Charlotte Brontë, Winifred Gérin Charlotte Brontë: a passionate life, Lyndal Gordon The Literary Protégées of the Lake Poets, Dennis Low (Chapter 1 contains a revisionist contextualisation of Robert Southey's infamous letter to Charlotte Brontë) Charlotte Brontë: Unquiet Soul, Margot Peters In the Footsteps of the Brontës, Ellis Chadwick The Brontës, Juliet Barker Charlotte Brontë and her Dearest Nell, Barbara Whitehead The Brontë Myth, Lucasta Miller A Life in Letters, selected by Juliet Barker Charlotte Brontë and Defensive Conduct: The Author and the Body at Risk, Janet Gezari, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992 Charlotte Brontë: Truculent Spirit, by Valerie Grosvenor Myer, 1987 Charlotte Brontë and her Family, Rebecca Fraser The Oxford Reader's Companion to the Brontës, Christine Alexander & Margaret Smith Charlotte & Arthur, Pauline Clooney (2021) ISBN 978-1916501676. Reimagining Charlotte Brontë's honeymoon in Ireland & Wales. A Brontë Family Chronology, Edward Chitham The Crimes of Charlotte Brontë, James Tully, 1999 Daly, Michelle (2013). I Love Charlotte Brontë. Michelle Daly. ISBN 978-0957048751. A book about Brontë through the eyes of a working-class woman Heslewood, Juliet (2017). Mr Nicholls. Yorkshire: Scratching Shed. ISBN 978-0993510168. Fictionalised account of Arthur Bells Nicholls' romance of Charlotte Brontë O'Dowd, Michael (2021). Charlotte Brontë, An Irish Odyssey: My Heart is Knit to Him-The Honeymoon. Pardus Media. ISBN 978-1914939051. Charlotte Brontë and Arthur Bell Nicholls' wedding trip and Irish Odyssey. External links Website of the Brontë Society and Parsonage Museum in Haworth, Yorkshire Modern Day Images of Charlotte Brontë Residences (Archived) Charlotte Brontë at the Internet Book List Charlotte's Web: A Hypertext on Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (Archived) Rare Charlotte Bronte book coming home after museum's auction success Poems by Charlotte Brontё The Brontës Electronic editions Works by Charlotte Brontë in eBook form at Standard Ebooks Works by Charlotte Brontë at Project Gutenberg Works by Charlotte Brontë at Faded Page (Canada) Works by or about Charlotte Brontë at the Internet Archive Works by Charlotte Brontë at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

Jane_Eyre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Eyre

Jane Eyre ( AIR; originally published as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography) is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first American edition was published the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York. Jane Eyre is a bildungsroman that follows the experiences of its eponymous heroine, including her growth to adulthood and her love for Mr Rochester, the brooding master of Thornfield Hall. The novel revolutionised prose fiction, being the first to focus on the moral and spiritual development of its protagonist through an intimate first-person narrative, where actions and events are coloured by a psychological intensity. Charlotte Brontë has been called the "first historian of the private consciousness" and the literary ancestor of writers such as Marcel Proust and James Joyce. The book contains elements of social criticism with a strong sense of Christian morality at its core, and it is considered by many to be ahead of its time because of Jane's individualistic character and how the novel approaches the topics of class, sexuality, religion and feminism. Jane Eyre, along with Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, is one of the most famous romance novels. It is considered one of the greatest novels in the English language, and in 2003 was ranked as the tenth best-loved book in Britain by the BBC in The Big Read poll. Plot Jane Eyre is divided into 38 chapters. It was originally published in three volumes in the 19th century, consisting of chapters 1 to 15, 16 to 27, and 28 to 38. The second edition was dedicated to William Makepeace Thackeray. The novel is a first-person narrative from the perspective of the title character. Its setting is somewhere in the north of England, late in the reign of George III (1760–1820). It has five distinct stages: Jane's childhood at Gateshead Hall, where she is emotionally and physically abused by her aunt and cousins; her education at Lowood School, where she gains friends and role models but suffers privations and oppression; her time as governess at Thornfield Hall, where she falls in love with her mysterious employer, Edward Fairfax Rochester; her time in the Moor House, during which her earnest but cold clergyman cousin, St John Rivers, proposes to her; and ultimately her reunion with, and marriage to, her beloved Rochester. Throughout these sections it provides perspectives on a number of important social issues and ideas, many of which are critical of the status quo. The five stages of Jane's life are as follows: Gateshead Hall Jane Eyre, aged 10, lives at Gateshead Hall with her maternal uncle's family, the Reeds, as a result of her uncle's dying wish. Jane was orphaned several years earlier when her parents died of typhus. Jane's uncle, Mr Reed, was the only one in the Reed family who was kind to Jane. Jane's aunt, Sarah Reed, dislikes her and treats her as a burden. Mrs Reed also discourages her three children from associating with Jane. As a result Jane becomes defensive against her cruel judgement. The nursemaid, Bessie, proves to be Jane's only ally in the household, even though Bessie occasionally scolds Jane harshly. Excluded from the family activities, Jane lives an unhappy childhood. One day, as punishment for defending herself against the bullying of her 14-year-old cousin John, the Reeds' only son, Jane is locked in the red room in which her late uncle had died; there she faints from panic after she thinks she has seen his ghost. The red room is significant because it lays the grounds for the "ambiguous relationship between parents and children" which plays out in all of Jane's future relationships with male figures throughout the novel. She is subsequently attended to by the kindly apothecary, Mr Lloyd, to whom Jane reveals how unhappy she is living at Gateshead Hall. He recommends to Mrs Reed that Jane should be sent to school, an idea Mrs Reed happily supports. Mrs Reed then enlists the aid of the harsh Mr Brocklehurst, the director of Lowood Institution, a charity school for girls, to enroll Jane. Mrs Reed cautions Mr Brocklehurst that Jane has a "tendency to deceit", which he interprets as Jane being a liar. Before Jane leaves, however, she confronts Mrs Reed and declares that she'll never call her "aunt" again. Jane also tells Mrs Reed and her daughters, Georgiana and Eliza, that they are the ones who are deceitful, and that she will tell everyone at Lowood how cruelly the Reeds treated her. Mrs Reed is hurt badly by these words but has neither the courage nor the tenacity to show it. Lowood Institution At Lowood Institution, a school for poor and orphaned girls, Jane soon finds that life is harsh. She attempts to fit in and befriends an older girl, Helen Burns. During a class session her new friend is criticised for her poor stance and dirty nails and receives a lashing as a result. Later Jane tells Helen that she could not have borne such public humiliation, but Helen philosophically tells her that it would be her duty to do so. Jane then tells Helen how badly she has been treated by Mrs Reed, but Helen tells her that she would be far happier if she did not bear grudges. In due course Mr Brocklehurst visits the school. While Jane is trying to make herself look inconspicuous, she accidentally drops her slate, thereby drawing attention to herself. She is then forced to stand on a stool and is branded a sinner and a liar. Later Miss Temple, the caring superintendent, facilitates Jane's self-defence and publicly clears her of any wrongdoing. Helen and Miss Temple are Jane's two main role models who positively guide her development despite the harsh treatment she has received from many others. The 80 pupils at Lowood are subjected to cold rooms, poor meals and thin clothing. Many students fall ill when a typhus epidemic strikes; Helen dies of consumption in Jane's arms. When Mr Brocklehurst's maltreatment of the pupils is discovered, several benefactors erect a new building and install a sympathetic management committee to moderate Mr Brocklehurst's harsh rule. Conditions at the school then improve dramatically. Thornfield Hall After six years as a pupil and two as a teacher at Lowood, Jane decides to leave in pursuit of a new life, growing bored with her life at Lowood. Her friend and confidante, Miss Temple, also leaves after getting married. Jane advertises her services as a governess in a newspaper. The housekeeper at Thornfield Hall, Alice Fairfax, replies to Jane's advertisement. Jane takes the position, teaching Adèle Varens, a young French girl. One night, while Jane is carrying a letter to the post from Thornfield, a horseman and dog pass her. The horse slips on ice and throws the rider. Despite the rider's surliness, Jane helps him get back onto his horse. Later, back at Thornfield, she learns that this man is Edward Rochester, master of the house. Adèle was left in his care when her mother, a famous dancer, abandoned her. It is not immediately apparent whether Adèle is Rochester's daughter. At Jane's first meeting with Mr Rochester he teases her, accusing her of bewitching his horse to make him fall. Jane stands up to his initially arrogant manner. Despite his strange behaviour, Mr Rochester and Jane soon come to enjoy each other's company and they spend many evenings together. Odd things start to happen at the house, such as a strange laugh being heard, a mysterious fire in Mr Rochester's room (from which Jane saves Rochester by rousing him and throwing water on him) and an attack on a house-guest named Mr Mason. After Jane saves Mr Rochester from the fire, he thanks her tenderly and emotionally, and that night Jane feels strange emotions of her own towards him. The next day, however, he leaves unexpectedly for a distant party and several days later returns with the whole party, including the beautiful and talented Blanche Ingram. Just as she realises that she is in love with Mr Rochester, Jane sees that he and Blanche favour each other and starts to feel jealous, particularly because she also sees that Blanche is snobbish and heartless. Jane then receives word that Mrs Reed has suffered a stroke and is calling for her. Jane returns to Gateshead Hall and remains there for a month to tend to her dying aunt. Mrs Reed confesses to Jane that she wronged her, bringing forth a letter from Jane's paternal uncle, Mr John Eyre, in which he asks for her to live with him and be his heir. Mrs Reed admits to telling Mr Eyre that Jane had died of fever at Lowood. Soon afterward Mrs Reed dies, and Jane helps her cousins after the funeral before returning to Thornfield. Back at Thornfield Jane broods over Mr Rochester's rumoured impending marriage to Blanche Ingram. However one midsummer evening Rochester baits Jane by saying how much he will miss her after getting married and how she will soon forget him. The normally self-controlled Jane reveals her feelings for him. To her surprise, Rochester reciprocates, having courted Blanche only to make Jane jealous, and proposes marriage. Jane is at first sceptical of his sincerity, before accepting his proposal. She then writes to her Uncle John, telling him of her happy news. As she prepares for her wedding Jane's forebodings arise when a strange woman sneaks into her room one night and rips Jane's wedding veil in two. As with the previous mysterious events, Mr Rochester attributes the incident to Grace Poole, one of his servants. During the wedding ceremony, however, Mr Mason and a lawyer declare that Mr Rochester cannot marry because he is already married to Mr Mason's sister, Bertha. Mr Rochester admits this is true but explains that his father tricked him into the marriage for her money. Once they were united he discovered that she was rapidly descending into congenital madness, and so he eventually locked her away in Thornfield, hiring Grace Poole as a nurse to look after her. When Grace gets drunk, Rochester's wife escapes and causes the strange happenings at Thornfield. It turns out that Jane's uncle, Mr John Eyre, is a friend of Mr Mason's and was visited by him soon after Mr Eyre received Jane's letter about her impending marriage. After the marriage ceremony is broken off, Mr Rochester asks Jane to go with him to the south of France and live with him as husband and wife, even though they cannot be married. Jane is tempted but realises that she will lose herself and her integrity if she allows her passion for a married man to consume her and she must stay true to her Christian values and beliefs. Refusing to go against her principles, and despite her love for Rochester, Jane leaves Thornfield Hall at dawn before anyone else is up. Moor House Jane travels as far from Thornfield Hall as she can using the little money she had previously saved. She accidentally leaves her bundle of possessions on the coach and is forced to sleep on the moor. She unsuccessfully attempts to trade her handkerchief and gloves for food. Exhausted and starving, she eventually makes her way to the home of Diana and Mary Rivers but is turned away by the housekeeper. She collapses on the doorstep, preparing for her death. Clergyman St John Rivers, Diana and Mary's brother, rescues her. After Jane regains her health, St John finds her a teaching position at a nearby village school. Jane becomes good friends with the sisters, but St John remains aloof. The sisters leave for governess jobs, and St John becomes slightly closer to Jane. St John learns Jane's true identity and astounds her by telling her that her uncle, John Eyre, has died and left her his entire fortune of 20,000 pounds (equivalent to US $2.24 million in 2022). When Jane questions him further, St John reveals that John Eyre is also his and his sisters' uncle. They had once hoped for a share of the inheritance but were left virtually nothing. Jane, overjoyed by finding that she has living and friendly family members, insists on sharing the money equally with her cousins, and Diana and Mary come back to live at Moor House. Proposals Thinking that the pious and conscientious Jane will make a suitable missionary's wife, St John asks her to marry him and to go with him to India, not out of love, but out of duty. Jane initially accepts going to India but rejects the marriage proposal, suggesting they travel as brother and sister. As Jane's resolve against marriage to St John begins to weaken, she seems to hear Mr Rochester's voice calling her name. Jane then returns to Thornfield Hall to see if Rochester is all right, only to find blackened ruins. She learns that Rochester sent Mrs Fairfax into retirement and Adèle to school a few months following her departure. Shortly afterwards, his wife set the house on fire and died after jumping from the roof. While saving the servants and attempting to rescue his wife, Rochester lost a hand and his eyesight. Jane reunites with Rochester, and he is overjoyed at her return, but fears that she will be repulsed by his condition. "Am I hideous, Jane?", he asks. "Very, sir; you always were, you know", she replies. Now a humbled man, Rochester vows to live a purer life, and reveals that he has intensely pined for Jane ever since she left. He had even called out her name in despair one night, the very call that she heard from Moor House, and heard her reply from miles away, signifying the connection between them. Jane asserts herself as a financially independent woman and assures him of her love, declaring that she will never leave him. Rochester proposes again, and they are married. They live blissfully together in an old house in the woods called Ferndean Manor. The couple stay in touch with Adèle as she grows up, as well as Diana and Mary, who each gain loving husbands of their own. St John moves to India to accomplish his missionary goals, but is implied to have fallen gravely ill there. Rochester regains sight in one eye two years after his and Jane's marriage, enabling him to see their newborn son. Major characters In order of first line of dialogue: Introduced in first chapter Jane Eyre: The novel's narrator and protagonist. Orphaned as a baby, Jane struggles through her nearly loveless childhood and becomes a governess at Thornfield Hall. Small and facially plain, Jane is passionate and strongly principled and values freedom and independence. She also has a strong conscience and is a determined Christian. She is ten at the beginning of the novel, and nineteen or twenty at the end of the main narrative. As the final chapter of the novel states that she has been married to Edward Rochester for ten years, she is approximately thirty at its completion. Mrs Sarah Reed (née Gibson): Jane's maternal aunt by marriage, who reluctantly adopted Jane in accordance with her late husband's wishes. According to Mrs Reed, he pitied Jane and often cared for her more than for his own children. Mrs Reed's resentment leads her to abuse and neglect the girl. She lies to Mr Brocklehurst about Jane's tendency to lie, preparing him to be severe with Jane when she arrives at Brocklehurst's Lowood School. John Reed: Jane's fourteen-year-old first cousin who bullies her incessantly and violently, sometimes in his mother's presence. Addicted to food and sweets, causing him ill health and bad complexion. John eventually ruins himself as an adult by drinking and gambling and is rumoured to have committed suicide. Eliza Reed: Jane's thirteen-year-old first cousin. Envious of her more attractive younger sister and a slave to a rigid routine, she self-righteously devotes herself to religion. She leaves for a nunnery near Lisle (France) after her mother's death, determined to estrange herself from her sister. Georgiana Reed: Jane's eleven-year-old first cousin. Although beautiful and indulged, she is insolent and spiteful. Her elder sister Eliza foils Georgiana's marriage to the wealthy Lord Edwin Vere when the couple is about to elope. Georgiana eventually marries a "wealthy worn-out man of fashion." Bessie Lee: The nursemaid at Gateshead Hall. She often treats Jane kindly, telling her stories and singing her songs, but she has a quick temper. Later, she marries Robert Leaven with whom she has three children. Miss Martha Abbot: Mrs Reed's maid at Gateshead Hall. She is unkind to Jane and tells Jane she has less right to be at Gateshead than a servant does. Chapters 3–5 Mr Lloyd: A compassionate apothecary who recommends that Jane be sent to school. Later, he writes a letter to Miss Temple confirming Jane's account of her childhood and thereby clears Jane of Mrs Reed's charge of lying. Mr Brocklehurst: The clergyman, director, and treasurer of Lowood School, whose maltreatment of the pupils is eventually exposed. A religious traditionalist, he advocates for his charges the most harsh, plain, and disciplined possible lifestyle, but, hypocritically, not for himself and his own family. His second daughter, Augusta, exclaimed, "Oh, dear papa, how quiet and plain all the girls at Lowood look… they looked at my dress and mama's, as if they had never seen a silk gown before." Miss Maria Temple: The kind superintendent of Lowood School, who treats the pupils with respect and compassion. She helps clear Jane of Mr Brocklehurst's false accusation of deceit and cares for Helen in her last days. Eventually, she marries Reverend Naysmith. Miss Scatcherd: A sour and strict teacher at Lowood. She constantly punishes Helen Burns for her untidiness but fails to see Helen's substantial good points. Helen Burns: Jane's best friend at Lowood School. She refuses to hate those who abuse her, trusts in God, and prays for peace one day in heaven. She teaches Jane to trust Christianity and dies of consumption in Jane's arms. Elizabeth Gaskell, in her biography of the Brontë sisters, wrote that Helen Burns was 'an exact transcript' of Maria Brontë, who died of consumption at age 11. Chapters 11–12 Mrs Alice Fairfax: The elderly, kind widow and the housekeeper of Thornfield Hall; distantly related to the Rochesters. Adèle Varens: An excitable French child to whom Jane is a governess at Thornfield Hall. Adèle's mother was a dancer named Céline. She was Mr Rochester's mistress and claimed that Adèle was Mr Rochester's daughter, though he refuses to believe it due to Céline's unfaithfulness and Adèle's apparent lack of resemblance to him. Adèle seems to believe that her mother is dead (she tells Jane in chapter 11, "I lived long ago with mamma, but she is gone to the Holy Virgin"). Mr Rochester later tells Jane that Céline actually abandoned Adèle and "ran away to Italy with a musician or singer" (ch. 15). Adèle and Jane develop a strong liking for one another, and although Mr Rochester places Adèle in a strict school after Jane flees Thornfield Hall, Jane visits Adèle after her return and finds a better, less severe school for her. When Adèle is old enough to leave school, Jane describes her as "a pleasing and obliging companion—docile, good-tempered and well-principled", and considers her kindness to Adèle well repaid. Grace Poole: "…a woman of between thirty and forty; a set, square-made figure, red-haired, and with a hard, plain face…" Mr Rochester pays her a very high salary to keep his mad wife, Bertha, hidden and quiet. Grace is often used as an explanation for odd happenings at the house such as strange laughter that was heard not long after Jane arrived. She has a weakness for drinking that occasionally allows Bertha to escape. Edward Fairfax Rochester: The master of Thornfield Hall. A Byronic hero, he has a face "dark, strong, and stern." He married Bertha Mason years before the novel begins. Leah: The housemaid at Thornfield Hall. Chapters 17–21 Blanche Ingram: Young socialite whom Mr Rochester plans to marry. Though possessing great beauty and talent, she treats social inferiors, Jane in particular, with undisguised contempt. Mr Rochester exposes her and her mother's mercenary motivations when he puts out a rumour that he is far less wealthy than they imagine. Richard Mason: An Englishman whose arrival at Thornfield Hall from the West Indies unsettles Mr Rochester. He is the brother of Rochester's first wife, the woman in the attic, and still cares for his sister's well-being. During the wedding ceremony of Jane and Mr Rochester, he exposes the bigamous nature of the marriage. Robert Leaven: The coachman at Gateshead Hall, who brings Jane the news of the death of the dissolute John Reed, an event which has brought on Mrs Reed's stroke. He informs her of Mrs Reed's wish to see Jane before she dies. Chapters 26–32 Bertha Antoinetta Mason: The first wife of Edward Rochester. After their wedding, her mental health began to deteriorate, and she is now violent and in a state of intense derangement, apparently unable to speak or go into society. Mr Rochester, who insists that he was tricked into the marriage by a family who knew Bertha was likely to develop this condition, has kept Bertha locked in the attic at Thornfield Hall for years. She is supervised and cared for by Grace Poole, whose drinking sometimes allows Bertha to escape. After Richard Mason stops Jane and Mr Rochester's wedding, Rochester finally introduces Jane to Bertha: "In the deep shade, at the farther end of the room, a figure ran backwards and forwards. What it was, whether beast or human being, one could not, at first sight, tell… it snatched and growled like some strange wild animal: but it was covered with clothing, and a quantity of dark, grizzled hair, wild as a mane, hid its head and face." Eventually, Bertha sets fire to Thornfield Hall and throws herself to her death from the roof. Bertha is viewed as Jane's "double": Jane is pious and just, while Bertha is savage and animalistic. Though her race is never mentioned, it is sometimes conjectured that she was of mixed race. Rochester suggests that Bertha's parents wanted her to marry him, because he was of "good race", implying that she was not pure white, while he was. There are also references to her "dark" hair and "discoloured" and "black" face. A number of writers during the Victorian period suggested that madness could result from a racially "impure" lineage, compounded by growing up in a tropical West Indian climate. Diana and Mary Rivers: Sisters in a remote moors house who take Jane in when she is hungry and friendless, having left Thornfield Hall without making any arrangements for herself. Financially poor but intellectually curious, the sisters are deeply engrossed in reading the evening Jane appears at their door. Eventually, they are revealed to be Jane's cousins. They want Jane to marry their stern clergyman brother so that he will stay in England rather than journey to India as a missionary. Diana marries naval Captain Fitzjames, and Mary marries clergyman Mr Wharton. The sisters remain close to Jane and visit her and Rochester every year. Hannah: The kindly housekeeper at the Rivers home; "…comparable with the Brontës' well-loved servant, Tabitha Aykroyd." St John Eyre Rivers: A handsome, though severe and serious, clergyman who befriends Jane and turns out to be her cousin. St John is thoroughly practical and suppresses all of his human passions and emotions, particularly his love for the beautiful and cheerful heiress Rosamond Oliver, in favour of good works. He wants Jane to marry him and serve as his assistant on his missionary journey to India. After Jane rejects his proposal, St John goes to India unmarried. Rosamond Oliver: A beautiful, kindly, wealthy, but rather simple young woman, and the patron of the village school where Jane teaches. Rosamond is in love with St John, but he refuses to declare his love for her because she would not be suitable as a missionary's wife. She eventually becomes engaged to the respected and wealthy Mr Granby. Mr Oliver: Rosamond Oliver's wealthy father, who owns a foundry and needle factory in the district. "…a tall, massive-featured, middle-aged, and grey-headed man, at whose side his lovely daughter looked like a bright flower near a hoary turret." He is a kind and charitable man, and he is fond of St John. Context The early sequences, in which Jane is sent to Lowood, a harsh boarding school, are derived from the author's own experiences. Helen Burns's death from tuberculosis (referred to as consumption) recalls the deaths of Charlotte Brontë's sisters, Elizabeth and Maria, who died of the disease in childhood as a result of the conditions at their school, the Clergy Daughters School at Cowan Bridge, near Tunstall, Lancashire. Mr Brocklehurst is based on Rev. William Carus Wilson (1791–1859), the Evangelical minister who ran the school. Additionally, John Reed's decline into alcoholism and dissolution recalls the life of Charlotte's brother Branwell, who became an opium and alcohol addict in the years preceding his death. Finally, like Jane, Charlotte became a governess. These facts were revealed to the public in The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) by Charlotte's friend and fellow novelist Elizabeth Gaskell. The Gothic manor of Thornfield Hall was probably inspired by North Lees Hall, near Hathersage in the Peak District in Derbyshire. This was visited by Charlotte Brontë and her friend Ellen Nussey in the summer of 1845, and is described by the latter in a letter dated 22 July 1845. It was the residence of the Eyre family, and its first owner, Agnes Ashurst, was reputedly confined as a lunatic in a padded second floor room. It has been suggested that the Wycoller Hall in Lancashire, close to Haworth, provided the setting for Ferndean Manor to which Mr Rochester retreats after the fire at Thornfield: there are similarities between the owner of Ferndean—Mr Rochester's father—and Henry Cunliffe, who inherited Wycoller in the 1770s and lived there until his death in 1818; one of Cunliffe's relatives was named Elizabeth Eyre (née Cunliffe). The sequence in which Mr Rochester's wife sets fire to the bed curtains was prepared in an August 1830 homemade publication of Brontë's The Young Men's Magazine, Number 2. Charlotte Brontë began composing Jane Eyre in Manchester, and she likely envisioned Manchester Cathedral churchyard as the burial place for Jane's parents and Manchester as the birthplace of Jane herself. Adaptations and influence The novel has been adapted into a number of other forms, including theatre, film, television, and at least three full-length operas. The novel has also been the subject of a number of significant rewritings and related interpretations, notably Jean Rhys's seminal 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea. A famous line in the book is at the beginning of Chapter 38: "Reader, I married him." Many authors have used a variation of this line in their work. For example, Liane Moriarty discussed and used the line in her 2018 novel Nine Perfect Strangers. The book Reader, I Married Him: Stories inspired by Jane Eyre, a 2016 anthology of short stories, edited by Tracy Chevalier, was also inspired by this line. It was commissioned to mark the 200th anniversary of Brontë's birth, and is published by The Borough Press, an imprint of HarperCollins. The novel The French Dancer’s Bastard, by Emma Tennant, reimagines the back story of Adéle, exploring whether she was Rochester's love child and what her relationship with Jane Eyre is. The most recent film adaptation, Jane Eyre, was released in 2011, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, and starred Mia Wasikowska as Jane Eyre and Michael Fassbender as Mr. Rochester. The film, actors, and costume design team were nominated and won various awards from 2011–2012. Reception Contemporary reviews Jane Eyre's initial reception contrasts starkly to its reputation today. In 1848, Elizabeth Rigby (later Elizabeth Eastlake), reviewing Jane Eyre in The Quarterly Review, found it "pre-eminently an anti-Christian composition," declaring: "We do not hesitate to say that the tone of mind and thought which has overthrown authority and violated every code human and divine abroad, and fostered Chartism and rebellion at home, is the same which has also written Jane Eyre." An anonymous review in The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction writes of "the extraordinary daring of the writer of Jane Eyre"; however, the review is mostly critical, summarising: "There is not a single natural character throughout the work. Everybody moves on stilts—the opinions are bad—the notions absurd. Religion is stabbed in the dark—our social distinctions attempted to be levelled, and all absurdly moral notions done away with." There were some who felt more positive about the novel contemporaneously. George Henry Lewes said, "It reads like a page out of one's own life; and so do many other pages in the book." Another critic from the Atlas wrote, "It is full of youthful vigour, of freshness and originality, of nervous diction and concentrated interest ...It is a book to make the pulses gallop and the heart beat, and to fill the eyes with tears." A review in The Era praised the novel, calling it "an extraordinary book", observing that "there is much to ponder over, rejoice over, and weep over, in its ably-written pages. Much of the heart laid bare, and the mind explored; much of greatness in affliction, and littleness in the ascendant; much of trial and temptation, of fortitude and resignation, of sound sense and Christianity—but no tameness." The People's Journal compliments the novel's vigour, stating that "the reader never tires, never sleeps: the swell and tide of an affluent existence, an irresistible energy, bears him onward, from first to last. It is impossible to deny that the author possesses native power in an uncommon degree—showing itself now in rapid headlong recital, now in stern, fierce, daring dashes in portraiture—anon in subtle, startling mental anatomy—here in a grand illusion, there in an original metaphor—again in a wild gush of genuine poetry." American publication The Nineteenth Century defended the novel against accusations of immorality, describing it as "a work which has produced a decided sensation in this country and in England... Jane Eyre has made its mark upon the age, and even palsied the talons of mercenary criticism. Yes, critics hired to abuse or panegyrize, at so much per line, have felt a throb of human feeling pervade their veins, at the perusal of Jane Eyre. This is extraordinary—almost preternatural—smacking strongly of the miraculous—and yet it is true... We have seen Jane Eyre put down, as a work of gross immorality, and its author described as the very incarnation of sensualism. To any one, who has read the work, this may look ridiculous, and yet it is true." The Indicator, concerning speculation regarding the gender of the author, wrote, "We doubt not it will soon cease to be a secret; but on one assertion we are willing to risk our critical reputation—and that is, that no woman wrote it. This was our decided conviction at the first perusal, and a somewhat careful study of the work has strengthened it. No woman in all the annals of feminine celebrity ever wrote such a style, terse yet eloquent, and filled with energy bordering sometimes almost on rudeness: no woman ever conceived such masculine characters as those portrayed here." Twentieth century Literary critic Jerome Beaty believed the close first-person perspective leaves the reader "too uncritically accepting of her worldview", and often leads reading and conversation about the novel towards supporting Jane, regardless of how irregular her ideas or perspectives are. In 2003, the novel was ranked number 10 in the BBC's survey The Big Read. Genres Romance Before the Victorian era, Jane Austen wrote literary fiction that influenced later popular fiction, as did the work of the Brontë sisters produced in the 1840s. Brontë's love romance incorporates elements of both the gothic novel and Elizabethan drama, and "demonstrate[s] the flexibility of the romance novel form." Gothic The Gothic genre uses a combination of supernatural features, intense emotions, and a blend of reality and fantasy to create a dark, mysterious atmosphere and experience for characters and readers. Jane Eyre is a homodiegetic narrator, which allows her to exist both as a character and narrator in the story world, and her narration establishes an emotional connection and response for the reader. This intentional, narrative technique works in tandem with Gothic features and conventions. Jane and the reader are unaware of the cause behind the "demoniac laugh--low, suppressed, and deep" or "a savage, a sharp, a shrilly sound that ran from end to end of Thornfield Hall," though the reason comes from Bertha Mason. The element of the unknown works in conjunction to the possibility of the supernatural. The intensity of emotions and reactions to Gothic conventions can solely exist in the protagonist's imagination. Instances that a protagonist interprets to be their imagination turns into reality. Jane's experience in the red room represents an aspect of Gothic conventions as Jane feels fear towards being punished in the red room because she believes and imagines that her dead uncle haunts the room. The Gothic genre uses the Gothic double: a literary motif, which is described as the protagonist having a double, alter ego, or doppelgänger interpreted between Jane Eyre and Bertha Mason, where Bertha represents the other side of Jane and vice versa. The commonly used Gothic literary device, foreshadowing, creates an environment filled with tension, ominousity, and dread. After Jane agrees to marry Rochester, a horse-chestnut tree in an orchard is struck by lightning, splitting the tree in half. The lightning strike is ominous and foreshadows Jane and Rochester's separation. The Gothic Genre in tandem with Murphy's the "New Woman Gothic" establishes an opportunity to go against the Romantic's concept that the antagonist is usually a villainous father. The Gothic genre allows there to be a complex consideration of who or what hinders Jane's happiness. The barriers Jane experiences, whether related to social class, societal and cultural norms, Bertha Mason, or Rochester, have antagonistic elements. Bildungsroman The Bildungsroman representation in Jane Eyre uses romantic elements that emphasise the journey of one pursuing the discovery of one's identity and knowledge. Jane Eyre desires the thrill and action that comes from being an active individual in society, and she refuses to allow the concept of gender and class to hinder her. Bildungsroman was primarily viewed through male life progression, but feminist scholars have worked to counteract the male norm of bildungsroman by including female development. Experiences that deem a female narrative to be bildungsroman would be the female protagonist discovering how to manage living in a restrictive society. The novel's setting is the English society of the early 19th century, and with that time setting come specific restrictions women encountered during that time, such as the law of coverture, the lack of rights, and the restricted expectations placed on women. Jane Eyre does not specifically and directly deal with the restrictions of, for example coverture, but her character lives in a society where coverture exists, which inadvertently impacts social and cultural norms and expectations. Progression in the bildungsroman does not necessarily occur in a linear direction. Many narratives that employ bildungsroman do so through the protagonist's development of maturity, which is represented through the protagonist's experiences from childhood to adulthood; this progression is in conjunction with the novel's narrative technique set as an autobiography. Temporally, the beginning of the novel begins with Jane at age ten and ends with Jane at age thirty, but Jane's development of maturity goes beyond her age. For example, Jane's emotional intelligence grows through her friendship with Helen Burns as Jane experiences and processes the loss of her friendship with Helen. Many times, the 19th-century female bildungsroman can be interpreted as the heroine's growth of self and education in the context of prospective marriage, especially when, in the context of 19th-century womanhood, a wife experiences new knowledge in the private sphere of her role. Jane develops knowledge and experience regarding a romantic journey before her almost marriage to Mr. Rochester; a physical, spiritual, and financial knowledge during her time with St. John; and lastly, with her marriage with Mr. Rochester at the end of the novel. Jane's search for excitement and understanding of life goes beyond her romantic journey. In the text, Jane's childhood beliefs about religion, as seen in her interactions with Mr. Brocklehurt, shift considerably in comparison to her friendship with Helen in Lowood as a child and in her marital and missionary rejection of St. John as an adult woman. Themes Race Throughout the novel there are frequent themes relating to ideas of ethnicity (specifically that of Bertha), which are a reflection of the society that the novel is set within. Mr Rochester claims to have been forced to take on a "mad" Creole wife, a woman who grew up in the West Indies, and who is thought to be of mixed-race descent. In the analysis of several scholars, Bertha plays the role of the racialised "other" through the shared belief that she chose to follow in the footsteps of her parents. Her alcoholism and apparent mental instability cast her as someone who is incapable of restraining herself, almost forced to submit to the different vices she is a victim of. Many writers of the period believed that one could develop mental instability or mental illnesses simply based on their race. This means that those who were born of ethnicities associated with a darker complexion, or those who were not fully of European descent, were believed to be more mentally unstable than their white European counterparts were. According to American scholar Susan Meyer, in writing Jane Eyre Brontë was responding to the "seemingly inevitable" analogy in 19th-century European texts which "[compared] white women with blacks in order to degrade both groups and assert the need for white male control". Bertha serves as an example of both the multiracial population and of a 'clean' European, as she is seemingly able to pass as a white woman for the most part, but also is hinted towards being of an 'impure' race since she does not come from a purely white or European lineage. The title that she is given by others of being a Creole woman leaves her a stranger where she is not black but is also not considered to be white enough to fit into higher society. Unlike Bertha, Jane Eyre is thought of as being sound of mind before the reader is able to fully understand the character, simply because she is described as having a complexion that is pale and she has grown up in a European society rather than in an "animalistic" setting like Bertha. Jane is favoured heavily from the start of her interactions with Rochester, simply because like Rochester himself, she is deemed to be of a superior ethnic group than that of his first wife. While she still experiences some forms of repression throughout her life (the events of the Lowood Institution) none of them are as heavily taxing on her as that which is experienced by Bertha. Both women go through acts of suppression on behalf of the men in their lives, yet Jane is looked at with favour because of her supposed "beauty" that can be found in the colour of her skin. While both are characterised as falling outside of the normal feminine standards of this time, Jane is thought of as superior to Bertha because she demands respect and is able to use her talents as a governess, whereas Bertha is seen as a creature to be confined in the attic away from "polite" society. Scholars have also noted the novel's overt references and allusions to slavery, arguably its North American iteration. Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys intended her critically acclaimed novel Wide Sargasso Sea as an account of the woman whom Rochester married and kept in his attic. The book won the notable WH Smith Literary Award in 1967. Rhys explores themes of dominance and dependence, especially in marriage, depicting the mutually painful relationship between a privileged English man and a Creole woman from Dominica made powerless on being duped and coerced by him and others. Both the man and the woman enter marriage under mistaken assumptions about the other partner. Her female lead marries Mr Rochester and deteriorates in England as "The Madwoman in the Attic". Rhys portrays this woman from a quite different perspective from the one in Jane Eyre. Feminism The idea of the equality of men and women emerged more strongly in the Victorian period in Britain, after works by earlier writers, such as Mary Wollstonecraft. R. B. Martin described Jane Eyre as the first major feminist novel, "although there is not a hint in the book of any desire for political, legal, educational, or even intellectual equality between the sexes." This is illustrated in chapter 23, when Jane responds to Rochester's callous and indirect proposal: Do you think I am an automaton? a machine without feelings?...Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong—I have as much soul as you,—and full as much heart...I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh;—it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal,—as we are. The novel "acted as a catalyst" to feminist criticism with the publication by S. Gilbert and S. Gubar's The Madwoman in the Attic (1979), the title of which alludes to Rochester's wife. The Brontës' fictions were cited by feminist critic Ellen Moers as prime examples of Female Gothic, exploring woman's entrapment within domestic space and subjection to patriarchal authority, and the transgressive and dangerous attempts to subvert and escape such restriction. Both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre explore this theme. Social class Throughout the novel, Jane undergoes various social class transitions, in response to her life's varying situations. As a child, she mixes with middle class people through the Reed family, though Jane is not at the same level of social class as the rest of the Reed family. While at Lowood, she experiences the life of children whose guardians can afford the school fees of "fifteen pounds per year" but nonetheless are "charity children" "because fifteen pounds is not enough for board and teaching", living in poor conditions, and later working there as an adult as a teacher on a salary of fifteen pounds. She has an opportunity to be a private governess, and in so doing double her salary, but her governess position makes her aware of her ambiguous social position as a governess to a child with a wealthy guardian. After Jane leaves Thornfield Hall, she is stripped of her class identity as she travels across the moors and arrives at Moor House. But Jane receives an inheritance which she shares with her new-found family, and this offers a different form of independence. Notes References External links Jane Eyre at Standard Ebooks Jane Eyre at Project Gutenberg Jane Eyre public domain audiobook at LibriVox Jane Eyre at the Internet Archive Jane Eyre at the British Library Archived 12 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine

List_of_tallest_buildings_in_New_York_City

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_New_York_City

New York City, the most populous city in the United States, is home to more than 7,000 completed high-rise buildings of at least 115 feet (35 m), of which at least 102 are taller than 650 feet (198 m). The tallest building in New York is One World Trade Center, which rises 1,776 feet (541 m). The 104-story skyscraper also stands as the tallest building in the United States, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, and the seventh-tallest building in the world. At 1,550 feet (472 m), Central Park Tower is the second-tallest completed building in the city. It has the highest roof of any building outside Asia, and is the tallest residential building in the world. The third-tallest completed building in the city is 111 West 57th Street. Rising to 1,428 feet (435 m), it is the world's most slender skyscraper. The fourth-tallest is One Vanderbilt. At 1,401 feet (427 m), it is the tallest office building in Midtown. The fifth-tallest is 432 Park Avenue at 1,397 feet (426 m). At 1,250 feet (381 m), the 102-story Empire State Building in Midtown Manhattan, which was finished in 1931, stood as the tallest building in the world from its completion until 1970, when construction on the 1,368-foot (417 m) North Tower of the original World Trade Center surpassed it. It is the tenth-tallest building in the United States, and rises to a pinnacle of 1,454 feet (443 m) including its antenna. The North Tower (the original One World Trade Center), along with its twin the South Tower (the first Two World Trade Center), which was six feet shorter, held this title only briefly as they were both surpassed by construction of the 110-story Willis Tower in Chicago in 1973. The Twin Towers remained the tallest buildings in New York City until they were destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks, leaving the Empire State Building again as the city's tallest building. The new One World Trade Center began construction in 2006; in April 2012 it surpassed the Empire State Building to become the city's tallest. Upon its topping out in May 2013, the 1,776-foot (541 m) One World Trade Center surpassed the Willis Tower to become the tallest building in the United States and the Western Hemisphere. One World Trade Center is part of the redevelopment of the World Trade Center, which also includes the 1,079-foot (329 m) 3 World Trade Center, the 977-foot (298 m) 4 World Trade Center, the 743-foot (226 m) 7 World Trade Center, the approved 900-foot (274 m) 5 World Trade Center, and one partly constructed on-hold building: the 1,350-foot (411 m) 2 World Trade Center. The majority of skyscrapers in New York City are concentrated in Midtown and Downtown Manhattan, although other neighborhoods of Manhattan and the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx also contain some high-rises. As of March 2024, there were 317 completed skyscrapers that rose at least 492 feet (150 m) in height, more than any other city in the Western Hemisphere, and third most in the world exceeded only by Hong Kong and Shenzhen. History The history of skyscrapers in New York City began with the construction of the Equitable Life, Western Union, and Tribune buildings in the early 1870s. These relatively short early skyscrapers, sometimes referred to as "preskyscrapers" or "protoskyscrapers", included features such as a steel frame and elevators—then-new innovations that were used in the city's later skyscrapers.: 62  Modern skyscraper construction began with the completion of the World Building in 1890; the structure rose to a pinnacle of 349 feet (106 m). Though not the city's first high-rise, it was the first building to surpass the 284-foot (87 m) spire of Trinity Church. The World Building, which stood as the tallest in the city until 1899, was demolished in 1955 to allow for the construction of an expanded entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. The Park Row Building, at 391 feet (119 m), was the city's tallest building from 1899 to 1908, and the world's tallest office building during the same time span. By 1900, fifteen skyscrapers in New York City exceeded 250 feet (76 m) in height.: 280  New York has played a prominent role in the development of the skyscraper. Since 1890, ten of those built in the city have held the title of world's tallest. New York City went through two very early high-rise construction booms, the first of which spanned the 1890s through the 1910s, and the second from the mid-1920s to the early 1930s. During this period 44 skyscrapers over 492 feet (150 m) were built—including the Singer Building, Met Life Tower, Woolworth Building, 40 Wall Street, the Chrysler Building, and the Empire State Building, each of which was the tallest in the world at the time of its completion, the last remaining so for forty years. Skyscraper construction resumed in the early 1960s, with construction surges in the early 1970s, late 1980s, and late 2010s. In total, the city has seen the rise of over 100 completed and topped-out structures at least 650 feet (198 m) high, including the twin towers of the World Trade Center, and the current World Trade Center redevelopment. Tallest buildings This list ranks completed and topped out New York City skyscrapers that stand at least 650 feet (198 m) tall based on standard height measurements. This includes spires and architectural details but does not include antenna masts. An equal sign (=) following a rank indicates the same height between two or more buildings. An asterisk (*) indicates that the building is still under construction but has been topped out. The "Year" column indicates the year in which a building was completed. Tallest buildings by pinnacle height This list ranks buildings in New York City based on pinnacle height measurement, which includes antenna masts. Standard architectural height measurement, which excludes non-architectural antennas in building height, is included for comparative purposes. An equal sign (=) following a rank indicates the same height between two or more buildings. The "Year" column indicates the year in which a building was completed. Tallest buildings in each borough This lists the tallest building in each borough of New York City based on standard height measurement. The "Year" column indicates the year in which a building was completed. Tallest under construction or proposed Under construction This lists buildings that are currently under construction in New York City and are expected to rise to a height of at least 650 feet (198 m). Buildings under construction that have already been topped out are also included, as are those whose construction has been suspended. For buildings whose heights have not yet been released by their developers, this table uses a floor count of 50 stories as the cutoff. * Table entries with dashes (—) indicate that information regarding expected building heights or dates of completion has not yet been released. Approved This table lists buildings that are approved for construction in New York City and are expected to rise at least 650 feet (198 m) in height. For buildings whose heights have not yet been released by their developers, this table uses a floor count of 50 stories as the cutoff. Proposed This table lists buildings that are proposed for construction in New York City and are expected to rise at least 650 feet (198 m) in height. For buildings whose heights have not yet been released by their developers, this table uses a floor count of 50 stories as the cutoff. * Table entries with dashes (—) indicate that information regarding building heights or dates of completion has not yet been released. Tallest destroyed or demolished This table lists buildings in New York City that were destroyed or demolished and at one time stood at least 500 feet (152 m) in height. Timeline of tallest buildings This lists buildings that once held the title of tallest building in New York City. Both Trinity Church and the Empire State Building have held the title twice, the latter following the destruction of the World Trade Center in the September 11 attacks. The Empire State Building was surpassed by One World Trade Center in 2012. See also Architecture of New York City List of cities with the most skyscrapers List of tallest buildings List of tallest buildings in the United States List of tallest buildings in Albany, New York List of tallest buildings in Brooklyn List of tallest buildings in Buffalo, New York List of tallest buildings in Jersey City List of tallest buildings in New Jersey List of tallest buildings in Queens List of tallest buildings in Rochester, New York List of tallest buildings in Upstate New York Notes References Citations Sources "New York City – The Skyscraper Center". CTBUH. Retrieved June 12, 2020. External links Diagram of New York City skyscrapers on SkyscraperPage 100 years of New York skyline on Favrify

Punxsutawney_Phil

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punxsutawney_Phil

Punxsutawney Phil () is a groundhog residing in Young Township near Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, United States, who is the central figure in Punxsutawney's annual Groundhog Day celebration. Folklore On February 2 each year, Punxsutawney holds a civic festival with music and food. During the ceremony, which begins well before the winter sunrise, Phil emerges from his temporary home on Gobbler's Knob, located in a rural area about 2 miles (3 km) southeast of the town. According to the tradition, if Phil sees his shadow and returns to his hole, he has predicted six more weeks of winter-like weather. If Phil does not see his shadow, he has predicted an "early spring." Punxsutawney's event is the most famous of many Groundhog Day festivals held in the United States and Canada. The event formally began in 1887, although its roots go back even further. The event is based upon a communal light-hearted suspension of disbelief which extends to the assertion that the same groundhog has been making predictions since the 19th century. The event is organized by the "Inner Circle" – recognizable by their top hats and tuxedos – who ostensibly communicate with Phil to receive his prediction. The vice president of the Inner Circle prepares two scrolls in advance of the actual ceremony, one proclaiming six more weeks of winter and one proclaiming an early spring. At daybreak on February 2, Punxsutawney Phil awakens from his burrow on Gobbler's Knob, is helped to the top of the stump by his handlers, and purportedly explains to the president of the Inner Circle, in a language known as "Groundhogese", whether he has seen his shadow. The president of the Inner Circle, the only person able to understand Groundhogese through his possession of an ancient acacia wood cane, then interprets Phil's message, and directs the vice president to read the proper scroll to the crowd gathered on Gobbler's Knob and the masses of "phaithphil phollowers" tuned in to live broadcasts around the world. The Inner Circle scripts the Groundhog Day ceremonies in advance, with the Inner Circle deciding beforehand whether Phil will see his shadow. The Stormfax Almanac has made note of the weather conditions on each Groundhog Day since 1999; the almanac has recorded 12 incidents in a 20-year span in which the Inner Circle said the groundhog saw his shadow while the sky was cloudy or there was rain or snow coming down, and in one case said the groundhog did not see his shadow despite sunshine. Outside of Groundhog Day, Phil resides with a mate, Phyllis, at the Punxsutawney Memorial Library in a climate-controlled environment. In March 2024, the Inner Circle announced that Phil had sired two babies, the first time in the history of the event that such a siring had happened; the birth surprised the Inner Circle, which had assumed that groundhogs do not breed in captivity. As a result of the births, the family will move permanently to Gobblers Knob. The Inner Circle disowned the babies from ever inheriting their father's position. Punxsutawney Phil canon The practices and lore of Punxsutawney Phil's predictions are predicated on a light-hearted suspension of disbelief by those involved. According to the lore, there is only one Phil, and all other groundhogs are impostors. It is claimed that this one groundhog has lived to make weather prognostications since 1886, sustained by drinks of "groundhog punch" or "elixir of life" administered at the annual Groundhog Picnic in the fall. The lifespan of a groundhog in the wild is roughly six years. According to the Groundhog Club, Phil, after the prediction, speaks to the club president in the language of 'Groundhogese', which supposedly only the current president can understand, and then his prediction is translated and revealed to all. The Groundhog Day celebration is rooted in Germanic tradition that says that if a hibernating animal casts a shadow on February 2, the Christian celebration of Candlemas, winter and cold weather will last another six weeks. If no shadow is seen, legend says, spring will come early. In Germany, the tradition evolved into a myth that if the sun came out on Candlemas, a hedgehog would cast its shadow, predicting snow all the way into May. When German immigrants settled in Pennsylvania, they transferred the tradition onto local fauna, replacing hedgehogs with groundhogs. Several other towns in the region hold similar Groundhog Day events. Phil first received his name in 1961. The origins of the name are unclear, but speculation suggests that it may have been indirectly named after Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Reception Prior to 1993, the Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney attracted crowds of approximately 2,000. The popularity of the film Groundhog Day brought significantly more attention to the event, with annual crowds rising to 10,000–20,000. A notable exception was 2021, when the event took place without any crowds due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since approximately 2018, the event is streamed online each year. Also given the recent increase in crowd sizes, three sitting governors of Pennsylvania have attended the festivities, all since 2000: Ed Rendell in 2003, Tom Corbett in 2012, and Josh Shapiro in 2023 and 2024. Phil was named the "Official" State Meteorologist by Governor Shapiro during the 2024 ceremony. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals object to the event, claiming that Phil is put under stress. They suggest replacing Phil with a robotic groundhog. In some cases where Phil's prognostications have been incorrect, organizations have jokingly made legal threats against the groundhog. Such tongue-in-cheek actions have been made by a prosecutor in Ohio, the sheriff's office of Monroe County, Pennsylvania, and the Merrimack, New Hampshire Police Department. In media and popular culture Phil and the town of Punxsutawney were portrayed in the 1993 film Groundhog Day. The actual town used to portray Punxsutawney in the film is Woodstock, Illinois. In Groundhog Day, the 2016 Broadway musical adaptation of the film, Phil is ascribed a more mythical role. In 1995, Phil flew to Chicago for a guest appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, which aired on Groundhog Day, February 2, 1995. A 2002 episode of the children's animated series Stanley, titled "Searching for Spring", featured Punxsutawney Phil. Phil was the main attraction in "Groundhog Day", the April 10, 2005 episode of the MTV series Viva La Bam. In the episode, street skater Bam Margera holds a downhill race in honor of Punxsutawney Phil at Bear Creek Mountain Resort in Macungie, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Lottery's mascot is a groundhog named Gus, referred to in commercials as "the second most famous groundhog in Pennsylvania", in deference to Phil. Because the Groundhog Club Inner Circle has trademarked the use of the name "Punxsutawney Phil", no commercial entity may use the name without the permission from the Inner Circle, which does not allow commercialization of the name. Past predictions Predictive accuracy The Inner Circle, in keeping with the suspension of disbelief, claims a 100% accuracy rate, and an approximately 80% accuracy rate in recorded predictions. They claim that whenever the prediction is wrong, the person in charge of translating the message must have made a mistake in their interpretation. Impartial estimates place the groundhog's accuracy between 35% and 41%. See also Balzac Billy, the official groundhog of Balzac, Alberta, Canada Buckeye Chuck, the official groundhog of Marion, Ohio, United States Fred la Marmotte, the official groundhog of Val-d'Espoir, Quebec, Canada General Beauregard Lee, the official groundhog of Jackson, Georgia, United States (and by extension, the entire Southern US) Gus the Groundhog, mascot of the Pennsylvania Lottery Shubenacadie Sam, the official groundhog of Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, Canada Staten Island Chuck, the official groundhog of New York City, New York, United States Stormy Marmot, a yellow-bellied marmot who is part of the Groundhog Day celebrations of Aurora, Colorado, United States. Wiarton Willie, the official groundhog of Wiarton, Ontario, Canada References Further reading Potter, Sean (2008). "February 2, 1886: The First Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania". Weatherwise. 61 (1): 16–17. Bibcode:2008Weawi..61a..16P. doi:10.3200/WEWI.61.1.16-17. S2CID 191332194. Moutran, Julia Spencer (1987). The story of Punxsutawney Phil, "the fearless forecaster". Avon, Connecticut: Literary Publications. ISBN 978-0-9617819-0-3. Benesh, Julie Ellen (2011). Becoming Punxsutawney Phil: Symbols and metaphors of transformation in Groundhog Day (PhD Thesis). Fielding Graduate University. Archived from the original on 2015-02-05. Retrieved 2012-02-02. Aaron, Michael A.; Boyd, Brewster B.; Curtis, Melanie J.; Sommers, Paul M. (2001). "Punxsutawney's Phenomenal Phorecaster" (PDF). The College Mathematics Journal. 32 (1): 26–29. doi:10.2307/2687216. JSTOR 2687216. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-05-13. External links Gobbler's Knobb Tradition Archived 2016-02-02 at the Wayback Machine Groundhog.org. the official site of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. The Oddities of Groundhog Day. Onward State. Visiting Phil at Punxsutawney Library

United_States_Capitol

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Capitol

The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the United States Congress, the legislative branch of the federal government. It is located on Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Although no longer at the geographic center of the national capital, the U.S. Capitol forms the origin point for the street-numbering system of the district as well as its four quadrants. Like the principal buildings of the executive and judicial branches, the Capitol is built in a neoclassical style and has a white exterior. Central sections of the present building were completed in 1800. These were partly destroyed in the 1814 Burning of Washington, then were fully restored within five years. The building was enlarged in the 1850s by extending the wings for the chambers for the bicameral legislature, the House of Representatives in the south wing and the Senate in the north wing. The massive dome was completed around 1866 just after the American Civil War. The east front portico was extended in 1958. The building's Visitors Center was opened in the early 21st century. Both its east and west elevations are formally referred to as fronts, although only the east front was intended for the reception of visitors and dignitaries, while the west front is now used for presidential inauguration ceremonies. The building and grounds are overseen by the architect of the Capitol, who also oversees the surrounding Capitol Complex. History 18th century Prior to establishing the nation's capital in Washington, D.C., the United States Congress and its predecessors met at Independence Hall and Congress Hall in Philadelphia, Federal Hall in New York City, and five additional locations: York, Pennsylvania, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland, and Nassau Hall in Princeton, New Jersey, and Trenton, New Jersey. In September 1774, the First Continental Congress brought together delegates from the colonies in Philadelphia, followed by the Second Continental Congress, which met from May 1775 to March 1781. After adopting the Articles of Confederation in York, Pennsylvania, the Congress of the Confederation was formed and convened in Philadelphia from March 1781 until June 1783, when a mob of angry soldiers converged upon Independence Hall, demanding payment for their service during the American Revolutionary War. Congress requested that John Dickinson, the Governor of Pennsylvania, call up the militia to defend Congress from attacks by the protesters. In what became known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, Dickinson sympathized with the protesters and refused to remove them from Philadelphia. As a result, Congress was forced to flee to Princeton, New Jersey, on June 21, 1783, and met in Annapolis, Maryland, and Trenton, New Jersey, before ending up in New York City. The U.S. Congress was established upon ratification of the U.S. Constitution and formally began on March 4, 1789. New York City remained home to Congress until July 1790, when the Residence Act was passed to pave the way for a permanent capital. The decision of where to locate the capital was contentious, but Alexander Hamilton helped broker a compromise in which the federal government would take on war debt incurred during the American Revolutionary War, in exchange for support from northern states for locating the capital along the Potomac River. As part of the legislation, Philadelphia was chosen as a temporary capital for ten years (until December 1800), until the nation's capital in Washington, D.C., would be ready. Pierre L'Enfant was charged with creating the city plan for the new capital city and the major public buildings. The Congress House would be built on Jenkins Hill, now known as Capitol Hill, which L'Enfant described as a "pedestal awaiting a monument." L'Enfant connected Congress House with the President's House via Pennsylvania Avenue with a width set at 160 feet, identical to the narrowest points of the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Westwards was a 400-foot-wide (122 m) garden-lined "grand avenue" containing a public walk (later known as the National Mall) that would travel for about 1 mile (1.6 km) along the east–west line. The term "Capitol" (from Latin Capitolium) originally denoted the Capitoline Hill in Rome and the Temple of Jupiter that stood on its summit. The Roman Capitol was sometimes misconceived of as a meeting place for senators, and this led the term to be applied to legislative buildings; the first such building was the Williamsburg Capitol in Virginia. Thomas Jefferson had sat here as a member of the House of Burgesses, and it was he who applied the name "Capitol" to what on L'Enfant's plan had been called the "Congress House". "Capitol" has since become a general term for government buildings, especially in the United States. It is often confused with "capital"; one, however, denotes a building or complex of buildings, while the other denotes a city. In early 1792, after Pierre L'Enfant was dismissed from the federal city project, Jefferson proposed a design competition to solicit designs for the Capitol and the "President's House", and set a four-month deadline. The prize for the competition was $500 and a lot in the Federal City. At least ten individuals submitted designs for the Capitol; however the drawings were regarded as crude and amateurish, reflecting the level of architectural skill present in the United States at the time. The most promising of the submissions was by Stephen Hallet, a trained French architect who was a draftsman to Pierre L'Enfant on the city plan. However, Hallet's designs were overly fancy, with too much French influence, and were deemed too costly. However, the design did incorporate the concept for a "great circular room and dome" which had originated with L'Enfant. John Trumbull was given a tour of "Jenkins Hill" by L'Enfant himself and confirmed this in his autobiography years later. On January 31, 1793, a late entry by amateur architect William Thornton was submitted, and was met with praise for its "Grandeur, Simplicity, and Beauty" by Washington, along with praise from Jefferson. Thornton was inspired by the east front of the Louvre, as well as the Paris Pantheon for the center portion of the design. Thornton's design was officially approved in a letter dated April 5, 1793, from Washington, and Thornton served as the first architect of the Capitol (and later first superintendent of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office). In an effort to console Hallet, the commissioners appointed him to review Thornton's plans, develop cost estimates, and serve as superintendent of construction. Hallet proceeded to pick apart and make drastic changes to Thornton's design, which he saw as costly to build and problematic. In July 1793, Jefferson convened a five-member commission, bringing Hallet and Thornton together, along with James Hoban (winning architect of the "President's Palace") to address problems with and revise Thornton's plan. Hallet suggested changes to the floor plan, which could be fitted within the exterior design by Thornton. The revised plan was accepted, except that Secretary Jefferson and President Washington insisted on an open recess in the center of the East front, which was part of Thornton's original plan. The original design by Thornton was later significantly altered by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, and later Charles Bulfinch. The current cast-iron dome and the House's new southern extension and Senate new northern wing were designed by Thomas Ustick Walter and August Schoenborn, a German immigrant, in the 1850s, and were completed under the supervision of Edward Clark. L'Enfant secured the lease of quarries at Wigginton Island and along Aquia Creek in Virginia for use in the foundations and outer walls of the Capitol in November 1791. Surveying was under way soon after the Jefferson conference plan for the Capitol was accepted. On September 18, 1793, President Washington, along with eight other Freemasons dressed in masonic regalia, laid the cornerstone, which was made by silversmith Caleb Bentley. Construction proceeded with Hallet working under supervision of James Hoban, who was also busy working on construction of the "President's House" (also later known as the "Executive Mansion"). Despite the wishes of Jefferson and the President, Hallet went ahead anyway and modified Thornton's design for the East Front and created a square central court that projected from the center, with flanking wings which would house the legislative bodies. Hallet was dismissed by Secretary Jefferson on November 15, 1794. George Hadfield was hired on October 15, 1795, as Superintendent of Construction, but resigned three years later in May 1798, because of his dissatisfaction with Thornton's plan and quality of work done thus far. 19th century The Senate (north) wing was completed in 1800. The Senate and House shared quarters in the north wing until a temporary wooden pavilion was erected on the future site of the House wing which served for a few years for the Representatives to meet in, until the House of Representatives (south) wing was finally completed in 1811, with a covered wooden temporary walkway connecting the two wings with the Congressional chambers where the future center section with rotunda and dome would eventually be. However, the House of Representatives moved early into their House wing in 1807. Though the Senate wing building was incomplete, the Capitol held its first session of the U.S. Congress with both chambers in session on November 17, 1800. The National Legislature was moved to Washington prematurely, at the urging of President John Adams, in hopes of securing enough Southern votes in the Electoral College to be re-elected for a second term as president. In March 1803, James Madison appointed Benjamin Henry Latrobe to the position of "Surveyor of Public Buildings", with the principal responsibility of completing construction of the Capitol's south and north wings. Work on the north wing began in November 1806. Although occupied for only six years, it had suffered from falling plaster, rotting floors and a leaking roof. Instead of repairing it, Latrobe demolished, redesigned and rebuilt the interiors within the existing brick and sandstone walls. Notably, Latrobe designed the Supreme Court and Senate chambers. The former was a particular architectural achievement; the size and structure of its vaulted, semi-circular ceiling was then unprecedented in the United States. For several decades, beginning when the federal government moved to Washington in the fall of 1800, the Capitol building was used for Sunday religious services as well as for governmental functions. The first services were conducted in the "hall" of the House in the north wing of the building. In 1801 the House moved to temporary quarters in the south wing, called the "Oven", which it vacated in 1804, returning to the north wing for three years. Then, from 1807 to 1857, they were held in the then-House Chamber (now called Statuary Hall). When held in the House chamber, the Speaker's podium was used as the preacher's pulpit. According to the U.S. Library of Congress exhibit Religion and the Founding of the American Republic: It is no exaggeration to say that on Sundays in Washington during the administrations of Thomas Jefferson (1801–1809) and of James Madison (1809–1817) the state became the church. Within a year of his inauguration, Jefferson began attending church services in the chamber of the House of Representatives. Madison followed Jefferson's example, although unlike Jefferson, who rode on horseback to church in the Capitol, Madison came in a coach and four. Worship services in the House – a practice that continued until after the Civil War – were acceptable to Jefferson because they were nondiscriminatory and voluntary. Preachers of every Protestant denomination appeared. (Catholic priests began officiating in 1826.) As early as January 1806 a female evangelist, Dorothy Ripley, delivered a camp meeting-style exhortation in the House to Jefferson, Vice President Aaron Burr, and a "crowded audience". Not long after the completion of both wings, the Capitol was partially burned by the British on August 24, 1814, during the War of 1812. After the fires, Latrobe was rehired as Architect of the Capitol to oversee restoration works. George Bomford and Joseph Gardner Swift, both military engineers, were called upon to help rebuild the Capitol. Reconstruction began in 1815 and included redesigned chambers for both Senate and House wings (now sides), which were completed by 1819. During the reconstruction, Congress met in the Old Brick Capitol, a temporary structure financed by local investors. Construction continued through to 1826, with the addition of the center section with front steps and columned portico and an interior Rotunda rising above the first low dome of the Capitol. Latrobe is principally connected with the original construction and many innovative interior features; his successor Bulfinch also played a major role, such as design of the first low dome covered in copper. By 1850, it became clear that the Capitol could not accommodate the growing number of legislators arriving from newly admitted states. A new design competition was held, and President Millard Fillmore appointed Philadelphia architect Thomas U. Walter to carry out the expansion. Two new wings were added: a new chamber for the House of Representatives on the south side, and a new chamber for the Senate on the north. When the Capitol was expanded in the 1850s, some of the construction labor was carried out by slaves "who cut the logs, laid the stones and baked the bricks". The original plan was to use workers brought in from Europe. However, there was a poor response to recruitment efforts; African Americans, some free and some enslaved, along with Scottish stonemasons, comprised most of the workforce. Capitol dome The 1850 expansion more than doubled the length of the United States Capitol; it dwarfed the original, timber-framed, copper-sheeted, low dome of 1818, designed by Charles Bulfinch which was no longer in proportion with the increased size of the building. In 1855, the decision was made to tear it down and replace it with the "wedding-cake style" cast-iron dome that stands today. Also designed by Thomas U. Walter, the new dome would stand three times the height of the original dome and 100 feet (30 m) in diameter, yet had to be supported on the existing masonry piers. Like Mansart's dome at Les Invalides in Paris (which he had visited in 1838), Walter's dome is double, with a large oculus in the inner dome, through which is seen The Apotheosis of Washington painted on a shell suspended from the supporting ribs, which also support the visible exterior structure and the tholos that supports the Statue of Freedom, a colossal statue that was raised to the top of the dome in 1863. The statue invokes the goddesses Minerva or Athena. The cast iron for the dome weighs 8,909,200 pounds (4,041,100 kg). The dome's cast iron frame was supplied and constructed by the iron foundry Janes, Fowler, Kirtland & Co. The thirty-six Corinthian columns that surround the base of the dome were provided by the Baltimore ironworks of Poole & Hunt. When the Capitol's new dome was finally completed, its massive visual weight, in turn, overpowered the proportions of the columns of the East Portico, built in 1828. 20th century In 1904, the East Front of the Capitol building was rebuilt, following a design of the architects Carrère and Hastings, who designed the Russell Senate and Cannon House office buildings earlier that year. In 1958, the next major expansion to the Capitol started, with a 33.5-foot (10.2 m) extension of the East Portico. In 1960, two years into the project, the dome underwent a restoration. A marble duplicate of the sandstone East Front was built 33.5 feet (10.2 m) from the old Front. In 1962, a connecting extension repurposed what had been an outside wall as an inside wall. In the process, the original sandstone Corinthian columns were removed and replaced with marble. It was not until 1984 that landscape designer Russell Page created a suitable setting for them in a large meadow at the U.S. National Arboretum in northeast Washington as the National Capitol Columns, where they were combined with a reflecting pool into an ensemble that reminds some visitors of the ruins of Persepolis, in Persia. Besides the columns, two hundred tons of the original stone were removed in several hundred block, which were first stored on site at the Capitol, and then stored in an unused yard at the Capitol Power Plant until 1975. The same year, the power plant was renovated and expanded in accordance with legislation passed in 1970, and the stones fell to the Commission on the Extension of the United States Capitol. As this body was long-defunct, responsibility for the material passed to the House and Senate office building commissions. These commissions then arranged for the National Park Service to store the debris at the back of a NPS maintenance yard in Rock Creek Park. With the permission of the Speaker of the House, the United States Capitol Historical Society has periodically mined the blocks for sandstone since 1975. The stone removed is used to make commemorative bookends, which are still sold to support the Capitol Historical Society. By 1982, more than $20,000 (nearly $60,000 adjusted) had been raised through such sales. Unpursued uses for the stones proposed by the Capitol Historical Society have included their sale as cornerstones in new housing developments. On December 19, 1960, the Capitol was declared a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service. The building was ranked #6 in a 2007 survey conducted for the American Institute of Architects' "America's Favorite Architecture" list. The Capitol draws heavily from other notable buildings, especially churches and landmarks in Europe, including the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican and St. Paul's Cathedral in London. On the roofs of the Senate and House Chambers are flagpoles that fly the U.S. flag when either is in session. On September 18, 1993, to commemorate the Capitol's bicentennial, the Masonic ritual cornerstone laying with George Washington was reenacted. U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond was one of the Freemason politicians who took part in the ceremony. 21st century On June 20, 2000, ground was broken for the Capitol Visitor Center, which opened on December 2, 2008. From 2001 through 2008, the East Front of the Capitol (site of most presidential inaugurations until Ronald Reagan began a new tradition in 1981) was the site of construction for this massive underground complex, designed to facilitate a more orderly entrance for visitors to the Capitol. Prior to the center being built, visitors to the Capitol had to line up in the basement of the Cannon House Office Building or the Russell Senate Office Building. The new underground facility provides a grand entrance hall, a visitors theater, room for exhibits, and dining and restroom facilities, in addition to space for building necessities such as a service tunnel. A large-scale Capitol dome restoration project, the first extensive such work since 1959–1960, began in 2014, with completion scheduled before the 2017 presidential inauguration. As of 2012, $20 million in work around the skirt of the dome had been completed, but other deterioration, including at least 1,300 cracks in the brittle iron that have led to rusting and seepage inside, needed to be addressed. Before the August 2012 recess, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to spend $61 million to repair the exterior of the dome. The House wanted to spend less on government operations, but in late 2013, it was announced that renovations would take place over two years, starting in spring 2014. In 2014, extensive scaffolding was erected, enclosing and obscuring the dome. All exterior scaffolding was removed by mid-September 2016. With the increased use of technologies such as the Internet, a bid tendering process was approved in 2002 for a contract to install the multidirectional radio communication network for Wi-Fi and mobile-phone within the Capitol Building and annexes, followed by the new Capitol Visitor Center. The winning bidder was an Israeli company called Foxcom which has since changed its name and been acquired by Corning Incorporated. Interior The Capitol building is marked by its central dome above a rotunda in the central section of the structure (which also includes the older original smaller center flanked by the two original (designed 1793, occupied 1800) smaller two wings (inner north and inner south) containing the two original smaller meeting chambers for the Senate and the House of Representatives (between 1800 and late 1850s) and then flanked by two further extended (newer) wings, one also for each chamber of the larger, more populous Congress: the new north wing is the Senate chamber and the new south wing is the House of Representatives chamber. Above these newer chambers are galleries where visitors can watch the Senate and House of Representatives. It is an example of neoclassical architecture. Tunnels and internal subways connect the Capitol building with the Congressional office buildings in the Capitol Complex. All rooms in the Capitol are designated as either S (for Senate) or H (for House), depending on whether they are in the Senate or House wing of the Capitol. Art Since 1856, the Capitol has featured some the most prominent art in the United States, including Italian and Greek American artist Constantino Brumidi, whose murals are located in the hallways of the first floor of the Senate side of the Capitol. The murals, known as the Brumidi Corridors, reflect great moments and people in United States history. Among the original works are those depicting Benjamin Franklin, John Fitch, Robert Fulton, and events such as the Cession of Louisiana. Also decorating the walls are animals, insects and natural flora indigenous to the United States. Brumidi's design left many spaces open so future events in United States history could be added. Among those added are the Spirit of St. Louis, the Moon landing, and the Space Shuttle Challenger crew. Brumidi also worked within the Rotunda. He painted The Apotheosis of Washington beneath the top of the dome, and also the Frieze of American History. The Apotheosis of Washington was completed in 11 months and painted by Brumidi while suspended nearly 180 feet (55 m) in the air. It is said to be the first attempt by the United States to deify a founding father. Washington is depicted surrounded by 13 maidens in an inner ring with many Greek and Roman gods and goddesses below him in a second ring. The frieze is located around the inside of the base of the dome and is a chronological, pictorial history of the United States from the landing of Christopher Columbus to the Wright Brothers's flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. The frieze was started in 1878 and was not completed until 1953. The frieze was therefore painted by four different artists: Brumidi, Filippo Costaggini, Charles Ayer Whipple, and Allyn Cox. The final scenes depicted in the fresco had not yet occurred when Brumidi began his Frieze of the United States History. Within the Rotunda there are eight large paintings about the development of the United States as a nation. On the east side are four paintings depicting major events in the discovery of America. On the west are four paintings depicting the founding of the United States. The east side paintings include The Baptism of Pocahontas by John Gadsby Chapman, The Embarkation of the Pilgrims by Robert Walter Weir, The Discovery of the Mississippi by William Henry Powell, and The Landing of Columbus by John Vanderlyn. The paintings on the west side are by John Trumbull: Declaration of Independence, Surrender of General Burgoyne, Surrender of Lord Cornwallis, and General George Washington Resigning His Commission. Trumbull was a contemporary of the United States' founding fathers and a participant in the American Revolutionary War; he painted a self-portrait into Surrender of Lord Cornwallis. First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln, an 1864 painting by Francis Bicknell Carpenter, hangs over the west staircase in the Senate wing. The Capitol also houses the National Statuary Hall Collection, comprising two statues donated by each of the fifty states to honor persons notable in their histories. One of the most notable statues in the National Statuary Hall is a bronze statue of King Kamehameha donated by the state of Hawaii upon its accession to the union in 1959. The statue's extraordinary weight of 15,000 pounds (6,800 kg) raised concerns that it might come crashing through the floor, so it was moved to Emancipation Hall of the new Capitol Visitor Center. The 100th, and last statue for the collection, that of Po'pay from the state of New Mexico, was added on September 22, 2005. It was the first statue moved into the Emancipation Hall. Crypt On the ground floor is an area known as the Crypt. It was intended to be the burial place of George Washington, with a ringed balustrade at the center of the Rotunda above looking down to his tomb. However, under the stipulations of his last will, Washington was buried at Mount Vernon. The Crypt houses exhibits on the history of the Capitol. A compass star inlaid in the floor marks the point at which Washington, D.C. is divided into its four quadrants and is the basis for how addresses in Washington, D.C., are designated (NE, NW, SE, or SW). Gutzon Borglum's massive Abraham Lincoln Bust is housed in the crypt. The sculptor had a fascination with large-scale art and themes of heroic nationalism, and carved the piece from a six-ton block of marble. Borglum carved the bust in 1908; it was donated to the Congress by Eugene Meyer Jr. and accepted by the Joint Committee on the Library the same year. The pedestal was specially designed by the sculptor and installed in 1911. The bust and pedestal were on display in the Rotunda until 1979 when, after a rearrangement of all the sculptures in the Rotunda, they were placed in the Crypt. Borglum was a patriot and believed the "monuments we have built are not our own"; he looked to create art that was "American, drawn from American sources, memorializing American achievement", according to a 1908 interview article. Borglum's depiction of Lincoln was so accurate that Robert Todd Lincoln, the president's son, praised the bust as "the most extraordinarily good portrait of my father I have ever seen". Supposedly, according to legend, the marble head remains unfinished (missing the left ear) to symbolize Lincoln's unfinished life. Features A statue of John C. Calhoun is located at one end of the room near the Old Supreme Court Chamber. On the right leg of the statue, a mark from a bullet fired during the 1998 shooting incident is clearly visible. The bullet also left a mark on the cape, located on the back right side of the statue. Twelve presidents have lain in state in the Rotunda for public viewing, most recently George H. W. Bush. The tomb meant for Washington stored the catafalque which is used to support coffins lying in state or honor in the Capitol. The catafalque now on display in the Exhibition Hall of the Capitol Visitor Center was used for President Lincoln. The Hall of Columns is located on the House side of the Capitol, home to twenty-eight fluted columns and statues from the National Statuary Hall Collection. In the basement of the Capitol building in a utility room are two marble bathtubs, which are all that remain of the once elaborate Senate baths. These baths were a spa-like facility designed for members of Congress and their guests before many buildings in the city had modern plumbing. The facilities included several bathtubs, a barbershop, and a massage parlor. A steep metal staircase, totaling 365 steps, leads from the basement to an outdoor walkway on top of the Capitol's dome. The number of steps represents each day of the year. Also in the basement, the weekly Jummah prayer is held on Fridays by Muslim staffers. Height Contrary to a popular myth, building height laws have never referred to the height of the Capitol building, which rises to 289 feet (88 m). Indeed, the Capitol is only the fourth-tallest structure in Washington. House Chamber The House of Representatives Chamber has 448 permanent seats. Unlike senators, representatives do not have assigned seats. The chamber is large enough to accommodate members of all three branches of the federal government and invited guests for joint sessions of Congress such as the State of the Union speech and other events. The Chamber is adorned with relief portraits of famous lawmakers and lawgivers throughout Western and Near Eastern history. The United States national motto "In God We Trust" is written over the tribune below the clock and above the United States flag. Of the twenty-three relief portraits, only Moses is sculpted from a full front view and is located across from the dais where the Speaker of the House ceremonially sits. In order, clockwise around the chamber: There is a quote by statesman Daniel Webster etched in the marble of the chamber, as stated: "Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered." Senate Chamber The current Senate Chamber opened in 1859 and is adorned with white marble busts of the former Presidents of the Senate (Vice Presidents). Old Chambers Statuary Hall The National Statuary Hall is a chamber in the United States Capitol devoted to sculptures of prominent Americans. The hall, also known as the Old Hall of the House, is a large, two-story, semicircular room with a second story gallery along the curved perimeter. It is located immediately south of the Rotunda. It was the meeting place of the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly 50 years (1807–1857). After a few years of disuse, in 1864, it was repurposed as a statuary hall. Old Senate and Supreme Court Chambers The Old Senate Chamber is a room in the United States Capitol that was the legislative chamber of the United States Senate from 1810 to 1859, and served as the Supreme Court chamber from 1860 until 1935. This room was originally the lower half of the Old Senate Chamber from 1800 to 1806. After division of the chamber in two levels, this room was used from 1806 until 1860 as the Supreme Court Chamber. In 1860, the Supreme Court began using the newly vacated Old Senate Chamber. In 1935, the Supreme Court vacated the Capitol Building and began meeting in the newly constructed United States Supreme Court Building across the street. Floor plans Exterior Landscaping The Capitol Grounds cover approximately 274 acres (1.11 km2), with the grounds proper consisting mostly of lawns, walkways, streets, drives, and planting areas. Several monumental sculptures used to be located on the east facade and lawn of the Capitol including The Rescue and George Washington. The current grounds were designed by noted American landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who planned the expansion and landscaping performed from 1874 to 1892. In 1875, as one of his first recommendations, Olmsted proposed the construction of the marble terraces on the north, west, and south sides of the building creating an enveloping base. This addressed issues with the placement of the original structure; it had been built too far westwards on the crest of the hill and gave the appearance as if the building might slide into the marshy terrain below. Olmsted also designed the Summerhouse, the open-air brick building that sits just north of the Capitol. Three arches open into the hexagonal structure, which encloses a fountain and twenty-two brick chairs. A fourth wall holds a small window which looks onto an artificial grotto. Built between 1879 and 1881, the Summerhouse was intended to answer complaints that visitors to the Capitol had no place to sit and no place to obtain water for their horses and themselves. Modern drinking fountains have since replaced Olmsted's fountain for the latter purpose. Olmsted intended to build a second, matching Summerhouse on the southern side of the Capitol, but congressional objections led to the project's cancellation. Flag Up to four U.S. flags can be seen flying over the Capitol. Two flagpoles are located at the base of the dome on the East and West sides. These flagpoles have flown the flag day and night since World War I. The other two flagpoles are above the North (Senate) and South (House of Representatives) wings of the building, and fly only when the chamber below is in session. The flag above the House of Representatives is raised and lowered by House pages. The flag above the United States Senate is raised and lowered by Senate Doorkeepers. To raise the flag, Doorkeepers access the roof of the Capitol from the Senate Sergeant at Arms's office. Several auxiliary flagpoles, to the west of the dome and not visible from the ground, are used to meet congressional requests for flags flown over the Capitol. Constituents pay for U.S. flags flown over the Capitol to commemorate a variety of events such as the death of a veteran family member. Major events The Capitol and the grounds of Capitol Hill have played host to major events, including presidential inaugurations, which are held every four years. During an inauguration, the front of the Capitol is outfitted with a platform and a grand staircase. Annual events at the Capitol include Independence Day celebrations, and the National Memorial Day Concert. The general public has paid respect to a number of individuals lying in state at the Capitol, including numerous former presidents, senators, and other officials. Other Americans lying in honor include Officers Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson, the two officers killed in the 1998 shooting incident. Chestnut was the first African American ever to lie in honor in the Capitol. The public also paid respect to Rosa Parks, an icon of the civil rights movement, at the Capitol in 2005. She was the first woman and second African American to lie in honor in the Capitol. In February 2018, the evangelical Rev. Billy Graham became the fourth private citizen to lie in honor in the Rotunda. On September 24, 2015, Pope Francis gave a joint address to Congress, the first Pope to do so. Security The U.S. Capitol is believed to have been the intended target of United Airlines Flight 93, one of the four planes that were hijacked in the September 11 attacks. The plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers tried to regain control of the plane from the hijackers. Since the September 11 attacks, the roads and grounds around the Capitol have undergone dramatic changes. The United States Capitol Police have also installed checkpoints to inspect vehicles at specific locations around Capitol Hill, and have closed a section of one street indefinitely. The level of screening employed varies. On the main east–west thoroughfares of Constitution and Independence Avenues, barricades are implanted in the roads that can be raised in the event of an emergency. Trucks larger than pickups are interdicted by the Capitol Police and are instructed to use other routes. On the checkpoints at the shorter cross streets, the barriers are typically kept in a permanent "emergency" position, and only vehicles with special permits are allowed to pass. All Capitol visitors are screened by a magnetometer, and all items that visitors may bring inside the building are screened by an x-ray device. In both chambers, gas masks are located underneath the chairs in each chamber for members to use in case of emergency. Structures ranging from scores of Jersey barriers to hundreds of ornamental bollards have been erected to obstruct the path of any vehicles that might stray from the designated roadways. After the January 6 United States Capitol attack, security increased again. Additional security fences were installed around the perimeter, and National Guard troops were deployed to bolster security. List of security incidents On January 30, 1835, what is believed to be the first attempt to kill a sitting President of the United States occurred just outside the United States Capitol. As President Andrew Jackson was leaving the Capitol out of the East Portico after the funeral of South Carolina Representative Warren R. Davis, Richard Lawrence, an unemployed and deranged housepainter from England, either burst from a crowd or stepped out from hiding behind a column and aimed a pistol at Jackson which misfired. Lawrence then pulled out a second pistol which also misfired. It has since been postulated that the moisture from the humid weather of the day contributed to the double misfiring. Lawrence was then restrained, with legend saying that Jackson attacked Lawrence with his cane, prompting his aides to restrain him. Others present, including Davy Crockett, restrained and disarmed Lawrence. On April 23, 1844, then House-Speaker John White was involved in a physical confrontation on the House floor with Democratic Congressman George O. Rathbun of New York. White was delivering a speech in defense of Senator Henry Clay, the Whig nominee for president in that year's presidential election, and objected to a ruling from the Speaker denying him time to conclude his remarks. When Rathbun told White to be quiet, White confronted him and their disagreement lead to a fistfight between the two with dozens of their colleagues rushing to break up the fight. During the disturbance, an unknown visitor fired a pistol into the crowd, wounding a police officer. Both White and Rathbun subsequently apologized for their actions. On July 2, 1915, prior to the United States' entry into World War I, Eric Muenter, also known as Frank Holt, a German professor who wanted to stop American support of the Allies of World War I, exploded a bomb in the reception room of the U.S. Senate. The next morning he tried to assassinate J. P. Morgan Jr., son of the financier, at his home on Long Island, New York. J.P. Morgan's company served as Great Britain's principal U.S. purchasing agent for munitions and other war supplies. In a letter to the Washington Evening Star published after the explosion, Muenter, writing under an assumed name, said he hoped that the detonation would "make enough noise to be heard above the voices that clamor for war". In the 1954 United States Capitol shooting, Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire on members of Congress from the visitors' gallery, injuring five representatives. On March 1, 1971, a bomb exploded on the ground floor of the Capitol, placed by the far-left domestic terrorist group the Weather Underground. They placed the bomb as a demonstration against U.S. involvement in Laos. On November 7, 1983, in the 1983 United States Senate bombing, a group called the Armed Resistance Unit claimed responsibility for a bomb that detonated in the lobby outside the office of Senate Minority Leader Robert Byrd. Six people associated with the John Brown Anti-Klan Committee were later found in contempt of court for refusing to testify about the bombing. In 1990, three members of the Armed Resistance Unit were convicted of the bombing, which they claimed was in response to the invasion of Grenada. In the 1998 United States Capitol shooting, Russell Eugene Weston Jr. burst into the Capitol and opened fire, killing two Capitol Police officers, Officer Jacob Chestnut and Det. John Gibson. In 2004, the Capitol was briefly evacuated after a plane carrying the then-Governor of Kentucky, Ernie Fletcher, strayed into restricted airspace above the district. In 2013, Miriam Carey, 34, a dental hygienist from Stamford, Connecticut, attempted to drive through a White House security checkpoint in her black Infiniti G37 coupe, struck a U.S. Secret Service officer, and was chased by the Secret Service to the United States Capitol where she was fatally shot by law enforcement officers. In 2015, Doug Hughes, a US postal worker, landed a Gyrocopter on the West lawn of the Capitol building. His alleged goal was to deliver letters to members of Congress in order to convince them to reform campaign finance laws. After Hughes was detained, bomb squad confirmed that there was no explosive ordinance in the vehicle. A shooting incident occurred in March 2016. One female bystander was wounded by police but not seriously injured; a man pointing a gun was shot and arrested, in critical but stable condition. The city police of Washington D.C. described the shooting incident as "isolated". On January 6, 2021, during the counting of Electoral College votes for the 2020 United States presidential election, a pro-Trump rally resulted in a mob that entered the Capitol. The rioters unlawfully entered the Capitol during the joint session of Congress certifying the election of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, temporarily disrupting the proceedings. This triggered a lockdown in the building. Vice President Mike Pence, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and other staff members were evacuated, while others were instructed to barricade themselves inside offices and closets. The rioters breached the Senate Chamber and multiple staff offices, including the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. One person was shot by law enforcement, and later succumbed to the injury. President-elect Joe Biden criticized the violence as "insurrection" and said democracy was "under unprecedented assault" as a result of the attack. The attack resulted in the death of four rioters, including a woman who was shot as she attempted to breach the Capitol. The events ultimately led to the second impeachment of Donald Trump. It was the first time the Capitol had been violently seized since the Burning of Washington, during the War of 1812. On April 2, 2021, a black nationalist rammed a car into barriers outside the Capitol, hitting several Capitol Police Officers before exiting his vehicle and attempting to attack others with a knife. An officer hit by the attacker's car died shortly thereafter. The attacker was shot by Capitol Police and later died of his injuries. Capitol Visitor Center The United States Capitol Visitor Center (CVC), located below the East Front of the Capitol and its plaza, between the Capitol building and 1st Street East, opened on December 2, 2008. The CVC provides a single security checkpoint for all visitors, including those with disabilities, and an expansion space for the US Congress. The complex contains 580,000 square feet (54,000 m2) of space below ground on three floors, and offers visitors a food court, restrooms, and educational exhibits, including an 11-foot scale model of the Capitol dome. It also features skylights affording views of the actual dome. Long in the planning stages, construction began in the fall of 2001, following the killing of two Capitol police officers in 1998. The estimated final cost of constructing the CVC was $621 million. Gallery See also Apotheosis of Democracy by Paul Wayland Bartlett, a pediment on the east front of the House of Representatives Portico Architecture of Washington, D.C. Congressional Prayer Room Hideaways, secret offices used by members of the Senate History of modern period domes List of capitols in the United States List of legislative buildings List of the oldest buildings in Washington, D.C. President's Room, an ornate office sometimes used by the President United States fifty-dollar bill, which pictures the Capitol on the back Vice President's Room Washington's Tomb Citations References Allen, William C. (2001). History of the United States Capitol – A Chronicle of Design, Construction, and Politics. Government Printing Office. ISBN 0160508304. OCLC 46420177. Archived from the original on April 23, 2002. Retrieved October 29, 2016. Brown, Glenn (1998). Architect of the Capitol for The United States Capitol Preservation Commission (ed.). History of the United States Capitol (Annotated Edition in Commemoration of The Bicentennial of the United States Capitol ed.). Government Printing Office. Archived from the original on December 7, 2008. Frary, Ihna Thayer (1969). They Built the Capitol. Ayer Publishing. ISBN 0-8369-5089-5. Guy Gugliotta (2012). Freedom's Cap: The United States Capitol and the Coming of the Civil War. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-8090-4681-2. Hazelton, George Cochrane (1907). The National Capitol. J. F. Taylor & Co. Fryd, Vivien Green (1987). Two Sculptures for the Capitol: Horatio Greenough's "Rescue" and Luigi Persico's "Discovery of America." In American Art Journal (Vol. 19, pp. 16–39). Further reading Aikman, Lonnelle. We, the People: the Story of the United States Capitol, Its Past and Its Promise. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Capitol Historical Society, in cooperation with the National Geographic Society, 1964. Bordewich, Fergus M. (December 2008). "A Capitol Vision From a Self-Taught Architect". Smithsonian Magazine. Ovason, David, The Secret Architecture of our Nation's Capital: the Masons and the building of Washington, D.C., New York City, New York: HarperCollins, 2000. ISBN 0-06-019537-1 External links Geographic data related to United States Capitol at OpenStreetMap Official website Capitol Visitors Center United States Capitol Historical Society Architect of the Capitol Capitol History Project Archived April 17, 2007, at the Wayback Machine Temple of Liberty: Building the Capitol for a New Nation, Library of Congress U.S. Capitol Police "Book Discussion on Freedom's Cap", C-SPAN, March 20, 2012 Committee for the Preservation of the National Capitol Records, 1949–1958. Held by the Department of Drawings & Archives, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.

FIFA_World_Cup

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cup

The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior men's national teams of the members of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has been held every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, with the exception of 1942 and 1946 due to the Second World War. The reigning champions are Argentina, who won their third title at the 2022 tournament. The contest starts with the qualification phase, which takes place over the preceding three years to determine which teams qualify for the tournament phase. In the tournament phase, 32 teams compete for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over the course of about a month. The host nation(s) automatically qualify for the group stage of the tournament. The competition is scheduled to expand to 48 teams, starting with the 2026 tournament. As of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, 22 final tournaments have been held since the event's inception in 1930, and a total of 80 national teams have competed. The trophy has been won by eight national teams. With five wins, Brazil is the only team to have played in every tournament. The other World Cup winners are Germany and Italy, with four titles each; Argentina, with three titles; France and inaugural winner Uruguay, each with two titles; and England and Spain, with one title each. The World Cup is the most prestigious association football tournament in the world, as well as the most widely viewed and followed single sporting event in the world. The viewership of the 2018 World Cup was estimated to be 3.57 billion, close to half of the global population, while the engagement with the 2022 World Cup was estimated to be 5 billion, with about 1.5 billion people watching the final match. Seventeen countries have hosted the World Cup, most recently Qatar, who hosted the 2022 event. The 2026 tournament will be jointly hosted by Canada, the United States and Mexico, which will give Mexico the distinction of being the first country to host games in three World Cups. History Previous international competitions The world's first international football match was a challenge match played in Glasgow in 1872 between Scotland and England. The first international tournament for nations, the inaugural British Home Championship, took place in 1884 and included games between England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. As football grew in popularity in other parts of the world at the start of the 20th century, it was held as a demonstration sport with no medals awarded at the 1900 and 1904 Summer Olympics; however, the International Olympic Committee has retroactively upgraded their status to official events, as well as the 1906 Intercalated Games. After FIFA was founded in 1904, it tried to arrange an international football tournament between nations outside the Olympic framework in Switzerland in 1906. These were very early days for international football, and the official history of FIFA describes the competition as having been unsuccessful. At the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, football became an official Olympic sport. Planned by The Football Association (FA), England's football governing body, the event was for amateur players only and was regarded suspiciously as a show rather than a competition. Great Britain (represented by the England national amateur football team) won the gold medals. They repeated the feat at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm. With the Olympic event continuing to be a contest between amateur teams only, Sir Thomas Lipton organised the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy tournament in Turin in 1909. The Lipton tournament was a championship between individual clubs (not national teams) from different nations, each of which represented an entire nation. The competition is sometimes described as The First World Cup, and featured the most prestigious professional club sides from Italy, Germany and Switzerland, but the FA of England refused to be associated with the competition and declined the offer to send a professional team. Lipton invited West Auckland, an amateur side from County Durham, to represent England instead. West Auckland won the tournament and returned in 1911 to successfully defend their title. Prior to the Lipton competition, from 1876 to 1904, games that were considered to be the "football world championship" were meetings between leading English and Scottish clubs, such as the 1895 game between Sunderland A.F.C. and the Heart of Midlothian F.C., which Sunderland won. In 1914, FIFA agreed to recognise the Olympic tournament as a "world football championship for amateurs", and took responsibility for managing the event. This paved the way for the world's first intercontinental football competition for nations, at the 1920 Summer Olympics, contested by Egypt and 13 European teams, and won by Belgium. Uruguay won the next two Olympic football tournaments in 1924 and 1928. Those were also the first two open world championships, as 1924 was the start of FIFA's professional era, and is the reason why Uruguay is allowed to wear 4 stars. World Cups before World War II Due to the success of the Olympic football tournaments, FIFA, with President Jules Rimet as the driving force, again started looking at staging its own international tournament outside of the Olympics. On 28 May 1928, the FIFA Congress in Amsterdam decided to stage a world championship. With Uruguay now two-time official football world champions and to celebrate their centenary of independence in 1930, FIFA named Uruguay as the host country of the inaugural World Cup tournament. The national associations of selected nations were invited to send a team, but the choice of Uruguay as a venue for the competition meant a long and costly trip across the Atlantic Ocean for European sides, especially in the midst of the Great Depression. As such, no European country pledged to send a team until two months before the start of the competition. Rimet eventually persuaded teams from Belgium, France, Romania, and Yugoslavia to make the trip. In total, 13 nations took part: seven from South America, four from Europe, and two from North America. The first two World Cup matches took place simultaneously on 13 July 1930, and were won by France and the United States, who defeated Mexico 4–1 and Belgium 3–0 respectively. The first goal in World Cup history was scored by Lucien Laurent of France. In the final, Uruguay defeated Argentina 4–2 in front of 93,000 spectators in Montevideo, and became the first nation to win the World Cup. After the creation of the World Cup, FIFA and the IOC disagreed over the status of amateur players; football was dropped from the 1932 Summer Olympics. After the IOC and FIFA worked out their differences, Olympic football returned at the 1936 Summer Olympics, but was now overshadowed by the more prestigious World Cup. The issues facing the early World Cup tournaments were the difficulties of intercontinental travel, and war. Few South American teams were willing to travel to Europe for the 1934 World Cup and all North and South American nations except Brazil and Cuba boycotted the 1938 tournament. Brazil was the only South American team to compete in both. The 1942 and 1946 competitions, which Germany and Brazil sought to host, were cancelled due to World War II. World Cups after World War II The 1950 World Cup, held in Brazil, was the first to include British football associations. Scotland, England, Wales, and Northern Ireland had withdrawn from FIFA in 1920, partly out of unwillingness to play against the countries they had been at war with, and partly as a protest against foreign influence on football. The teams rejoined in 1946 following FIFA's invitation. The tournament also saw the return of 1930 champions Uruguay, who had boycotted the previous two World Cups. Uruguay won the tournament again after defeating the host nation Brazil, in the match called "Maracanazo" (Portuguese: Maracanaço). In the tournaments between 1934 and 1978, 16 teams competed in each tournament, except in 1938, when Austria was absorbed into Germany after qualifying, leaving the tournament with 15 teams, and in 1950, when India, Scotland, and Turkey withdrew, leaving the tournament with 13 teams. Most of the participating nations were from Europe and South America, with a small minority from North America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. These teams were usually defeated easily by the European and South American teams. Until 1982, the only teams from outside Europe and South America to advance out of the first round were: United States, semi-finalists in 1930; Cuba, quarter-finalists in 1938; North Korea, quarter-finalists in 1966; and Mexico, quarter-finalists in 1970. Expansion to 24 and 32 teams The tournament was expanded to 24 teams in 1982, and then to 32 in 1998, allowing more teams from Africa, Asia and North America to take part. Since then, teams from these regions have enjoyed more success, with several having reached the quarter-finals: Mexico, quarter-finalists in 1986; Cameroon, quarter-finalists in 1990; South Korea, finishing in fourth place in 2002; Senegal, along with USA, both quarter-finalists in 2002; Ghana, quarter-finalists in 2010; Costa Rica, quarter-finalists in 2014; and Morocco, finishing in fourth place in 2022. European and South American teams continue to dominate, e.g., the quarter-finalists in 1994, 1998, 2006 and 2018 were all from Europe or South America and so were the finalists of all tournaments so far. Two hundred teams entered the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds. 198 nations attempted to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. A record 204 countries entered qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Expansion to 48 teams In October 2013, Sepp Blatter spoke of guaranteeing the Caribbean Football Union's region a position in the World Cup. In the edition of 25 October 2013 of the FIFA Weekly Blatter wrote that: "From a purely sporting perspective, I would like to see globalisation finally taken seriously, and the African and Asian national associations accorded the status they deserve at the FIFA World Cup. It cannot be that the European and South American confederations lay claim to the majority of the berths at the World Cup." Those two remarks suggested to commentators that Blatter could be putting himself forward for re-election to the FIFA Presidency. Following the magazine's publication, Blatter's would-be opponent for the FIFA Presidency, UEFA President Michel Platini, responded that he intended to extend the World Cup to 40 national associations, increasing the number of participants by eight. Platini said that he would allocate an additional berth to UEFA, two each to the Asian Football Confederation and the Confederation of African Football, two shared between CONCACAF and CONMEBOL, and a guaranteed place for the Oceania Football Confederation. Platini was clear about why he wanted to expand the World Cup. He said: "[The World Cup is] not based on the quality of the teams because you don't have the best 32 at the World Cup ... but it's a good compromise. ... It's a political matter so why not have more Africans? The competition is to bring all the people of all the world. If you don't give the possibility to participate, they don't improve." In October 2016, FIFA president Gianni Infantino stated his support for a 48-team World Cup in 2026. On 10 January 2017, FIFA confirmed the 2026 World Cup will have 48 finalist teams. 2015 FIFA corruption case By May 2015, the games were under a particularly dark cloud because of the 2015 FIFA corruption case, allegations and criminal charges of bribery, fraud and money laundering to corrupt the issuing of media and marketing rights (rigged bids) for FIFA games, with FIFA officials accused of taking bribes totaling more than $150 million over 24 years. In late May, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a 47-count indictment with charges of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy against 14 people. Arrests of over a dozen FIFA officials were made since that time, particularly on 29 May and 3 December. By the end of May 2015, a total of nine FIFA officials and five executives of sports and broadcasting markets had already been charged on corruption. At the time, FIFA president Sepp Blatter announced he would relinquish his position in February 2016. On 4 June 2015, Chuck Blazer while co-operating with the FBI and the Swiss authorities admitted that he and the other members of FIFA's then-executive committee were bribed in order to promote the 1998 and 2010 World Cups. On 10 June 2015, Swiss authorities seized computer data from the offices of Sepp Blatter. The same day, FIFA postponed the bidding process for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in light of the allegations surrounding bribery in the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 tournaments. Then-secretary general Jérôme Valcke stated, "Due to the situation, I think it's nonsense to start any bidding process for the time being." On 28 October 2015, Blatter and FIFA VP Michel Platini, a potential candidate for presidency, were suspended for 90 days; both maintained their innocence in statements made to the news media. On 3 December 2015 two FIFA vice-presidents were arrested on suspicion of bribery in the same Zurich hotel where seven FIFA officials had been arrested in May. An additional 16 indictments by the US Department of Justice were announced on the same day. Biennial World Cup proposition A biennial World Cup plan was first proposed by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation at the 71st FIFA Congress on 21 May 2021 and prominently backed by former Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger and national federations in Africa and Asia. Continental confederations such as UEFA and CONMEBOL are not on board with the plan but, in total, the idea is supported by 166 of the 210 member associations of FIFA. Other FIFA tournaments An equivalent tournament for women's football, the FIFA Women's World Cup, was first held in 1991 in China. The women's tournament is smaller in scale and profile than the men's, but is growing; the number of entrants for the 2007 tournament was 120, more than double that of 1991. Men's football has been included in every Summer Olympic Games except 1896 and 1932. Unlike many other sports, the men's football tournament at the Olympics is not a top-level tournament, and since 1992, an under-23 tournament with each team allowed three over-age players. Women's football made its Olympic debut in 1996. The FIFA Confederations Cup was a tournament held one year before the World Cup at the World Cup host nation(s) as a dress rehearsal for the upcoming World Cup. It is contested by the winners of each of the six FIFA confederation championships, along with the FIFA World Cup champion and the host country. The first edition took place in 1992 and the last edition was played in 2017. In March 2019, FIFA confirmed that the tournament would no longer be active owing to an expansion of the FIFA Club World Cup in 2021. FIFA also organises international tournaments for youth football (FIFA U-20 World Cup, FIFA U-17 World Cup, FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup), club football (FIFA Club World Cup), and football variants such as futsal (FIFA Futsal World Cup) and beach soccer (FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup). The latter three do not have a women's version, although a FIFA Women's Club World Cup has been proposed. The FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup is held biannually, including the year before each Women's World Cup. Both tournaments were awarded in a single bidding process on three occasions, with the U-20 tournament serving as a dress rehearsal for the larger competition each time (2010, 2014 and 2018). Trophy From 1930 to 1970, the Jules Rimet Trophy was awarded to the World Cup winning team. It was originally simply known as the World Cup or Coupe du Monde, but in 1946 it was renamed after the FIFA president Jules Rimet who set up the first tournament. In 1970, Brazil's third victory in the tournament entitled them to keep the trophy permanently. However, the trophy was stolen in 1983 and has never been recovered, apparently melted down by the thieves. After 1970, a new trophy, known as the FIFA World Cup Trophy, was designed. The experts of FIFA, coming from seven countries, evaluated the 53 presented models, finally opting for the work of the Italian designer Silvio Gazzaniga. The new trophy is 36 cm (14.2 in) high, made of solid 18 carat (75%) gold and weighs 6.175 kg (13.6 lb). The base contains two layers of semi-precious malachite while the bottom side of the trophy bears the engraved year and name of each FIFA World Cup winner since 1974. The description of the trophy by Gazzaniga was: "The lines spring out from the base, rising in spirals, stretching out to receive the world. From the remarkable dynamic tensions of the compact body of the sculpture rise the figures of two athletes at the stirring moment of victory." This new trophy is not awarded to the winning nation permanently. World Cup winners retain the trophy only until the post-match celebration is finished. They are awarded a gold-plated replica rather than the solid gold original immediately afterwards. All members (players, coaches, and managers) of the top three teams receive medals with an insignia of the World Cup Trophy; winners' (gold), runners-up' (silver), and third-place (bronze). In the 2002 edition, fourth-place medals were awarded to hosts South Korea. Before the 1978 tournament, medals were only awarded to the eleven players on the pitch at the end of the final and the third-place match. In November 2007, FIFA announced that all members of World Cup-winning squads between 1930 and 1974 were to be retroactively awarded winners' medals. Since 2006, winners of the competition are also awarded the right to wear the FIFA Champions Badge, up until the time at which the winner of the next competition is decided. Format Qualification Since the second World Cup in 1934, qualifying tournaments have been held to thin the field for the final tournament. They are held within the six FIFA continental zones (Africa, Asia, North and Central America and Caribbean, South America, Oceania, and Europe), overseen by their respective confederations. For each tournament, FIFA decides the number of places awarded to each of the continental zones beforehand, generally based on the relative strength of the confederations' teams. The qualification process can start as early as almost three years before the final tournament and last over a two-year period. The formats of the qualification tournaments differ between confederations. Usually, one or two places are awarded to winners of intercontinental play-offs. For example, the winner of the Oceanian zone and the fifth-placed team from the Asian zone entered a play-off for a spot in the 2010 World Cup. From the 1938 World Cup onwards, host nations receive automatic qualification to the final tournament. This right was also granted to the defending champions between 1938 and 2002, but was withdrawn from the 2006 FIFA World Cup onward, requiring the champions to qualify. Brazil, winners in 2002, were the first defending champions to play qualifying matches. Final tournament The final tournament format since 1998 has had 32 national teams competing over the course of a month in the host nations. There are two stages: the group stage, followed by the knockout stage. In the group stage, teams compete within eight groups of four teams each. Eight teams are seeded, including the hosts, with the other seeded teams selected using a formula based on the FIFA World Rankings or performances in recent World Cups, and drawn to separate groups. The other teams are assigned to different "pots", usually based on geographical criteria, and teams in each pot are drawn at random to the eight groups. Since 1998, constraints have been applied to the draw to ensure that no group contains more than two European teams or more than one team from any other confederation. Each group plays a round-robin tournament in which each team is scheduled for three matches against other teams in the same group. This means that a total of six matches are played within a group. The last round of matches of each group is scheduled at the same time to preserve fairness among all four teams. The top two teams from each group advance to the knockout stage. Points are used to rank the teams within a group. Since 1994, three points have been awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss (before, winners received two points). Considering six matches in a group each with three possible outcomes (win, draw, loss), there are 729 (= 36) possible final table outcomes for the 40 possible combinations of the four teams' points. However, 14 of the 40 points combinations (or 207 of the 729 possible outcomes) lead to ties between the second and third places. In such case, the ranking among these teams is determined by: Greatest combined goal difference in all group matches Greatest combined number of goals scored in all group matches If more than one team remain level after applying the above criteria, their ranking will be determined as follows: Greatest number of points in head-to-head matches among those teams Greatest goal difference in head-to-head matches among those teams Greatest number of goals scored in head-to-head matches among those teams Fair play points, defined by the number of yellow and red cards received in the group stage: Yellow card: minus 1 point Indirect red card (as a result of a second yellow card): minus 3 points Direct red card: minus 4 points Yellow card and direct red card: minus 5 points If any of the teams above remain level after applying the above criteria, their ranking will be determined by the drawing of lots The knockout stage is a single-elimination tournament in which teams play each other in one-off matches, with extra time and penalty shootouts used to decide the winner if necessary. It begins with the round of 16 (or the second round) in which the winner of each group plays against the runner-up of another group. This is followed by the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, the third-place match (contested by the losing semi-finalists), and the final. On 10 January 2017, FIFA approved a new format, the 48-team World Cup (to accommodate more teams), which was to consist of 16 groups of three teams each, with two teams qualifying from each group, to form a round of 32 knockout stage, to be implemented by 2026. On 14 March 2023, FIFA approved a revised format of the 2026 tournament, which features 12 groups of four teams each, with the top 8 third-placed teams joining the group winners and runners-up in a new round of 32. Hosts Selection process Early World Cups were given to countries at meetings of FIFA's congress. The locations were controversial because South America and Europe were by far the two centres of strength in football and travel between them required three weeks by boat. The decision to hold the first World Cup in Uruguay, for example, led to only four European nations competing. The next two World Cups were both held in Europe. The decision to hold the second of these in France was disputed, as the South American countries understood that the location would alternate between the two continents. Both Argentina and Uruguay thus boycotted the 1938 FIFA World Cup. Since the 1958 FIFA World Cup, to avoid future boycotts or controversy, FIFA began a pattern of alternating the hosts between the Americas and Europe, which continued until the 1998 FIFA World Cup. The 2002 FIFA World Cup, hosted jointly by South Korea and Japan, was the first one held in Asia, and the first tournament with multiple hosts. South Africa became the first African nation to host the World Cup in 2010. The 2014 FIFA World Cup was hosted by Brazil, the first held in South America since Argentina 1978, and was the first occasion where consecutive World Cups were held outside Europe. The host country is now chosen in a vote by FIFA's Council. This is done under an exhaustive ballot system. The national football association of a country desiring to host the event receives a "Hosting Agreement" from FIFA, which explains the steps and requirements that are expected from a strong bid. The bidding association also receives a form, the submission of which represents the official confirmation of the candidacy. After this, a FIFA designated group of inspectors visit the country to identify that the country meets the requirements needed to host the event and a report on the country is produced. The decision on who will host the World Cup is usually made six or seven years in advance of the tournament. There have been occasions where the hosts of multiple future tournaments were announced at the same time, as was the case for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, which were awarded to Russia and Qatar, with Qatar becoming the first Middle Eastern country to host the tournament. For the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, the final tournament was rotated between confederations, allowing only countries from the chosen confederation (Africa in 2010, South America in 2014) to bid to host the tournament. The rotation policy was introduced after the controversy surrounding Germany's victory over South Africa in the vote to host the 2006 tournament. However, the policy of continental rotation did not continue beyond 2014, so any country, except those belonging to confederations that hosted the two preceding tournaments, can apply as hosts for World Cups starting from 2018. This is partly to avoid a similar scenario to the bidding process for the 2014 tournament, where Brazil was the only official bidder. The 2026 FIFA World Cup was chosen to be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico, marking the first time a World Cup has been shared by three host nations. The 2026 tournament will be the biggest World Cup ever held, with 48 teams playing 104 matches. Sixty matches will take place in the US, including all matches from the quarter-finals onward, while Canada and Mexico will host 10 games each. Summary by confederation Performances Six of the eight champions have won one of their titles while playing in their own homeland, the exceptions being Brazil, who finished as runners-up after losing the deciding match on home soil in 1950 and lost their semi-final against Germany in 2014, and Spain, which reached the second round on home soil in 1982. England (1966) won its only title while playing as a host nation. Uruguay (1930), Italy (1934), Argentina (1978), and France (1998) won their first titles as host nations but have gone on to win again, while Germany (1974) won their second title on home soil. Other nations have also been successful when hosting the tournament. Switzerland (quarter-finals 1954), Sweden (runners-up in 1958), Chile (third place in 1962), South Korea (fourth place in 2002), Russia (quarter-finals 2018), and Mexico (quarter-finals in 1970 and 1986) all have their best results when serving as hosts. So far, South Africa (2010) and Qatar (2022) failed to advance beyond the first round. Broadcasting and promotion The World Cup was first televised in 1954 and as of 2006 is the most widely viewed and followed sporting event in the world. The cumulative viewership of all matches of the 2006 World Cup was estimated to be 26.29 billion. 715.1 million individuals watched the final match of the tournament, almost a ninth of the entire population of the planet. The 2006 World Cup draw, which decided the distribution of teams into groups, was watched by 300 million viewers. The World Cup attracts major sponsors such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Adidas. For these companies and many more, being a sponsor strongly impacts their global brands. Host countries typically experience a multimillion-dollar revenue increase from the month-long event. The governing body of the sport, FIFA, generated $4.8 billion in revenue from the 2014 tournament, and $6.1 billion from the 2018 tournament. Each FIFA World Cup since 1966 has its own mascot or logo. World Cup Willie, the mascot for the 1966 competition, was the first World Cup mascot. World Cups feature official match balls specially designed for each tournament. After Slazenger produced the ball for the 1966 World Cup Adidas became the official supplier to FIFA. Each World Cup also has an official song, which have been performed by artists ranging from Shakira to Will Smith. Other songs, such as “Nessun dorma”, performed by The Three Tenors at four World Cup concerts, have also become identified with the tournament. Forming a partnership with FIFA in 1970, Panini published its first sticker album for the 1970 World Cup. Since then, collecting and trading stickers and cards has become part of the World Cup experience, especially for the younger generation. FIFA has licensed World Cup video games since 1986, sponsored by Electronic Arts. Results Key aet: result/match won after extra time p: match won after penalty shoot-out TBD: to be determined Notes In all, 80 nations have played in at least one World Cup. Of these, eight national teams have won the World Cup, and they have added stars to their badges, with each star representing a World Cup victory. Uruguay, however, chose to display four stars on their badge, representing their two gold medals at the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics, which are recognized by FIFA as World Championships, and their two World Cup titles in 1930 and 1950. With five titles, Brazil are the most successful World Cup team and also the only nation to have played in every World Cup (22) to date. Brazil were also the first team to win the World Cup for the third (1970), fourth (1994) and fifth (2002) time. Italy (1934 and 1938) and Brazil (1958 and 1962) are the only nations to have won consecutive titles. West Germany (1982–1990) and Brazil (1994–2002) are the only nations to appear in three consecutive World Cup finals. Germany has made the most top-four finishes (13), medals (12), as well as the most finals (8). Teams reaching the top four Best performances by confederations To date, the final of the World Cup has only been contested by teams from the UEFA (Europe) and CONMEBOL (South America) confederations. European nations have won twelve titles, while South American nations have won ten. Only three teams from outside these two continents have ever reached the semi-finals of the competition: United States (North, Central America and Caribbean) in 1930; South Korea (Asia) in 2002; and Morocco (Africa) in 2022. Only one Oceanian qualifier, Australia in 2006, has advanced to the second round, a feat they later reaccomplished in 2022. Brazil, Argentina, Spain and Germany are the only teams to win a World Cup hosted outside their continental confederation; Brazil came out victorious in Europe (1958), North America (1970 and 1994) and Asia (2002). Argentina won a World Cup in North America in 1986 and in Asia in 2022. Spain won in Africa in 2010. In 2014, Germany became the first European team to win in the Americas. Only on five occasions have consecutive World Cups been won by teams from the same continent; the longest streak of tournaments won by a single confederation is four, with the 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018 tournaments all won by UEFA teams (Italy, Spain, Germany, and France, respectively). Records and statistics Six players share the record for playing in the most World Cups; Mexico's Antonio Carbajal (1950–1966). Rafael Márquez (2002–2018), and Andrés Guardado (2006–2022); Germany's Lothar Matthäus (1982–1998); Argentina's Lionel Messi (2006–2022); and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo (2006–2022) all played in five tournaments, with Ronaldo also being the first and only player to score in five tournaments. Messi has played the most World Cup matches overall, with 26 appearances. Brazil's Djalma Santos (1954–1962), West Germany's Franz Beckenbauer (1966–1974), and Germany's Philipp Lahm (2006–2014) are the only players to be named to three World Cup All-Star Teams. Miroslav Klose of Germany (2002–2014) is the all-time top scorer at the World Cup with 16 goals. He broke Ronaldo of Brazil's record of 15 goals (1998–2006) during the 2014 semi-final match against Brazil. West Germany's Gerd Müller (1970–1974) is third, with 14 goals. The fourth-placed goalscorer, France's Just Fontaine, holds the record for the most goals scored in a single World Cup; all his 13 goals were scored in the 1958 tournament. In November 2007, FIFA announced that all members of World Cup-winning squads between 1930 and 1974 were to be retroactively awarded winners' medals. This made Brazil's Pelé the only player to have won three World Cup winners' medals (1958, 1962, and 1970, although he did not play in the 1962 final due to injury), with 20 other players who have won two winners' medals. Seven players have collected all three types of World Cup medals (winners', runner- ups', and third-place); five players were from West Germany's squad of 1966–1974: Franz Beckenbauer, Jürgen Grabowski, Horst-Dieter Höttges, Sepp Maier, and Wolfgang Overath (1966–1974), Italy's Franco Baresi (1982, 1990, 1994) and the most recent has been Miroslav Klose of Germany (2002–2014) with four consecutive medals. Brazil's Mário Zagallo, West Germany's Franz Beckenbauer and France's Didier Deschamps are the only people to date to win the World Cup as both player and head coach. Zagallo won in 1958 and 1962 as a player and in 1970 as head coach. Beckenbauer won in 1974 as captain and in 1990 as head coach, and Deschamps repeated the feat in 2018, after having won in 1998 as captain. Italy's Vittorio Pozzo is the only head coach to ever win two World Cups (1934 and 1938). All World Cup-winning head coaches were natives of the country they coached to victory. Among the national teams, Brazil has played the most World Cup matches (114), Germany appeared in the most finals (8), semi-finals (13), and quarter-finals (16), while Brazil has appeared in the most World Cups (22), has the most wins (76) and has scored the most goals (237). The two teams have played each other twice in the World Cup, in the 2002 final and in the 2014 semi-final. Top goalscorers Individual Players in bold are still active. Country Awards At the end of each World Cup, awards are presented to the players and teams for accomplishments other than their final team positions in the tournament. There are five post-tournament awards from the FIFA Technical Study Group: the Golden Ball (named for its sponsor "Adidas Golden Ball") for best player, first awarded in 1982; the Golden Boot (named for its sponsor "Adidas Golden Boot", formerly known as the "adidas Golden Shoe" from 1982 to 2006) for top goalscorer, first awarded in 1982; the Golden Glove (named for its sponsor "Adidas Golden Glove", formerly known as the "Lev Yashin Award" from 1994 to 2006) for best goalkeeper, first awarded in 1994; the FIFA Young Player Award (formerly known as the "Best Young Player Award" from 2006 to 2010) for best player under 21 years of age at the start of the calendar year, first awarded in 2006; the FIFA Fair Play Trophy for the team that advanced to the second round with the best record of fair play, first awarded in 1970. There is currently one award voted on by fans during the tournament.: the Player of the Match (currently commercially termed "Budweiser Player of the Match", formerly known as the "Man of the Match" from 2002 to 2018) for outstanding performance during each match of the tournament, first awarded in 2002. There are two awards voted on by fans after the conclusion of the tournament: the Goal of the Tournament, (currently commercially termed "Hyundai Goal of the Tournament") for the fans' best goal scored during the tournament, first awarded in 2006; the Most Entertaining Team during the World Cup final tournament, as determined by a poll of the general public. One other award was given between 1994 and 2006: an All-Star Team comprising the best players of the tournament chosen by the FIFA Technical Study Group. From 2010 onwards, all Dream Teams or Statistical Teams are unofficial, as reported by FIFA itself. See also List of FIFA World Cup finals FIFA World Cup records and statistics FIFA World Cup awards FIFA U-20 World Cup FIFA U-17 World Cup FIFA Club World Cup FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup FIFA Futsal World Cup FIFA Confederations Cup List of association football competitions Notes Citations Cited works External links Official website World Cup overview at the RSSSF

London

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London

London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of 8,866,180 in 2022. The wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Thames in southeast England, at the head of a 50-mile (80 km) estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for nearly 2,000 years. Its ancient core and financial centre, the City of London, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and has retained its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has been the centuries-long host of the national government and parliament. London grew rapidly in the 19th century, becoming the world's largest city at the time. Since the 19th century, the name "London" has referred to the metropolis around the City of London, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which since 1965 has largely comprised the administrative area of Greater London, governed by 33 local authorities and the Greater London Authority. As one of the world's major global cities, London exerts a strong influence on world art, entertainment, fashion, commerce, finance, education, healthcare, media, science, technology, tourism, transport, and communications. Despite a post-Brexit exodus of stock listings from the London Stock Exchange, London remains Europe's most economically powerful city and one of the world's major financial centres. It hosts Europe's largest concentration of higher education institutions, some of which are the highest-ranked academic institutions in the world: Imperial College London in natural and applied sciences, the London School of Economics in social sciences, and the comprehensive University College London. It is the most visited city in Europe and has the world's busiest city airport system. The London Underground is the world's oldest rapid transit system. London's diverse cultures encompass over 300 languages. The 2023 population of Greater London of just under 10 million made it Europe's third-most populous city, accounting for 13.4% of the United Kingdom's population and over 16% of England's population. The Greater London Built-up Area is the fourth-most populous in Europe, with about 9.8 million inhabitants as of 2011. The London metropolitan area is the third-most populous in Europe, with about 14 million inhabitants as of 2016, making London a megacity. Four World Heritage Sites are located in London: Kew Gardens; the Tower of London; the site featuring the Palace of Westminster, Church of St. Margaret, and Westminster Abbey; and the historic settlement in Greenwich where the Royal Observatory defines the prime meridian (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time. Other landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, and Trafalgar Square. The city has the most museums, art galleries, libraries, and cultural venues in the UK, including the British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Tate Modern, British Library, and numerous West End theatres. Important sporting events held in London include the FA Cup Final, the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, and the London Marathon. It became the first city to host three Summer Olympic Games upon hosting the 2012 Summer Olympics. Toponymy London is an ancient name, attested in the first century AD, usually in the Latinised form Londinium. Modern scientific analyses of the name must account for the origins of the different forms found in early sources: Latin (usually Londinium), Old English (usually Lunden), and Welsh (usually Llundein), with reference to the known developments over time of sounds in those different languages. It is agreed that the name came into these languages from Common Brythonic; recent work tends to reconstruct the lost Celtic form of the name as *Londonjon or something similar. This was then adapted into Latin as Londinium and borrowed into Old English. Until 1889, the name "London" applied officially only to the City of London, but since then it has also referred to the County of London and to Greater London. History Prehistory In 1993, remains of a Bronze Age bridge were found on the south River Thames foreshore, upstream from Vauxhall Bridge. Two of the timbers were radiocarbon dated to 1750–1285 BC. In 2010, foundations of a large timber structure, dated to 4800–4500 BC, were found on the Thames's south foreshore downstream from Vauxhall Bridge. Both structures are on the south bank of the Thames, where the now-underground River Effra flows into the Thames. Roman London Despite the evidence of scattered Brythonic settlements in the area, the first major settlement was founded by the Romans around 47 AD, about four years after their invasion of 43 AD. This only lasted until about 61 AD, when the Iceni tribe led by Queen Boudica stormed it and burnt it to the ground. The next planned incarnation of Londinium prospered, superseding Colchester as the principal city of the Roman province of Britannia in 100. At its height in the 2nd century, Roman London had a population of about 60,000. Anglo-Saxon and Viking-period London With the early 5th-century collapse of Roman rule, the walled city of Londinium was effectively abandoned, although Roman civilisation continued around St Martin-in-the-Fields until about 450. From about 500, an Anglo-Saxon settlement known as Lundenwic developed slightly west of the old Roman city. By about 680 the city had become a major port again, but there is little evidence of large-scale production. From the 820s repeated Viking assaults brought decline. Three are recorded; those in 851 and 886 succeeded, while the last, in 994, was rebuffed. The Vikings applied Danelaw over much of eastern and northern England, its boundary running roughly from London to Chester as an area of political and geographical control imposed by the Viking incursions formally agreed by the Danish warlord, Guthrum and the West Saxon king Alfred the Great in 886. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that Alfred "refounded" London in 886. Archaeological research shows this involved abandonment of Lundenwic and a revival of life and trade within the old Roman walls. London then grew slowly until a dramatic increase in about 950. By the 11th century, London was clearly the largest town in England. Westminster Abbey, rebuilt in Romanesque style by King Edward the Confessor, was one of the grandest churches in Europe. Winchester had been the capital of Anglo-Saxon England, but from this time London became the main forum for foreign traders and the base for defence in time of war. In the view of Frank Stenton: "It had the resources, and it was rapidly developing the dignity and the political self-consciousness appropriate to a national capital." Middle Ages After winning the Battle of Hastings, William, Duke of Normandy was crowned King of England in newly completed Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066. William built the Tower of London, the first of many such in England rebuilt in stone in the south-eastern corner of the city, to intimidate the inhabitants. In 1097, William II began building Westminster Hall, near the abbey. It became the basis of a new Palace of Westminster. In the 12th century, the institutions of central government, which had hitherto followed the royal English court around the country, grew in size and sophistication and became increasingly fixed, for most purposes at Westminster, although the royal treasury came to rest in the Tower. While the City of Westminster developed into a true governmental capital, its distinct neighbour, the City of London, remained England's largest city and principal commercial centre and flourished under its own unique administration, the Corporation of London. In 1100, its population was some 18,000; by 1300 it had grown to nearly 100,000. With the Black Death in the mid-14th century, London lost nearly a third of its population. London was the focus of the Peasants' Revolt in 1381. London was a centre of England's Jewish population before their expulsion by Edward I in 1290. Violence against Jews occurred in 1190, when it was rumoured that the new king had ordered their massacre after they had presented themselves at his coronation. In 1264 during the Second Barons' War, Simon de Montfort's rebels killed 500 Jews while attempting to seize records of debts. Early modern During the Tudor period, the Reformation produced a gradual shift to Protestantism. Much of London property passed from church to private ownership, which accelerated trade and business in the city. In 1475, the Hanseatic League set up a main trading base (kontor) of England in London, called the Stalhof or Steelyard. It remained until 1853, when the Hanseatic cities of Lübeck, Bremen and Hamburg sold the property to South Eastern Railway. Woollen cloth was shipped undyed and undressed from 14th/15th century London to the nearby shores of the Low Countries. Yet English maritime enterprise hardly reached beyond the seas of north-west Europe. The commercial route to Italy and the Mediterranean was normally through Antwerp and over the Alps; any ships passing through the Strait of Gibraltar to or from England were likely to be Italian or Ragusan. The reopening of the Netherlands to English shipping in January 1565 spurred a burst of commercial activity. The Royal Exchange was founded. Mercantilism grew and monopoly traders such as the East India Company were founded as trade expanded to the New World. London became the main North Sea port, with migrants arriving from England and abroad. The population rose from about 50,000 in 1530 to about 225,000 in 1605. In the 16th century, William Shakespeare and his contemporaries lived in London during English Renaissance theatre. Shakespeare's Globe Theatre was constructed in 1599 in Southwark. Stage performances came to a halt in London when Puritan authorities shut down the theatres in the 1640s. The ban on theatre was lifted during the Restoration in 1660, and London's oldest operating theatre, Drury Lane, opened in 1663 in what is now the West End theatre district. By the end of the Tudor period in 1603, London was still compact. There was an assassination attempt on James I in Westminster, in the Gunpowder Plot of 5 November 1605. In 1637, the government of Charles I attempted to reform administration in the London area. This called for the Corporation of the city to extend its jurisdiction and administration over expanding areas around the city. Fearing an attempt by the Crown to diminish the Liberties of London, coupled with a lack of interest in administering these additional areas or concern by city guilds of having to share power, caused the Corporation's "The Great Refusal", a decision which largely continues to account for the unique governmental status of the City. In the English Civil War, the majority of Londoners supported the Parliamentary cause. After an initial advance by the Royalists in 1642, culminating in the battles of Brentford and Turnham Green, London was surrounded by a defensive perimeter wall known as the Lines of Communication. The lines were built by up to 20,000 people, and were completed in under two months. The fortifications failed their only test when the New Model Army entered London in 1647, and they were levelled by Parliament the same year. London was plagued by disease in the early 17th century, culminating in the Great Plague of 1665–1666, which killed up to 100,000 people, or a fifth of the population. The Great Fire of London broke out in 1666 in Pudding Lane in the city and quickly swept through the wooden buildings. Rebuilding took over ten years and was supervised by polymath Robert Hooke. In 1710, Christopher Wren's masterpiece, St Paul's Cathedral, was completed, replacing its medieval predecessor that burned in the Great Fire of 1666. The dome of St Paul's dominated the London skyline for centuries, inspiring the artworks and writing of William Blake, with his 1789 poem "Holy Thursday" referring to ‘the high dome of Pauls'. During the Georgian era, new districts such as Mayfair were formed in the west; new bridges over the Thames encouraged development in South London. In the east, the Port of London expanded downstream. London's development as an international financial centre matured for much of the 18th century. In 1762, George III acquired Buckingham House, which was enlarged over the next 75 years. During the 18th century, London was said to be dogged by crime, and the Bow Street Runners were established in 1750 as a professional police force. Epidemics during the 1720s and 30s saw most children born in the city die before reaching their fifth birthday. Coffee-houses became a popular place to debate ideas, as growing literacy and development of the printing press made news widely available, with Fleet Street becoming the centre of the British press. The invasion of Amsterdam by Napoleonic armies led many financiers to relocate to London and the first London international issue was arranged in 1817. Around the same time, the Royal Navy became the world's leading war fleet, acting as a major deterrent to potential economic adversaries. Following a fire in 1838, the Royal Exchange was redesigned by William Tite and rebuilt in 1844. The repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 was specifically aimed at weakening Dutch economic power. London then overtook Amsterdam as the leading international financial centre. Late modern and contemporary With the onset of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, an unprecedented growth in urbanisation took place, and the number of High Streets (the primary street for retail in Britain) rapidly grew. London was the world's largest city from about 1831 to 1925, with a population density of 802 per acre (325 per hectare). In addition to the growing number of stores selling goods, such as Harding, Howell & Co.—one of the first department stores—located on Pall Mall, the streets had scores of street sellers. London's overcrowded conditions led to cholera epidemics, claiming 14,000 lives in 1848, and 6,000 in 1866. Rising traffic congestion led to the creation of the London Underground, the world's first urban rail network. The Metropolitan Board of Works oversaw infrastructure expansion in the capital and some surrounding counties; it was abolished in 1889 when the London County Council was created out of county areas surrounding the capital. From the early years of the 20th century onwards, teashops were found on High Streets across London and the rest of Britain, with Lyons, who opened the first of their chain of teashops in Piccadilly in 1894, leading the way. The tearooms, such as the Criterion in Piccadilly, became a popular meeting place for women from the suffrage movement. The city was the target of many attacks during the suffragette bombing and arson campaign, between 1912 and 1914, which saw historic landmarks such as Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral bombed. London was bombed by the Germans in the First World War, and during the Second World War, the Blitz and other bombings by the German Luftwaffe killed over 30,000 Londoners, destroying large tracts of housing and other buildings across the city. The tomb of the Unknown Warrior, an unidentified member of the British armed forces killed during the First World War, was buried in Westminster Abbey on 11 November 1920. The Cenotaph, located in Whitehall, was unveiled on the same day, and is the focal point for the National Service of Remembrance held annually on Remembrance Sunday, the closest Sunday to 11 November. The 1948 Summer Olympics were held at the original Wembley Stadium, while London was still recovering from the war. From the 1940s, London became home to many immigrants, primarily from Commonwealth countries such as Jamaica, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, making London one of the most diverse cities in the world. In 1951, the Festival of Britain was held on the South Bank. The Great Smog of 1952 led to the Clean Air Act 1956, which ended the "pea soup fogs" for which London had been notorious, and had earned it the nickname the "Big Smoke". Starting mainly in the mid-1960s, London became a centre for worldwide youth culture, exemplified by the Swinging London sub-culture associated with the King's Road, Chelsea and Carnaby Street. The role of trendsetter revived in the punk era. In 1965 London's political boundaries were expanded in response to the growth of the urban area and a new Greater London Council was created. During The Troubles in Northern Ireland, London was hit from 1973 by bomb attacks by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. These attacks lasted for two decades, starting with the Old Bailey bombing. Racial inequality was highlighted by the 1981 Brixton riot. Greater London's population declined in the decades after the Second World War, from an estimated peak of 8.6 million in 1939 to around 6.8 million in the 1980s. The principal ports for London moved downstream to Felixstowe and Tilbury, with the London Docklands area becoming a focus for regeneration, including the Canary Wharf development. This was born out of London's increasing role as an international financial centre in the 1980s. Located about 2 miles (3 km) east of central London, the Thames Barrier was completed in the 1980s to protect London against tidal surges from the North Sea. The Greater London Council was abolished in 1986, leaving London with no central administration until 2000 and the creation of the Greater London Authority. To mark the 21st century, the Millennium Dome, London Eye and Millennium Bridge were constructed. On 6 July 2005 London was awarded the 2012 Summer Olympics, as the first city to stage the Olympic Games three times. On 7 July 2005, three London Underground trains and a double-decker bus were bombed in a series of terrorist attacks. In 2008, Time named London alongside New York City and Hong Kong as Nylonkong, hailing them as the world's three most influential global cities. In January 2015, Greater London's population was estimated to be 8.63 million, its highest since 1939. During the Brexit referendum in 2016, the UK as a whole decided to leave the European Union, but most London constituencies voted for remaining. However, Britain's exit from the EU in early 2020 only marginally weakened London's position as an international financial centre. Administration Local government The administration of London is formed of two tiers: a citywide, strategic tier and a local tier. Citywide administration is coordinated by the Greater London Authority (GLA), while local administration is carried out by 33 smaller authorities. The GLA consists of two elected components: the mayor of London, who has executive powers, and the London Assembly, which scrutinises the mayor's decisions and can accept or reject the mayor's budget proposals each year. The GLA has responsibility for the majority of London's transport system through its functional arm Transport for London (TfL), it is responsible for overseeing the city's police and fire services, and also for setting a strategic vision for London on a range of issues. The headquarters of the GLA is City Hall, Newham. The mayor since 2016 has been Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim mayor of a major Western capital. The mayor's statutory planning strategy is published as the London Plan, which was most recently revised in 2011. The local authorities are the councils of the 32 London boroughs and the City of London Corporation. They are responsible for most local services, such as local planning, schools, libraries, leisure and recreation, social services, local roads and refuse collection. Certain functions, such as waste management, are provided through joint arrangements. In 2009–2010 the combined revenue expenditure by London councils and the GLA amounted to just over £22 billion (£14.7 billion for the boroughs and £7.4 billion for the GLA). The London Fire Brigade is the statutory fire and rescue service for Greater London, run by the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. It is the third largest fire service in the world. National Health Service ambulance services are provided by the London Ambulance Service (LAS) NHS Trust, the largest free-at-the-point-of-use emergency ambulance service in the world. The London Air Ambulance charity operates in conjunction with the LAS where required. Her Majesty's Coastguard and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution operate on the River Thames, which is under the jurisdiction of the Port of London Authority from Teddington Lock to the sea. National government London is the seat of the Government of the United Kingdom. Many government departments, as well as the prime minister's residence at 10 Downing Street, are based close to the Palace of Westminster, particularly along Whitehall. There are 75 members of Parliament (MPs) from London; As of June 2024, 59 are from the Labour Party, 9 are Conservatives, 6 are Liberal Democrats and one constituency is held by an independent. The ministerial post of minister for London was created in 1994, however as of 2024, the post has been vacant. Policing and crime Policing in Greater London, with the exception of the City of London, is provided by the Metropolitan Police ("The Met"), overseen by the mayor through the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC). The Met is also referred to as Scotland Yard after the location of its original headquarters in a road called Great Scotland Yard in Whitehall. The City of London has its own police force – the City of London Police. First worn by Met police officers in 1863, the custodian helmet has been called a "cultural icon" and a "symbol of British law enforcement". Introduced by the Met in 1929, the blue police telephone box (basis for the TARDIS in Doctor Who) was once a common sight throughout London and regional cities in the UK. The British Transport Police are responsible for police services on National Rail, London Underground, Docklands Light Railway and Tramlink services. The Ministry of Defence Police is a special police force in London, which does not generally become involved with policing the general public. The UK's domestic counter-intelligence service (MI5) is headquartered in Thames House on the north bank of the River Thames and the foreign intelligence service (MI6) is headquartered in the SIS Building on the south bank. Crime rates vary widely across different areas of London. Crime figures are made available nationally at Local Authority and Ward level. In 2015, there were 118 homicides, a 25.5% increase over 2014. Recorded crime has been rising in London, notably violent crime and murder by stabbing and other means have risen. There were 50 murders from the start of 2018 to mid April 2018. Funding cuts to police in London are likely to have contributed to this, though other factors are involved. However, homicide figures fell in 2022 with 109 recorded for the year, and the murder rate in London is much lower than other major cities around the world. Geography Scope London, also known as Greater London, is one of nine regions of England and the top subdivision covering most of the city's metropolis. The City of London at its core once comprised the whole settlement, but as its urban area grew, the Corporation of London resisted attempts to amalgamate the city with its suburbs, causing "London" to be defined several ways. Forty per cent of Greater London is covered by the London post town, in which 'London' forms part of postal addresses. The London telephone area code (020) covers a larger area, similar in size to Greater London, although some outer districts are excluded and some just outside included. The Greater London boundary has been aligned to the M25 motorway in places. Further urban expansion is now prevented by the Metropolitan Green Belt, although the built-up area extends beyond the boundary in places, producing a separately defined Greater London Urban Area. Beyond this is the vast London commuter belt. Greater London is split for some purposes into Inner London and Outer London, and by the River Thames into North and South, with an informal central London area. The coordinates of the nominal centre of London, traditionally the original Eleanor Cross at Charing Cross near the junction of Trafalgar Square and Whitehall, are about 51°30′26″N 00°07′39″W. Status Within London, both the City of London and the City of Westminster have city status. The City of London and the remainder of Greater London are both counties for the purposes of lieutenancies. The area of Greater London includes areas that are part of the historic counties of Middlesex, Kent, Surrey, Essex and Hertfordshire. More recently, Greater London has been defined as a region of England and in this context is known as London. It is the capital of the United Kingdom and of England by convention rather than statute. The capital of England was moved to London from Winchester as the Palace of Westminster developed in the 12th and 13th centuries to become the permanent location of the royal court, and thus the political capital of the nation. Topography Greater London encompasses a total area of 611 square miles (1,583 km2) an area which had a population of 7,172,036 in 2001 and a population density of 11,760 inhabitants per square mile (4,542/km2). The extended area known as the London Metropolitan Region or the London Metropolitan Agglomeration, comprises a total area of 3,236 square miles (8,382 km2) has a population of 13,709,000 and a population density of 3,900 inhabitants per square mile (1,510/km2). Modern London stands on the Thames, its primary geographical feature, a navigable river which crosses the city from the south-west to the east. The Thames Valley is a flood plain surrounded by gently rolling hills including Parliament Hill, Addington Hills, and Primrose Hill. Historically London grew up at the lowest bridging point on the Thames. The Thames was once a much broader, shallower river with extensive marshlands; at high tide, its shores reached five times their present width. Since the Victorian era the Thames has been extensively embanked, and many of its London tributaries now flow underground. The Thames is a tidal river, and London is vulnerable to flooding. The threat has increased over time because of a slow but continuous rise in high water level caused by climate change and by the slow 'tilting' of the British Isles as a result of post-glacial rebound. Climate London has a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb). Rainfall records have been kept in the city since at least 1697, when records began at Kew. At Kew, the most rainfall in one month is 7.4 inches (189 mm) in November 1755 and the least is 0 inches (0 mm) in both December 1788 and July 1800. Mile End also had 0 inches (0 mm) in April 1893. The wettest year on record is 1903, with a total fall of 38.1 inches (969 mm) and the driest is 1921, with a total fall of 12.1 inches (308 mm). The average annual precipitation amounts to about 600 mm, which is half the annual rainfall of New York City. Despite relatively low annual precipitation, London receives 109.6 rainy days on the 1.0 mm threshold annually. London is vulnerable to climate change, and there is concern among hydrological experts that households may run out of water before 2050. Temperature extremes in London range from 40.2 °C (104.4 °F) at Heathrow on 19 July 2022 down to −17.4 °C (0.7 °F) at Northolt on 13 December 1981. Records for atmospheric pressure have been kept at London since 1692. The highest pressure ever reported is 1,049.8 millibars (31.00 inHg) on 20 January 2020. Summers are generally warm, sometimes hot. London's average July high is 23.5 °C (74.3 °F). On average each year, London experiences 31 days above 25 °C (77.0 °F) and 4.2 days above 30.0 °C (86.0 °F). During the 2003 European heat wave, prolonged heat led to hundreds of heat-related deaths. A previous spell of 15 consecutive days above 32.2 °C (90.0 °F) in England in 1976 also caused many heat related deaths. A previous temperature of 37.8 °C (100.0 °F) in August 1911 at the Greenwich station was later disregarded as non-standard. Droughts can also, occasionally, be a problem, especially in summer, most recently in summer 2018, and with much drier than average conditions prevailing from May to December. However, the most consecutive days without rain was 73 days in the spring of 1893. Winters are generally cool with little temperature variation. Heavy snow is rare but snow usually falls at least once each winter. Spring and autumn can be pleasant. As a large city, London has a considerable urban heat island effect, making the centre of London at times 5 °C (9 °F) warmer than the suburbs and outskirts. Areas Places within London's vast urban area are identified using area names, such as Mayfair, Southwark, Wembley, and Whitechapel. These are either informal designations, reflect the names of villages that have been absorbed by sprawl, or are superseded administrative units such as parishes or former boroughs. Such names have remained in use through tradition, each referring to a local area with its own distinctive character, but without official boundaries. Since 1965, Greater London has been divided into 32 London boroughs in addition to the ancient City of London. The City of London is the main financial district, and Canary Wharf has recently developed into a new financial and commercial hub in the Docklands to the east. The West End is London's main entertainment and shopping district, attracting tourists. West London includes expensive residential areas where properties can sell for tens of millions of pounds. The average price for properties in Kensington and Chelsea is over £2 million with a similarly high outlay in most of central London. The East End is the area closest to the original Port of London, known for its high immigrant population, as well as for being one of the poorest areas in London. The surrounding East London area saw much of London's early industrial development; now, brownfield sites throughout the area are being redeveloped as part of the Thames Gateway including the London Riverside and Lower Lea Valley, which was developed into the Olympic Park for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. Architecture London's buildings are too diverse to be characterised by any particular architectural style, partly because of their varying ages. Many grand houses and public buildings, such as the National Gallery, are constructed from Portland stone. Some areas of the city, particularly those just west of the centre, are characterised by white stucco or whitewashed buildings. Few structures in central London pre-date the Great Fire of 1666, these being a few trace Roman remains, the Tower of London and a few scattered Tudor survivors in the city. Further out is, for example, the Tudor-period Hampton Court Palace. Part of the varied architectural heritage are the 17th-century churches by Christopher Wren, neoclassical financial institutions such as the Royal Exchange and the Bank of England, to the early 20th century Old Bailey courthouse and the 1960s Barbican Estate. The 1939 Battersea Power Station by the river in the south-west is a local landmark, while some railway termini are excellent examples of Victorian architecture, most notably St. Pancras and Paddington. The density of London varies, with high employment density in the central area and Canary Wharf, high residential densities in inner London, and lower densities in Outer London. The Monument in the City of London provides views of the surrounding area while commemorating the Great Fire of London, which originated nearby. Marble Arch and Wellington Arch, at the north and south ends of Park Lane, respectively, have royal connections, as do the Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall in Kensington. Nelson's Column (built to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson) is a nationally recognised monument in Trafalgar Square, one of the focal points of central London. Older buildings are mainly brick, commonly the yellow London stock brick. In the dense areas, most of the concentration is via medium- and high-rise buildings. London's skyscrapers, such as 30 St Mary Axe (dubbed "The Gherkin"), Tower 42, the Broadgate Tower and One Canada Square, are mostly in the two financial districts, the City of London and Canary Wharf. High-rise development is restricted at certain sites if it would obstruct protected views of St Paul's Cathedral and other historic buildings. This protective policy, known as 'St Paul's Heights', has been in operation by the City of London since 1937. Nevertheless, there are a number of tall skyscrapers in central London, including the 95-storey Shard London Bridge, the tallest building in the United Kingdom and Western Europe. Other notable modern buildings include The Scalpel, 20 Fenchurch Street (dubbed "The Walkie-Talkie"), the former City Hall in Southwark, the Art Deco BBC Broadcasting House plus the Postmodernist British Library in Somers Town/Kings Cross and No 1 Poultry by James Stirling. The BT Tower stands at 620 feet (189 m) and has a 360 degree coloured LED screen near the top. What was formerly the Millennium Dome, by the Thames to the east of Canary Wharf, is now an entertainment venue called the O2 Arena. Natural history The London Natural History Society suggests that London is "one of the World's Greenest Cities" with more than 40 per cent green space or open water. They indicate that 2000 species of flowering plant have been found growing there and that the tidal Thames supports 120 species of fish. They state that over 60 species of bird nest in central London and that their members have recorded 47 species of butterfly, 1173 moths and more than 270 kinds of spider around London. London's wetland areas support nationally important populations of many water birds. London has 38 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), two national nature reserves and 76 local nature reserves. Amphibians are common in the capital, including smooth newts living by the Tate Modern, and common frogs, common toads, palmate newts and great crested newts. On the other hand, native reptiles such as slowworms, common lizards, barred grass snakes and adders, are mostly only seen in Outer London. Among other inhabitants of London are 10,000 red foxes, so that there are now 16 foxes for every square mile (6 per square kilometre) of London. Other mammals found in Greater London are hedgehog, brown rat, mice, rabbit, shrew, vole, and grey squirrel. In wilder areas of Outer London, such as Epping Forest, a wide variety of mammals are found, including European hare, badger, field, bank and water vole, wood mouse, yellow-necked mouse, mole, shrew, and weasel, in addition to red fox, grey squirrel and hedgehog. A dead otter was found at The Highway, in Wapping, about a mile from the Tower Bridge, which would suggest that they have begun to move back after being absent a hundred years from the city. Ten of England's eighteen species of bats have been recorded in Epping Forest: soprano, Nathusius' and common pipistrelles, common noctule, serotine, barbastelle, Daubenton's, brown long-eared, Natterer's and Leisler's. Herds of red and fallow deer roam freely within much of Richmond and Bushy Park. A cull takes place each November and February to ensure numbers can be sustained. Epping Forest is also known for its fallow deer, which can frequently be seen in herds to the north of the Forest. A rare population of melanistic, black fallow deer is also maintained at the Deer Sanctuary near Theydon Bois. Muntjac deer are also found in the forest. While Londoners are accustomed to wildlife such as birds and foxes sharing the city, more recently urban deer have started becoming a regular feature, and whole herds of fallow deer come into residential areas at night to take advantage of London's green spaces. Demography London's continuous urban area extends beyond Greater London and numbered 9,787,426 people in 2011, while its wider metropolitan area had a population of 12–14 million, depending on the definition used. According to Eurostat, London is the second most populous metropolitan area in Europe. A net 726,000 immigrants arrived there in the period 1991–2001. The region covers 610 square miles (1,579 km2), giving a population density of 13,410 inhabitants per square mile (5,177/km2) more than ten times that of any other British region. In population terms, London is the 19th largest city and the 18th largest metropolitan region. In tenure, 23.1% socially rent within London, 46.8% either own their house outright or with a mortgage or loan and 30% privately rent at the 2021 census. Many Londoner's work from home, 42.9% did so at the 2021 census while 20.6% drive a car to work. The biggest decrease in method of transportation was seen within those who take the train and underground, declining from 22.6% in 2011 to 9.6% in 2021. In qualifications, 46.7% of London had census classified Level 4 qualifications or higher, which is predominately university degrees. 16.2% had no qualifications at all. Age structure and median age London's median age is one of the youngest regions in the UK. It was recorded in 2018 that London's residents were 36.5 years old, which was younger than the UK median of 40.3. Children younger than 14 constituted 20.6% of the population in Outer London in 2018, and 18% in Inner London. The 15–24 age group was 11.1% in Outer and 10.2% in Inner London, those aged 25–44 years 30.6% in Outer London and 39.7% in Inner London, those aged 45–64 years 24% and 20.7% in Outer and Inner London respectively. Those aged 65 and over are 13.6% in Outer London, but only 9.3% in Inner London. Country of birth The 2021 census recorded that 3,575,739 people or 40.6% of London's population were foreign-born, making it among the cities with the largest immigrant population in terms of absolute numbers and a growth of roughly 3 million since 1971 when the foreign born population was 668,373. 13% of the total population were Asian born (32.1% of the total foreign born population), 7.1% are African born (17.5%), 15.5% are Other European born (38.2%) and 4.2% were born in the Americas and Caribbean (10.3%). The 5 largest single countries of origin were respectively India, Romania, Poland, Bangladesh and Pakistan. About 56.8% of children born in London in 2021 were born to a mother who was born abroad. This trend has been increasing in the past two decades when foreign born mothers made up 43.3% of births in 2001 in London, becoming the majority in the middle of the 2000s by 2006 comprising 52.5%. A large degree of the foreign born population who were present at the 2021 census had arrived relatively recently. Of the total population, those that arrived between the years of 2011 and 2021 account for 16.6% of London. Those who arrived between 2001 and 2010 are 10.4%, between 1991 and 2001, 5.7%, and prior to 1990, 7.3%. Ethnic groups According to the Office for National Statistics, based on the 2021 census, 53.8 per cent of the 8,173,941 inhabitants of London were White, with 36.8% White British, 1.8% White Irish, 0.1% Gypsy/Irish Traveller, 0.4 Roma and 14.7% classified as Other White. Meanwhile, 22.2% of Londoners were of Asian or mixed-Asian descent, with 20.8% being of full Asian descents and 1.4% being of mixed-Asian heritage. Indians accounted for 7.5% of the population, followed by Bangladeshis and Pakistanis at 3.7% and 3.3% respectively. Chinese people accounted for 1.7%, and Arabs for 1.6%. A further 4.6% were classified as "Other Asian". 15.9% of London's population were of Black or mixed-Black descent. 13.5% were of full Black descent, with persons of mixed-Black heritage comprising 2.4%. Black Africans accounted for 7.9% of London's population; 3.9% identified as Black Caribbean, and 1.7% as "Other Black". 5.7% were of mixed race. This ethnic structure has changed considerably since the 1960s. Estimates for 1961 put the total non-White ethnic minority population at 179,109 comprising 2.3% of the population at the time, having risen since then to 1,346,119 and 20.2% in 1991 and 4,068,553 and 46.2% in 2021. Of those of a White British background, estimates for 1971 put the population at 6,500,000 and 87% of the total population, of since fell to 3,239,281 and 36.8% in 2021. As of 2021, the majority of London's school pupils come from ethnic minority backgrounds. 23.9% were White British, 14% Other White, 23.2% Asian, 17.9% Black, 11.3% Mixed, 6.3% Other and 2.3% unclassified. Altogether at the 2021 census, of London's 1,695,741 population aged 0 to 15, 42% were White in total, splitting it down into 30.9% who were White British, 0.5% Irish, 10.6% Other White, 23% Asian, 16.4% Black, 12% Mixed and 6.6% another ethnic group. Languages In January 2005, a survey of London's ethnic and religious diversity claimed that more than 300 languages were spoken in London and more than 50 non-indigenous communities had populations of more than 10,000. At the 2021 census, 78.4% of Londoners spoke English as their first language. The 5 biggest languages outside of English were Romanian, Spanish, Polish, Bengali, and Portuguese. Religion According to the 2021 Census, the largest religious groupings were Christians (40.66%), followed by those of no religion (20.7%), Muslims (15%), no response (8.5%), Hindus (5.15%), Jews (1.65%), Sikhs (1.64%), Buddhists (1.0%) and other (0.8%). London has traditionally been Christian, and has a large number of churches, particularly in the City of London. The well-known St Paul's Cathedral in the City and Southwark Cathedral south of the river are Anglican administrative centres, while the Archbishop of Canterbury, principal bishop of the Church of England and worldwide Anglican Communion, has his main residence at Lambeth Palace in the London Borough of Lambeth. Important national and royal ceremonies are shared between St Paul's and Westminster Abbey. The Abbey is not to be confused with nearby Westminster Cathedral, the largest Roman Catholic cathedral in England and Wales. Despite the prevalence of Anglican churches, observance is low within the denomination. Anglican Church attendance continues a long, steady decline, according to Church of England statistics. Notable mosques include the East London Mosque in Tower Hamlets, which is allowed to give the Islamic call to prayer through loudspeakers, the London Central Mosque on the edge of Regent's Park and the Baitul Futuh of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. After the oil boom, increasing numbers of wealthy Middle-Eastern Arab Muslims based themselves around Mayfair, Kensington and Knightsbridge in West London. There are large Bengali Muslim communities in the eastern boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Newham. Large Hindu communities are found in the north-western boroughs of Harrow and Brent, the latter hosting what was until 2006 Europe's largest Hindu temple, Neasden Temple. London is home to 44 Hindu temples, including the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir London. There are Sikh communities in East and West London, particularly in Southall, home to one of the largest Sikh populations and the largest Sikh temple outside India. The majority of British Jews live in London, with notable Jewish communities in Stamford Hill, Stanmore, Golders Green, Finchley, Hampstead, Hendon, and Edgware, all in North London. Bevis Marks Synagogue in the City of London is affiliated to London's historic Sephardic Jewish community. It is the only synagogue in Europe to have held regular services continually for over 300 years. Stanmore and Canons Park Synagogue has the largest membership of any Orthodox synagogue in Europe. The London Jewish Forum was set up in 2006 in response to the growing significance of devolved London Government. Accents Cockney is an accent heard across London, mainly spoken by working-class and lower-middle class Londoners. It is mainly attributed to the East End and wider East London, having originated there in the 18th century, although it has been suggested that the Cockney style of speech is much older. Some features of Cockney include, Th-fronting (pronouncing "th" as "f"), "th" inside a word is pronounced with a "v", H-dropping, and, like most English accents, a Cockney accent drops the "r" after a vowel. John Camden Hotten, in his Slang Dictionary of 1859, makes reference to Cockney "use of a peculiar slang language" (Cockney rhyming slang) when describing the costermongers of the East End. Since the start of the 21st century the extreme form of the Cockney dialect is less common in parts of the East End itself, with modern strongholds including other parts of London and suburbs in the home counties. This is particularly pronounced in areas like Romford (in the London Borough of Havering) and Southend (in Essex) which have received significant inflows of older East End residents in recent decades. Estuary English is an intermediate accent between Cockney and Received Pronunciation. It is widely spoken by people of all classes. Multicultural London English (MLE) is a multiethnolect becoming increasingly common in multicultural areas amongst young, working-class people from diverse backgrounds. It is a fusion of an array of ethnic accents, in particular Afro-Caribbean and South Asian, with a significant Cockney influence. Received Pronunciation (RP) is the accent traditionally regarded as the standard for British English. It has no specific geographical correlate, although it is also traditionally defined as the standard speech used in London and south-eastern England. It is mainly spoken by upper-class and upper-middle class Londoners. Economy London's gross regional product in 2019 was £503 billion, around a quarter of UK GDP. London has five major business districts: the city, Westminster, Canary Wharf, Camden & Islington, and Lambeth & Southwark. One way to get an idea of their relative importance is to look at relative amounts of office space: Greater London had 27 million m2 of office space in 2001, and the City contains the most space, with 8 million m2 of office space. London has some of the highest real estate prices in the world. City of London London's finance industry is based in the City of London and Canary Wharf, the two major business districts. London took over as a major financial centre shortly after 1795 when the Dutch Republic collapsed before the Napoleonic armies. This caused many bankers established in Amsterdam (e.g. Hope, Baring I'm), to move to London. Also, London's market-centred system (as opposed to the bank-centred one in Amsterdam) grew more dominant in the 18th century. The London financial elite was strengthened by a strong Jewish community from all over Europe capable of mastering the most sophisticated financial tools of the time. This economic strength of the city was attributed to its diversity. By the mid-19th century, London was the leading financial centre, and at the end of the century over half the world's trade was financed in British currency. As of 2023, London ranks second in the world rankings on the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI), and it ranked second in A.T. Kearney's 2018 Global Cities Index. London's largest industry is finance, and its financial exports make it a large contributor to the UK's balance of payments. Notwithstanding a post-Brexit exodus of stock listings from the London Stock Exchange, London is still one of Europe's most economically powerful cities, and it remains one of the major financial centres of the world. It is the world's biggest currency trading centre, accounting for some 37 per cent of the $5.1 trillion average daily volume, according to the BIS. Over 85 per cent (3.2 million) of the employed population of greater London works in the services industries. Because of its prominent global role, London's economy had been affected by the financial crisis of 2007–2008. However, by 2010 the city had recovered, put in place new regulatory powers, proceeded to regain lost ground and re-established London's economic dominance. Along with professional services headquarters, the City of London is home to the Bank of England, London Stock Exchange, and Lloyd's of London insurance market. Founded in 1690, Barclays, whose branch in Enfield, north London installed the first cash machine (ATM) in 1967, is one of the oldest banks in continuous operation. Over half the UK's top 100 listed companies (the FTSE 100) and over 100 of Europe's 500 largest companies have their headquarters in central London. Over 70 per cent of the FTSE 100 are within London's metropolitan area, and 75 per cent of Fortune 500 companies have offices in London. In a 1992 report commissioned by the London Stock Exchange, Sir Adrian Cadbury, chairman of his family's confectionery company Cadbury, produced the Cadbury Report, a code of best practice which served as a basis for reform of corporate governance around the world. Media and technology Media companies are concentrated in London, and the media distribution industry is London's second most competitive sector. The BBC, the world's oldest national broadcaster, is a significant employer, while other broadcasters, including ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, and Sky, also have headquarters around the city. Many national newspapers, including The Times, founded in 1785, are edited in London; the term Fleet Street (where most national newspapers operated) remains a metonym for the British national press. The communications company WPP is the world's largest advertising agency. A large number of technology companies are based in London, notably in East London Tech City, also known as Silicon Roundabout. In 2014 the city was among the first to receive a geoTLD. In February 2014 London was ranked as the European City of the Future in the 2014/15 list by fDi Intelligence. A museum in Bletchley Park, where Alan Turing was based during World War II, is in Bletchley, 40 miles (64 km) north of central London, as is The National Museum of Computing. The gas and electricity distribution networks that manage and operate the towers, cables and pressure systems that deliver energy to consumers across the city are managed by National Grid plc, SGN and UK Power Networks. Tourism London is one of the leading tourist destinations in the world. It is also the top city in the world by visitor cross-border spending, estimated at US$20.23 billion in 2015. Tourism is one of London's prime industries, employing 700,000 full-time workers in 2016, and contributes £36 billion a year to the economy. The city accounts for 54% of all inbound visitor spending in the UK. In 2015, the top ten most-visited attractions in the UK were all in London (shown with visits per venue): British Museum: 6,820,686 National Gallery: 5,908,254 Natural History Museum (South Kensington): 5,284,023 Southbank Centre: 5,102,883 Tate Modern: 4,712,581 Victoria and Albert Museum (South Kensington): 3,432,325 Science Museum: 3,356,212 Somerset House: 3,235,104 Tower of London: 2,785,249 National Portrait Gallery: 2,145,486 The number of hotel rooms in London in 2023 stood at 155,700 and is expected to grow to 183,600 rooms, the most of any city outside China. Luxury hotels in London include the Savoy (opened in 1889), Claridge's (opened in 1812 and rebuilt in 1898), the Ritz (opened in 1906) and the Dorchester (opened in 1931), while budget hotel chains include Premier Inn and Travelodge. Transport Transport is one of the four main areas of policy administered by the Mayor of London, but the mayor's financial control does not extend to the longer-distance rail network that enters London. In 2007, the Mayor of London assumed responsibility for some local lines, which now form the London Overground network, adding to the existing responsibility for the London Underground, trams and buses. The public transport network is administered by Transport for London (TfL). The lines that formed the London Underground, as well as trams and buses, became part of an integrated transport system in 1933 when the London Passenger Transport Board or London Transport was created. Transport for London is now the statutory corporation responsible for most aspects of the transport system in Greater London, and is run by a board and a commissioner appointed by the Mayor of London. Aviation London is a major international air transport hub with the busiest city airspace in the world. Eight airports use the word London in their name, but most traffic passes through six of these. Additionally, various other airports also serve London, catering primarily to general aviation flights. Heathrow Airport, in Hillingdon, West London, was for many years the busiest airport in the world for international traffic, and is the major hub of the nation's flag carrier, British Airways. In March 2008 its fifth terminal was opened. Gatwick Airport, south of London in West Sussex, handles flights to more destinations than any other UK airport and is the main base of easyJet, the UK's largest airline by number of passengers. London Stansted Airport, north-east of London in Essex, has flights that serve the greatest number of European destinations of any UK airport and is the main base of Ryanair, the world's largest international airline by number of international passengers. Luton Airport, to the north of London in Bedfordshire, is used by several budget airlines (especially easyJet and Wizz Air) for short-haul flights. London City Airport, the most central airport and the one with the shortest runway, in Newham, East London, is focused on business travellers, with a mixture of full-service short-haul scheduled flights and considerable business jet traffic. London Southend Airport, east of London in Essex, is a smaller, regional airport that caters for short-haul flights on a limited, though growing, number of airlines. In 2017, international passengers made up over 95% of the total at Southend, the highest proportion of any London airport. Rail Underground and DLR Opened in 1863, the London Underground, commonly referred to as the Tube or just the Underground, is the oldest and third longest metro system in the world. The system serves 272 stations, and was formed from several private companies, including the world's first underground electric line, the City and South London Railway, which opened in 1890. Over four million journeys are made every day on the Underground network, over 1 billion each year. An investment programme is attempting to reduce congestion and improve reliability, including £6.5 billion (€7.7 billion) spent before the 2012 Summer Olympics. The Docklands Light Railway (DLR), which opened in 1987, is a second, more local metro system using smaller and lighter tram-type vehicles that serve the Docklands, Greenwich and Lewisham. Suburban There are 368 railway stations in the London Travelcard Zones on an extensive above-ground suburban railway network. South London, particularly, has a high concentration of railways as it has fewer Underground lines. Most rail lines terminate around the centre of London, running into eighteen terminal stations, with the exception of the Thameslink trains connecting Bedford in the north and Brighton in the south via Luton and Gatwick airports. London has Britain's busiest station by number of passengers—Waterloo, with over 184 million people using the interchange station complex (which includes Waterloo East station) each year. Clapham Junction is one of Europe's busiest rail interchanges. With the need for more rail capacity, the Elizabeth Line (also known as Crossrail) opened in May 2022. It is a new railway line running east to west through London and into the Home Counties with a branch to Heathrow Airport. It was Europe's biggest construction project, with a £15 billion projected cost. Inter-city and international London is the centre of the National Rail network, with 70 per cent of rail journeys starting or ending in London. King's Cross station and Euston station, both in London, are the starting points of the East Coast Main Line and the West Coast Main Line – the two main railway lines in Britain. Like suburban rail services, regional and inter-city trains depart from several termini around the city centre, directly linking London with most of Great Britain's major cities and towns. The Flying Scotsman is an express passenger train service that has operated between London and Edinburgh since 1862; the world famous steam locomotive named after this service, Flying Scotsman, was the first locomotive to reach the officially authenticated speed of 100 miles per hour (161 km/h) in 1934. Some international railway services to Continental Europe were operated during the 20th century as boat trains. The opening of the Channel Tunnel in 1994 connected London directly to the continental rail network, allowing Eurostar services to begin. Since 2007, high-speed trains link St. Pancras International with Lille, Calais, Paris, Disneyland Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and other European tourist destinations via the High Speed 1 rail link and the Channel Tunnel. The first high-speed domestic trains started in June 2009, linking Kent to London. There are plans for a second high speed line linking London to the Midlands, North West England, and Yorkshire. Buses, coaches and trams London's bus network runs 24 hours a day with about 9,300 vehicles, over 675 bus routes and about 19,000 bus stops. In 2019 the network had over 2 billion commuter trips per year. Since 2010 an average of £1.2 billion is taken in revenue each year. London has one of the largest wheelchair-accessible networks in the world and from the third quarter of 2007, became more accessible to hearing and visually impaired passengers as audio-visual announcements were introduced. An emblem of London, the red double-decker bus first appeared in the city in 1947 with the AEC Regent III RT (predecessor to the AEC Routemaster). London's coach hub is Victoria Coach Station, opened in 1932. Nationalised in 1970 and then purchased by London Transport (now Transport for London), Victoria Coach Station has over 14 million passengers a year and provides services across the UK and continental Europe. London has a modern tram network, known as Tramlink. It has 39 stops and four routes, and carried 28 million people in 2013. Since June 2008, Transport for London has completely owned and operated Tramlink. Cable car London's first and to date only cable car is the London Cable Car, which opened in June 2012. The cable car crosses the Thames and links Greenwich Peninsula with the Royal Docks in the east of the city. It is able to carry up to 2,500 passengers per hour in each direction at peak times. Cycling In the Greater London Area, around 670,000 people use a bike every day, meaning around 7% of the total population of around 8.8 million use a bike on an average day. Cycling has become an increasingly popular way to get around London. The launch of a bicycle hire scheme in July 2010 was successful and generally well received. Port and river boats The Port of London, once the largest in the world, is now only the second-largest in the United Kingdom, handling 45 million tonnes of cargo each year as of 2009. Most of this cargo passes through the Port of Tilbury, outside the boundary of Greater London. London has river boat services on the Thames known as Thames Clippers, which offer both commuter and tourist boat services. At major piers including Canary Wharf, London Bridge City, Battersea Power Station and London Eye (Waterloo), services depart at least every 20 minutes during commuter times. The Woolwich Ferry, with 2.5 million passengers every year, is a frequent service linking the North and South Circular Roads. Roads Although the majority of journeys in central London are made by public transport, car travel is common in the suburbs. The inner ring road (around the city centre), the North and South Circular roads (just within the suburbs), and the outer orbital motorway (the M25, just outside the built-up area in most places) encircle the city and are intersected by a number of busy radial routes—but very few motorways penetrate into inner London. The M25 is the second-longest ring-road motorway in Europe at 117 miles (188 km) long. The A1 and M1 connect London to Leeds, and Newcastle and Edinburgh. The Austin Motor Company began making hackney carriages (London taxis) in 1929, and models include Austin FX3 from 1948, Austin FX4 from 1958, with more recent models TXII and TX4 manufactured by London Taxis International. The BBC states, "ubiquitous black cabs and red double-decker buses all have long and tangled stories that are deeply embedded in London's traditions". Although traditionally black, some are painted in other colours or bear advertising. London is notorious for its traffic congestion; in 2009, the average speed of a car in the rush hour was recorded at 10.6 mph (17.1 km/h). In 2003, a congestion charge was introduced to reduce traffic volumes in the city centre. With a few exceptions, motorists are required to pay to drive within a defined zone encompassing much of central London. Motorists who are residents of the defined zone can buy a greatly reduced season pass. Over the course of several years, the average number of cars entering the centre of London on a weekday was reduced from 195,000 to 125,000. Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTN) were widely introduced in London, but in 2023 the Department for Transport stopped funding them, even though the benefits outweighed the costs by approximately 100 times in the first 20 years and the difference is growing over time. Education Tertiary education London is a major global centre of higher education teaching and research and has the largest concentration of higher education institutes in Europe. According to the QS World University Rankings 2015/16, London has the greatest concentration of top class universities in the world and its international student population of around 110,000 is larger than any other city in the world. A 2014 PricewaterhouseCoopers report termed London the global capital of higher education. A number of world-leading education institutions are based in London. In the 2022 QS World University Rankings, Imperial College London is ranked No. 6 in the world, University College London (UCL) is ranked 8th, and King's College London (KCL) is ranked 37th. All are regularly ranked highly, with Imperial College being the UK's leading university in the Research Excellence Framework ranking 2021. The London School of Economics (LSE) has been described as the world's leading social science institution for both teaching and research. The London Business School is considered one of the world's leading business schools and in 2015 its MBA programme was ranked second-best in the world by the Financial Times. The city is also home to three of the world's top ten performing arts schools (as ranked by the 2020 QS World University Rankings): the Royal College of Music (ranking 2nd in the world), the Royal Academy of Music (ranking 4th) and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (ranking 6th). With students in London and around 48,000 in University of London Worldwide, the federal University of London is the largest contact teaching university in the UK. It includes five multi-faculty universities – City, King's College London, Queen Mary, Royal Holloway and UCL – and a number of smaller and more specialised institutions including Birkbeck, the Courtauld Institute of Art, Goldsmiths, the London Business School, the London School of Economics, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the Royal Academy of Music, the Central School of Speech and Drama, the Royal Veterinary College and the School of Oriental and African Studies. Universities in London outside the University of London system include Brunel University, Imperial College London, Kingston University, London Metropolitan University, University of East London, University of West London, University of Westminster, London South Bank University, Middlesex University, and University of the Arts London (the largest university of art, design, fashion, communication and the performing arts in Europe). In addition, there are three international universities – Regent's University London, Richmond, The American International University in London and Schiller International University. London is home to five major medical schools – Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry (part of Queen Mary), King's College London School of Medicine (the largest medical school in Europe), Imperial College School of Medicine, UCL Medical School and St George's, University of London – and has many affiliated teaching hospitals. It is also a major centre for biomedical research, and three of the UK's eight academic health science centres are based in the city – Imperial College Healthcare, King's Health Partners and UCL Partners (the largest such centre in Europe). Additionally, many biomedical and biotechnology spin out companies from these research institutions are based around the city, most prominently in White City. Founded by pioneering nurse Florence Nightingale at St Thomas' Hospital in 1860, the first nursing school is now part of King's College London. It was at King's in 1952 where a team led by Rosalind Franklin captured Photo 51, the critical evidence in identifying the structure of DNA. There are a number of business schools in London, including the London School of Business and Finance, Cass Business School (part of City University London), Hult International Business School, ESCP Europe, European Business School London, Imperial College Business School, the London Business School and the UCL School of Management. London is also home to many specialist arts education institutions, including esteemed drama schools such as RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art), the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), Drama Studio London, Sylvia Young Theatre School, the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, as well as the London College of Contemporary Arts (LCCA), Central School of Ballet, London Contemporary Dance School, National Centre for Circus Arts, Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, the Royal College of Art, and Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. The BRIT School in the London borough of Croydon provides training for the performing arts and technologies. Primary and secondary education The majority of primary and secondary schools and further-education colleges in London are controlled by the London boroughs or otherwise state-funded; leading examples include Ashbourne College, Bethnal Green Academy, Brampton Manor Academy, City and Islington College, City of Westminster College, David Game College, Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College, Leyton Sixth Form College, London Academy of Excellence, Tower Hamlets College, and Newham Collegiate Sixth Form Centre. There are also a number of private schools and colleges in London, some old and famous, such as City of London School, Harrow (alumni includes seven former British prime ministers), St Paul's School, Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, University College School, The John Lyon School, Highgate School and Westminster School. Royal Observatory, Greenwich and learned societies Founded in 1675, the Royal Observatory in Greenwich was established to address the problem of calculating longitude for navigational purposes. This pioneering work in solving longitude featured in astronomer royal Nevil Maskelyne's Nautical Almanac which made the Greenwich meridian the universal reference point, and helped lead to the international adoption of Greenwich as the prime meridian (0° longitude) in 1884. Important scientific learned societies based in London include the Royal Society—the UK's national academy of sciences and the oldest national scientific institution in the world—founded in 1660, and the Royal Institution, founded in 1799. Since 1825, the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures have presented scientific subjects to a general audience, and speakers have included physicist and inventor Michael Faraday, aerospace engineer Frank Whittle, naturalist David Attenborough and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. Culture Leisure and entertainment Leisure is a major part of the London economy. A 2003 report attributed a quarter of the entire UK leisure economy to London at 25.6 events per 1000 people. The city is one of the four fashion capitals of the world, and, according to official statistics, is the world's third-busiest film production centre, presents more live comedy than any other city, and has the biggest theatre audience of any city in the world. Within the City of Westminster, the entertainment district of the West End has its focus around Leicester Square, where London and world film premieres are held, and Piccadilly Circus, with its giant electronic advertisements. London's theatre district is here, as are many cinemas, bars, clubs, and restaurants, including the city's Chinatown district (in Soho), and just to the east is Covent Garden, an area housing speciality shops. In 1881, the West End's Savoy Theatre, which was built to showcase the plays of Gilbert and Sullivan, was fitted with the incandescent light bulb developed by Sir Joseph Swan to become the first public building in the world to be lit entirely by electricity. The city is the home of Andrew Lloyd Webber, whose musicals have dominated West End theatre since the late 20th century. Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, the world's longest-running play, has been performed in the West End since 1952. The Laurence Olivier Awards–named after Laurence Olivier–are given annually by the Society of London Theatre. The Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Royal Opera, and English National Opera are based in London and perform at the Royal Opera House, the London Coliseum, Sadler's Wells Theatre, and the Royal Albert Hall, as well as touring the country. Islington's 1 mile (1.6 km) long Upper Street, extending northwards from Angel, has more bars and restaurants than any other street in the UK. Europe's busiest shopping area is Oxford Street, a shopping street nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) long, making it the longest shopping street in the UK. It is home to vast numbers of retailers and department stores, including Selfridges flagship store. Knightsbridge, home to the equally renowned Harrods department store, lies to the south-west. One of the world's largest retail destinations, London frequently ranks at or near the top of retail sales of any city. Opened in 1760 with its flagship store on Regent Street since 1881, Hamleys is the oldest toy store in the world. Madame Tussauds wax museum opened in Baker Street in 1835, an era viewed as being when London's tourism industry began. London is home to designers John Galliano, Stella McCartney, Manolo Blahnik, and Jimmy Choo, among others; its renowned art and fashion schools make it one of the four international centres of fashion. Mary Quant designed the miniskirt in her King's Road boutique in Swinging Sixties London. In 2017, London was ranked the top city for luxury store openings. London Fashion Week takes place twice a year, in February and September; Londoners on the catwalk have included Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss and Cara Delevingne. London offers a great variety of cuisine as a result of its ethnically diverse population. Gastronomic centres include the Bangladeshi restaurants of Brick Lane and the Chinese restaurants of Chinatown. There are Chinese takeaways throughout London, as are Indian restaurants which provide Indian and Anglo-Indian cuisine. Around 1860, the first fish and chips shop in London was opened by Joseph Malin, a Jewish immigrant, in Bow. The full English breakfast dates from the Victorian era, and many cafes in London serve a full English throughout the day. London has five 3-Michelin star restaurants, including Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea. Many hotels in London provide a traditional afternoon tea service, such as the Oscar Wilde Lounge at the Hotel Café Royal in Piccadilly, and a themed tea service is also available, for example an Alice in Wonderland themed afternoon tea served at the Egerton House Hotel, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory themed afternoon tea at One Aldwych in Covent Garden. The nation's most popular biscuit to dunk in tea, chocolate digestives have been manufactured by McVitie's at their Harlesden factory in north-west London since 1925. There is a variety of annual events, beginning with the relatively new New Year's Day Parade, a fireworks display at the London Eye; the world's second largest street party, the Notting Hill Carnival, is held on the late August Bank Holiday each year. Traditional parades include November's Lord Mayor's Show, a centuries-old event celebrating the annual appointment of a new Lord Mayor of the City of London with a procession along the streets of the city, and June's Trooping the Colour, a formal military pageant performed by regiments of the Commonwealth and British armies to celebrate the King's Official Birthday. The Boishakhi Mela is a Bengali New Year festival celebrated by the British Bangladeshi community. It is the largest open-air Asian festival in Europe. After the Notting Hill Carnival, it is the second-largest street festival in the United Kingdom attracting over 80,000 visitors. First held in 1862, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show (run by the Royal Horticultural Society) takes place in May every year. LGBT scene The first gay bar in London in the modern sense was The Cave of the Golden Calf, established as a night club in an underground location at 9 Heddon Street, just off Regent Street, in 1912 and "which developed a reputation for sexual freedom and tolerance of same-sex relations." While London has been an LGBT tourism destination, after homosexuality was decriminalised in England in 1967 gay bar culture became more visible, and from the early 1970s Soho (and in particular Old Compton Street) became the centre of the London LGBT community. G-A-Y, previously based at the Astoria, and now Heaven, is a long-running night club. Wider British cultural movements have influenced LGBT culture: for example, the emergence of glam rock in the UK in the early 1970s, via Marc Bolan and David Bowie, saw a generation of teenagers begin playing with the idea of androgyny, and the West End musical The Rocky Horror Show, which debuted in London in 1973, is also widely said to have been an influence on countercultural and sexual liberation movements. The Blitz Kids (which included Boy George) frequented the Tuesday club-night at Blitz in Covent Garden, helping launch the New Romantic subcultural movement in the late 1970s. Today, the annual London Pride Parade and the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival are held in the city. Literature, film and television London has been the setting for many works of literature. The pilgrims in Geoffrey Chaucer's late 14th-century Canterbury Tales set out for Canterbury from London. William Shakespeare spent a large part of his life living and working in London; his contemporary Ben Jonson was also based there, and some of his work, most notably his play The Alchemist, was set in the city. A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) by Daniel Defoe is a fictionalisation of the events of the 1665 Great Plague. The literary centres of London have traditionally been hilly Hampstead and (since the early 20th century) Bloomsbury. Writers closely associated with the city are the diarist Samuel Pepys, noted for his eyewitness account of the Great Fire; Charles Dickens, whose representation of a foggy, snowy, grimy London of street sweepers and pickpockets has influenced people's vision of early Victorian London; and Virginia Woolf, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the 20th century. Later important depictions of London from the 19th and early 20th centuries are Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. Robert Louis Stevenson mixed in London literary circles, and in 1886 he wrote the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a gothic novella set in Victorian London. In 1898, H. G. Wells' sci-fi novel The War of the Worlds sees London (and southern England) invaded by Martians. Letitia Elizabeth Landon wrote Calendar of the London Seasons in 1834. Modern writers influenced by the city include Peter Ackroyd, author of London: The Biography, and Iain Sinclair, who writes in the genre of psychogeography. In the 1940s, George Orwell wrote essays in the London Evening Standard, including "A Nice Cup of Tea" (method for making tea) and "The Moon Under Water" (an ideal pub). The WWII evacuation of children from London is depicted in C. S. Lewis' first Narnia book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950). On Christmas Eve 1925, Winnie-the-Pooh debuted in London's Evening News, with the character based on a stuffed toy A. A. Milne bought for his son Christopher Robin in Harrods. In 1958, author Michael Bond created Paddington Bear, a refugee found in Paddington station. A screen adaptation, Paddington (2014), features the calypso song "London is the Place for Me". Buckingham Palace features in Roald Dahl's 1982 novel The BFG. London has played a significant role in the film industry. Major studios within or bordering London include Pinewood, Elstree, Ealing, Shepperton, Twickenham, and Leavesden, with the James Bond and Harry Potter series among many notable films produced here. Working Title Films has its headquarters in London. A post-production community is centred in Soho, and London houses six of the world's largest visual effects companies, such as Framestore. The Imaginarium, a digital performance-capture studio, was founded by Andy Serkis. London has been the setting for films including Oliver Twist (1948), Scrooge (1951), Peter Pan (1953), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), My Fair Lady (1964), Mary Poppins (1964), Blowup (1966), A Clockwork Orange (1971), The Long Good Friday (1980), The Great Mouse Detective (1986), Notting Hill (1999), Love Actually (2003), V for Vendetta (2005), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2008) and The King's Speech (2010). Notable actors and filmmakers from London include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Caine, Julie Andrews, Peter Sellers, David Lean, Julie Christie, Gary Oldman, Emma Thompson, Guy Ritchie, Christopher Nolan, Alan Rickman, Jude Law, Helena Bonham Carter, Idris Elba, Tom Hardy, Daniel Radcliffe, Keira Knightley, Riz Ahmed, Dev Patel, Daniel Kaluuya, Tom Holland and Daniel Day-Lewis. Post-war Ealing comedies featured Alec Guinness, from the 1950s Hammer Horrors starred Christopher Lee, films directed by Michael Powell included the London-set early slasher Peeping Tom (1960), the 1970s comedy troupe Monty Python had film editing suites in Covent Garden, while since the 1990s Richard Curtis's rom-coms have featured Hugh Grant. The largest cinema chain in the country, Odeon Cinemas was founded in London in 1928 by Oscar Deutsch. The BFI IMAX on the South Bank is the largest cinema screen in the UK. The British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) have been held in London since 1949, with the BAFTA Fellowship the Academy's highest accolade. Founded in 1957, the BFI London Film Festival takes place over two weeks every October. London is a major centre for television production, with studios including Television Centre, ITV Studios, Sky Campus and Fountain Studios; the latter hosted the original talent shows, Pop Idol, The X Factor, and Britain's Got Talent (the latter two created by TV personality Simon Cowell who starred as a judge in all three shows), before each format was exported around the world. Formerly a franchise of ITV, Thames Television featured comedians such as Benny Hill and Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean was first screened by Thames), while Talkback produced Da Ali G Show which featured Sacha Baron Cohen as Ali G. Many television shows have been set in London, including the popular television soap opera EastEnders. Museums, art galleries and libraries London is home to many museums, galleries, and other institutions, many of which are free of admission charges and are major tourist attractions as well as playing a research role. The first of these to be established was the British Museum in Bloomsbury, in 1753. Originally containing antiquities, natural history specimens, and the national library, the museum now has 7 million artefacts from around the globe. In 1824, the National Gallery was founded to house the British national collection of Western paintings; this now occupies a prominent position in Trafalgar Square. The British Library is the second largest library in the world, and the national library of the United Kingdom. There are many other research libraries, including the Wellcome Library and Dana Centre, as well as university libraries, including the British Library of Political and Economic Science at LSE, the Abdus Salam Library at Imperial, the Maughan Library at King's, and the Senate House Libraries at the University of London. In the latter half of the 19th century the locale of South Kensington was developed as "Albertopolis", a cultural and scientific quarter. Three major national museums are there: the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the Science Museum. The National Portrait Gallery was founded in 1856 to house depictions of figures from British history; its holdings now comprise the world's most extensive collection of portraits. The national gallery of British art is at Tate Britain, originally established as an annexe of the National Gallery in 1897. The Tate Gallery, as it was formerly known, also became a major centre for modern art. In 2000, this collection moved to Tate Modern, a new gallery housed in the former Bankside Power Station which is accessed by pedestrians north of the Thames via the Millennium Bridge. Music London is one of the major classical and popular music capitals of the world and hosts major music corporations, such as Universal Music Group International and Warner Music Group, and countless bands, musicians and industry professionals. The city is also home to many orchestras and concert halls, such as the Barbican Arts Centre (principal base of the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Symphony Chorus), the Southbank Centre (London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra), Cadogan Hall (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) and the Royal Albert Hall (The Proms). The Proms, an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music first held in 1895, ends with the Last Night of the Proms. London's two main opera houses are the Royal Opera House and the London Coliseum (home to the English National Opera). The UK's largest pipe organ is at the Royal Albert Hall. Other significant instruments are in cathedrals and major churches—the church bells of St Clement Danes feature in the 1744 nursery rhyme "Oranges and Lemons". Several conservatoires are within the city: Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Trinity Laban. The record label EMI was formed in the city in 1931, and an early employee for the company, Alan Blumlein, created stereo sound that year. Guitar amp engineer Jim Marshall founded Marshall Amplification in London in 1962. London has numerous venues for rock and pop concerts, including the world's busiest indoor venue, the O2 Arena, and Wembley Arena, as well as many mid-sized venues, such as Brixton Academy, the Hammersmith Apollo and the Shepherd's Bush Empire. Several music festivals, including the Wireless Festival, Lovebox and Hyde Park's British Summer Time, are held in London. The city is home to the original Hard Rock Cafe and the Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles recorded many of their hits. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, musicians and groups like Elton John, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Queen, Eric Clapton, the Who, the Kinks, Cliff Richard, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, T. Rex, the Police, Elvis Costello, Dire Straits, Cat Stevens, Fleetwood Mac, the Cure, Madness, Culture Club, Dusty Springfield, Phil Collins, Rod Stewart, Status Quo and Sade, derived their sound from the streets and rhythms of London. London was instrumental in the development of punk music, with groups such as the Sex Pistols, the Clash and fashion designer Vivienne Westwood all based in the city. Other artists to emerge from the London music scene include George Michael, Kate Bush, Seal, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bush, the Spice Girls, Jamiroquai, Blur, the Prodigy, Gorillaz, Mumford & Sons, Coldplay, Dido, Amy Winehouse, Adele, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, Leona Lewis, Ellie Goulding, Dua Lipa and Florence and the Machine. Artists from London played a prominent role in the development of synth-pop, including Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, the Pet Shop Boys and Eurythmics; the latter's "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" was recorded in the attic of their north London home, heralding a trend for home recording methods. Artists from London with a Caribbean influence include Hot Chocolate, Billy Ocean, Soul II Soul and Eddy Grant, with the latter fusing reggae, soul and samba with rock and pop. London is also a centre for urban music. In particular the genres UK garage, drum and bass, dubstep and grime evolved in the city from the foreign genres of house, hip hop, and reggae, alongside local drum and bass. Urban acts from London include Stormzy, M.I.A., Jay Sean and Rita Ora. Music station BBC Radio 1Xtra was set up to support the rise of local urban contemporary music both in London and in the rest of the United Kingdom. The British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards, the Brit Awards, are held in London. Recreation Parks and open spaces A 2013 report by the City of London Corporation said that London is the "greenest city" in Europe with 35,000 acres (14,164 hectares) of public parks, woodlands and gardens. The largest parks in the central area of London are three of the eight Royal Parks, namely Hyde Park and its neighbour Kensington Gardens in the west, and Regent's Park to the north. Hyde Park in particular is popular for sports and sometimes hosts open-air concerts. Regent's Park contains London Zoo, the world's oldest scientific zoo, and is near Madame Tussauds wax museum. Primrose Hill is a popular spot from which to view the city skyline. Close to Hyde Park are smaller Royal Parks, Green Park and St. James's Park. A number of large parks lie outside the city centre, including Hampstead Heath and the remaining Royal Parks of Greenwich Park to the southeast, and Bushy Park and Richmond Park (the largest) to the southwest. Hampton Court Park is also a royal park, but, because it contains a palace, it is administered by the Historic Royal Palaces, unlike the eight Royal Parks. Close to Richmond Park is Kew Gardens, which has the world's largest collection of living plants. In 2003, the gardens were put on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. There are also parks administered by London's borough Councils, including Victoria Park in the East End and Battersea Park in the centre. Some more informal, semi-natural open spaces also exist, including Hampstead Heath and Epping Forest, both controlled by the City of London Corporation. Hampstead Heath incorporates Kenwood House, a former stately home and a popular location in the summer months when classical musical concerts are held by the lake. Epping Forest is a popular venue for various outdoor activities, including mountain biking, walking, horse riding, golf, angling, and orienteering. Three of the UK's most-visited theme parks, Thorpe Park near Staines-upon-Thames, Chessington World of Adventures in Chessington and Legoland Windsor, are located within 20 miles (32 km) of London. Walking Walking is a popular recreational activity in London. Areas that provide for walks include Wimbledon Common, Epping Forest, Hampton Court Park, Hampstead Heath, the eight Royal Parks, Regents Canal Walk, canals and disused railway tracks. Access to canals and rivers has improved recently, including the creation of the Thames Path, some 28 miles (45 km) of which is within Greater London, and The Wandle Trail along the River Wandle. Other long-distance paths, linking green spaces, have also been created, including the Capital Ring, the Green Chain Walk, London Outer Orbital Path ("Loop"), Jubilee Walkway, Lea Valley Walk, and the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Walk. Sport London has hosted the Summer Olympics three times: in 1908, 1948, and 2012, making it the first city to host the modern Games three times. The city was also the host of the British Empire Games in 1934. In 2017, London hosted the World Championships in Athletics for the first time. London's most popular sport is football, and it has seven clubs in the Premier League in the 2023–24 season: Arsenal, Brentford, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur, and West Ham United. Other professional men's teams in London are AFC Wimbledon, Barnet, Bromley, Charlton Athletic, Dagenham & Redbridge, Leyton Orient, Millwall, Queens Park Rangers and Sutton United. Four London-based teams are in the Women's Super League: Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and West Ham United. Two Premiership Rugby union teams are based in Greater London: Harlequins and Saracens. Ealing Trailfinders and London Scottish play in the RFU Championship; other rugby union clubs in the city include Richmond, Rosslyn Park, Westcombe Park and Blackheath. Twickenham Stadium in south-west London hosts home matches for the England national rugby union team. While rugby league is more popular in the north of England, the sport has one professional club in London – the London Broncos who play in the Super League. One of London's best-known annual sports competitions is the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, held at the All England Club in the south-western suburb of Wimbledon since 1877. Played in late June to early July, it is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and widely considered the most prestigious. London has two Test cricket grounds which host the England cricket team, Lord's (home of Middlesex C.C.C.) and the Oval (home of Surrey C.C.C.). Lord's has hosted four finals of the Cricket World Cup and is known as the Home of Cricket. In golf, the Wentworth Club is located in Virginia Water, Surrey on the south-west fringes of London, while the closest venue to London that is used as one of the courses for the Open Championship, the oldest major and tournament in golf, is Royal St George's in Sandwich, Kent. Alexandra Palace in north London hosts the PDC World Darts Championship and the Masters snooker tournament. Other key annual events are the mass-participation London Marathon and the University Boat Race on the Thames contested between Oxford and Cambridge. Notable people See also Outline of England Outline of London Notes References Bibliography Ackroyd, Peter (2001). London: The Biography. London: Vintage. ISBN 978-0-09-942258-7. Mills, David (2001). Dictionary of London Place Names. Oxford Paperbacks. ISBN 978-0-19-280106-7. OCLC 45406491. External links VisitLondon.com – official tourism site Museum of London London in British History Online, with links to numerous authoritative online sources "London", In Our Time, BBC Radio 4 discussion with Peter Ackroyd, Claire Tomalin and Iain Sinclair (28 September 2000) Geographic data related to London at OpenStreetMap

UEFA_Champions_League

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Champions_League

The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robin league phase to qualify for the double-legged knockout rounds, and a single-leg final. It is the most-watched club competition in the world and the third most-watched football competition overall, behind only the UEFA European Championship and the FIFA World Cup. It is one of the most prestigious football tournaments in the world and the most prestigious club competition in European football, played by the national league champions (and, for some nations, one or more runners-up) of their national associations. Introduced in 1955 as the Coupe des Clubs Champions Européens (French for European Champion Clubs' Cup), and commonly known as the European Cup, it was initially a straight knockout tournament open only to the champions of Europe's domestic leagues, with its winner reckoned as the European club champion. The competition took on its current name in 1992, adding a round-robin group stage in 1991 and allowing multiple entrants from certain countries since the 1997–98 season. While only the winners of many of Europe's national leagues can enter the competition, the top 5 leagues by coefficient provide four teams each by default, with a possibility for additional spots based on performance during the previous season. Clubs that finish below the qualifying spots are eligible for the second-tier UEFA Europa League competition, and since 2021, for the third-tier UEFA Conference League. In its present format, the Champions League begins in early July with three qualifying rounds and a play-off round, all played over two legs. The seven surviving teams enter the league phase, joining 29 teams qualified in advance. The 36 teams each play eight opponents, four home and four away. The 24 highest-ranked teams proceed to the knockout phase that culminates with the final match in late May or early June. The winner of the Champions League automatically qualifies for the following year's Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup, and the FIFA Club World Cup. Spanish clubs have the most victories (20 wins), followed by England (15 wins) and Italy (12 wins). England has the most winning teams, with six clubs having won the title. The competition has been won by 23 clubs and 13 of them have won it more than once. Real Madrid is the most successful club in the tournament's history, having won it 15 times. Madrid is the only club to have won it five times in a row (the first five editions). Only one club has won all of their matches in a single tournament en route to the tournament victory: Bayern Munich in the 2019–20 season. Real Madrid are the current European champions, having beaten Borussia Dortmund 2–0 in the 2024 final for their fifteenth title. History The first time the champions of two European leagues met was in what was nicknamed the 1895 World Championship, when English champions Sunderland beat Scottish champions Heart of Midlothian 5–3. The first pan-European tournament was the Challenge Cup, a competition between clubs in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Three years later, in 1900, the champions of Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland, which were the only existing leagues in continental Europe at the time, participated in the Coupe Van der Straeten Ponthoz, thus being dubbed as the "club championship of the continent" by the local newspapers. The Mitropa Cup, a competition modelled after the Challenge Cup, was created in 1927, an idea of Austrian Hugo Meisl, and played between Central European clubs. In 1930, the Coupe des Nations (French: Nations Cup), the first attempt to create a cup for national champion clubs of Europe, was played and organised by Swiss club Servette. Held in Geneva, it brought together ten champions from across the continent. The tournament was won by Újpest of Hungary. Latin European nations came together to form the Latin Cup in 1949. After receiving reports from his journalists over the highly successful South American Championship of Champions of 1948, Gabriel Hanot, editor of L'Équipe, began proposing the creation of a continent-wide tournament. In interviews, Jacques Ferran (one of the founders of the European Champions Cup, together with Gabriel Hanot), said that the South American Championship of Champions was the inspiration for the European Champions Cup. After Stan Cullis declared Wolverhampton Wanderers "Champions of the World" following a successful run of friendlies in the 1950s, in particular a 3–2 friendly victory against Budapest Honvéd, Hanot finally managed to convince UEFA to put into practice such a tournament. It was conceived in Paris in 1955 as the European Champion Clubs' Cup. 1955–1967: Beginnings The first European Cup took place during the 1955–56 season. Sixteen teams participated (some by invitation): AC Milan (Italy), AGF Aarhus (Denmark), Anderlecht (Belgium), Djurgården (Sweden), Gwardia Warszawa (Poland), Hibernian (Scotland), Partizan (Yugoslavia), PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands), Rapid Wien (Austria), Real Madrid (Spain), Rot-Weiss Essen (West Germany), Saarbrücken (Saar), Servette (Switzerland), Sporting CP (Portugal), Reims (France) and Vörös Lobogó (Hungary). The first European Cup match took place on 4 September 1955, and ended in a 3–3 draw between Sporting CP and Partizan. The first goal in European Cup history was scored by João Baptista Martins of Sporting CP. The inaugural final took place at the Parc des Princes between Stade de Reims and Real Madrid on 13 June 1956. The Spanish squad came back from behind to win 4–3 thanks to goals from Alfredo Di Stéfano and Marquitos, as well as two goals from Héctor Rial. Real Madrid successfully defended the trophy next season in their home stadium, the Santiago Bernabéu, against Fiorentina. After a scoreless first half, Real Madrid scored twice in six minutes to defeat the Italians. In 1958, Milan failed to capitalise after going ahead on the scoreline twice, only for Real Madrid to equalise. The final, held in Heysel Stadium, went to extra time where Francisco Gento scored the game-winning goal to allow Real Madrid to retain the title for the third consecutive season. In a rematch of the first final, Real Madrid faced Stade Reims at the Neckarstadion for the 1959 final, and won 2–0. West German side Eintracht Frankfurt became the first team not to compete in the Latin cup to reach the European Cup final. The 1960 final holds the record for the most goals scored, with Real Madrid beating Eintracht Frankfurt 7–3 at Hampden Park, courtesy of four goals by Ferenc Puskás and a hat-trick by Alfredo Di Stéfano. This was Real Madrid's fifth consecutive title, a record that still stands today. Real Madrid's reign ended in the 1960–61 season when bitter rivals Barcelona dethroned them in the first round. Barcelona were defeated in the final by Portuguese side Benfica 3–2 at the Wankdorf Stadium. Reinforced by Eusébio, Benfica defeated Real Madrid 5–3 at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam and kept the title for a second consecutive season. Benfica wanted to repeat Real Madrid's successful run of the 1950s after reaching the showpiece event of the 1962–63 European Cup, but a brace from Brazilian-Italian José Altafini at Wembley gave the spoils to Milan, making the trophy leave the Iberian Peninsula for the first time ever. Inter Milan beat an ageing Real Madrid 3–1 at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion to win the 1963–64 season and replicate their local-rival's success. The title stayed in Milan for the third year in a row after Inter beat Benfica 1–0 at their home ground, the San Siro. Under the leadership of Jock Stein, Scottish club Celtic beat Inter Milan 2–1 in the 1967 final to become the first British club to win the European Cup. The Celtic players that day, all of whom were born within 30 miles (48 km) of Glasgow, subsequently became known as the "Lisbon Lions". 1968–1982 The 1967–68 season saw Manchester United become the first English team to win the European Cup, beating two-times winners Benfica 4–1 in the final. This final came ten years after the Munich air disaster, which had claimed the lives of eight United players and left their manager, Matt Busby, fighting for his life. In the 1968–69 season, Ajax became the first Dutch team to reach the European Cup final, but they were beaten 4–1 by Milan, who claimed their second European Cup, with Pierino Prati scoring a hat-trick. The 1969–70 season saw the first Dutch winners of the competition. Feyenoord knocked out the defending champions, Milan in the second round, before beating Celtic in the final. In the 1970–71 season, Ajax won the title, beating Greek side Panathinaikos in the final. the season saw a number of changes, with penalty shoot-outs being introduced, and the away goals rule being changed so that it would be used in all rounds except the final. It was also the first time a Greek team reached the final, as well as the first season that Real Madrid failed to qualify, having finished sixth in La Liga the previous season. Ajax went on to win the competition three years in row (1971 to 1973), which Bayern Munich emulated from 1974 to 1976, before Liverpool won their first two titles in 1977 and 1978. The following seasons saw victories in 1978–79 and 1979–80 for Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest. The following year Liverpool won their third title before Aston Villa continued the sense of English dominance in 1982. 1982–1992: English dominance is broken In 1982–83, Hamburger SV broke the English dominance. Liverpool regained it in 1983–84 before losing to Juventus (1984–85); Steaua București then won in 1985–86, Porto in 1986–87, PSV Eindhoven in 1987–88; Milan (2), Red Star Belgrade and Barcelona became champions before the competition was re-formulated as the UEFA Champions League. All English clubs were banned for five years (Liverpool for six years) following the 1985 European Cup final due to the Heysel Stadium disaster. Anthem The UEFA Champions League anthem, officially titled simply as "Champions League", was written by Tony Britten, and is an adaptation of George Frideric Handel's 1727 anthem Zadok the Priest (one of his Coronation Anthems). UEFA commissioned Britten in 1992 to arrange an anthem, and the piece was performed by London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and sung by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Stating that "the anthem is now almost as iconic as the trophy", UEFA's official website adds it is "known to set the hearts of many of the world's top footballers aflutter". The chorus contains the three official languages used by UEFA: English, German, and French. The climactic moment is set to the exclamations 'Die Meister! Die Besten! Les Grandes Équipes! The Champions!'. The anthem's chorus is played before each UEFA Champions League game as the two teams are lined up, as well as at the beginning and end of television broadcasts of the matches. In addition to the anthem, there is also entrance music, which contains parts of the anthem itself, which is played as teams enter the field. The complete anthem is about three minutes long, and has two short verses and the chorus. Special vocal versions have been performed live at the Champions League final with lyrics in other languages, changing over to the host nation's language for the chorus. These versions were performed by Andrea Bocelli (Italian; Rome 2009, Milan 2016 and Cardiff 2017), Juan Diego Flores (Spanish; Madrid 2010), All Angels (Wembley 2011), Jonas Kaufmann and David Garrett (Munich 2012) and Mariza (Lisbon 2014). In the 2013 final at Wembley, the chorus was played twice. In the 2018 and 2019 finals, held in Kyiv and Madrid respectively, the instrumental version of the chorus was played, by 2Cellos (2018) and Asturia Girls (2019). In the 2023 final, held in Istanbul, Hungarian pianist Ádám György performed the piano version of the anthem. The anthem has been released commercially in its original version on iTunes and Spotify with the title of Champions League Theme. In 2018, composer Hans Zimmer remixed the anthem with rapper Vince Staples for EA Sports' video game FIFA 19, with it also featuring in the game's reveal trailer. Branding In 1991, UEFA asked its commercial partner, Television Event and Media Marketing (TEAM), to help brand the Champions League. This resulted in the anthem, "house colours" of black and white or silver and a logo, and the "starball". The starball was created by Design Bridge, a London-based firm selected by TEAM after a competition. TEAM gives particular attention to detail in how the colours and starball are depicted at matches. According to TEAM, "Irrespective of whether you are a spectator in Moscow or Milan, you will always see the same stadium dressing materials, the same opening ceremony featuring the 'starball' centre circle ceremony, and hear the same UEFA Champions League Anthem". Based on research it conducted, TEAM concluded that by 1999, "the starball logo had achieved a recognition rate of 94 percent among fans". Format Qualification The UEFA Champions League used to begin with a double round-robin group stage of 32 teams until it evolved into a league phase of 36 teams, which is preceded by two qualification 'streams' for teams that do not receive direct entry to the tournament proper. The two streams are divided between teams qualified by virtue of being league champions, and those qualified by virtue of finishing second, third or fourth in their national championship. The number of teams that each association enters into the UEFA Champions League is based upon the UEFA coefficients of the member associations. These coefficients are generated by the results of clubs representing each association during the previous five Champions League, Europa League and Conference League seasons. The higher an association's coefficient, the more teams represent the association in the Champions League, and the fewer qualification rounds the association's teams must compete in. Five of the remaining seven qualifying places are granted to the winners of a four-round qualifying tournament between the remaining 43 or 44 national champions, within which those champions from associations with higher coefficients receive byes to later rounds. The other two are granted to the winners of a three-round qualifying tournament between ten and eleven clubs from the associations ranked 5–6 through 15, which have qualified based upon finishing second, third or fourth in their respective national league. In addition to sporting criteria, any club must be licensed by its national association to participate in the Champions League. To obtain a license, the club must meet certain stadium, infrastructure and finance requirements. In 2005–06, Liverpool and Artmedia Bratislava became the first teams to reach the Champions League group stage after playing in all three qualifying rounds. Real Madrid and Barcelona hold the record for the most appearances in the group stage, having qualified 25 times, followed by Porto and Bayern Munich on 24. Between 1999 and 2008, no differentiation was made between champions and non-champions in qualification. The 16 top-ranked teams spread across the biggest domestic leagues qualified directly for the tournament group stage. Prior to this, three preliminary knockout qualifying rounds whittled down the remaining teams, with teams starting in different rounds. An exception to the usual European qualification system happened in 2005, after Liverpool won the Champions League the year before, but did not finish in a Champions League qualification place in the Premier League that season. UEFA gave special dispensation for Liverpool to enter the Champions League, giving England five qualifiers. UEFA subsequently ruled that the defending champions qualify for the competition the following year regardless of their domestic league placing. However, for those leagues with four entrants in the Champions League, this meant that, if the Champions League winner fell outside of its domestic league's top four, it would qualify at the expense of the fourth-placed team in the league. Until 2015–16, no association could have more than four entrants in the Champions League. In May 2012, Tottenham Hotspur finished fourth in the 2011–12 Premier League, two places ahead of Chelsea, but failed to qualify for the 2012–13 Champions League, after Chelsea won the 2012 final. Tottenham were demoted to the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League. In May 2013, it was decided that, starting from the 2015–16 season (and continuing at least for the three-year cycle until the 2017–18 season), the winners of the previous season's UEFA Europa League would qualify for the UEFA Champions League, entering at least the play-off round, and entering the group stage if the berth reserved for the Champions League title holders was not used. The previous limit of a maximum of four teams per association was increased to five, meaning that a fourth-placed team from one of the top three ranked associations would only have to be moved to the Europa League if both the Champions League and Europa League winners came from that association and both finished outside the top four of their domestic league. In 2007, Michel Platini, the UEFA president, had proposed taking one place from the three leagues with four entrants and allocating it to that nation's cup winners. This proposal was rejected in a vote at a UEFA Strategy Council meeting. In the same meeting, however, it was agreed that the third-placed team in the top three leagues would receive automatic qualification for the group stage, rather than entry into the third qualifying round, while the fourth-placed team would enter the play-off round for non-champions, guaranteeing an opponent from one of the top 15 leagues in Europe. This was part of Platini's plan to increase the number of teams qualifying directly into the group stage, while simultaneously increasing the number of teams from lower-ranked nations in the group stage. In 2012, Arsène Wenger referred to qualifying for the Champions League by finishing in the top four places in the Premier League as the "4th Place Trophy". The phrase was coined after a pre-match conference when he was questioned about Arsenal's lack of a trophy after exiting the FA Cup. He said "The first trophy is to finish in the top four". At Arsenal's 2012 AGM, Wenger was also quoted as saying: "For me there are five trophies every season: Premier League, Champions League, the third is to qualify for the Champions League..." League phase and knockout phase Beginning with the 2024–25 season, UEFA changed the format of their three club competitions, abandoning the group stage in favour of an expanded league phase. The number of participating teams was increased from 32 to 36 teams. Teams are no longer divided into groups of four teams each but are ranked in a single table. Each team plays eight matches against eight different opponents. For the draw of the league phase, teams are divided into four seeding pots according to their UEFA coefficient. Each team will play against two teams from each pot, one home and one away. The league phase is played from September to January, while the knockout phase begins in February, with matches predominantly played on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. After the league phase, a two-legged knockout play-off round is played between teams finishing 9–16 (seeded) and 17–24 (unseeded) in the league phase. Teams finishing in the top eight of the league phase receive a bye to the round of 16 as seeded teams, while the eight winning teams from the knockout play-off round will enter the round of 16 draw as unseeded teams. Teams finishing 25th–36th place in the league phase and the eight losers of the knockout play-offs are eliminated from the competition and from European football since it is no longer possible to enter the Europa League from the league phase onwards. After the round of 16 the competition follows the traditional knockout format with quarter-finals, semi-finals (both two legged and without association draw protection) and then the final at a venue chosen prior to the season. The final is typically held in late May or early June. Prior to the 2024–25 season, the tournament proper began with a group stage of 32 teams, divided into eight groups of four. The draw to determine which teams entered each group was seeded based on each team's UEFA coefficient, and no group could contain more than one club from each association. Each team played six group stage games, meeting the other three teams in its group home and away in a round-robin format. The first place team and the runners-up from each group then progressed to the next round. The third-placed teams entered the Europa League's knockout round and the fourth-placed teams were eliminated from the competition. For the next stage – the last 16 – the winning team from one group played against the runners-up from another group, but teams from the same association could not be drawn against each other (see random two-sided matching). From the quarter-finals onwards, the draw was entirely random, without association protection. The group stage was played from September to December, whilst the knockout stage began in February, with matches usually played on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. The knockout ties were played in a two-legged format, with the exception of the final. In the 2019–20 season, due to the COVID-19 pandemic the tournament was suspended for five months. The format of the remainder of the tournament was temporarily amended as a result, with the quarter-finals and semi-finals being played as single match knockout ties at neutral venues in Lisbon, Portugal in the summer with the final taking place on 23 August 2020. Distribution The following is the default access list. Changes will be made to the access list above if the Champions League or Europa League title holders qualify for the tournament via their domestic leagues. If the Champions League title holders qualify for the league phase via their domestic league's standard berth allocation, the best champions in qualifying rounds enter the league phase, and champions of the highest-ranked associations in earlier rounds are also promoted accordingly. If the Europa League title holders qualify for the league phase via their domestic league's standard berth allocation, the best club in qualifying rounds enters the league phase, except for the runners-up of associations 11–15, as they have a higher-ranked domestic team in the qualifiers, and teams of the highest-ranked associations in earlier rounds are also promoted accordingly. If the Champions League or Europa League title holders qualify for the qualifying rounds via their domestic league, their spot in the qualifying rounds is vacated, and teams of the highest-ranked associations in earlier rounds are promoted accordingly. Prizes Trophy and medals Each year, the winning team is presented with the European Champion Clubs' Cup, the current version of which has been awarded since 1967. From the 1968–69 season and prior to the 2008–09 season any team that won the Champions League three years in a row or five times overall was awarded the official trophy permanently. Each time a club achieved this, a new official trophy had to be forged for the following season. Five clubs own a version of the official trophy: Real Madrid, Ajax, Bayern Munich, Milan and Liverpool. Since 2008, the official trophy has remained with UEFA and the clubs are awarded a replica. The current trophy is 74 cm (29 in) tall and made of silver, weighing 11 kg (24 lb). It was designed by Jürg Stadelmann, a jeweller from Bern, Switzerland, after the original was given to Real Madrid in 1966 in recognition of their six titles to date, and cost 10,000 Swiss francs. As of the 2012–13 season, 40 gold medals are presented to the Champions League winners, and 40 silver medals to the runners-up. Prize money Starting with the 2024–25 season, the distribution of the prize money is as follows. Play-off round: €4,290,000 Base fee for league phase: €18,620,000 League phase victory: €2,100,000 League phase draw: €700,000 League phase top 8: €2,000,000 League phase ranked 9 through 16: €1,000,000 Knockout round play-offs: €1,000,000 Round of 16: €11,000,000 Quarter-finals: €12,500,000 Semi-finals: €15,000,000 Runners-up: €18,500,000 Champions: €25,000,000 A large part of the distributed revenue from the UEFA Champions League is linked to the "market pool", the distribution of which is determined by the value of the television market in each nation. For the 2019–20 season, Paris Saint-Germain, who were the runners-up, earned nearly €126.8 million in total, of which €101.3 million was prize money, compared with the €125.46 million earned by Bayern Munich, who won the tournament and were awarded €112.96 million in prize money. Sponsorship Like the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA Champions League is sponsored by a group of multinational corporations, in contrast to the single main sponsor typically found in national top-flight leagues. When the Champions League was created in 1992, it was decided that a maximum of eight companies should be allowed to sponsor the event, with each corporation being allocated four advertising boards around the perimeter of the pitch, as well as logo placement at pre- and post-match interviews and a certain number of tickets to each match. This, combined with a deal to ensure tournament sponsors were given priority on television advertisements during matches, ensured that each of the tournament's main sponsors was given maximum exposure. From the 2012–13 knockout phase, UEFA used LED advertising hoardings installed in knockout participant stadiums, including the final. From the 2015–16 season onwards, UEFA has used such hoardings from the play-off round until the final. Since 2021, the UEFA also used Virtual Board Replacement (VBR) technology to offer region-based advertising; regional sponsors are inserted into the hoardings as shown on the broadcast feed in specific regions along with the global sponsors. Individual clubs may wear jerseys with advertising. However, only two sponsorships are permitted per jersey in addition to that of the kit manufacturer, at the chest and the left sleeve. Exceptions are made for non-profit organisations, which can feature on the front of the shirt, incorporated with the main sponsor or in place of it; or on the back, either below the squad number or on the collar area. If a club plays a match in a nation where the relevant sponsorship category is restricted (such as France's alcohol advertising restriction), then they must remove that logo from their jerseys. For example, when Rangers played French side Auxerre in the 1996–97 Champions League, they wore the logo of the holiday chain Center Parcs instead of their primary sponsor, McEwan's Lager (both companies at the time were subsidiaries of Scottish & Newcastle). Media coverage The competition attracts an extensive television audience, not just in Europe, but throughout the world. The final of the tournament has been, in recent years, the most-watched annual sporting event in the world. The final of the 2012–13 tournament had the competition's highest TV ratings to date, drawing approximately 360 million television viewers. Team records and statistics Performance by club Performances by nation Notes Player records Most wins Most appearances As of 2 October 2024 Players that are still active in Europe are highlighted in boldface. The table below does not include appearances made in the qualification stage of the competition. Most goals As of 2 October 2024 A ‡ indicates the player was from the European Cup era. Players taking part in the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League are highlighted in bold. The table below does not include goals scored in the qualification stage of the competition. Awards Player of the Season Starting from the 2021–22 edition, UEFA introduced the UEFA Champions League Player of the Season award. The jury is composed of the coaches of the clubs that participated in the group stage of the competition, as well as 55 journalists selected by the European Sports Media (ESM) group, one from each UEFA member association. Young Player of the Season In the same season, UEFA also introduced the UEFA Champions League Young Player of the Season award. See also Continental football championships List of association football competitions References External links Official website (in English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese) UEFA – Official website

Dismal_Euphony

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dismal_Euphony

Dismal Euphony was a metal band from Norway that mixed styles including gothic metal, melodic metal, black metal and classical music. History The history of Dismal Euphony began in 1992 in Stavanger, Norway by bassist Ole K. Helgesen and drummer Kristoffer Vold Austrheim under the name The Headless Children, a cover band of Slayer and Kreator. A year later singer Erik Borgen and guitarist Kenneth Bergsagel joined the group. They changed the name to Carnal Tomb, then Borgen left the band and Helgesen became the singer/bassist with the female voice of Linn Achre Tveit (Keltziva). Elin Overskott joined the band as a keyboard player. This was the first line-up of Dismal Euphony, officially formed in 1995. In the same year, the group composed the demo Spellbound. After this publication, they were signed by Napalm Records. Here they produced other albums like Soria Moria slott, Autumn Leaves: The Rebellion of Tides and the Lady Ablaze EP (which already features Anja Natasha as female singer). Later, Dismal Euphony joined Nuclear Blast and released All Little Devils, with the new female singer Anja Natasha. Their last album is Python Zero. After this release the band split up. Band members Last known line-up Ole Helgesen – bass, vocals Kristoffer Vold (a.k.a. Kristoffer Austrheim) – drums; also occasional guitars, bass and electronics Frode Clausen – guitars Svenn-Aksel Henriksen – keyboards Anja Natasha – vocals Former members Dag Achre Tveit – bass Kenneth Bergsagel – guitars Elin Overskott – keyboards (1994–1998) Erik Borgen – vocals (1994) Linn Achre Tveit – vocals (1994–1998) Discography Spellbound (demo, 1995) Dismal Euphony (EP, 1996) Soria Moria slott (1996) Autumn Leaves: The Rebellion of Tides (1997) All Little Devils (1999) Lady Ablaze (EP, 2000) Lady Ablaze (video/VHS, 2000) Python Zero (2001)

All_Little_Devils

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Little_Devils

All Little Devils is the third studio album by the Norwegian gothic metal band Dismal Euphony. It was released in 1999, and was the band's first album with Nuclear Blast. Track listing "Days of Sodom" (5:22) "Rage of Fire" (3:44) "Victory" (4:31) "All Little Devils" (4:12) "Lunatic" (4:19) "Psycho Path" (4:03) "Shine for Me, Misery" (6:20) "Scenario" (4:12) "Dead Words" (2:17) Production Recorded and mixed at Woodhouse Studios Produced by Waldemar Sorychta Engineered by Siggi Bemm & Waldemar Sorychta Mastered by Siggi Bemm Logo by Vibeke Tveiten Cover and layout by Thomas Ewerhard == Notes ==

Nuclear_Blast

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Blast

Nuclear Blast Records is a German record label with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States and Brazil. It was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Donzdorf. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label moved on to releasing albums by thrash metal, melodic death metal, grindcore, industrial metal, power metal and black metal bands, as well as tribute albums. It also distributes and promotes post-hardcore/metalcore labels SharpTone Records; another post-hardcore/metalcore label, Arising Empire, was in Nuclear Blast portfolio until its acquirement by Kontor New Media in 2020. In October 2018, French independent label Believe Digital acquired a majority stake in Nuclear Blast. History Nuclear Blast was formed in 1987 after founder Markus Staiger traveled throughout the United States for four weeks and saw a gig of his favorite band BL'AST!. The label's first release was a vinyl compilation called Senseless Death (NB 001) featuring US hardcore bands like Attitude, Sacred Denial, Impulse Manslaughter and others. Swedish band Meshuggah became the first band in the history of Nuclear Blast Records to crack the Billboard 200, landing at number 165 with their 2002 album, Nothing. Meshuggah also became the first Nuclear Blast band to be reviewed in Rolling Stone magazine. In 2004, Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish released Once on Nuclear Blast, which rocketed to the top of the charts in multiple countries, including Finland, Germany, Norway, Greece, Sweden, Austria, and more. It became the first release in the company's history to reach number 1 on the German charts. Slayer released the album Repentless in 2015 which went to number 4 on the Billboard 200 making it the highest charting Nuclear Blast release in the United States. During the 2000s and 2010s, Nuclear Blast signed many veteran thrash metal bands including Slayer, Exodus, Testament, Anthrax, Kreator, Overkill, Sepultura, Destruction, Tankard, Death Angel, and Heathen. In 2021, Nuclear Blast founder Markus Staiger launched a new record company called Atomic Fire GmbH. In June 2022, Nuclear Blast unveiled a new logo. The logo caused some controversy when the canned water company Liquid Death jokingly noted its similarities with their logo (which also features a melting skull), inadvertedly leading to its designer, Justin Moll, receiving hate mail. Liquid Death quickly apologized for the joke, saying that it was not targeted at Moll but at Nuclear Blast, whose personnel had reportedly raised concerns over the new logo's similarities with Liquid Death's before it was implemented. On 23 August 2022, the video game Saints Row was released, which features an in-game radio station that includes Nuclear Blast artists. Blood Blast Distribution Blood Blast Distribution is a subsidiary of Nuclear Blast that focuses solely on the distribution of extreme music. The company was founded in 2020 by Bryce Lucien, Jerome Riera, Denis Ladegaillerie and Myriam Silberstein. See also List of Nuclear Blast artists References External links Nuclear Blast Europe

Meshuggah

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meshuggah

Meshuggah () is a Swedish extreme metal band formed in Umeå in 1987. Since 2004, the band's lineup consists of founding members Jens Kidman (lead vocals) and Fredrik Thordendal (lead guitar), alongside rhythm guitarist Mårten Hagström, drummer Tomas Haake and bassist Dick Lövgren. Since its formation, the band has released nine studio albums, six EPs and eight music videos. Their latest studio album, Immutable, was released in April 2022 via Atomic Fire Records. Meshuggah has become known for their innovative musical style and their complex, polymetered song structures and polyrhythms. They rose to fame as a significant act in extreme underground music, became an influence for modern metal bands, and gained a cult following. The band was labelled as one of the ten most important hard rock and heavy metal bands by Rolling Stone and as the most important band in metal by Alternative Press. In the late 2000s, the band was an inspiration for the djent subgenre. In 2006 and 2009, Meshuggah was nominated for two Swedish Grammis Awards for their albums Catch Thirtythree and obZen, respectively. In 2018, the band was nominated for a Grammy Award for their song "Clockworks" under the "Best Metal Performance" category. The band has performed in various international festivals, including Ozzfest and Download, and embarked on the obZen world tour from 2008 to 2010, and also the "Ophidian Trek". History Formation and Contradictions Collapse (1987–1994) In 1985, guitarist Fredrik Thordendal formed a band in Umeå, a university town in northern Sweden with a population of 105,000. The band, originally named Metallien, recorded a number of demo tapes, after which it disbanded. Thordendal, however, continued playing under a different name with new band members. Meshuggah was formed in 1987 by lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Jens Kidman, and took the name Meshuggah from the Yiddish word for "crazy" (ultimately derived from the Hebrew word מְשׁוּגָע‎). Kidman found the word in an American street slang dictionary. The band recorded several demos before Kidman left, which prompted the remaining members to disband. Kidman then formed a new band, Calipash, with guitarist Thordendal, bassist Peter Nordin and drummer Niklas Lundgren. Kidman, who also played guitar, and Thordendal decided to restore the name Meshuggah for the new band. In 1989, Meshuggah released the self-titled, three-song EP Meshuggah, which is commonly known as Psykisk Testbild (a title that could be translated as "Psychological Test-Picture"). This 12" (30 cm) vinyl EP had only 1,000 copies released, sold by local record store Garageland. The EP's back cover features the band members with cheese doodles on their faces. After replacing drummer Niklas Lundgren with Tomas Haake in 1990, Meshuggah signed a contract with German heavy metal record label Nuclear Blast and recorded its debut full-length album, Contradictions Collapse. The LP, originally entitled (All this because of) Greed, was released in 1991. The album received positive reviews, but was not a commercial success. Soon after, Kidman decided to concentrate on vocals, and guitarist Mårten Hagström, who had already played in a band with Haake when they were in sixth grade, was recruited. The new lineup recorded the EP None at Tonteknik Recordings in Umeå in 1994 for release later that year. A Japanese version was also released, including lyrics printed in Japanese. During this period, Thordendal, who was working as a carpenter, severed the tip of his left middle finger, while Haake injured his hand in a router accident. As a result, the band was unable to perform for several months. Thordendal's fingertip was later reattached, and he went on to make a full recovery. The Selfcaged EP was recorded in April and May 1994, but its release was delayed to later in 1995 due to the accidents. Destroy Erase Improve (1995–1997) In January 1995, Meshuggah undertook a short European tour organized by its record label Nuclear Blast. Afterwards, the band returned to the studio in February of that year to record the album Destroy Erase Improve at Soundfront Studios in Uppsala, with Daniel Bergstrand as a producer. Shortly thereafter, the band went on a European tour supporting Machine Head for two months. During the tour, Nordin became ill and experienced balance disorder with his inner ear. Due to the resulting chronic dizziness and vertigo, Nordin was forced to leave the tour and travel to Sweden. Machine Head's bassist Adam Duce offered to cover his absence; however, Meshuggah decided to continue as a four-piece. Sometimes Thordendal played bass, while other times the band performed with two guitars. In this lineup, Hagström would use a pitch shifter to play his guitar at an octave lower than usual. Destroy Erase Improve was released in May 1995, with positive response from critics for the "heady tempos and abstract approach". Kidman described the album cover: "The title fits the pictures we cut out and stole from reference books in the library." In mid-1995, Meshuggah had a short tour with Swedish band Clawfinger in Scandinavia and Germany. Nordin had to leave the band because of his sickness and was replaced by bassist Gustaf Hielm during the tour. In late 1995, Meshuggah went on a month-long tour with Hypocrisy. During 1996 and 1997, Thordendal worked on his solo album Sol Niger Within, which was released in March 1997 in Scandinavia and in April in Japan. He also hosted Mats/Morgan Band's debut. In 1997, Meshuggah recorded an unreleased demo, toured occasionally, and played a few concerts in its hometown. In May, Meshuggah moved to Stockholm to be closer to its management and the record industry in general. The EP The True Human Design was recorded and released in late 1997. It contained one new song entitled "Sane", and one live and two alternate versions of Destroy Erase Improve's opening track "Future Breed Machine". Thordendal's solo album Sol Niger Within was simultaneously released in the United States, and Meshuggah started to plan its next album at the end of the year. Chaosphere and Nothing (1998–2002) Hielm officially joined the band in January 1998 after more than two years as a session member. Nuclear Blast re-released Contradictions Collapse with the addition of songs from the None EP. In May 1998, the title of the next album, Chaosphere, was reported and recording was done throughout May and June. Immediately after recording the album, Meshuggah went on a short US tour, and the album was released later in November 1998. Chaosphere's sound is an almost complete departure from the thrash metal style of the band's previous releases. Shortly after the release, Meshuggah toured Scandinavia with Entombed. In early 1999, Meshuggah joined Slayer on their U.S. tour. After the new album and the live performances, Meshuggah was beginning to be recognized by mainstream music, guitar, drum and metal magazines. In mid-1999, Meshuggah performed in several Swedish concerts. The band started to write some new material but reported in mid-2000 that "songwriting isn't that dramatic, but we're getting there slowly". While fans were waiting for the next album, a collection of demos (from the Psykisk Testbild EP), remixes and unreleased songs from the Chaosphere sessions were released as the Rare Trax album. Hielm left the band in July 2001 for unclear reasons. Meshuggah joined Tool on a lengthy tour, playing for more than 100,000 people total. In March 2002, Meshuggah recorded three-track demos with programmed drums in their home studio, which were based on Haake's sample Drumkit from Hell. The upcoming album was recorded in five to six weeks in May and was produced by the band at Dug-Out Studios in Uppsala and at its home studio in Stockholm. The last-minute decision to join 2002's Ozzfest tour forced the band to mix the album in two days and master it in one. Meshuggah immediately went on another US tour after finishing the recording. The album Nothing was released in August 2002, selling 6,525 copies during its first week in the US and reaching No. 165 on the Billboard 200. With this album, Meshuggah became the first band in the history of Nuclear Blast Records to crack the Billboard 200 and also became the first band signed to Nuclear Blast to be reviewed in Rolling Stone magazine. Meshuggah's previous two releases, 1998's Chaosphere and 1995's Destroy Erase Improve, had sold 38,773 and 30,712 copies to that date, respectively. The CD booklet of Nothing has no liner notes, lyrics, or credits, only a hint of one word: ingenting, which is Swedish for nothing. All of this information is available on the CD-ROM. At the end of 2002, the band went on another US tour with Tool and a headlining tour of its own. I and Catch Thirtythree (2003–2006) In 2003, Hagström hinted at the direction of the band's next album by saying, "There's only one thing I really feel that is important. We've never measured our success in terms of sales, because we're quite an extreme band. It's more that people understand where we're coming from. I get more out of a fan coming up and saying that we've totally changed their way of looking on metal music, than having like 200 kids buy it. I mean, it would be nice for the money, but that's not why we're in it. So what I'd like to see is that we keep progressing. Keeping the core of what Meshuggah has always been, but exploring the bar, so to speak. Destroy Erase Improve was like exploring the dynamics of the band, Chaosphere was exploring the aggressiveness, the all-out side, and Nothing is more of a sinister, dark, pretty slow album, actually. So honestly, now I don't know where we're going. It might be a mix of all of them." In February 2004, bassist Dick Lövgren joined Meshuggah. The band then recorded and released the I EP, which contains a single, 21-minute track, released on Fractured Transmitter Records. Meshuggah spent about six months in total on recording the EP. Catch Thirtythree, the only Meshuggah album on which programmed drums have been used, was released the following year in May 2005. Seven thousand copies of Catch Thirtythree were sold the first week, and it debuted at No. 170 on the Billboard 200 chart in June 2005. The video for the track "Shed" was released in June, and the previous album Nothing sold approximately 80,000 copies in the United States to that date, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Catch Thirtythree earned the band a Swedish Grammy nomination. In October 2005, German band Rammstein released a single of their song "Benzin" with a remixed version by Meshuggah. In December 2005, 10 years after signing its first record deal with the publishing company Warner/Chappell Music Scandinavia, Meshuggah extended its cooperation with the company. In November 2005, Haake said in an interview that the band was not content with the productions of Chaosphere and Nothing, because, being on tour, they had little time to devote to them. A remixed and remastered version of Nothing with rerecorded guitars was released in a custom-shaped slipcase featuring a three-dimensional hologram card on 31 October 2006, via Nuclear Blast Records. The release also includes a bonus DVD featuring the band's appearance at the Download 2005 festival and the official music videos of "Rational Gaze", "Shed" and "New Millennium Cyanide Christ". obZen and Koloss (2007–2013) Meshuggah returned to the studio in March 2007 to record obZen, with recording concluding in October 2007, and the album being released in March 2008. The band spent almost a year on the album, its longest recording session yet. A significant portion of the year was spent learning to perform the songs they wrote; the recording itself took six months. obZen reached No. 59 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 11,400 U.S. copies in its first week of release and 50,000 copies after six months. With obZen, Meshuggah received more media attention and attracted new fans. The release was followed by a world tour, which started in the U.S. and proceeded to Europe, Asia and Australia. In May 2008, Meshuggah published a music video for the song "Bleed", which was produced by Ian McFarland and was written, directed and edited by Mike Pecci and Ian McFarland. Killswitch Productions said: "It's extremely cool to work with a band who is willing to allow the music and imagery to speak for itself and who does not insist on themselves being the prominent focus of the video." In January 2009, obZen was nominated for the Swedish Grammis award in the "Best Hard Rock" category. In February 2009, Haake announced that the band was planning a concert DVD and a studio album. In April, Meshuggah was forced to cancel its Scandinavian shows in early 2009, due to Haake's herniated disc in his lower back, which was causing problems with his right foot when playing. Haake later underwent a surgery and recovered for European summer festivals. The concert DVD entitled Alive was released on 5 February 2010 in Europe and 9 February in North America. Thordendal started to work on a second solo album in June 2010 with the Belgian drummer Dirk Verbeuren. The seventh studio album, Koloss, was released on 23 March 2012 in Germany, on 26 March in the rest of Europe, and 27 March in North America. Koloss reached No. 17 on the Billboard Top 200, and sold 18,342 copies in its first week. In Sweden, it reached No. 12. Pitch Black and The Violent Sleep of Reason (2013–2018) On 5 February 2013, Meshuggah released a free two-track EP entitled Pitch Black with Scion A/V. The EP features a previously unreleased track, "Pitch Black", that was recorded by Fredrik Thordendal in 2003 at Fear and Loathing, in Stockholm Sweden. The second track is a live recording of "Dancers to a Discordant System" from obZen. The track was recorded at Distortion Fest in Eindhoven, Netherlands, on 9 December 2012. On 12 May 2016, Meshuggah released a teaser video on their YouTube page and confirmed that their next studio album was to be released in late 2016. On 28 July 2016, the title was revealed to be The Violent Sleep of Reason, and was given a 7 October release date. The Violent Sleep of Reason was shortlisted by IMPALA (The Independent Music Companies Association) for the Album of the Year Award 2016, which rewards on a yearly basis the best album released on an independent European label. On 2 June 2017, Meshuggah announced that Thordendal would take a leave from touring with the band; he would be temporarily replaced by Per Nilsson from Scar Symmetry. In 2018, Meshuggah received a Grammy nomination for their song "Clockworks" under the "Best Metal Performance" category. Immutable (2019–present) In a November 2019 interview, Hagström hinted that the band had begun working on a new album. Recording started in March 2021. Later that month the band stated that Fredrik Thordendal had ended his hiatus and would be participating fully in the recording of the new album. On 28 January 2022, Meshuggah released a new song titled "The Abysmal Eye" taken from the band's ninth album Immutable, which was later released on 1 April 2022 via Atomic Fire. Musical style Meshuggah's experimentation, stylistic variation and changes during its career cross several musical subgenres. Heavy metal subgenres experimental metal or avant-garde metal are umbrella terms that enable description of the career of the band in general.[a] Extreme metal crosses both thrash metal and death metal (or technical death metal), which are at root of the sound of Meshuggah's music, which has also been described as groove metal.[b] The band has also been labelled as math metal and progressive metal.[c] Meshuggah also incorporates elements of experimental jazz. In its review of Nothing, AllMusic describes Meshuggah as "masterminds of cosmic calculus metal—call it Einstein metal if you want". Meshuggah's early output was also considered alternative metal. Meshuggah creates a recognizable sonic imprint and distinct style. Trademarks and characteristics that define Meshuggah's sound and songwriting include polyrhythms, polymetered riff cycles, rhythmic syncopation, rapid key and tempo changes and neo-jazz chromatics.[d] Hagström notes that "it doesn't really matter if something is hard to play or not. The thing is, what does it do to your mind when you listen to it? Where does it take you?" A trademark of Thordendal is jazz fusion-like soloing and improvisation. He is also known for the usage of a "breath controller" device. Haake is known for his cross-rhythm drumming with "jazzlike cadence".[e] The vocal style of Jens Kidman varies between hardcore-style shouts and "robotic" death metal vocals. In polymeters typically used by Meshuggah, the guitars might play in odd meters such as 5/16 or 17/16, while drums play in 4/4. One particular example of Haake's use of polymeter is 4/4 against 23/16 bimeter, in which he keeps the hi-hat or china cymbal in 4/4 time but uses the snare and double bass drums in 23/16 time. On "Rational Gaze" (from Nothing), Haake plays simple 4/4 time, hitting the snare on each third beat, for 16 bars. At the same time, the guitars and bass are playing the same quarter notes, albeit in a different time signature; eventually both sides meet up again at the 64th beat. Hagström notes about the polymeters, "We've never really been into the odd time signatures we get accused of using. Everything we do is based around a 4/4 core. It's just that we arrange parts differently around that center to make it seem like something else is going on." Contradictions Collapse, Destroy Erase Improve and Chaosphere The early work of Meshuggah, influenced mainly by Metallica, is "simpler and more straightforward than their more recent material, but some of their more progressive elements are present in the form of time-changes and polyrhythmics, and Fredrik Thordendal's lead playing stands out". According to AllMusic, their debut album is a relatively immature, but original, release. Double bass drums and "angular" riffing also defined the early work of Meshuggah. With the groundbreaking Destroy Erase Improve, Meshuggah showed fusion of death metal, thrash metal, progressive metal. AllMusic describes the style as "weaving hardcore-style shouts amongst deceptively (and deviously) simple staccato guitar riffs and insanely precise drumming—often with all three components acting in different time signatures". Thordendal adds the melodic element with his typical lead guitar and uses his "breath controller" device most famously on the opening track "Future Breed Machine". Chaosphere incorporates typically fast, still tempo changing death metal. AllMusic compares the genre also with grindcore fathers Napalm Death. Rockdetector states: "Whilst fans reveled in the maze like meanderings, critics struggled to dissect and analyze, hailing Haake's unconventional use of dual 4/4 and 23/16 rhythm, Kidman's mechanical staccato bark and Thordendal's liberal usage of avant-garde jazz". Nothing, I and Catch Thirtythree On Nothing, Meshuggah abandons the fast tempos of Chaosphere and concentrates on slow, tuned down tempos and grooves. The album was intended to be recorded using custom-made Nevborn eight-string guitars, but the prototypes were faulty so Thordendal and Hagström used down tuned Ibanez seven-string guitars instead. This technique caused the instruments to slip out of tune during the sessions, which created additional problems. When Ibanez provided Meshuggah with special eight-string guitars with two extra-low strings that worked properly after the initial release, the band re-recorded the guitar parts for Nothing and re-released it in 2006. Hagström notes that this allowed the band to go lower sonically and to attain bass sounds on guitars. The I EP contains a single, 21-minute song of complex arrangements and was a hint of the forthcoming album, 2005's Catch Thirtythree. The EP, which has never been played live by the band, was written and recorded during jamming sessions of Haake and Thordendal. On Catch Thirtythree, Meshuggah again used eight-string guitars, but utilized programmed drums for the first time also for the release, with the exception of two songs from 2001's compilation Rare Trax. The album was self-produced by the band and was recorded at the studio that Meshuggah shares with Clawfinger. Hagström notes, "The eight-strings really have given us a whole new musical vocabulary to work with. Part of it is the restrictions they impose: you really can't play power chords with them; the sound just turns to mush. Instead, we concentrated on coming up with really unusual single-note parts, new tunings and chord voicings. We wanted to get as far away from any kind of conventions and traditions as we could on the album, so the guitars worked out beautifully." Catch Thirtythree is one 47-minute song divided into 13 sections. It is more mid-tempo guitar riff based, and a more straightforward and experimental full-length album than Chaosphere or Nothing. Nick Terry of Decibel Magazine describes the album as a four-movement symphony. Some songs still use Meshuggah's "familiar template combining harsh vocals and nightmarish melodies over coarse, mechanically advancing, oddball tempos", while others explore ambient sounds and quieter dynamics. The first part of Catch Thirtythree centers around two simple riffs. In the song "In Death - Is Death", the band uses a combination of noise and silence, which is in contrast with the atypical melodies on "Dehumanization". On "Mind's Mirrors", Meshuggah used electronics, programming and "robotic voices". "Shed" incorporates tribal percussion and whispered vocals. obZen and Koloss With 2008's obZen, Meshuggah moved away from the experimentation of 2002's Nothing and 2005's Catch Thirtythree to return to the musical style of its previous albums, such as Contradictions Collapse, Destroy Erase Improve and Chaosphere, while still maintaining its focus on musical and technical innovation. The album loses some of the quick, mathematical rhythmic changes of past releases and the melodic orchestration of Catch Thirty-Three and uses "angular" riffs, mid-tempo and common 4/4 beats. The album is a culmination of the band's previous work. Meshuggah decided to self-produce because it sought to retain artistic control over the recording and mixing process. For obZen, Haake returned to the drum kit most notably with his performance on the song "Bleed". In an interview for Gravemusic.com, Haake stated, "['Bleed'] was a big effort for me to learn, I had to find a totally new approach to playing the double bass drums to be able to do that stuff. I had never really done anything like that before like the fast bursts that go all the way through the song basically. So I actually spent as much time practicing that track alone as I did with all of the other tracks combined. It's kind of a big feat to change your approach like that and I'm glad we were able to nail it for the album. For a while though we didn't even know if it was going to make it to the album." Hagström also stated, "obZen is one of the most highly technical offerings the band has ever put to tape". Revolver Magazine confirms this statement: "At first listen, obZen seems less challenging to the listener than some of the band's other records, and most of the songs flow smoothly from one syncopated passage to the next. However, careful examination reveals that the material is some of the group's most complicated". A common quality in Koloss identified by multiple critics and outlets is the album's relatively straightforward, more groove-oriented sound, summed up by Metal Sucks as the band having "streamlined their compositions to a great extent." The broad style of the record has been described as "primal" and featuring "less jazzy virtuosity" than the band's previous output. Pitchfork noted that the record's rawer production style advanced this "tribal" sound further. The album invokes a greater sound of menace and "darkness" according to Metal Injection; additionally, Jens Kidman's vocals were described as "exponentially more anguished" than previous works. Metal Injection further compared the sound of the album's closing track "The Last Vigil" to works by the instrumental band Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The record's guitar riffs have been noted as deviating somewhat from Meshuggah's earlier catalog, with SPIN identifying "an almost bluesy swing" in the playing style. SPIN further elaborated on the guitar leads, comparing the solos in "The Demon's Name is Surveillance" and "Marrow" to the (non-metal) works of experimental composer Philip Glass and jazz-guitarist Allan Holdsworth respectively. The Violent Sleep of Reason For their eighth album, the band recorded live in studio, a production style they hadn't pursued in reportedly "20, 25 years". On rejecting the computerized format of recording of their previous albums, Haake said "Obzen and Koloss are great albums, but, to me, they are a little too perfect. It didn't really capture what we sounded like honestly. But where we recorded live, you get to hear the push and pull, one person might be a little ahead and the other might be a little behind. If you kill that, you can kill the energy." It is the first album to have no writing credit from Thordendal; the majority of the album was written by Haake and Lövgren. Method and lyrical themes Meshuggah's music is written by Thordendal, Hagström and Haake with assistance from Kidman and Lövgren. During songwriting, a member programs the drums, and records the guitar and bass via computer. He presents his idea to the other members as a finished work. Meshuggah typically adheres to the original idea and rarely changes the song afterwards. Hagström explains that each member has an idea of what the others are doing conceptually, and nobody thinks exclusively in terms of a particular instrument. Kidman does not play guitar in the band anymore, but he is involved in writing riffs. Except for when Hagström needs a soloist, he and Thordendal rarely record together. Both play guitar and bass while composing. Haake says about his songwriting, "Sometimes I'll sample guitar parts, cut them up, pitch-shift and tweak them until I've built the riffs I want, just for demoing purposes. But most of the time I'll just present the drums, and explain my ideas for the rest of the song, sing some riffs." The band uses Cubase to record the tracks, and the guitars are routed through software amplifier modeling, because it allows them to change the amp settings even after the song was fully recorded. Approximately once a year, Haake writes most of the band's lyrics, with the exception of finished tracks. His lyrical inspirations are derived from books and films. Aside from their album Catch Thirtythree, Meshuggah does not usually record concept albums, although the band prefers strong conceptual underpinnings in the background. Often esoteric and conceptual, Meshuggah's lyrics explore themes such as existentialism. AllMusic describes Destroy Erase Improve's lyrical focus as "the integration of machines with organisms as humanity's next logical evolutionary step". PopMatters' review of Nothing singles out the lyrics from "Rational Gaze": "Our light-induced image of truth—filtered blank of its substance / As our eyes won't adhere to intuitive lines / Everything examined. Separated, one thing at a time / The harder we stare the more complete the disintegration." Haake explains that Catch Thirtythree's cover, title and lyrics deal with "the paradoxes/negations/contradictions of life and death (as we see it in our finest moments of unrestrained metaphoric interpretation)". The main theme of obZen is "human evil", according to Haake. The title is a play on the words "obscene" and "Zen"; in addition, "ob" means "anti" in Latin. Therefore, the title suggests that the human species has found harmony and balance in warfare and bloodshed. Revolver Magazine finds the lyrics of the title track from obZen representative of the entire album: "Salvation found in vomit and blood/Where depravation, lies, corruption/War and pain is god." However, Haake claims, "We don't dwell on hate and bad feelings as people. But with these songs, I think we really wanted to paint a picture lyrically that might be seen as a cautionary tale. We're going, 'Heads up. Here's what some of the parts of being human are about, and this is what we can be at our worst.' So it's more about being aware of negative feelings than actually living them all the time." Analysis Meshuggah has become known for its innovative musical style that evolves between each release and pushes heavy metal into new territory, and for its technical prowess.[f] Hagström commented: "We try never to repeat ourselves." RockDetector stated about Destroy Erase Improve: "[T]he band...stripped Metal down to the bare essentials before completely rebuilding it in a totally abstract form". The official Meshuggah biography comments on Chaosphere by noting that "Some fans felt that Meshuggah had left their dynamic and progressive elements behind; while others thought they were only progressing naturally and focusing on their original sound." The band's website also describes Nothing as displaying "a very mature and convincing Meshuggah, now focusing on groove and sound...Meshuggah once again divided their fans into the 'ecstatic' and the 'slightly disappointed'". The polyrhythms can make the music sound cacophonous, like band members are playing different songs simultaneously. Listeners perceiving a polyrhythm often either extract a composite pattern that is fitted to a metric framework, or focus on one rhythmic stream while treating others as "noise". Legacy Rolling Stone labeled Meshuggah as "one of the ten most important hard and heavy bands", and Alternative Press described them as the "most important band in metal". Meshuggah has been described as virtuoso or genius-bordering musicians,[g] "recognized by mainstream music magazines, especially those dedicated to particular instruments". In 2007, Meshuggah earned an in-depth analysis by the academic journal Music Theory Spectrum. Meshuggah has found little mainstream success but is a significant act in extreme underground music, an influence for modern metal bands and has a cult following. Meshuggah inspired the "djent" subgenre in progressive metal, that describes an "elastic, syncopated guitar riff" with its name. They were described as being "the first djent band completely by accident"; in a 2018 interview, Hagström jokingly apologised for the band's role in creating the term, calling it a "drunk misunderstanding". Members Timeline Discography Contradictions Collapse (1991) Destroy Erase Improve (1995) Chaosphere (1998) Nothing (2002) Catch Thirtythree (2005) obZen (2008) Koloss (2012) The Violent Sleep of Reason (2016) Immutable (2022) Awards and nominations Loudwire Music Awards Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards Revolver Music Awards Decibel Magazine IMPALA Grammy Awards Notes References External links Official website Meshuggah Drum Transcriptions Videos Meshuggah - The Movie, Behind The Scenes Footage - The Life of Meshuggah, official Meshuggah channel on YouTube Interview with Mårten Hagström and Tomas Haake, 2008, Nuclear Blast: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4

Mayor_of_Austin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayor_of_Austin

The mayor of Austin is the official head of the city of Austin in the U.S. state of Texas. The office was established in 1840 after Austin incorporated as a city in 1839. The mayor of Austin is elected to a four-year term and limited to serving no more than two terms. Kirk Watson took office as mayor on January 6, 2023, for a second term, having served as mayor from 1997 to 2001. Duties and powers Austin has a council–manager form of government which means day-to-day operations of the city are run by the city manager. The mayor is the head of city government ceremonially. The mayor is technically a member of the city council and is required to preside at all meetings. The mayor is also allowed to vote on all matters that come before the city council, but has no veto powers. As of fiscal year 2022–2023, the salary for the mayor is set at $134,191. Election The mayor is elected in a citywide election. Currently, elections occur every four years during even-numbered years. Elections are non-partisan and by majority, but if no candidate receives a majority a run-off election is called between the top two candidates who received the most votes. Succession Per city code of ordinances, if the mayor is absent or disabled, the Mayor Pro Tem is to act as mayor until the mayor returns or an election is held to fill the vacancy. The mayor is subject to recall by registered voters if a petition is signed and filed that contains the signatures of 10 percent of the qualified voters. If the petition is verified, a recall election is called at the earliest convenient available date. If the recall passes, the mayor immediately vacates office. There are two limitations to the recall process. First, no recall petition can be filed until the mayor has been in office for at least six months. Second, the mayor will not be subject to more than one recall. List of mayors of Austin == References ==

Kirk_Watson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk_Watson

Kirk Preston Watson (born March 18, 1958) is an American attorney and politician who has served as the 59th mayor of Austin since 2023, previously holding the office as the 54th mayor from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, he ran unsuccessfully for Texas attorney general in the 2002 election, when he was defeated by Republican Greg Abbott, later governor of Texas. In 2006, Watson was elected to the Texas Senate from District 14. In 2011, Watson was chosen by his Democratic colleagues to chair the Senate Democratic Caucus and served until 2015. On the first day of the 86th Texas Legislature, he was chosen by his colleagues—Democrats and Republicans—to serve as president pro tempore. The position typically goes to the most senior member, regardless of party, who has not yet served as president pro tem, and is second in line of succession to the Governor. It was announced by the Austin American-Statesman that Watson planned to resign from the Texas Senate to become the first dean of the University of Houston's Hobby School of Public Affairs. His resignation was effective April 30, 2020. With incumbent Mayor Steve Adler not seeking another term, Watson entered the race to become Austin mayor for a second time. He was elected for his second stint as mayor in the 2022 Austin mayoral election runoff with 50.4% of the vote. Early life and education Watson was born in Oklahoma City and raised in Saginaw, Texas, a suburb of Fort Worth, where he attended Boswell High School. He received a bachelor's degree in political science in 1980 and a Juris Doctor in 1981 from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. At Baylor Law School, Watson was editor-in-chief of the Baylor Law Review and graduated first in his class. He subsequently clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Early political career Watson was elected president of the Texas Young Lawyers Association in 1990 and served on the executive committee of the State Bar of Texas. Watson was an active Democrat throughout the 1990s and served as the chairman of the Travis County Democratic Party. In 1991, Watson was appointed by Governor Ann Richards to serve as chairman of the Texas Air Control Board, the state agency that was charged with protecting air quality in Texas. During his tenure, he worked to merge the agency with the Texas Air Control Board and the Texas Water Commission to form the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission, and oversaw implementation of the 1991 amendments to the federal Clean Air Act. In 1994, he was named the Outstanding Young Lawyer of Texas. In 1997, Watson co-founded the Austin law firm of Watson Bishop London & Galow, creating a broad law practice that represented families, doctors, small businesses, and some of the state's major universities. First term as Mayor of Austin (1997–2001) In 1997, after Watson moved from Rollingwood to Austin, he was elected mayor of Austin, a nonpartisan position. He ran on a pledge to build consensus in a city that was then dominated by political battles between environmentalists and developers. He campaigned to raise more than $78 million for land preservation and $300 million for transportation improvements. Watson's signature accomplishments as mayor included the transformation of Downtown Austin into a "24-hour downtown" by encouraging development of housing and retail in place of vacant warehouses and parking lots, partially through tax incentives and the city's Smart Growth initiatives. In 1999, Watson spearheaded a redevelopment project along several blocks of waterfront property in Downtown Austin, in an effort to create a new public-private "digital district" in place of dilapidated warehouses and businesses including the former Liberty Lunch, which were demolished. Watson, along with architect Larry Speck, courted the Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) by offering a $10.4 million tax incentive to anchor two office buildings on the site in lieu of building their planned campus in a watershed, and under the condition that CSC foot the bill for a new city hall building. The first two buildings were constructed and are now part of the Second Street District, while CSC vacated the premises before following through with the construction of the present-day Austin City Hall. In 2000, Watson spearheaded a $15.1 million tax incentive for Intel to build a new headquarters in Downtown Austin; Intel stopped construction and the unfinished building was demolished in 2007 and replaced by the Austin United States Courthouse. In 2000, Watson was reelected with 84% of the vote – the highest percentage a mayoral candidate has ever received in Austin. In November 2001, he stepped down to run unsuccessfully for Texas attorney general in the 2002 election, losing 41% to 57% to now-Governor Greg Abbott. In 2005, he served as chairman of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce. Texas Senate (2007–2020) Watson was elected to the Texas Senate in November 2006, succeeding Senator Gonzalo Barrientos. He received more than 80% of the vote. Watson was unopposed in the March 2006 Democratic Primary. He took office in January 2007. Watson served as vice-chairman of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security committee, as well as on the Senate Business and Commerce, Economic Development, Jurisprudence, and Nominations committees. In 2008, he was appointed as one of two senators to the state Business Tax Advisory Committee. Watson has become a prominent voice on transportation, clean energy, and higher education issues, and he has campaigned to widen transparency in the state's finances and increase health coverage for Texans, particularly children. In 2009, he led the fight against a budget rider that would have effectively banned embryonic stem cell research at Texas universities. The rider ultimately was not adopted. Watson served on many committees including the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), of which he is the former Transportation Policy Board Chairman. CAMPO is federally designated as the primary transportation planning organization in Central Texas. The July 2007 Texas Monthly magazine recognized Watson as "Rookie of the Year" for the 2007 session of the Texas Legislature. In 2009, the magazine named him one of the state's 10 Best Legislators and referred to him as "the Galápagos penguin of the Texas Legislature." He also was given the Price Daniel Award for Distinguished Public Service by the Baylor Alumni Association, and the Excellence in Leadership Award by Concordia University Texas. Watson endorsed Senator Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic party presidential primaries. Following Obama's victory in the 2008 Wisconsin Democratic primary election on February 19, 2008, Watson appeared via live feed on MSNBC's election night coverage as a supporter of Senator Obama. He was asked by Chris Matthews to name one of Senator Obama's legislative accomplishments. Watson was soon after excused, and Matthews commented, "He [Watson] is here to defend Barack Obama and he had nothing to say; that's a problem." Watson considered running in the 2010 gubernatorial election, but decided in August 2009 to instead seek re-election to the Texas Senate. In June 2013, Watson moved to overturn a ruling designed to end the filibuster of Senator Wendy Davis. Together, their efforts averted the passage of SB5, a bill that its opponents claimed would enact severe abortion restrictions in Texas. Instead, in a second special session the same bill was passed (96 to 49) by the Texas House, and then (19 to 11) by the Texas Senate, and then signed into law by Gov. Perry less than a month later. State representative Charles "Doc" Anderson of Waco (Texas HD 56) told reporters following the Davis filibuster that the additional special session might "cost taxpayers more than $800,000." Another news organization estimated special-session costs at roughly $30,000 per day. In the general election on November 6, 2018, Watson easily won reelection, 274,122 (74.1%) to 96,355 (25.3%) for his Republican opponent, George W. Hindman. A Libertarian Party candidate, Micah M. Verlander, held another 10,838 votes (2.8%). In 2019, Watson proposed a series of money-raising maneuvers to fund the lane expansion project along I-35 through Austin, including doubling the state gas tax, raising vehicle registration fees in Travis County, enacting a special sales tax, and issuing bonds. Watson resigned from the Texas State Senate on April 30, 2020, to become the first dean of the University of Houston's Hobby School of Public Affairs. Watson resigned from the University of Houston after less than 1 year to become a candidate for mayor. Texas highways Much of Watson's first year in office was spent mediating a long, very bitter dispute on the CAMPO board over highway improvements in the Austin area. While many of the improvements had been in transportation plans for years, they had never been constructed. A lack of transportation funding, affecting projects across Texas, had led previous boards to support plans that would toll the additional capacity as well as nearly completed projects, sparking intense opposition throughout the region. Upon being elected chairman by the rest of the board in January 2007, Watson led the effort to keep the controversial projects in the region's transportation plan. He then spearheaded a public effort to create a process that would allow policy makers and the public to analyze the need for transportation projects, mechanisms to pay for them, and potential public benefits from them. On October 8, 2007, the CAMPO board overwhelmingly approved a plan to add new toll lanes to several existing highways (U.S. Highway 290, U.S. Highway 183, and State Highway 71). Most of the improvements were approved on a 15-4 vote, and none were opposed by more than five board members. The board was heckled with shouts of "Political suicide!" and catcalls. Second term as Mayor of Austin (2023–present) Election Watson declared his candidacy for the 2022 mayoral election. In the November 8 general election, he advanced to a runoff election against Celia Israel. On December 13, 2022, Watson won the runoff election with 57,346 votes (50.39%) to his opponent Israel's 56,460 votes (49.61%). Tenure Watson was sworn in a second time as mayor of Austin on January 6, 2023. Shortly after beginning his second term as mayor of Austin, Watson led an effort to terminate city manager Spencer Cronk, who was fired in a 10-1 vote by City Council. The decision came following the city's handling of communications and response to the winter storm, which resulted in long-term power outages for thousands of city residents lasting up to 12 days, and the City Manager's decision to announce a four-year contract with the Austin Police Association — against the wishes of City Council to vote on a one-year contract amid negotiations. The council appointed Jesús Garza — a previous city manager during Watson’s previous tenure as mayor, and manager of the Stand Together Austin political action committee that supported Watson's mayoral campaign. As interim city manager, Garza focused on improving basic city operations and replaced the General Manager of Austin Energy, the CEO of Austin's airport, the head of emergency operations, and the assistant city manager overseeing public safety. Public Safety In March 2023, amid staffing shortages, 911 response delays at the Austin Police Department, and a viral spree of street racing incidents in which cop cars were harassed with live fireworks, Watson reached an agreement with Governor Greg Abbott and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick to deploy the Texas Department of Public Safety troopers to patrol Austin, drawing scrutiny from some city council members who were left out of conversations prior to the announcement. Under Watson's tenure, response times at Austin's 911 call center improved, with operators answering 93.28% of calls within 15 seconds in November 2023 compared to July 2023 when only 69.18% of calls in 15 seconds or less. Homelessness In July 2023, Watson helped secure almost $65 million from the state of Texas for local community groups to expand emergency shelters and provide more resources for people experiencing homelessness. In addition, Watson also led the effort to add hundreds of shelter beds to Austin's homeless response system through the opening of the Marshalling Yard, the reopening of the Salvation Army shelter, and the expansion of the city's Northbridge and Southbridge shelters. In August 2023, Integral Care, Travis County's largest mental health provider, announced it was planning to eliminate several staff positions due to budget issues. Following the news, Watson immediately began to work with Integral Care and Central Health to find a stop-gap funding solution. On September 6, 2023, Central Health, voted to approve its 2024 budget with last-minute emergency funding to Integral Care. Housing For decades, efforts to reform Austin’s land use planning policies faced strong opposition from some homeowners and established neighborhood associations, who feared reforms would upset their own neighborhood character— forcing unwelcome changes in the makeup. The last time Austin had a significant change in the code was in 1984. The movement to reform land use policies in Austin gained traction in recent years because of the city’s dramatic population growth and rise in housing prices, coupled with a comparatively low housing stock, and the elections of several pro-housing candidates to the Austin City Council in 2022. In an interview with the Texas Tribune in 2023, Watson signaled that the new Austin City Council would approach land use reform differently than previous ones: “We've got a supply and demand problem, and we're going to have to come up with unique and different ways than we've thought of in the past to solve it.” On December 7, 2023, Austin City Council took the first steps to reform housing policies by passing several new code amendments— including giving homeowners more freedom and the ability to build an additional unit on their lot. In the spring of 2024, Austin City Council will consider more reforms including encouraging more transit-oriented developments, reducing the 5,750-square-foot minimum lot size in residential areas, and loosening compatibility rules. Watson faced criticism from some property owners who strongly opposed any changes in the land development code that would allow for more density, citing concerns about neighborhood character and worries about increased gentrification. Reform advocates argue that under the current land development code, gentrification and displacement have already accelerated. Research by NYU’s Furman Center suggest that policies which constrained the housing supply may have unintended consequences for communities including environmental costs from a dependency on automobiles, an growing in suburban and rural sprawl, and increasing inequality. Project Connect In November 2020, Austin voters overwhelmingly approved dedicating a portion of the City's property tax rate to fund Project Connect, Austin’s multibillion-dollar improvement and expansion plan. This voter-approved funding included light rail, an expansion of rapid bus routes, and anti-displacement funds. In the 88th Texas legislative session, Republican legislators Representative Ellen Troxclair and Senator Paul Bettencourt filed several pieces of legislation specifically targeting Austin’s voter-approved propositions, including the effort to kill Project Connect. Watson worked with lawmakers in the Texas House to keep Project Connect alive from a last-minute senate amendment by Bettencourt that would have killed its financing. In November 2023, a small group of residents including former state senator Gonzalo Barrientos, Travis County commissioner Margaret Gómez, former Austin Council member Ora Houston, former city council candidate Susana Almanza, and hamburger restaurant Dirty Martin’s filed a lawsuit to halt the Project Connect’s funding mechanism. The plaintiffs found support in Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who issued a court filing challenging the validity of Project Connect’s funding mechanism. In response to the plaintiff’s lawsuit, Austin Transit Partnership, the local government corporation tasked with implementing Project Connect filed a bond validation petition in the Travis County District Court. The petition expedites a determination from an impartial court to affirm ATP’s bond program. The bond validation trial is set for May 28, 2024. Comments on the 2023-present Israel-Gaza conflict On October 8, 2023, Watson released a statement after the events of October 7 in Israel. In the statement, Watson wrote, ""My heart breaks for the people of Israel. I stand with them, and I condemn the terrorist acts." The next day he attended a pro-Israel event, titled "We Stand with Israel" hosted by Shalom Austin and the Israeli-American Council, along with congressman Lloyd Doggett and Texas governor Greg Abbott. Watson spoke at the event, held at the Dell Jewish Community Campus, wearing a yarmulke. A coalition of several religious groups, University of Texas at Austin student groups, and the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation and the Jewish Voice for Peace have asked Watson to issue a statement supporting a ceasefire and the Palestinian people. In a statement responding to the stabbing of Zacharia Doar at a pro-Palestine rally in February 2024, Watson supported the Austin Police Department's determination that it was a hate crime. In the same statement, he pivoted to comment on a proposed resolution by the Austin City Council supporting a ceasefire in Gaza, saying in part of a statement, "The proposed resolution of the Austin City Council will not realistically end the violence on the other side of the globe. Nor will it stop federal taxes from being used to implement U.S. foreign policy. That is not in our power. The resolution, however, has the power to divide Austin — and will." Electoral history 2022 2018 2014 2012 2010 2006 2002 2000 1997 A majority is usually required to win a mayoral election in Austin, and if no candidate receives more than 50% in the general election, a winner is usually determined in a runoff election. However, on May 5, 1997, two days after the general election, candidate Ronney Reynolds, a two-term council member, withdrew from the runoff resulting in Watson's election as mayor. Personal life Watson is married to Elizabeth Ann "Liz" McDaniel and is the father of two sons. Notes External links Kirk Watson's Campaign Website Texas Senator Kirk Watson: District 14, Archived November 7, 2012. Follow the Money - Kirk Watson 2006 2004 2002 campaign contributions Appearances on C-SPAN

Oklahoma_City

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City

Oklahoma City ( ), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and is the 8th largest city in the Southern United States. The population grew following the 2010 census and reached 681,054 in the 2020 census. The Oklahoma City metropolitan area had a population of 1,396,445, and the Oklahoma City–Shawnee Combined Statistical Area had a population of 1,469,124, making it Oklahoma's largest municipality and metropolitan area by population. Oklahoma City's city limits extend somewhat into Canadian, Cleveland, and Pottawatomie counties. However, much of those areas outside the core Oklahoma County area are suburban tracts or protected rural zones (watershed). The city is the eighth-largest in the United States by area including consolidated city-counties; it is the second-largest, after Houston, not including consolidated cities. The city is also the second-largest by area among state capital cities in the United States, after Juneau, Alaska. Oklahoma City has one of the world's largest livestock markets. Oil, natural gas, petroleum products, and related industries are its economy's largest sector. The city is in the middle of an active oil field, and oil derricks dot the capitol grounds. The federal government employs a large number of workers at Tinker Air Force Base and the United States Department of Transportation's Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center (which house offices of the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Department's Enterprise Service Center, respectively). Oklahoma City is on the I-35 and I-40 corridors, one of the primary travel corridors south into neighboring Texas and New Mexico, north towards Wichita and Kansas City, west to Albuquerque, and east towards Little Rock and Memphis. Located in the state's Frontier Country region, the city's northeast section lies in an ecological region known as the Cross Timbers. The city was founded during the Land Run of 1889 and grew to a population of over 10,000 within hours of its founding. It was the site of the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, in which 168 people died, the deadliest terror attack in U.S. history until the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. Since weather records have been kept beginning in 1890, Oklahoma City has been struck by 14 violent tornadoes, 11 of which were rated F4 or EF4 on the Fujita and Enhanced Fujita scales, and two rated F5 and EF5. History Oklahoma City was settled on April 22, 1889, when the area known as the "Unassigned Lands" was opened for settlement in an event known as "The Land Run". On April 26 of that year, its first mayor was elected, William Couch. Some 10,000 homesteaders settled in the area that would become the capital of Oklahoma. The town grew quickly; the population doubled between 1890 and 1900. Early leaders of the development of the city included Anton H. Classen, John Wilford Shartel, Henry Overholser, Oscar Ameringer, Jack C. Walton, Angelo C. Scott, and James W. Maney. By the time Oklahoma was admitted to the Union in 1907, Oklahoma City had surpassed Guthrie, the territorial capital, as the new state's population center and commercial hub. Soon after, the capital was moved from Guthrie to Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City was a significant stop on Route 66 during the early part of the 20th century; it was prominently mentioned in Bobby Troup's 1946 jazz song "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66" made famous by artist Nat King Cole. Before World War II, Oklahoma City developed significant stockyards, attracting jobs and revenue formerly in Chicago and Omaha, Nebraska. With the 1928 discovery of oil within the city limits (including under the State Capitol), Oklahoma City became a major center of oil production. Post-war growth accompanied the construction of the Interstate Highway System, which made Oklahoma City a major interchange as the convergence of I-35, I-40, and I-44. It was also aided by the federal development of Tinker Air Force Base after successful lobbying efforts by the director of the Chamber of Commerce Stanley Draper. In 1950, the Census Bureau reported the city's population as 8.6% black and 90.7% white. In 1959, the city government launched a "Great Annexation Drive" that expanded the city's area from 80 square miles (210 km2) to 475.55 square miles (1,231.7 km2) by the end of 1961, making it the largest U.S. city by land mass at the time. Patience Latting was elected Mayor of Oklahoma City in 1971, becoming the city's first female mayor. Latting was also the first woman to serve as mayor of a U.S. city with over 350,000 residents. Like many other American cities, the center city population declined in the 1970s and 1980s as families followed newly constructed highways to move to newer housing in nearby suburbs. Urban renewal projects in the 1970s, including the Pei Plan, removed older structures but failed to spark much new development, leaving the city dotted with vacant lots used for parking. A notable exception was the city's construction of the Myriad Gardens and Crystal Bridge, a botanical garden and modernistic conservatory in the heart of downtown. Architecturally significant historic buildings lost to clearances were the Criterion Theater, the Baum Building, the Hales Building, and the Biltmore Hotel. In 1993, the city passed a massive redevelopment package known as the Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPS), intended to rebuild the city's core with civic projects to establish more activities and life in downtown. The city added a new baseball park; a central library; renovations to the civic center, convention center, and fairgrounds; and a water canal in the Bricktown entertainment district. Water taxis transport passengers within the district, adding color and activity along the canal. MAPS has become one of the most successful public-private partnerships undertaken in the U.S., exceeding $3 billion in private investment as of 2010. As a result of MAPS, the population in downtown housing has exponentially increased, with the demand for additional residential and retail amenities, such as groceries, services, and shops. Since the completion of the MAPS projects, the downtown area has seen continued development. Several downtown buildings are undergoing renovation/restoration. Notable among these was the restoration of the Skirvin Hotel in 2007. The famed First National Center is also being renovated. Residents of Oklahoma City suffered substantial losses on April 19, 1995, when Timothy McVeigh detonated a bomb in front of the Murrah building. The building was destroyed (the remnants of which had to be imploded in a controlled demolition later that year), more than 100 nearby buildings suffered severe damage, and 168 people were killed. The site has been commemorated as the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. Since its opening in 2000, over three million people have visited. Every year on April 19, survivors, families, and friends return to the memorial to read the names of each person lost. McVeigh was executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001. The "Core-to-Shore" project was created to relocate I-40 one mile (1.6 km) south and replace it with a boulevard to create a landscaped entrance to the city. This also allows the central portion of the city to expand south and connect with the shore of the Oklahoma River. Several elements of "Core to Shore" were included in the MAPS 3 proposal approved by voters in late 2009. Geography Oklahoma City lies along one of the primary corridors into Texas and Mexico and is a three-hour drive from the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The city is in the Frontier Country region in the state's center, making it ideal for state government. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 620.34 square miles (1,606.7 km2), of which 601.11 square miles (1,556.9 km2) is land and 19.23 square miles (49.8 km2) is water. Oklahoma City lies in the Sandstone Hills region of Oklahoma, known for hills of 250 to 400 feet (80 to 120 m) and two species of oak: blackjack oak (Quercus marilandica) and post oak (Q. stellata). The northeastern part of the city and its eastern suburbs fall into an ecological region known as the Cross Timbers. The city is roughly bisected by the North Canadian River (recently renamed the Oklahoma River inside city limits). The North Canadian once had sufficient flow to flood every year, wreaking destruction on surrounding areas, including the central business district and the original Oklahoma City Zoo. In the 1940s, a dam was built on the river to manage the flood control and reduce its level. In the 1990s, as part of the citywide revitalization project known as MAPS, the city built a series of low-water dams, returning water to the portion of the river flowing near downtown. The city has three large lakes: Lake Hefner and Lake Overholser, in the northwestern quarter of the city; and the largest, Lake Stanley Draper, in the city's sparsely populated far southeast portion. The population density typically reported for Oklahoma City using the area of its city limits can be misleading. Its urbanized zone covers roughly 244 square miles (630 km2) resulting in a 2013 estimated density of 2,500 per square mile (970/km2), compared with larger rural watershed areas incorporated by the city, which cover the remaining 377 sq mi (980 km2) of the city limits. Oklahoma City is one of the largest cities in the nation in compliance with the Clean Air Act. Tallest buildings Neighborhoods Oklahoma City neighborhoods are highly varied, with affluent historic neighborhoods located next to districts that have not wholly recovered from the economic and social decline of the 1970s and 1980s. The city is bisected geographically and culturally by the North Canadian River, which divides North Oklahoma City and South Oklahoma City. The north side is characterized by diverse and fashionable urban neighborhoods near the city center and sprawling suburbs further north. South Oklahoma City is generally more blue-collar working class and significantly more industrial, having grown up around the Stockyards and meat packing plants at the turn of the century. It is also the center of the city's rapidly growing Latino community. Downtown Oklahoma City, which has 7,600 residents, is seeing an influx of new private investment and large-scale public works projects, which have helped to revitalize a central business district left almost deserted by the Oil Bust of the early 1980s. The centerpiece of downtown is the newly renovated Crystal Bridge and Myriad Botanical Gardens, one of the few elements of the Pei Plan to be completed. In 2021, a massive new central park will link the gardens near the CBD and the new convention center to be built just south of it to the North Canadian River as part of a massive works project known as "Core to Shore"; the new park is part of MAPS3, a collection of civic projects funded by a one-cent temporary (seven-year) sales tax increase. Climate Oklahoma City has a temperate humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cfa), along with significant continental influences. The city features hot, humid summers and cool winters. Prolonged and severe droughts (sometimes leading to wildfires in the vicinity) and hefty rainfall leading to flash flooding and flooding occur regularly. Consistent winds, usually from the south or south-southeast during the summer, help temper the hotter weather. Consistent northerly winds during the winter can intensify cold periods. Severe ice storms and snowstorms happen sporadically during the winter. The average temperature is 61.4 °F (16.3 °C), with the monthly daily average ranging from 39.2 °F (4.0 °C) in January to 83.0 °F (28.3 °C) in July. Extremes range from −17 °F (−27 °C) on February 12, 1899 to 113 °F (45 °C) on August 11, 1936, and August 3, 2012; The last sub-zero (Fahrenheit) reading was −14 °F (−26 °C) on February 16, 2021. Temperatures reach 100 °F (38 °C) on 10.4 days of the year, 90 °F (32 °C) on nearly 70 days, and fail to rise above freezing on 8.3 days. The city receives about 35.9 inches (91.2 cm) of precipitation annually, of which 8.6 inches (21.8 cm) is snow. The report "Regional Climate Trends and Scenarios for the U.S. National Climate Assessment" (NCA) from 2013 by NOAA projects that parts of the Great Plains region can expect up to 30% (high emissions scenario based on CMIP3 and NARCCAP models) increase in extreme precipitation days by mid-century. This definition is based on days receiving more than one inch of rainfall. Extreme weather Oklahoma City has an active severe weather season from March through June, especially during April and May. Being in the center of what is colloquially referred to as Tornado Alley, it is prone to widespread and severe tornadoes, as well as severe hailstorms and occasional derechoes. Tornadoes occur every month of the year, and a secondary smaller peak also occurs during autumn, especially in October. The Oklahoma City metropolitan area is one of the most tornado-prone major cities in the world, with about 150 tornadoes striking within the city limits since 1890. Since the time weather records have been kept, Oklahoma City has been struck by 13 violent tornadoes, eleven rated F/EF4 and two rated F/EF5. On May 3, 1999, parts of Oklahoma City and surrounding communities were impacted by a tornado. It was the last U.S. tornado to be given a rating of F5 on the Fujita scale before the Enhanced Fujita scale replaced it in 2007. While the tornado was in the vicinity of Bridge Creek to the southwest, wind speeds of 318 mph (510 km/h) were estimated by a mobile Doppler radar, the highest wind speeds ever recorded on Earth. A second top-of-the-scale tornado occurred on May 20, 2013; South Oklahoma City, along with Newcastle and Moore, was hit by an EF5 tornado. The tornado was 0.5 to 1.3 miles (0.80 to 2.09 km) wide and killed 23 people. On May 31, less than two weeks after the May 20 event, another outbreak affected the Oklahoma City area. Within Oklahoma City, the system spawned an EF1 and an EF0 tornado, and in El Reno to the west, an EF3 tornado occurred. This lattermost tornado, which was heading in the direction of Oklahoma City before it dissipated, had a width of 2.6 miles (4.2 km), making it the widest tornado ever recorded. Additionally, winds over 295 mph (475 km/h) were measured, one of the two highest wind records for a tornado. With 19.48 inches (495 mm) of rainfall, May 2015 was Oklahoma City's record-wettest month since record-keeping began in 1890. Across Oklahoma and Texas generally, there was a record flooding in the latter part of the month. Demographics In the 2010 census, there were 579,999 people, 230,233 households, and 144,120 families in the city. The population density was 956.4 inhabitants per square mile (321.9/km2). There were 256,930 housing units at an average density of 375.9 per square mile (145.1/km2). By the 2020 census, its population grew to 681,054. Of Oklahoma City's 579,999 people in 2010, 44,541 resided in Canadian County, 63,723 lived in Cleveland County, 471,671 resided in Oklahoma County, and 64 resided in Pottawatomie County. In 2010, there were 230,233 households, 29.4% of which had children under 18 living with them, 43.4% were married couples living together, 13.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.4% were non-families. One person households account for 30.5% of all households, and 8.7% of all households had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 3.11. According to the American Community Survey 1-year estimates in 2022, the median income for a household in the city was $63,713, and the median income for a family was $80,833. Married-couple families $99,839, and nonfamily households $40,521. The per capita income for the city was $35,902. 15.5% of the population and 11.2% of families were below the poverty line. Of the total population, 20.1% of those under 18 and 10.6% of those 65 and older lived below the poverty line. In the 2000 census, Oklahoma City's age composition was 25.5% under the age of 18, 10.7% from 18 to 24, 30.8% from 25 to 44, 21.5% from 45 to 64, and 11.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.7 males. Oklahoma City has experienced significant population increases since the late 1990s. It is the first city in the state to record a population greater than 600,000 residents and the first city in the Great Plains region to record a population greater than 600,000 residents. It is the largest municipal population of the Great Plains region (Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota). In the 2020 census, there were 268,035 households in the city, out of which 81,374 households (30.4%) were individuals, 113,161 (42.2%) were opposite-sex married couples, 17,699 (6.6%) were unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 2,930 (1.1%) were same-sex married couples or partnerships. Race and ethnicity According to the 2020 census, the racial composition of Oklahoma City was as follows: White or European American 49.5%, Hispanic or Latino 21.3%, Black or African American 13.8%, Asian 4.6%, Native American 2.8%, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 0.2%, other race 0.4%, and two or more races (non-Hispanic) 7.6%. Its population has diversified since the 1940s census, where 90.4% was non-Hispanic white. An analysis in 2017 found Oklahoma City to be the 8th least racially segregated significant city in the United States. Of the 20 largest US cities, Oklahoma City has the second-highest percentage of the population reporting two or more races on the Census, 7.6%, second to 8.9% in New York City. 2020 Metropolitan statistical area Oklahoma City is the principal city of the eight-county Oklahoma City metropolitan statistical Area in Central Oklahoma and is the state's largest urbanized area. As of 2015, the metro area was the 41st largest in the nation based on population. Religion The Association of Religion Data Archives in 2020 reported that the Southern Baptist Convention was the city and metropolitan area's most prominent Christian tradition with 213,008 members, Christianity being the area's predominant religion. Non/interdenominational Protestants were the second largest tradition with 195,158 members. The Roman Catholic Church claimed 142,491 adherents throughout the metropolitan region and Pentecostals within the Assemblies of God USA numbered 48,470. The remainder of Christians in the area held to predominantly Evangelical Christian beliefs in numerous evangelical Protestant denominations. Outside of Christendom, there were 4,230 practitioners of Hinduism and 2,078 Mahayana Buddhists. An estimated 8,904 residents practiced Islam during this study. Crime Law enforcement claims Oklahoma City has traditionally been the territory of the notorious Juárez Cartel, but the Sinaloa Cartel has been reported as trying to establish a foothold in Oklahoma City. There are many rival gangs in Oklahoma City, one whose headquarters has been established in the city, the Southside Locos, traditionally known as Sureños. Oklahoma City also has its share of violent crimes, particularly in the 1970s. The worst occurred in 1978 when six employees of a Sirloin Stockade restaurant on the city's south side were murdered execution-style in the restaurant's freezer. An intensive investigation followed, and the three individuals involved, who also killed three others in Purcell, Oklahoma, were identified. One, Harold Stafford, died in a motorcycle accident in Tulsa not long after the restaurant murders. Another, Verna Stafford, was sentenced to life without parole after being granted a new trial after she had been sentenced to death. Roger Dale Stafford, considered the mastermind of the murder spree, was executed by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in 1995. The Oklahoma City Police Department has a uniformed force of 1,169 officers and 300+ civilian employees. The department has a central police station and five substations covering 2,500 police reporting districts that average 1/4 square mile in size. On April 19, 1995, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was destroyed by a fertilizer bomb manufactured and detonated by Timothy McVeigh. The blast and catastrophic collapse killed 168 people and injured over 680. The blast shock-wave destroyed or damaged 324 buildings within a 340-meter radius, destroyed or burned 86 cars, and shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings, causing at least an estimated $652 million. McVeigh was convicted and subsequently executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001. Economy The economy of Oklahoma City, once just a regional power center of government and energy exploration, has since diversified to include the sectors of information technology, services, health services, and administration. The city is headquarters to two Fortune 500 companies: Expand Energy and Devon Energy, as well as being home to Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores, which is ranked thirteenth on Forbes' list of private companies. As of March 2024, the top 20 employers in the city were: Other major corporations with a significant presence (over 1,000 employees) in the city of Oklahoma City include the United Parcel Service, Farmers Insurance Group, Great Plains Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Deaconess Hospital, Johnson Controls, MidFirst Bank, Rose State College, and Continental Resources. While not in the city limits, other large employers within the Oklahoma City MSA include United States Air Force – Tinker AFB (27,000); University of Oklahoma (11,900); University of Central Oklahoma (2,900); and Norman Regional Hospital (2,800). According to the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, the metropolitan area's economic output grew by 33% between 2001 and 2005 due chiefly to economic diversification. Its gross metropolitan product (GMP) was $43.1 billion in 2005 and grew to $61.1 billion in 2009. By 2016 the GMP had grown to $73.8 billion. In 2008, Forbes magazine reported that the city had falling unemployment, one of the strongest housing markets in the country and solid growth in energy, agriculture, and manufacturing. However, during the early 1980s, Oklahoma City had one of the worst job and housing markets due to the bankruptcy of Penn Square Bank in 1982 and then the post-1985 crash in oil prices (oil bust). Tourism Approximately 23.2 million visitors contributed $4.3 billion to Oklahoma City's economy. These visitors directly spent $2.6 billion, sustained nearly 34,000 jobs, and generated $343 million in state and local taxes. Business districts Business and entertainment districts (and, to a lesser extent, local neighborhoods) tend to maintain their boundaries and character by applying zoning regulations and business improvement districts (districts where property owners agree to a property tax surcharge to support additional services for the community). Through zoning regulations, historic districts, and other special zoning districts, including overlay districts, are well established. Oklahoma City has three business improvement districts, including one encompassing the central business district. Culture Museums and theaters The Donald W. Reynolds Visual Arts Center is the new downtown home for the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. The museum features visiting exhibits, original selections from its collection, a theater showing various foreign, independent, and classic films each week, and a restaurant. OKCMOA is also home to the most comprehensive collection of Chihuly glass in the world, including the 55-foot Eleanor Blake Kirkpatrick Memorial Tower in the Museum's atrium. The art deco Civic Center Music Hall, which was renovated in 2001, has performances from the Oklahoma City Ballet, the Oklahoma City Opera, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and also various concerts and traveling Broadway shows. Other theaters include the Lyric Theatre, Jewel Box Theatre, Kirkpatrick Auditorium, the Poteet Theatre, the Oklahoma City Community College Bruce Owen Theater, and the 488-seat Petree Recital Hall at the Oklahoma City University campus. The university opened the Wanda L Bass School of Music and Auditorium in April 2006. The Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center (formerly City Arts Center) moved downtown in 2020, near Campbell Art Park at 11th and Broadway, after being at the Oklahoma State Fair fairgrounds since 1989. It features exhibitions, performances, classes, workshops, camps, and weekly programs. The Science Museum Oklahoma (formerly Kirkpatrick Science and Air Space Museum at Omniplex) houses exhibits on science and aviation and an IMAX theater. The museum formerly housed the International Photography Hall of Fame (IPHF), which displays photographs and artifacts from an extensive collection of cameras and other artifacts preserving the history of photography. IPHF honors those who have contributed significantly to the art and/or science of photography and relocated to St. Louis, Missouri in 2013. The Museum of Osteology displays over 450 real skeletons and houses over 7,000. Focusing on the form and function of the skeletal system, this 7,000 sq ft (650 m2) museum displays hundreds of skulls and skeletons from all corners of the world. Exhibits include adaptation, locomotion, classification, and diversity of the vertebrate kingdom. The Museum of Osteology is the only one of its kind in America. The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum has galleries of western art and is home to the Hall of Great Western Performers. In September 2021, the First Americans Museum opened to the public, focusing on the histories and cultures of the numerous tribal nations and many Indigenous peoples in the state of Oklahoma. The Oklahoma City National Memorial in the northern part of Oklahoma City's downtown was created as the inscription on its eastern gate of the Memorial reads, "to honor the victims, survivors, rescuers, and all who were changed forever on April 19, 1995"; the memorial was built on the land formerly occupied by the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building complex before its 1995 bombing. The outdoor Symbolic Memorial can be visited 24 hours a day for free, and the adjacent Memorial Museum, in the former Journal Record building damaged by the bombing, can be entered for a small fee. The site is also home to the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, a non-partisan, nonprofit think tank devoted to preventing terrorism. The American Banjo Museum in the Bricktown Entertainment district is dedicated to preserving and promoting the music and heritage of the banjo. Its collection is valued at $3.5 million, and an interpretive exhibit tells the evolution of the banjo from its roots in American slavery, to bluegrass, to folk, and to world music. The Oklahoma History Center is the state's history museum. Across the street from the governor's mansion at 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive in northeast Oklahoma City, the museum opened in 2005 and is operated by the Oklahoma Historical Society. It preserves Oklahoma's history from the prehistoric to the present day. The Oklahoma State Firefighters Museum contains early colonial firefighting tools, the first fire station in Oklahoma, and modern fire trucks. Restaurants Florence's Restaurant in 2022 was named one of America's Classics by the James Beard Foundation. It was the first James Beard award for an Oklahoma entity. The Oklahoman called Florence's "The Grand Dame of all local restaurants". Andrew Black, chef/owner of Grey Sweater, won the 2023 James Beard Award for Best Chef Southwest. The Food Network show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives has been to several restaurants in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. Some of these include Cattlemen's Steakhouse, Chick N Beer, Clanton's Cafe, The Diner, Eischen's Bar, Florence's Restaurant, and Guyutes, among several others. Sports Oklahoma City is home to several professional sports teams, including the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association. The Thunder is the city's second "permanent" major professional sports franchise after the now-defunct AFL Oklahoma Wranglers. It is the third major-league team to call the city home when considering the temporary hosting of the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets for the 2005–06 and 2006–07 NBA seasons. However, the Thunder was formerly the Sonics before the movement of the Sonics to OKC in 2008. Other professional sports clubs in Oklahoma City include the Oklahoma City Baseball Club, the Triple-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Oklahoma City Energy FC of the United Soccer League, and the Crusaders of Oklahoma Rugby Football Club of USA Rugby. The Oklahoma City Blazers, a name used for decades of the city's hockey team in the Central Hockey League, has been used for a junior team in the Western States Hockey League since 2014. The Paycom Center in downtown is the main multipurpose arena in the city, which hosts concerts, NHL exhibition games, and many of the city's pro sports teams. In 2008, the Oklahoma City Thunder became the primary tenant. Nearby in Bricktown, the Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark is the home to the city's baseball team, the Dodgers. "The Brick", as it is locally known, is considered one of the finest minor league parks in the nation. Oklahoma City hosts the World Cup of Softball and the annual NCAA Women's College World Series. The city has held 2005 NCAA Men's Basketball First and Second round and hosted the Big 12 Men's and women's basketball tournaments in 2007 and 2009. The major universities in the area – University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City University, and Oklahoma State University – often schedule major basketball games and other sporting events at Paycom Center and Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. However, most home games are played at their campus stadiums. Other major sporting events include Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing circuits at Remington Park and numerous horse shows and equine events that take place at the state fairgrounds each year. There are multiple golf courses and country clubs spread around the city. High school football The state of Oklahoma hosts a highly competitive high school football culture, with many teams in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. The Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA) organizes high school football into eight distinct classes based on school enrollment size. Beginning with the largest, the classes are 6A, 5A, 4A, 3A, 2A, A, B, and C. Class 6A is broken into two divisions. Oklahoma City schools in include: Westmoore, Putnam City North, Putnam City, Putnam City West, Southeast, Capitol Hill, U.S. Grant, and Northwest Classen. Oklahoma City Thunder The Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association (NBA) has called Oklahoma City home since the 2008–09 season, when owner Clay Bennett relocated the franchise from Seattle, Washington. The Thunder plays home games in downtown Oklahoma City at the Paycom Center. The Thunder is known by several nicknames, including "OKC Thunder" and simply "OKC", and its mascot is Rumble the Bison. After arriving in Oklahoma City for the 2008–09 season, the Oklahoma City Thunder secured a berth (8th) in the 2010 NBA Playoffs the following year after boasting its first 50-win season, winning two games in the first round against the Los Angeles Lakers. In 2012, Oklahoma City made it to the NBA Finals but lost to the Miami Heat in five games. In 2013, the Thunder reached the Western Conference semi-finals without All-Star guard Russell Westbrook, who was injured in their first-round series against the Houston Rockets, only to lose to the Memphis Grizzlies. In 2014, Oklahoma City reached the NBA's Western Conference Finals again but eventually lost to the San Antonio Spurs in six games. Sports analysts have regarded the Oklahoma City Thunder as one of the elite franchises of the NBA's Western Conference and a media darling of the league's future. Oklahoma City earned Northwest Division titles every year from 2011 to 2014 and again in 2016 and has consistently improved its win record to 59 wins in 2014. The Thunder is led by third-year head coach Mark Daigneault and was anchored by All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook before a July 2019 trade that sent him to the Houston Rockets. Hornets In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the NBA's New Orleans Hornets temporarily relocated to the Ford Center, playing the majority of its home games there during the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons. The team became the first NBA franchise to play regular-season games in Oklahoma. The team was known as the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets while playing in Oklahoma City. The team returned to New Orleans full-time for the 2007–08 season. The Hornets played their final home game in Oklahoma City during the exhibition season on October 9, 2007, against the Houston Rockets. Professional sports teams 2028 Olympics Venues in Oklahoma City will host two events during the 2028 Summer Olympics, which will primarily be held in Los Angeles. The LA Olympic Organizing Committee opted to have canoe slalom and softball in Oklahoma City, given the lack of acceptable venues for those sports in Los Angeles. Riversport OKC will host the canoe slalom competition, while Devon Park will host the softball competition. Oklahoma City is located approximately 1,300 miles away from Los Angeles. Parks and recreation One of the more prominent landmarks of downtown Oklahoma City is the Crystal Bridge tropical conservatory at the Myriad Botanical Gardens, a large downtown urban park. Designed by I. M. Pei, the park also includes the Water Stage amphitheater, a bandshell, and lawn, a sunken pond complete with koi, an interactive children's garden complete with a carousel and water sculpture, various trails and interactive exhibits that rotate throughout the year including the ice skating in the Christmas winter season. In 2007, following a renovation of the stage, Oklahoma Shakespeare In The Park relocated to the Myriad Gardens. Bicentennial Park, also downtown located near the Oklahoma City Civic Center campus, is home to the annual Festival of the Arts in April. The Scissortail Park is just south of the Myriad Gardens, a large interactive park that opened in 2021. This park contains a large lake with paddleboats, a dog park, a concert stage with a great lawn, a promenade including the Skydance Bridge, a children's interactive splash park and playground, and numerous athletic facilities. Farmers Market is a common attraction at Scissortail Park during the season, and there are multiple film showings, food trucks, concerts, festivals, and civic gatherings. Returning to the city's first parks masterplan, Oklahoma City has at least one major park in each quadrant outside downtown. Will Rogers Park, the Grand Boulevard loop once connected Lincoln Park, Trosper Park, and Woodson Park, some sections of which no longer exist. Martin Park Nature Center is a natural habitat in far northwest Oklahoma City. Will Rogers Park is home to the Lycan Conservatory, the Rose Garden, and the Butterfly Garden, all built in the WPA era. In April 2005, the Oklahoma City Skate Park at Wiley Post Park was renamed the Mat Hoffman Action Sports Park to recognize Mat Hoffman, an Oklahoma City area resident and businessman who was instrumental in the design of the skate park and is a 10-time BMX World Vert champion. Walking trails line the Bricktown Canal and the Oklahoma River in downtown. The city's bike trail system follows around Lake Hefner and Lake Overholser in the northwest and west quadrants of the city. The majority of the east shore area of Lake Hefner is taken up by parks and bike trails, including a new leashless dog park and the postwar-era Stars and Stripes Park, and eateries near the lighthouse. Lake Stanley Draper, in southeast Oklahoma City, is the city's largest and most remote lake, offering a genuine rural yet still urban experience. The Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden is home to numerous natural habitats, WPA era architecture and landscaping, and major touring concerts during the summer at its amphitheater. Nearby is a combination racetrack and casino, Remington Park, which hosts both Quarter Horse (March – June) and Thoroughbred (August—December) seasons. Oklahoma City is also home to the American Banjo Museum, which houses a large collection of highly decorated banjos from the early 20th century and exhibits the banjo's history and its place in American history. Concerts and lectures are also held there. Government The City of Oklahoma City has operated under a council-manager form of city government since 1927. David Holt assumed the office of Mayor on April 10, 2018, after being elected two months earlier. Eight councilpersons represent each of the eight wards of Oklahoma City. The City Council appointed current City Manager Craig Freeman on November 20, 2018. Freeman took office on January 2, 2018, succeeding James D. Couch, who had served in the role since 2000. Before becoming City Manager, Craig Freeman served as Finance Director for the city. Politics Similar to many American cities, Oklahoma City is politically conservative in its suburbs and liberal in the central city. In the United States House of Representatives, it is represented by Republicans Stephanie Bice and Tom Cole of the 5th and 4th districts, respectively. The city has called on residents to vote for sales tax-based projects to revitalize parts of the city. The Bricktown district is the best example of such an initiative. In the recent MAPS 3 vote, the city's fraternal police order criticized the project proposals for not doing enough to expand the police presence to keep up with the growing residential population and increased commercial activity. In September 2013, Oklahoma City area attorney David Slane announced he would pursue legal action regarding MAPS3 on claims the multiple projects that made up the plan violate a state constitutional law limiting voter ballot issues to a single subject. International relations Consulates Twin towns – sister cities Oklahoma City's sister cities are: Education Higher education The city is home to several colleges and universities. Oklahoma City University, formerly known as Epworth University, was founded by the United Methodist Church on September 1, 1904, and is known for its performing arts, science, mass communications, business, law, and athletic programs. OCU has its main campus in the north-central section of the city, near the city's Asia District area. OCU Law is in the old Central High School building in the Midtown district near downtown. The University of Oklahoma has several institutions of higher learning in the city and metropolitan area, with OU Medicine and the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center campuses east of downtown in the Oklahoma Health Center district, and the main campus to the south in the suburb of Norman. OU Medical Center hosts the state's only Level-One trauma center. OU Health Sciences Center is one of the nation's largest independent medical centers, employing over 12,000 people. OU is one of only four major universities in the nation to operate six medical schools. The third-largest university in the state, the University of Central Oklahoma, is just north of the city in the suburb of Edmond. Oklahoma Christian University, one of the state's private liberal arts institutions, is just south of the Edmond border, inside the Oklahoma City limits. Oklahoma City Community College in south Oklahoma City is the second-largest community college in the state. Rose State College is east of Oklahoma City in suburban Midwest City. Oklahoma State University–Oklahoma City is in the "Furniture District" on the Westside. Northeast of the city is Langston University, the state's historically black college (HBCU). Langston also has an urban campus in the eastside section of the city. Southern Nazarene University, which was founded by the Church of the Nazarene, is a university in suburban Bethany, which is surrounded by the Oklahoma City city limits. Although technically not a university, the FAA's Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center has many aspects of an institution of higher learning. Its FAA Academy is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Its Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI) has a medical education division responsible for aeromedical education in general, as well as the education of aviation medical examiners in the U.S. and 93 other countries. In addition, The National Academy of Science offers Research Associateship Programs for fellowship and other grants for CAMI research. Primary and secondary Oklahoma City is home to (as of 2009) the state's largest school district, Oklahoma City Public Schools, which covers the most significant portion of the city. The district's Classen School of Advanced Studies and Harding Charter Preparatory High School rank high among public schools nationally according to a formula that looks at the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by the school's students divided by the number of graduating seniors. In addition, OKCPS's Belle Isle Enterprise Middle School was named the top middle school in the state according to the Academic Performance Index and recently received the Blue Ribbon School Award, in 2004 and again in 2011. Due to Oklahoma City's explosive growth, parts of several suburban districts spill into the city. All but one of the school districts in Oklahoma County includes portions of Oklahoma City. The other districts in that county covering OKC include: Choctaw/Nicoma Park, Crooked Oak, Crutcho, Deer Creek, Edmond, Harrah, Jones, Luther, McLoud, Mid-Del, Millwood, Moore, Mustang, Oakdale, Piedmont, Putnam City, and Western Heights. School districts in Cleveland County covering portions of Oklahoma City include: Little Axe, McLoud, Mid-Del, Moore, and Robin Hill. Within Canadian County, Banner, Mustang, Piedmont, Union City, and Yukon school districts include parts of OKC. There are also charter schools. KIPP Reach College Preparatory School in Oklahoma City received the 2012 National Blue Ribbon, and its school leader, Tracy McDaniel Sr., was awarded the Terrel H. Bell Award for Outstanding Leadership. The city also boasts several private and parochial schools. Casady School and Heritage Hall School are both examples of a private college preparatory school with rigorous academics that range among the top in Oklahoma. Providence Hall is a Protestant school. Two prominent schools of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City include Bishop McGuinness High School and Mount Saint Mary High School. Other private schools include the Advanced Science and Technology Education Center and Crossings Christian School. The Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, a school for some of the state's most gifted math and science pupils, is also in Oklahoma City. CareerTech Oklahoma City has several public career and technology education schools associated with the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education, the largest of which are Metro Technology Center and Francis Tuttle Technology Center. Private career and technology education schools in Oklahoma City include Oklahoma Technology Institute, Platt College, Vatterott College, and Heritage College. The Dale Rogers Training Center is a nonprofit vocational training center for individuals with disabilities. Media Print The Oklahoman is Oklahoma City's major daily newspaper and is the most widely circulated in the state. NewsOK.com is the Oklahoman's online presence. Oklahoma Gazette is Oklahoma City's independent newsweekly, featuring such staples as local commentary, feature stories, restaurant reviews, movie listings, and music and entertainment. The Journal Record is the city's daily business newspaper, and okcBIZ is a monthly publication that covers business news affecting those who live and work in Central Oklahoma. Numerous community and international newspapers cater to the city's ethnic mosaic, such as The Black Chronicle, headquartered in the Eastside, the OK VIETIMES and Oklahoma Chinese Times, in Asia District, and various Hispanic community publications. The Campus is the student newspaper at Oklahoma City University. Gay publications include The Gayly Oklahoman. An upscale lifestyle publication called 405 Magazine (formerly Slice Magazine) is circulated throughout the metropolitan area. In addition, there is a magazine published by Back40 Design Group called The Edmond Outlook. It contains local commentary and human interest pieces directly mailed to over 50,000 Edmond residents. Ready Player One is set in Oklahoma City in the year 2045. Broadcast Oklahoma City was home to several pioneers in radio and television broadcasting. Oklahoma City's WKY Radio was the first radio station transmitting west of the Mississippi River and the third radio station in the United States. WKY received its federal license in 1921 and has continually broadcast under the same call letters since 1922. In 1928, WKY was purchased by E.K. Gaylord's Oklahoma Publishing Company and affiliated with the NBC Red Network; in 1949, WKY-TV (channel 4) went on the air and later became the first independently owned television station in the U.S. to broadcast in color. In mid-2002, WKY radio was purchased outright by Citadel Broadcasting, who was bought out by Cumulus Broadcasting in 2011. The Gaylord family earlier sold WKY-TV in 1976, which has gone through a succession of owners (what is now KFOR-TV is owned by Nexstar Media Group as of October 2019). The major U.S. broadcast television networks have affiliates in the Oklahoma City market (ranked 41st for television by Nielsen and 48th for radio by Arbitron, covering a 34-county area serving the central, north-central and west-central sections of Oklahoma); including NBC affiliate KFOR-TV (channel 4), ABC affiliate KOCO-TV (channel 5), CBS affiliate KWTV-DT (channel 9, the flagship of locally based Griffin Media), PBS station KETA-TV (channel 13, the flagship of the state-run OETA member network), Fox affiliate KOKH-TV (channel 25), independent station KOCB (channel 34), CW owned-and-operated station KAUT-TV (channel 43), MyNetworkTV affiliate KSBI-TV (channel 52), and Ion Television affiliate KOPX-TV (channel 62). The market is also home to several religious stations, including TBN owned-and-operated station KTBO-TV (channel 14) and Norman-based Daystar owned-and-operated station KOCM (channel 46). Despite the market's geographical size, none of the English-language commercial affiliates in the Oklahoma City designated market area operate full-power satellite stations covering the far northwestern part of the state (requiring cable or satellite to view them). However, KFOR-TV, KOCO-TV, KWTV-DT, and KOKH-TV each operate low-power translators in that portion of the market. Oklahoma City is one of the few markets between Chicago and Dallas to have affiliates of two or more of the significant Spanish-language broadcast networks: Telemundo affiliate KTUZ-TV (channel 30), Woodward-based Univision/UniMás affiliate KUOK 35 (whose translator KUOK-CD, channel 36, serves the immediate Oklahoma City area), and Estrella TV affiliate KOCY-LD (channel 48). (Locally based Tyler Media Group, which owns the three stations above, also owns eight radio stations in the market, including Regional Mexican-formatted KTUZ-FM (106.7) and news–talk outlet KOKC (1520 AM).) Infrastructure Fire department Oklahoma City is protected by the Oklahoma City Fire Department (OKCFD), which employs 1015 paid, professional firefighters. The current Chief of Department is Richard Kelley, and the department is commanded by three Deputy Chiefs, who – along with the department chief – oversee the Operational Services, Prevention Services, and Support Services bureaus. The OKCFD operates out of 37 fire stations throughout the city in six battalions. The OKCFD operates a fire apparatus fleet of 36 engine companies (including 30 paramedic engines), 13 ladder companies, 16 brush pumper units, six water tankers, two hazardous materials units, one Technical Rescue Unit, one Air Supply Unit, six Arson Investigation Units, and one Rehabilitation Unit along with several special units. Each engine Company is staffed with a driver, an officer, and one to two firefighters, while each ladder company is staffed with a driver, an officer, and one firefighter. The minimum staffing for each shift is 213 personnel. The Oklahoma City Fire Department responds to over 70,000 emergency calls annually. Transportation Highway Oklahoma City is an integral point on the United States Interstate Network, with three major interstate highways – Interstate 35, Interstate 40, and Interstate 44 – bisecting the city. Interstate 240 connects Interstate 40 and Interstate 44 in south Oklahoma City. At the same time, Interstate 235 spurs from Interstate 44 in north-central Oklahoma City into downtown. Interstate 44, between NW 23rd St and NW 36th St, is the busiest roadway in the city and state, with an average daily traffic count of 167,200 vehicles per day in 2018. Major state expressways through the city include Lake Hefner Parkway (SH-74), the Kilpatrick Turnpike, Airport Road (SH-152), and Broadway Extension (US-77) which continues from I-235 connecting Central Oklahoma City to Edmond. Lake Hefner Parkway runs through northwest Oklahoma City, while Airport Road runs through southwest Oklahoma City and leads to Will Rogers World Airport. The Kilpatrick Turnpike loops around north and west Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City also has several major national and state highways within its city limits. Shields Boulevard (US-77) continues from E.K. Gaylord Boulevard in downtown Oklahoma City and runs south, eventually connecting to I-35 near the suburb of Moore, Oklahoma. Northwest Expressway (Oklahoma State Highway 3) runs from North Classen Boulevard in north-central Oklahoma City to the northwestern suburbs. The following significant expressways traverse Oklahoma City: Interstate 35 Interstate 40 (Crosstown Expressway, Stanley Draper Expressway, Tinker Diagonal, Tom Stead Memorial Highway) Interstate 44 (Turner Turnpike, Belle Isle Freeway, Will Rogers Expressway, H.E. Bailey Turnpike) Interstate 235 (Centennial Expressway) / U.S. 77 (Broadway Extension) Interstate 240 (Southwest Expressway) Lake Hefner Parkway (State Highway 74) Airport Road (State Highway 152) Kilpatrick Turnpike Air Oklahoma City is served by two primary airports, Will Rogers World Airport and the much smaller Wiley Post Airport (incidentally, the two honorees died in the same plane crash in Alaska) Will Rogers World Airport is the state's busiest commercial airport, with 4,341,159 passengers served in 2018, a historical record. Tinker Air Force Base, in southeast Oklahoma City, is the largest military air depot in the nation. It is a major maintenance and deployment facility for the Navy and the Air Force and the second largest military institution in the state (after Fort Sill in Lawton). Rail and intercity bus Amtrak has a station downtown at the Santa Fe Depot, with daily service to Fort Worth and the nation's rail network via the Heartland Flyer. Oklahoma City once was the crossroads of several interstate passenger railroads at the Santa Fe Depot, the Union Station, and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad station. But service at that level has long since been discontinued. However, several proposals to extend the current train service have been made, including a plan to expand the Heartland Flyer to Newton, Kansas, which is currently being connected through Amtrak Thruway. Freight service is provided by BNSF Railway, Union Pacific Railroad, and Stillwater Central. Greyhound and several other intercity bus companies serve Oklahoma City at the Union Bus Station in downtown. Public transit Embark (formerly Metro Transit) is the city's public transit company. The primary transfer terminal is downtown at NW 5th Street and Hudson Avenue. Embark maintains limited coverage of the city's primary street grid using a hub-and-spoke system from the main terminal, making many journeys impractical due to the relatively small number of bus routes offered and that most trips require a transfer downtown. The city has recognized transit as a significant issue for the rapidly growing and urbanizing city. It has initiated several recent studies to improve the existing bus system, starting with a plan known as the Fixed Guideway Study. This study identified several potential commuter transit routes from the suburbs into downtown OKC as well as feeder-line bus and/or rail routes throughout the city. Though Oklahoma City has no light rail or commuter rail service, city residents identified improved transit as one of their top priorities. From the fruits of the Fixed Guideway and other studies, city leaders strongly desire to incorporate urban rail transit into the region's future transportation plans. The greater Oklahoma City metropolitan transit plan identified from the Fixed Guideway Study includes a streetcar system in the downtown area, to be fed by enhanced city bus service and commuter rail from the suburbs including Edmond, Norman, and Midwest City. There is a significant push for a commuter rail line connecting downtown OKC with the eastern suburbs of Del City, Midwest City, and Tinker Air Force Base. In addition to commuter rail, a short heritage rail line that would run from Bricktown just a few blocks away from the Amtrak station to the Adventure District in northeast Oklahoma City is under reconstruction. In December 2009, Oklahoma City voters passed MAPS 3, the $777 million (7-year, 1-cent tax) initiative. This initiative would generate funding (approx. $130 million) for the modern Oklahoma City Streetcar system in downtown Oklahoma City and the establishment of a transit hub. On September 10, 2013, the federal government announced that Oklahoma City would receive a $13.8-million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation's TIGER program. This was the first-ever grant for Oklahoma City for a rail-based initiative and is thought to be a turning point for city leaders who have applied for grants in the past, only to be denied continuously. It is believed the city will use the TIGER grant along with approximately $10 million from the MAPS 3 Transit budget to revitalize the city's Amtrak station, becoming an Intermodal Transportation Hub, taking over the role of the existing transit hub at NW 5th/Hudson Ave. Construction of the Oklahoma City Streetcar system in Downtown OKC began in early 2017, and the system opened for service in December 2018. Also known as the Maps 3 Streetcar, it connects the areas of Bricktown, Midtown and Downtown. The 6.9 mi (11.1 km) system serves the greater Downtown area using modern low-floor streetcars. The initial system consists of two lines connecting Oklahoma City's Central Business District with the entertainment district, Bricktown, and the Midtown District. Expansion to other districts surrounding downtown and more routes in the CBD is already underway. Walkability A 2013 study by Walk Score ranked Oklahoma City the 43rd most walkable out of the 50 largest U.S. cities. Oklahoma City has 18 neighborhoods with a Walk Score above 60, mainly close to the downtown core. Health Oklahoma City and the surrounding metropolitan area have several healthcare facilities and specialty hospitals. In Oklahoma City's MidTown district near downtown resides the state's oldest and largest single-site hospital, St. Anthony Hospital and Physicians Medical Center. OU Medicine, an academic medical institution on the campus of The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, is home to OU Medical Center. OU Medicine operates Oklahoma's only level-one trauma center at the OU Medical Center and the state's only level-one trauma center for children at Children's Hospital at OU Medicine, both of which are in the Oklahoma Health Center district. Other medical facilities operated by OU Medicine include OU Physicians and OU Children's Physicians, the OU College of Medicine, the Oklahoma Cancer Center, and OU Medical Center Edmond, the latter in the northern suburb of Edmond. INTEGRIS Health owns several hospitals, including INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center, the INTEGRIS Cancer Institute of Oklahoma, and the INTEGRIS Southwest Medical Center. INTEGRIS Health operates hospitals, rehabilitation centers, physician clinics, mental health facilities, independent living centers, and home health agencies throughout much of Oklahoma. INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center ranks high-performing in the following categories: Cardiology and Heart Surgery; Diabetes and Endocrinology; Ear, Nose and Throat; Gastroenterology; Geriatrics; Nephrology; Orthopedics; Pulmonology and Urology. The Midwest Regional Medical Center is in the suburb of Midwest City; other significant hospitals include the Oklahoma Heart Hospital and the Mercy Health Center. There are 347 physicians for every 100,000 people in the city. In the American College of Sports Medicine's annual ranking of the United States' 50 most populous metropolitan areas on the basis of community health, Oklahoma City took last place in 2010, falling five spots from its 2009 rank of 45. The ACSM's report, published as part of its American Fitness Index program, cited, among other things, the poor diet of residents, low levels of physical fitness, higher incidences of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease than the national average, low access to recreational facilities like swimming pools and baseball diamonds, the paucity of parks and low investment by the city in their development, the high percentage of households below the poverty level, and the lack of state-mandated physical education curriculum as contributing factors. Notable people See also Coyle v. Smith History of Oklahoma List of mayors of Oklahoma City USS Oklahoma City, 2 ships Notes References External links Official city website Oklahoma City tourism information Convention & Visitors' Bureau City-Data page Oklahoma City Historic Film Row District website Archived March 11, 2018, at the Wayback Machine New York Times travel article about Oklahoma City OKC.NET cultural commentary about Oklahoma City Voices of Oklahoma interview with Ron Norick Archived April 25, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, mayor during the Oklahoma City bombing

Zirconium

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zirconium

Zirconium is a chemical element; it has symbol Zr and atomic number 40. First identified in 1789, isolated in impure form in 1824, and manufactured at scale by 1925, pure zirconium is a lustrous transition metal with a greyish-white color that closely resembles hafnium and, to a lesser extent, titanium. It is solid at room temperature, ductile, malleable and corrosion-resistant. The name zirconium is derived from the name of the mineral zircon, the most important source of zirconium. The word is related to Persian zargun (zircon; zar-gun, "gold-like" or "as gold"). Besides zircon, zirconium occurs in over 140 other minerals, including baddeleyite and eudialyte; most zirconium is produced as a byproduct of minerals mined for titanium and tin. Zirconium forms a variety of inorganic compounds, such as zirconium dioxide, and organometallic compounds, such as zirconocene dichloride. Five isotopes occur naturally, four of which are stable. The metal and its alloys are mainly used as a refractory and opacifier; pure zirconium plays a vital role in the construction of nuclear reactors due to strong resistance to corrosion and low nuclear reaction cross section, and in space vehicles and turbine blades where high heat resistance is necessary. Zirconium also finds uses in flashbulbs, biomedical applications such as dental implants and prosthetics, deodorant, and water purification systems. Zirconium compounds have no known biological role, though the element is widely distributed in nature and appears in small quantities in biological systems without adverse effects. There is no indication of zirconium as a carcinogen. The main hazards posed by zirconium are flammability in powder form and irritation of the eyes. Characteristics Zirconium is a lustrous, greyish-white, soft, ductile, malleable metal that is solid at room temperature, though it is hard and brittle at lesser purities. In powder form, zirconium is highly flammable, but the solid form is much less prone to ignition. Zirconium is highly resistant to corrosion by alkalis, acids, salt water and other agents. However, it will dissolve in hydrochloric and sulfuric acid, especially when fluorine is present. Alloys with zinc are magnetic at less than 35 K. The melting point of zirconium is 1855 °C (3371 °F), and the boiling point is 4409 °C (7968 °F). Zirconium has an electronegativity of 1.33 on the Pauling scale. Of the elements within the d-block with known electronegativities, zirconium has the fourth lowest electronegativity after hafnium, yttrium, and lutetium. At room temperature zirconium exhibits a hexagonally close-packed crystal structure, α-Zr, which changes to β-Zr, a body-centered cubic crystal structure, at 863 °C. Zirconium exists in the β-phase until the melting point. Isotopes Naturally occurring zirconium is composed of five isotopes. 90Zr, 91Zr, 92Zr and 94Zr are stable, although 94Zr is predicted to undergo double beta decay (not observed experimentally) with a half-life of more than 1.10×1017 years. 96Zr has a half-life of 2.34×1019 years, and is the longest-lived radioisotope of zirconium. Of these natural isotopes, 90Zr is the most common, making up 51.45% of all zirconium. 96Zr is the least common, comprising only 2.80% of zirconium. Thirty-three artificial isotopes of zirconium have been synthesized, ranging in atomic mass from 77 to 114. 93Zr is the longest-lived artificial isotope, with a half-life of 1.61×106 years. Radioactive isotopes at or above mass number 93 decay by electron emission, whereas those at or below 89 decay by positron emission. The only exception is 88Zr, which decays by electron capture. Thirteen isotopes of zirconium also exist as metastable isomers: 83m1Zr, 83m2Zr, 85mZr, 87mZr, 88mZr, 89mZr, 90m1Zr, 90m2Zr, 91mZr, 97mZr, 98mZr, 99mZr, and 108mZr. Of these, 97mZr has the shortest half-life at 104.8 nanoseconds. 89mZr is the longest lived with a half-life of 4.161 minutes. Occurrence Zirconium has a concentration of about 130 mg/kg within the Earth's crust and about 0.026 μg/L in sea water. It is the 18th most abundant element in the crust. It is not found in nature as a native metal, reflecting its intrinsic instability with respect to water. The principal commercial source of zirconium is zircon (ZrSiO4), a silicate mineral, which is found primarily in Australia, Brazil, India, Russia, South Africa and the United States, as well as in smaller deposits around the world. As of 2013, two-thirds of zircon mining occurs in Australia and South Africa. Zircon resources exceed 60 million tonnes worldwide and annual worldwide zirconium production is approximately 900,000 tonnes. Zirconium also occurs in more than 140 other minerals, including the commercially useful ores baddeleyite and eudialyte. Zirconium is relatively abundant in S-type stars, and has been detected in the sun and in meteorites. Lunar rock samples brought back from several Apollo missions to the moon have a high zirconium oxide content relative to terrestrial rocks. EPR spectroscopy has been used in investigations of the unusual 3+ valence state of zirconium. The EPR spectrum of Zr3+, which has been initially observed as a parasitic signal in Fe‐doped single crystals of ScPO4, was definitively identified by preparing single crystals of ScPO4 doped with isotopically enriched (94.6%)91Zr. Single crystals of LuPO4 and YPO4 doped with both naturally abundant and isotopically enriched Zr have also been grown and investigated. Production Occurrence Zirconium is a by-product formed after mining and processing of the titanium minerals ilmenite and rutile, as well as tin mining. From 2003 to 2007, while prices for the mineral zircon steadily increased from $360 to $840 per tonne, the price for unwrought zirconium metal decreased from $39,900 to $22,700 per ton. Zirconium metal is much more expensive than zircon because the reduction processes are costly. Collected from coastal waters, zircon-bearing sand is purified by spiral concentrators to separate lighter materials, which are then returned to the water because they are natural components of beach sand. Using magnetic separation, the titanium ores ilmenite and rutile are removed. Most zircon is used directly in commercial applications, but a small percentage is converted to the metal. Most Zr metal is produced by the reduction of the zirconium(IV) chloride with magnesium metal in the Kroll process. The resulting metal is sintered until sufficiently ductile for metalworking. Separation of zirconium and hafnium Commercial zirconium metal typically contains 1–3% of hafnium, which is usually not problematic because the chemical properties of hafnium and zirconium are very similar. Their neutron-absorbing properties differ strongly, however, necessitating the separation of hafnium from zirconium for nuclear reactors. Several separation schemes are in use. The liquid-liquid extraction of the thiocyanate-oxide derivatives exploits the fact that the hafnium derivative is slightly more soluble in methyl isobutyl ketone than in water. This method accounts for roughly two-thirds of pure zirconium production, though other methods are being researched; for instance, in India, a TBP-nitrate solvent extraction process is used for the separation of zirconium from other metals. Zr and Hf can also be separated by fractional crystallization of potassium hexafluorozirconate (K2ZrF6), which is less soluble in water than the analogous hafnium derivative. Fractional distillation of the tetrachlorides, also called extractive distillation, is also used. Vacuum arc melting, combined with the use of hot extruding techniques and supercooled copper hearths, is capable of producing zirconium that has been purified of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon. Hafnium must be removed from zirconium for nuclear applications because hafnium has a neutron absorption cross-section 600 times greater than zirconium. The separated hafnium can be used for reactor control rods. Compounds Like other transition metals, zirconium forms a wide range of inorganic compounds and coordination complexes. In general, these compounds are colourless diamagnetic solids wherein zirconium has the oxidation state +4. Some organometallic compounds are considered to have Zr(II) oxidation state. Non-equilibrium oxidation states between 0 and 4 have been detected during zirconium oxidation. Oxides, nitrides, and carbides The most common oxide is zirconium dioxide, ZrO2, also known as zirconia. This clear to white-coloured solid has exceptional fracture toughness (for a ceramic) and chemical resistance, especially in its cubic form. These properties make zirconia useful as a thermal barrier coating, although it is also a common diamond substitute. Zirconium monoxide, ZrO, is also known and S-type stars are recognised by detection of its emission lines. Zirconium tungstate has the unusual property of shrinking in all dimensions when heated, whereas most other substances expand when heated. Zirconyl chloride is one of the few water-soluble zirconium complexes, with the formula [Zr4(OH)12(H2O)16]Cl8. Zirconium carbide and zirconium nitride are refractory solids. Both are highly corrosion-resistant and find uses in high-temperature resistant coatings and cutting tools. Zirconium hydride phases are known to form when zirconium alloys are exposed to large quantities of hydrogen over time; due to the brittleness of zirconium hydrides relative to zirconium alloys, the mitigation of zirconium hydride formation was highly studied during the development of the first commercial nuclear reactors, in which zirconium carbide was a frequently used material. Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) is the most commonly used piezoelectric material, being used as transducers and actuators in medical and microelectromechanical systems applications. Halides and pseudohalides All four common halides are known, ZrF4, ZrCl4, ZrBr4, and ZrI4. All have polymeric structures and are far less volatile than the corresponding titanium tetrahalides; they find applications in the formation of organic complexes such as zirconocene dichloride. All tend to hydrolyse to give the so-called oxyhalides and dioxides. Fusion of the tetrahalides with additional metal gives lower zirconium halides (e.g. ZrCl3). These adopt a layered structure, conducting within the layers but not perpendicular thereto. The corresponding tetraalkoxides are also known. Unlike the halides, the alkoxides dissolve in nonpolar solvents. Dihydrogen hexafluorozirconate is used in the metal finishing industry as an etching agent to promote paint adhesion. Organic derivatives Organozirconium chemistry is key to Ziegler–Natta catalysts, used to produce polypropylene. This application exploits the ability of zirconium to reversibly form bonds to carbon. Zirconocene dibromide ((C5H5)2ZrBr2), reported in 1952 by Birmingham and Wilkinson, was the first organozirconium compound. Schwartz's reagent, prepared in 1970 by P. C. Wailes and H. Weigold, is a metallocene used in organic synthesis for transformations of alkenes and alkynes. Many complexes of Zr(II) are derivatives of zirconocene, one example being (C5Me5)2Zr(CO)2. History The zirconium-containing mineral zircon and related minerals (jargoon, jacinth, or hyacinth, ligure) were mentioned in biblical writings. The mineral was not known to contain a new element until 1789, when Klaproth analyzed a jargoon from the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). He named the new element Zirkonerde (zirconia), related to the Persian zargun (zircon; zar-gun, "gold-like" or "as gold"). Humphry Davy attempted to isolate this new element in 1808 through electrolysis, but failed. Zirconium metal was first obtained in an impure form in 1824 by Berzelius by heating a mixture of potassium and potassium zirconium fluoride in an iron tube. The crystal bar process (also known as the Iodide Process), discovered by Anton Eduard van Arkel and Jan Hendrik de Boer in 1925, was the first industrial process for the commercial production of metallic zirconium. It involves the formation and subsequent thermal decomposition of zirconium tetraiodide (ZrI4), and was superseded in 1945 by the much cheaper Kroll process developed by William Justin Kroll, in which zirconium tetrachloride (ZrCl4) is reduced by magnesium: ZrCl 4 + 2 Mg ⟶ Zr + 2 MgCl 2 {\displaystyle {\ce {ZrCl4 + 2Mg -> Zr + 2MgCl2}}} Applications Approximately 900,000 tonnes of zirconium ores were mined in 1995, mostly as zircon. Most zircon is used directly in high-temperature applications. Because it is refractory, hard, and resistant to chemical attack, zircon finds many applications. Its main use is as an opacifier, conferring a white, opaque appearance to ceramic materials. Because of its chemical resistance, zircon is also used in aggressive environments, such as moulds for molten metals. Zirconium dioxide (ZrO2) is used in laboratory crucibles, in metallurgical furnaces, and as a refractory material Because it is mechanically strong and flexible, it can be sintered into ceramic knives and other blades. Zircon (ZrSiO4) and cubic zirconia (ZrO2) are cut into gemstones for use in jewelry. Zirconium dioxide is a component in some abrasives, such as grinding wheels and sandpaper. Zircon is also used in dating of rocks from about the time of the Earth's formation through the measurement of its inherent radioisotopes, most often uranium and lead. A small fraction of the zircon is converted to the metal, which finds various niche applications. Because of zirconium's excellent resistance to corrosion, it is often used as an alloying agent in materials that are exposed to aggressive environments, such as surgical appliances, light filaments, and watch cases. The high reactivity of zirconium with oxygen at high temperatures is exploited in some specialised applications such as explosive primers and as getters in vacuum tubes. The same property is (probably) the purpose of including Zr nanoparticles as pyrophoric material in explosive weapons such as the BLU-97/B Combined Effects Bomb. Burning zirconium was used as a light source in some photographic flashbulbs. Zirconium powder with a mesh size from 10 to 80 is occasionally used in pyrotechnic compositions to generate sparks. The high reactivity of zirconium leads to bright white sparks. Nuclear applications Cladding for nuclear reactor fuels consumes about 1% of the zirconium supply, mainly in the form of zircaloys. The desired properties of these alloys are a low neutron-capture cross-section and resistance to corrosion under normal service conditions. Efficient methods for removing the hafnium impurities were developed to serve this purpose. One disadvantage of zirconium alloys is the reactivity with water, producing hydrogen, leading to degradation of the fuel rod cladding: Zr + 2 H 2 O ⟶ ZrO 2 + 2 H 2 {\displaystyle {\ce {Zr + 2H2O -> ZrO2 + 2H2}}} Hydrolysis is very slow below 100 °C, but rapid at temperature above 900 °C. Most metals undergo similar reactions. The redox reaction is relevant to the instability of fuel assemblies at high temperatures. This reaction occurred in the reactors 1, 2 and 3 of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant (Japan) after the reactor cooling was interrupted by the earthquake and tsunami disaster of March 11, 2011, leading to the Fukushima I nuclear accidents. After venting the hydrogen in the maintenance hall of those three reactors, the mixture of hydrogen with atmospheric oxygen exploded, severely damaging the installations and at least one of the containment buildings. Zirconium is a constituent of uranium zirconium hydrides, nuclear fuels used in research reactors. Space and aeronautic industries Materials fabricated from zirconium metal and ZrO2 are used in space vehicles where resistance to heat is needed. High temperature parts such as combustors, blades, and vanes in jet engines and stationary gas turbines are increasingly being protected by thin ceramic layers and/or paintable coatings, usually composed of a mixture of zirconia and yttria. Zirconium is also used as a material of first choice for hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) tanks, propellant lines, valves, and thrusters, in propulsion space systems such as these equipping the Sierra Space's Dream Chaser spaceplane where the thrust is provided by the combustion of kerosene and hydrogen peroxide, a powerful, but unstable, oxidizer. The reason is that zirconium has an excellent corrosion resistance to H2O2 and, above all, do not catalyse its spontaneous self-decomposition as the ions of many transition metals do. Medical uses Zirconium-bearing compounds are used in many biomedical applications, including dental implants and crowns, knee and hip replacements, middle-ear ossicular chain reconstruction, and other restorative and prosthetic devices. Zirconium binds urea, a property that has been utilized extensively to the benefit of patients with chronic kidney disease. For example, zirconium is a primary component of the sorbent column dependent dialysate regeneration and recirculation system known as the REDY system, which was first introduced in 1973. More than 2,000,000 dialysis treatments have been performed using the sorbent column in the REDY system. Although the REDY system was superseded in the 1990s by less expensive alternatives, new sorbent-based dialysis systems are being evaluated and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Renal Solutions developed the DIALISORB technology, a portable, low water dialysis system. Also, developmental versions of a Wearable Artificial Kidney have incorporated sorbent-based technologies. Sodium zirconium cyclosilicate is used by mouth in the treatment of hyperkalemia. It is a selective sorbent designed to trap potassium ions in preference to other ions throughout the gastrointestinal tract. Mixtures of monomeric and polymeric Zr4+ and Al3+ complexes with hydroxide, chloride and glycine, called aluminium zirconium glycine salts, are used in a preparation as an antiperspirant in many deodorant products. It has been used since the early 1960s, as it was determined more efficacious as an antiperspirant than contemporary active ingredients such as aluminium chlorohydrate. Defunct applications Zirconium carbonate (3ZrO2·CO2·H2O) was used in lotions to treat poison ivy but was discontinued because it occasionally caused skin reactions. Safety Although zirconium has no known biological role, the human body contains, on average, 250 milligrams of zirconium, and daily intake is approximately 4.15 milligrams (3.5 milligrams from food and 0.65 milligrams from water), depending on dietary habits. Zirconium is widely distributed in nature and is found in all biological systems, for example: 2.86 μg/g in whole wheat, 3.09 μg/g in brown rice, 0.55 μg/g in spinach, 1.23 μg/g in eggs, and 0.86 μg/g in ground beef. Further, zirconium is commonly used in commercial products (e.g. deodorant sticks, aerosol antiperspirants) and also in water purification (e.g. control of phosphorus pollution, bacteria- and pyrogen-contaminated water). Short-term exposure to zirconium powder can cause irritation, but only contact with the eyes requires medical attention. Persistent exposure to zirconium tetrachloride results in increased mortality in rats and guinea pigs and a decrease of blood hemoglobin and red blood cells in dogs. However, in a study of 20 rats given a standard diet containing ~4% zirconium oxide, there were no adverse effects on growth rate, blood and urine parameters, or mortality. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) legal limit (permissible exposure limit) for zirconium exposure is 5 mg/m3 over an 8-hour workday. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommended exposure limit (REL) is 5 mg/m3 over an 8-hour workday and a short term limit of 10 mg/m3. At levels of 25 mg/m3, zirconium is immediately dangerous to life and health. However, zirconium is not considered an industrial health hazard. Furthermore, reports of zirconium-related adverse reactions are rare and, in general, rigorous cause-and-effect relationships have not been established. No evidence has been validated that zirconium is carcinogenic or genotoxic. Among the numerous radioactive isotopes of zirconium, 93Zr is among the most common. It is released as a product of nuclear fission of 235U and 239Pu, mainly in nuclear power plants and during nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s and 1960s. It has a very long half-life (1.53 million years), its decay emits only low energy radiations, and it is not considered particularly hazardous. See also Zirconium alloys Zirconia light Notes References External links Chemistry in its element podcast (MP3) from the Royal Society of Chemistry's Chemistry World: Zirconium Zirconium at The Periodic Table of Videos (University of Nottingham)

Martin_Heinrich_Klaproth

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Heinrich_Klaproth

Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1 December 1743 – 1 January 1817) was a German chemist. He trained and worked for much of his life as an apothecary, moving in later life to the university. His shop became the second-largest apothecary in Berlin, and the most productive artisanal chemical research center in Europe. Klaproth was a major systematizer of analytical chemistry, and an independent inventor of gravimetric analysis. His attention to detail and refusal to ignore discrepancies in results led to improvements in the use of apparatus. He was a major figure in understanding the composition of minerals and characterizing the elements. Klaproth discovered uranium (1789) and zirconium (1789). He was also involved in the discovery or co-discovery of titanium (1795), strontium (1793), cerium (1803), and chromium (1797) and confirmed the previous discoveries of tellurium (1798) and beryllium (1798). Klaproth was a member and director of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He was recognized internationally as a member of the Royal Society in London, the Institut de France, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Career Klaproth was born in Wernigerode. He was the son of a tailor, and attended the Latin school at Wernigerode for four years. For much of his life he followed the profession of apothecary. In 1759, when he was 16 years old, he apprenticed at Quedlinburg. In 1764, he became a journeyman. He trained in pharmacies at Quedlinburg (1759–1766); Hanover (1766–1768, with August Hermann Brande); Berlin (1768); and Danzig (1770). In 1771, Klaproth returned to Berlin to work for Valentin Rose the Elder as manager of his business. Following Rose's death, Klaproth passed the required examinations to become senior manager. Following his marriage in 1780, he was able to buy his own establishment, the Apotheke zum Baren. Between 1782 and 1800, Klaproth published 84 papers based on researches carried out in the Apotheke's laboratory. His shop was the most productive site of artisanal chemistry investigations in Europe at that time. Beginning in 1782, he was the assessor of pharmacy for the examining board of the Ober-Collegium Medicum. In 1787 Klaproth was appointed lecturer in chemistry to the Prussian Royal Artillery. In 1788, Klaproth became an unsalaried member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. In 1800, he became the salaried director of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. He sold the apothecary and moved to the academy, where he convinced the university to build a new laboratory. Upon completion in 1802, Klaproth moved the equipment from his apothecary laboratory into the new building. When the University of Berlin was founded in 1810 he was selected to be the professor of chemistry. He died in Berlin on New Year's Day in 1817. Contributions An exact and conscientious worker, Klaproth did much to improve and systematise the processes of analytical chemistry and mineralogy. His appreciation of the value of quantitative methods led him to become one of the earliest adherents of the Lavoisierian doctrines outside France. Klaproth was the first to discover uranium, identifying it first in torbernite but doing the majority of his research on it with the mineral pitchblende. On 24 September 1789 he announced his discovery to the Royal Prussian Academy of sciences in Berlin. He also discovered zirconium in 1789, separating it in the form of its “earth” zirconia, oxide ZrO2. Klaproth analyzed a brightly-colored form of the mineral called "hyacinth" from Ceylon. He gave the new element the name zirconium based on its Persian name "zargun", gold-colored.: 515  Klaproth characterised uranium and zirconium as distinct elements, though he was unable to isolate them. Klaproth independently discovered cerium (1803), a rare earth element, around the same time as Jöns Jacob Berzelius and Wilhelm Hisinger, in the winter of 1803. William Gregor of Cornwall was the first to identify the element titanium in 1791, correctly concluding that he had found a new element in the ore ilmenite from the Menachan valley. He proposed the name "menachanite", but his discovery attracted little attention.: 497  Klaproth verified the presence of an oxide of an unknown element in the ore rutile from Hungary in 1795. Klaproth suggested the name "titanium". It was later determined that menachanite and titanium were the same element, from two different minerals, and Klaproth's name was adopted. Klaproth clarified the composition of numerous substances until then imperfectly known, including compounds of then newly recognised elements tellurium, strontium and chromium. Chromium was discovered in 1797 by Louis Nicolas Vauquelin and independently discovered in 1798 by Klaproth and by Tobias Lowitz, in a mineral from the Ural mountains.: 578–580  Klaproth confirmed chromium's independent status as an element. The existence of tellurium was first suggested in 1783 by Franz-Joseph Mueller von Reichenstein, an Austrian mining engineer who was examining Transylvanian gold samples. Tellurium was also discovered independently by Hungarian Pál Kitaibel in 1789. Mueller sent some of his mineral to Klaproth in 1796. Klaproth isolated the new substance and confirmed the identification of the new element tellurium in 1798. He credited Mueller as its discoverer, and suggested that the heavy metal be named "tellus", Latin for 'earth'.: 1067 : 12–16  In 1790 Adair Crawford and William Cruickshank determined that the mineral strontianite, found near Strontian in Scotland, was different from barium-based minerals. Klaproth was one of several scientists involved in the characterization of strontium compounds and minerals. Klaproth, Thomas Charles Hope, and Richard Kirwan independently studied and reported on the properties of strontianite, the preparation of compounds of strontium, and their differentiation from those of barium. In September 1793, Klaproth published on the separation of strontium from barium, and in 1794 on the preparation of strontium oxide and strontium hydroxide. In 1808, Humphry Davy became the first to successfully isolate the pure element. Louis Nicolas Vauquelin reported the existence of a new element common to emerald and beryl in 1798, and suggested that it be named "glucine". Klaproth confirmed the presence of a new element, and became involved in a lengthy and ongoing debate over its name by suggesting "beryllia". The element was first isolated in 1828, independently by Friedrich Wöhler and Antoine Bussy. Only in 1949 did IUPAC rule exclusively in favor of the name beryllium.: 348–352  Klaproth published extensively, collecting over 200 papers by himself in Beiträge zur chemischen Kenntnis der Mineralkörper (5 vols., 1795–1810) and Chemische Abhandlungen gemischten Inhalts (1815). He also published a Chemisches Wörterbuch (1807–1810), and edited a revised edition of F. A. C. Gren's Handbuch der Chemie (1806). Klaproth became a foreign member of the Royal Society of London in 1795, and a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1804. He also belonged to the Institut de France. The crater Klaproth on the Moon is named after him. In 1823, botanist Carl Sigismund Kunth published a genus of flowering plants (belonging to the family Loasaceae), from Central America as Klaprothia in his honour. His son Julius was a famous orientalist. Works Beiträge Zur Chemischen Kenntniss Der Mineralkörper . Vol. 1–5 . Rottmann, Berlin 1795–1810 Digital edition by the University and State Library Düsseldorf Chemisches Wörterbuch . Vol. 1–9 . Voss, Berlin 1807–1819 Digital edition by the University and State Library Düsseldorf Chemische Abhandlungen gemischten Inhalts . Nicolai, Berlin [u. a.] 1815 Digital edition by the University and State Library Düsseldorf Bibliography Publication list of Klaproth Additional resources Hoppe, G; Damaschun F; Wappler G (April 1987). "[An appreciation of Martin Heinrich Klaproth as a mineral chemist]". Pharmazie. 42 (4): 266–7. PMID 3303064. Sepke, H; Sepke I (August 1986). "[The history of physiologic chemistry in the first years of its existence at the Berlin University. Contributions of the chemist M. H. Klaproth and others]". Zeitschrift für die gesamte Hygiene und ihre Grenzgebiete. 32 (8): 504–6. PMID 3535265. Rocchietta, S (February 1967). "[The pharmacist Martin Klaproth (1743–1817), pioneer of modern analytical chemistry, discoverer of uranium. On the 150th anniversary of his death]". Minerva Med. (in Italian). 58 (13): 229. PMID 5336711. Dann, G E (July 1958). "[Scheele & Klaproth; a comparison.]". Svensk Farmaceutisk Tidskrift. 62 (19–20): 433–7. PMID 13580811. Dann, G E (September 1953). "[Contribution of Martin Heinrich Klaproth to the development of chemistry.]". Pharmazie. 8 (9): 771–9. PMID 13120350. See also Philip Ralshleigh John Hawkins William Gregor References == External links ==

Uranium

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium

Uranium is a chemical element; it has symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium radioactively decays, usually by emitting an alpha particle. The half-life of this decay varies between 159,200 and 4.5 billion years for different isotopes, making them useful for dating the age of the Earth. The most common isotopes in natural uranium are uranium-238 (which has 146 neutrons and accounts for over 99% of uranium on Earth) and uranium-235 (which has 143 neutrons). Uranium has the highest atomic weight of the primordially occurring elements. Its density is about 70% higher than that of lead and slightly lower than that of gold or tungsten. It occurs naturally in low concentrations of a few parts per million in soil, rock and water, and is commercially extracted from uranium-bearing minerals such as uraninite. Many contemporary uses of uranium exploit its unique nuclear properties. Uranium-235 is the only naturally occurring fissile isotope, which makes it widely used in nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons. However, because of the low abundance of uranium-235 in natural uranium (which is, overwhelmingly, mostly uranium-238), uranium needs to undergo enrichment so that enough uranium-235 is present. Uranium-238 is fissionable by fast neutrons and is fertile, meaning it can be transmuted to fissile plutonium-239 in a nuclear reactor. Another fissile isotope, uranium-233, can be produced from natural thorium and is studied for future industrial use in nuclear technology. Uranium-238 has a small probability for spontaneous fission or even induced fission with fast neutrons; uranium-235, and to a lesser degree uranium-233, have a much higher fission cross-section for slow neutrons. In sufficient concentration, these isotopes maintain a sustained nuclear chain reaction. This generates the heat in nuclear power reactors and produces the fissile material for nuclear weapons. The primary civilian use for uranium harnesses the heat energy to produce electricity. Depleted uranium (238U) is used in kinetic energy penetrators and armor plating. The 1789 discovery of uranium in the mineral pitchblende is credited to Martin Heinrich Klaproth, who named the new element after the recently discovered planet Uranus. Eugène-Melchior Péligot was the first person to isolate the metal, and its radioactive properties were discovered in 1896 by Henri Becquerel. Research by Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner, Enrico Fermi and others, such as J. Robert Oppenheimer starting in 1934 led to its use as a fuel in the nuclear power industry and in Little Boy, the first nuclear weapon used in war. An ensuing arms race during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union produced tens of thousands of nuclear weapons that used uranium metal and uranium-derived plutonium-239. Dismantling of these weapons and related nuclear facilities is carried out within various nuclear disarmament programs and costs billions of dollars. Weapon-grade uranium obtained from nuclear weapons is diluted with uranium-238 and reused as fuel for nuclear reactors. Spent nuclear fuel forms radioactive waste, which mostly consists of uranium-238 and poses a significant health threat and environmental impact. Characteristics Uranium is a silvery white, weakly radioactive metal. It has a Mohs hardness of 6, sufficient to scratch glass and roughly equal to that of titanium, rhodium, manganese and niobium. It is malleable, ductile, slightly paramagnetic, strongly electropositive and a poor electrical conductor. Uranium metal has a very high density of 19.1 g/cm3, denser than lead (11.3 g/cm3), but slightly less dense than tungsten and gold (19.3 g/cm3). Uranium metal reacts with almost all non-metallic elements (except noble gases) and their compounds, with reactivity increasing with temperature. Hydrochloric and nitric acids dissolve uranium, but non-oxidizing acids other than hydrochloric acid attack the element very slowly. When finely divided, it can react with cold water; in air, uranium metal becomes coated with a dark layer of uranium oxide. Uranium in ores is extracted chemically and converted into uranium dioxide or other chemical forms usable in industry. Uranium-235 was the first isotope that was found to be fissile. Other naturally occurring isotopes are fissionable, but not fissile. On bombardment with slow neutrons, uranium-235 most of the time splits into two smaller nuclei, releasing nuclear binding energy and more neutrons. If too many of these neutrons are absorbed by other uranium-235 nuclei, a nuclear chain reaction occurs that results in a burst of heat or (in some circumstances) an explosion. In a nuclear reactor, such a chain reaction is slowed and controlled by a neutron poison, absorbing some of the free neutrons. Such neutron absorbent materials are often part of reactor control rods (see nuclear reactor physics for a description of this process of reactor control). As little as 15 lb (6.8 kg) of uranium-235 can be used to make an atomic bomb. The nuclear weapon detonated over Hiroshima, called Little Boy, relied on uranium fission. However, the first nuclear bomb (the Gadget used at Trinity) and the bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki (Fat Man) were both plutonium bombs. Uranium metal has three allotropic forms: α (orthorhombic) stable up to 668 °C (1,234 °F). Orthorhombic, space group No. 63, Cmcm, lattice parameters a = 285.4 pm, b = 587 pm, c = 495.5 pm. β (tetragonal) stable from 668 to 775 °C (1,234 to 1,427 °F). Tetragonal, space group P42/mnm, P42nm, or P4n2, lattice parameters a = 565.6 pm, b = c = 1075.9 pm. γ (body-centered cubic) from 775 °C (1,427 °F) to melting point—this is the most malleable and ductile state. Body-centered cubic, lattice parameter a = 352.4 pm. Applications Military The major application of uranium in the military sector is in high-density penetrators. This ammunition consists of depleted uranium (DU) alloyed with 1–2% other elements, such as titanium or molybdenum. At high impact speed, the density, hardness, and pyrophoricity of the projectile enable the destruction of heavily armored targets. Tank armor and other removable vehicle armor can also be hardened with depleted uranium plates. The use of depleted uranium became politically and environmentally contentious after the use of such munitions by the US, UK and other countries during wars in the Persian Gulf and the Balkans raised questions concerning uranium compounds left in the soil (see Gulf War syndrome). Depleted uranium is also used as a shielding material in some containers used to store and transport radioactive materials. While the metal itself is radioactive, its high density makes it more effective than lead in halting radiation from strong sources such as radium. Other uses of depleted uranium include counterweights for aircraft control surfaces, as ballast for missile re-entry vehicles and as a shielding material. Due to its high density, this material is found in inertial guidance systems and in gyroscopic compasses. Depleted uranium is preferred over similarly dense metals due to its ability to be easily machined and cast as well as its relatively low cost. The main risk of exposure to depleted uranium is chemical poisoning by uranium oxide rather than radioactivity (uranium being only a weak alpha emitter). During the later stages of World War II, the entire Cold War, and to a lesser extent afterwards, uranium-235 has been used as the fissile explosive material to produce nuclear weapons. Initially, two major types of fission bombs were built: a relatively simple device that uses uranium-235 and a more complicated mechanism that uses plutonium-239 derived from uranium-238. Later, a much more complicated and far more powerful type of fission/fusion bomb (thermonuclear weapon) was built, that uses a plutonium-based device to cause a mixture of tritium and deuterium to undergo nuclear fusion. Such bombs are jacketed in a non-fissile (unenriched) uranium case, and they derive more than half their power from the fission of this material by fast neutrons from the nuclear fusion process. Civilian The main use of uranium in the civilian sector is to fuel nuclear power plants. One kilogram of uranium-235 can theoretically produce about 20 terajoules of energy (2×1013 joules), assuming complete fission; as much energy as 1.5 million kilograms (1,500 tonnes) of coal. Commercial nuclear power plants use fuel that is typically enriched to around 3% uranium-235. The CANDU and Magnox designs are the only commercial reactors capable of using unenriched uranium fuel. Fuel used for United States Navy reactors is typically highly enriched in uranium-235 (the exact values are classified). In a breeder reactor, uranium-238 can also be converted into plutonium-239 through the following reaction: 23892U + n → 23992U + γ β−→ 23993Np β−→ 23994Pu Before (and, occasionally, after) the discovery of radioactivity, uranium was primarily used in small amounts for yellow glass and pottery glazes, such as uranium glass and in Fiestaware. The discovery and isolation of radium in uranium ore (pitchblende) by Marie Curie sparked the development of uranium mining to extract the radium, which was used to make glow-in-the-dark paints for clock and aircraft dials. This left a prodigious quantity of uranium as a waste product, since it takes three tonnes of uranium to extract one gram of radium. This waste product was diverted to the glazing industry, making uranium glazes very inexpensive and abundant. Besides the pottery glazes, uranium tile glazes accounted for the bulk of the use, including common bathroom and kitchen tiles which can be produced in green, yellow, mauve, black, blue, red and other colors. Uranium was also used in photographic chemicals (especially uranium nitrate as a toner), in lamp filaments for stage lighting bulbs, to improve the appearance of dentures, and in the leather and wood industries for stains and dyes. Uranium salts are mordants of silk or wool. Uranyl acetate and uranyl formate are used as electron-dense "stains" in transmission electron microscopy, to increase the contrast of biological specimens in ultrathin sections and in negative staining of viruses, isolated cell organelles and macromolecules. The discovery of the radioactivity of uranium ushered in additional scientific and practical uses of the element. The long half-life of uranium-238 (4.47×109 years) makes it well-suited for use in estimating the age of the earliest igneous rocks and for other types of radiometric dating, including uranium–thorium dating, uranium–lead dating and uranium–uranium dating. Uranium metal is used for X-ray targets in the making of high-energy X-rays. History Pre-discovery use The use of pitchblende, uranium in its natural oxide form, dates back to at least the year 79 AD, when it was used in the Roman Empire to add a yellow color to ceramic glazes. Yellow glass with 1% uranium oxide was found in a Roman villa on Cape Posillipo in the Bay of Naples, Italy, by R. T. Gunther of the University of Oxford in 1912. Starting in the late Middle Ages, pitchblende was extracted from the Habsburg silver mines in Joachimsthal, Bohemia (now Jáchymov in the Czech Republic) in the Ore Mountains, and was used as a coloring agent in the local glassmaking industry. In the early 19th century, the world's only known sources of uranium ore were these mines. Discovery The discovery of the element is credited to the German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth. While he was working in his experimental laboratory in Berlin in 1789, Klaproth was able to precipitate a yellow compound (likely sodium diuranate) by dissolving pitchblende in nitric acid and neutralizing the solution with sodium hydroxide. Klaproth assumed the yellow substance was the oxide of a yet-undiscovered element and heated it with charcoal to obtain a black powder, which he thought was the newly discovered metal itself (in fact, that powder was an oxide of uranium). He named the newly discovered element after the planet Uranus (named after the primordial Greek god of the sky), which had been discovered eight years earlier by William Herschel. In 1841, Eugène-Melchior Péligot, Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (Central School of Arts and Manufactures) in Paris, isolated the first sample of uranium metal by heating uranium tetrachloride with potassium. Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity by using uranium in 1896. Becquerel made the discovery in Paris by leaving a sample of a uranium salt, K2UO2(SO4)2 (potassium uranyl sulfate), on top of an unexposed photographic plate in a drawer and noting that the plate had become "fogged". He determined that a form of invisible light or rays emitted by uranium had exposed the plate. During World War I when the Central Powers suffered a shortage of molybdenum to make artillery gun barrels and high speed tool steels, they routinely used ferrouranium alloy as a substitute, as it presents many of the same physical characteristics as molybdenum. When this practice became known in 1916 the US government requested several prominent universities to research the use of uranium in manufacturing and metalwork. Tools made with these formulas remained in use for several decades, until the Manhattan Project and the Cold War placed a large demand on uranium for fission research and weapon development. Fission research A team led by Enrico Fermi in 1934 found that bombarding uranium with neutrons produces beta rays (electrons or positrons from the elements produced; see beta particle). The fission products were at first mistaken for new elements with atomic numbers 93 and 94, which the Dean of the Sapienza University of Rome, Orso Mario Corbino, named ausenium and hesperium, respectively. The experiments leading to the discovery of uranium's ability to fission (break apart) into lighter elements and release binding energy were conducted by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in Hahn's laboratory in Berlin. Lise Meitner and her nephew, physicist Otto Robert Frisch, published the physical explanation in February 1939 and named the process "nuclear fission". Soon after, Fermi hypothesized that fission of uranium might release enough neutrons to sustain a fission reaction. Confirmation of this hypothesis came in 1939, and later work found that on average about 2.5 neutrons are released by each fission of uranium-235. Fermi urged Alfred O. C. Nier to separate uranium isotopes for determination of the fissile component, and on 29 February 1940, Nier used an instrument he built at the University of Minnesota to separate the world's first uranium-235 sample in the Tate Laboratory. Using Columbia University's cyclotron, John Dunning confirmed the sample to be the isolated fissile material on 1 March. Further work found that the far more common uranium-238 isotope can be transmuted into plutonium, which, like uranium-235, is also fissile by thermal neutrons. These discoveries led numerous countries to begin working on the development of nuclear weapons and nuclear power. Despite fission having been discovered in Germany, the Uranverein ("uranium club") Germany's wartime project to research nuclear power and/or weapons was hampered by limited resources, infighting, the exile or non-involvement of several prominent scientists in the field and several crucial mistakes such as failing to account for impurities in available graphite samples which made it appear less suitable as a neutron moderator than it is in reality. Germany's attempts to build a natural uranium / heavy water reactor had not come close to reaching criticality by the time the Americans reached Haigerloch, the site of the last German wartime reactor experiment. On 2 December 1942, as part of the Manhattan Project, another team led by Enrico Fermi was able to initiate the first artificial self-sustained nuclear chain reaction, Chicago Pile-1. An initial plan using enriched uranium-235 was abandoned as it was as yet unavailable in sufficient quantities. Working in a lab below the stands of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, the team created the conditions needed for such a reaction by piling together 360 tonnes of graphite, 53 tonnes of uranium oxide, and 5.5 tonnes of uranium metal, most of which was supplied by Westinghouse Lamp Plant in a makeshift production process. Nuclear weaponry Two types of atomic bomb were developed by the United States during World War II: a uranium-based device (codenamed "Little Boy") whose fissile material was highly enriched uranium, and a plutonium-based device (see Trinity test and "Fat Man") whose plutonium was derived from uranium-238. Little Boy became the first nuclear weapon used in war when it was detonated over Hiroshima, Japan, on 6 August 1945. Exploding with a yield equivalent to 12,500 tonnes of TNT, the blast and thermal wave of the bomb destroyed nearly 50,000 buildings and killed about 75,000 people (see Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki). Initially it was believed that uranium was relatively rare, and that nuclear proliferation could be avoided by simply buying up all known uranium stocks, but within a decade large deposits of it were discovered in many places around the world. Reactors The X-10 Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, formerly known as the Clinton Pile and X-10 Pile, was the world's second artificial nuclear reactor (after Enrico Fermi's Chicago Pile) and was the first reactor designed and built for continuous operation. Argonne National Laboratory's Experimental Breeder Reactor I, located at the Atomic Energy Commission's National Reactor Testing Station near Arco, Idaho, became the first nuclear reactor to create electricity on 20 December 1951. Initially, four 150-watt light bulbs were lit by the reactor, but improvements eventually enabled it to power the whole facility (later, the town of Arco became the first in the world to have all its electricity come from nuclear power generated by BORAX-III, another reactor designed and operated by Argonne National Laboratory). The world's first commercial scale nuclear power station, Obninsk in the Soviet Union, began generation with its reactor AM-1 on 27 June 1954. Other early nuclear power plants were Calder Hall in England, which began generation on 17 October 1956, and the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania, which began on 26 May 1958. Nuclear power was used for the first time for propulsion by a submarine, the USS Nautilus, in 1954. Prehistoric naturally occurring fission In 1972, French physicist Francis Perrin discovered fifteen ancient and no longer active natural nuclear fission reactors in three separate ore deposits at the Oklo mine in Gabon, Africa, collectively known as the Oklo Fossil Reactors. The ore deposit is 1.7 billion years old; then, uranium-235 constituted about 3% of uranium on Earth. This is high enough to permit a sustained chain reaction, if other supporting conditions exist. The capacity of the surrounding sediment to contain the health-threatening nuclear waste products has been cited by the U.S. federal government as supporting evidence for the feasibility to store spent nuclear fuel at the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Contamination and the Cold War legacy Above-ground nuclear tests by the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1950s and early 1960s and by France into the 1970s and 1980s spread a significant amount of fallout from uranium daughter isotopes around the world. Additional fallout and pollution occurred from several nuclear accidents. Uranium miners have a higher incidence of cancer. An excess risk of lung cancer among Navajo uranium miners, for example, has been documented and linked to their occupation. The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, a 1990 law in the US, required $100,000 in "compassion payments" to uranium miners diagnosed with cancer or other respiratory ailments. During the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, huge stockpiles of uranium were amassed and tens of thousands of nuclear weapons were created using enriched uranium and plutonium made from uranium. After the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, an estimated 600 short tons (540 metric tons) of highly enriched weapons grade uranium (enough to make 40,000 nuclear warheads) had been stored in often inadequately guarded facilities in the Russian Federation and several other former Soviet states. Police in Asia, Europe, and South America on at least 16 occasions from 1993 to 2005 have intercepted shipments of smuggled bomb-grade uranium or plutonium, most of which was from ex-Soviet sources. From 1993 to 2005 the Material Protection, Control, and Accounting Program, operated by the federal government of the United States, spent about US$550 million to help safeguard uranium and plutonium stockpiles in Russia. This money was used for improvements and security enhancements at research and storage facilities. Safety of nuclear facilities in Russia has been significantly improved since the stabilization of political and economical turmoil of the early 1990s. For example, in 1993 there were 29 incidents ranking above level 1 on the International Nuclear Event Scale, and this number dropped under four per year in 1995–2003. The number of employees receiving annual radiation doses above 20 mSv, which is equivalent to a single full-body CT scan, saw a strong decline around 2000. In November 2015, the Russian government approved a federal program for nuclear and radiation safety for 2016 to 2030 with a budget of 562 billion rubles (ca. 8 billion USD). Its key issue is "the deferred liabilities accumulated during the 70 years of the nuclear industry, particularly during the time of the Soviet Union". About 73% of the budget will be spent on decommissioning aged and obsolete nuclear reactors and nuclear facilities, especially those involved in state defense programs; 20% will go in processing and disposal of nuclear fuel and radioactive waste, and 5% into monitoring and ensuring of nuclear and radiation safety. Occurrence Uranium is a naturally occurring element found in low levels in all rock, soil, and water. It is the highest-numbered element found naturally in significant quantities on Earth and is almost always found combined with other elements. Uranium is the 48th most abundant element in the Earth’s crust. The decay of uranium, thorium, and potassium-40 in Earth's mantle is thought to be the main source of heat that keeps the Earth's outer core in the liquid state and drives mantle convection, which in turn drives plate tectonics. Uranium's concentration in the Earth's crust is (depending on the reference) 2 to 4 parts per million, or about 40 times as abundant as silver. The Earth's crust from the surface to 25 km (15 mi) down is calculated to contain 1017 kg (2×1017 lb) of uranium while the oceans may contain 1013 kg (2×1013 lb). The concentration of uranium in soil ranges from 0.7 to 11 parts per million (up to 15 parts per million in farmland soil due to use of phosphate fertilizers), and its concentration in sea water is 3 parts per billion. Uranium is more plentiful than antimony, tin, cadmium, mercury, or silver, and it is about as abundant as arsenic or molybdenum. Uranium is found in hundreds of minerals, including uraninite (the most common uranium ore), carnotite, autunite, uranophane, torbernite, and coffinite. Significant concentrations of uranium occur in some substances such as phosphate rock deposits, and minerals such as lignite, and monazite sands in uranium-rich ores (it is recovered commercially from sources with as little as 0.1% uranium). Origin Like all elements with atomic weights higher than that of iron, uranium is only naturally formed by the r-process (rapid neutron capture) in supernovae and neutron star mergers. Primordial thorium and uranium are only produced in the r-process, because the s-process (slow neutron capture) is too slow and cannot pass the gap of instability after bismuth. Besides the two extant primordial uranium isotopes, 235U and 238U, the r-process also produced significant quantities of 236U, which has a shorter half-life and so is an extinct radionuclide, having long since decayed completely to 232Th. Further uranium-236 was produced by the decay of 244Pu, accounting for the observed higher-than-expected abundance of thorium and lower-than-expected abundance of uranium. While the natural abundance of uranium has been supplemented by the decay of extinct 242Pu (half-life 375,000 years) and 247Cm (half-life 16 million years), producing 238U and 235U respectively, this occurred to an almost negligible extent due to the shorter half-lives of these parents and their lower production than 236U and 244Pu, the parents of thorium: the 247Cm/235U ratio at the formation of the Solar System was (7.0±1.6)×10−5. Biotic and abiotic Some bacteria, such as Shewanella putrefaciens, Geobacter metallireducens and some strains of Burkholderia fungorum, use uranium for their growth and convert U(VI) to U(IV). Recent research suggests that this pathway includes reduction of the soluble U(VI) via an intermediate U(V) pentavalent state. Other organisms, such as the lichen Trapelia involuta or microorganisms such as the bacterium Citrobacter, can absorb concentrations of uranium that are up to 300 times the level of their environment. Citrobacter species absorb uranyl ions when given glycerol phosphate (or other similar organic phosphates). After one day, one gram of bacteria can encrust themselves with nine grams of uranyl phosphate crystals; this creates the possibility that these organisms could be used in bioremediation to decontaminate uranium-polluted water. The proteobacterium Geobacter has also been shown to bioremediate uranium in ground water. The mycorrhizal fungus Glomus intraradices increases uranium content in the roots of its symbiotic plant. In nature, uranium(VI) forms highly soluble carbonate complexes at alkaline pH. This leads to an increase in mobility and availability of uranium to groundwater and soil from nuclear wastes which leads to health hazards. However, it is difficult to precipitate uranium as phosphate in the presence of excess carbonate at alkaline pH. A Sphingomonas sp. strain BSAR-1 has been found to express a high activity alkaline phosphatase (PhoK) that has been applied for bioprecipitation of uranium as uranyl phosphate species from alkaline solutions. The precipitation ability was enhanced by overexpressing PhoK protein in E. coli. Plants absorb some uranium from soil. Dry weight concentrations of uranium in plants range from 5 to 60 parts per billion, and ash from burnt wood can have concentrations up to 4 parts per million. Dry weight concentrations of uranium in food plants are typically lower with one to two micrograms per day ingested through the food people eat. Production and mining Worldwide production of uranium in 2021 was 48,332 tonnes, of which 21,819 t (45%) was mined in Kazakhstan. Other important uranium mining countries are Namibia (5,753 t), Canada (4,693 t), Australia (4,192 t), Uzbekistan (3,500 t), and Russia (2,635 t). Uranium ore is mined in several ways: open pit, underground, in-situ leaching, and borehole mining. Low-grade uranium ore mined typically contains 0.01 to 0.25% uranium oxides. Extensive measures must be employed to extract the metal from its ore. High-grade ores found in Athabasca Basin deposits in Saskatchewan, Canada can contain up to 23% uranium oxides on average. Uranium ore is crushed and rendered into a fine powder and then leached with either an acid or alkali. The leachate is subjected to one of several sequences of precipitation, solvent extraction, and ion exchange. The resulting mixture, called yellowcake, contains at least 75% uranium oxides U3O8. Yellowcake is then calcined to remove impurities from the milling process before refining and conversion. Commercial-grade uranium can be produced through the reduction of uranium halides with alkali or alkaline earth metals. Uranium metal can also be prepared through electrolysis of KUF5 or UF4, dissolved in molten calcium chloride (CaCl2) and sodium chloride (NaCl) solution. Very pure uranium is produced through the thermal decomposition of uranium halides on a hot filament. Resources and reserves It is estimated that 6.1 million tonnes of uranium exists in ores that are economically viable at US$130 per kg of uranium, while 35 million tonnes are classed as mineral resources (reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction). Australia has 28% of the world's known uranium ore reserves and the world's largest single uranium deposit is located at the Olympic Dam Mine in South Australia. There is a significant reserve of uranium in Bakouma, a sub-prefecture in the prefecture of Mbomou in the Central African Republic. Some uranium also originates from dismantled nuclear weapons. For example, in 1993–2013 Russia supplied the United States with 15,000 tonnes of low-enriched uranium within the Megatons to Megawatts Program. An additional 4.6 billion tonnes of uranium are estimated to be dissolved in sea water (Japanese scientists in the 1980s showed that extraction of uranium from sea water using ion exchangers was technically feasible). There have been experiments to extract uranium from sea water, but the yield has been low due to the carbonate present in the water. In 2012, ORNL researchers announced the successful development of a new absorbent material dubbed HiCap which performs surface retention of solid or gas molecules, atoms or ions and also effectively removes toxic metals from water, according to results verified by researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Supplies In 2005, ten countries accounted for the majority of the world's concentrated uranium oxides: Canada (27.9%), Australia (22.8%), Kazakhstan (10.5%), Russia (8.0%), Namibia (7.5%), Niger (7.4%), Uzbekistan (5.5%), the United States (2.5%), Argentina (2.1%) and Ukraine (1.9%). In 2008, Kazakhstan was forecast to increase production and become the world's largest supplier of uranium by 2009; Kazakhstan has dominated the world's uranium market since 2010. In 2021, its share was 45.1%, followed by Namibia (11.9%), Canada (9.7%), Australia (8.7%), Uzbekistan (7.2%), Niger (4.7%), Russia (5.5%), China (3.9%), India (1.3%), Ukraine (0.9%), and South Africa (0.8%), with a world total production of 48,332 tonnes. Most uranium was produced not by conventional underground mining of ores (29% of production), but by in situ leaching (66%). In the late 1960s, UN geologists discovered major uranium deposits and other rare mineral reserves in Somalia. The find was the largest of its kind, with industry experts estimating the deposits at over 25% of the world's then known uranium reserves of 800,000 tons. The ultimate available supply is believed to be sufficient for at least the next 85 years, though some studies indicate underinvestment in the late twentieth century may produce supply problems in the 21st century. Uranium deposits seem to be log-normal distributed. There is a 300-fold increase in the amount of uranium recoverable for each tenfold decrease in ore grade. In other words, there is little high grade ore and proportionately much more low grade ore available. Compounds Oxidation states and oxides Oxides Calcined uranium yellowcake, as produced in many large mills, contains a distribution of uranium oxidation species in various forms ranging from most oxidized to least oxidized. Particles with short residence times in a calciner will generally be less oxidized than those with long retention times or particles recovered in the stack scrubber. Uranium content is usually referenced to U3O8, which dates to the days of the Manhattan Project when U3O8 was used as an analytical chemistry reporting standard. Phase relationships in the uranium-oxygen system are complex. The most important oxidation states of uranium are uranium(IV) and uranium(VI), and their two corresponding oxides are, respectively, uranium dioxide (UO2) and uranium trioxide (UO3). Other uranium oxides such as uranium monoxide (UO), diuranium pentoxide (U2O5), and uranium peroxide (UO4·2H2O) also exist. The most common forms of uranium oxide are triuranium octoxide (U3O8) and UO2. Both oxide forms are solids that have low solubility in water and are relatively stable over a wide range of environmental conditions. Triuranium octoxide is (depending on conditions) the most stable compound of uranium and is the form most commonly found in nature. Uranium dioxide is the form in which uranium is most commonly used as a nuclear reactor fuel. At ambient temperatures, UO2 will gradually convert to U3O8. Because of their stability, uranium oxides are generally considered the preferred chemical form for storage or disposal. Aqueous chemistry Salts of many oxidation states of uranium are water-soluble and may be studied in aqueous solutions. The most common ionic forms are U3+ (brown-red), U4+ (green), UO+2 (unstable), and UO2+2 (yellow), for U(III), U(IV), U(V), and U(VI), respectively. A few solid and semi-metallic compounds such as UO and US exist for the formal oxidation state uranium(II), but no simple ions are known to exist in solution for that state. Ions of U3+ liberate hydrogen from water and are therefore considered to be highly unstable. The UO2+2 ion represents the uranium(VI) state and is known to form compounds such as uranyl carbonate, uranyl chloride and uranyl sulfate. UO2+2 also forms complexes with various organic chelating agents, the most commonly encountered of which is uranyl acetate. Unlike the uranyl salts of uranium and polyatomic ion uranium-oxide cationic forms, the uranates, salts containing a polyatomic uranium-oxide anion, are generally not water-soluble. Carbonates The interactions of carbonate anions with uranium(VI) cause the Pourbaix diagram to change greatly when the medium is changed from water to a carbonate containing solution. While the vast majority of carbonates are insoluble in water (students are often taught that all carbonates other than those of alkali metals are insoluble in water), uranium carbonates are often soluble in water. This is because a U(VI) cation is able to bind two terminal oxides and three or more carbonates to form anionic complexes. Effects of pH The uranium fraction diagrams in the presence of carbonate illustrate this further: when the pH of a uranium(VI) solution increases, the uranium is converted to a hydrated uranium oxide hydroxide and at high pHs it becomes an anionic hydroxide complex. When carbonate is added, uranium is converted to a series of carbonate complexes if the pH is increased. One effect of these reactions is increased solubility of uranium in the pH range 6 to 8, a fact that has a direct bearing on the long term stability of spent uranium dioxide nuclear fuels. Hydrides, carbides and nitrides Uranium metal heated to 250 to 300 °C (482 to 572 °F) reacts with hydrogen to form uranium hydride. Even higher temperatures will reversibly remove the hydrogen. This property makes uranium hydrides convenient starting materials to create reactive uranium powder along with various uranium carbide, nitride, and halide compounds. Two crystal modifications of uranium hydride exist: an α form that is obtained at low temperatures and a β form that is created when the formation temperature is above 250 °C. Uranium carbides and uranium nitrides are both relatively inert semimetallic compounds that are minimally soluble in acids, react with water, and can ignite in air to form U3O8. Carbides of uranium include uranium monocarbide (UC), uranium dicarbide (UC2), and diuranium tricarbide (U2C3). Both UC and UC2 are formed by adding carbon to molten uranium or by exposing the metal to carbon monoxide at high temperatures. Stable below 1800 °C, U2C3 is prepared by subjecting a heated mixture of UC and UC2 to mechanical stress. Uranium nitrides obtained by direct exposure of the metal to nitrogen include uranium mononitride (UN), uranium dinitride (UN2), and diuranium trinitride (U2N3). Halides All uranium fluorides are created using uranium tetrafluoride (UF4); UF4 itself is prepared by hydrofluorination of uranium dioxide. Reduction of UF4 with hydrogen at 1000 °C produces uranium trifluoride (UF3). Under the right conditions of temperature and pressure, the reaction of solid UF4 with gaseous uranium hexafluoride (UF6) can form the intermediate fluorides of U2F9, U4F17, and UF5. At room temperatures, UF6 has a high vapor pressure, making it useful in the gaseous diffusion process to separate the rare uranium-235 from the common uranium-238 isotope. This compound can be prepared from uranium dioxide and uranium hydride by the following process: UO2 + 4 HF → UF4 + 2 H2O (500 °C, endothermic) UF4 + F2 → UF6 (350 °C, endothermic) The resulting UF6, a white solid, is highly reactive (by fluorination), easily sublimes (emitting a vapor that behaves as a nearly ideal gas), and is the most volatile compound of uranium known to exist. One method of preparing uranium tetrachloride (UCl4) is to directly combine chlorine with either uranium metal or uranium hydride. The reduction of UCl4 by hydrogen produces uranium trichloride (UCl3) while the higher chlorides of uranium are prepared by reaction with additional chlorine. All uranium chlorides react with water and air. Bromides and iodides of uranium are formed by direct reaction of, respectively, bromine and iodine with uranium or by adding UH3 to those element's acids. Known examples include: UBr3, UBr4, UI3, and UI4. UI5 has never been prepared. Uranium oxyhalides are water-soluble and include UO2F2, UOCl2, UO2Cl2, and UO2Br2. Stability of the oxyhalides decrease as the atomic weight of the component halide increases. Isotopes Uranium, like all elements with an atomic number greater than 82, has no stable isotopes. All isotopes of uranium are radioactive because the strong nuclear force does not prevail over electromagnetic repulsion in nuclides containing more than 82 protons. Nevertheless, the two most stable isotopes, 238U and 235U, have half-lives long enough to occur in nature as primordial radionuclides, with measurable quantities having survived since the formation of the Earth. These two nuclides, along with thorium-232, are the only confirmed primordial nuclides heavier than nearly-stable bismuth-209. Natural uranium consists of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (99.28% natural abundance), uranium-235 (0.71%), and uranium-234 (0.0054%). There are also five other trace isotopes: uranium-240, a decay product of plutonium-244; uranium-239, which is formed when 238U undergoes spontaneous fission, releasing neutrons that are captured by another 238U atom; uranium-237, which is formed when 238U captures a neutron but emits two more, which then decays to neptunium-237; uranium-236, which occurs in trace quantities due to neutron capture on 235U and as a decay product of plutonium-244; and finally, uranium-233, which is formed in the decay chain of neptunium-237. Additionally, uranium-232 would be produced by the double beta decay of natural thorium-232, though this energetically possible process has never been observed. Uranium-238 is the most stable isotope of uranium, with a half-life of about 4.463×109 years, roughly the age of the Earth. Uranium-238 is predominantly an alpha emitter, decaying to thorium-234. It ultimately decays through the uranium series, which has 18 members, into lead-206. Uranium-238 is not fissile, but is a fertile isotope, because after neutron activation it can be converted to plutonium-239, another fissile isotope. Indeed, the 238U nucleus can absorb one neutron to produce the radioactive isotope uranium-239. 239U decays by beta emission to neptunium-239, also a beta-emitter, that decays in its turn, within a few days into plutonium-239. 239Pu was used as fissile material in the first atomic bomb detonated in the "Trinity test" on 16 July 1945 in New Mexico. Uranium-235 has a half-life of about 7.04×108 years; it is the next most stable uranium isotope after 238U and is also predominantly an alpha emitter, decaying to thorium-231. Uranium-235 is important for both nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons, because it is the only uranium isotope existing in nature on Earth in significant amounts that is fissile. This means that it can be split into two or three fragments (fission products) by thermal neutrons. The decay chain of 235U, which is called the actinium series, has 15 members and eventually decays into lead-207. The constant rates of decay in these decay series makes the comparison of the ratios of parent to daughter elements useful in radiometric dating. Uranium-236 has a half-life of 2.342×107 years and is not found in significant quantities in nature. The half-life of uranium-236 is too short for it to be primordial, though it has been identified as an extinct progenitor of its alpha decay daughter, thorium-232. Uranium-236 occurs in spent nuclear fuel when neutron capture on 235U does not induce fission, or as a decay product of plutonium-240. Uranium-236 is not fertile, as three more neutron captures are required to produce fissile 239Pu, and is not itself fissile; as such, it is considered long-lived radioactive waste. Uranium-234 is a member of the uranium series and occurs in equilibrium with its progenitor, 238U; it undergoes alpha decay with a half-life of 245,500 years and decays to lead-206 through a series of relatively short-lived isotopes. Uranium-233 undergoes alpha decay with a half-life of 160,000 years and, like 235U, is fissile. It can be bred from thorium-232 via neutron bombardment, usually in a nuclear reactor; this process is known as the thorium fuel cycle. Owing to the fissility of 233U and the greater natural abundance of thorium (three times that of uranium), 233U has been investigated for use as nuclear fuel as a possible alternative to 235U and 239Pu, though is not in widespread use as of 2022. The decay chain of uranium-233 forms part of the neptunium series and ends at nearly-stable bismuth-209 (half-life 2.01×1019 years) and stable thallium-205. Uranium-232 is an alpha emitter with a half-life of 68.9 years. This isotope is produced as a byproduct in production of 233U and is considered a nuisance, as it is not fissile and decays through short-lived alpha and gamma emitters such as 208Tl. It is also expected that thorium-232 should be able to undergo double beta decay, which would produce uranium-232, but this has not yet been observed experimentally. All isotopes from 232U to 236U inclusive have minor cluster decay branches (less than 10−10%), and all these bar 233U, in addition to 238U, have minor spontaneous fission branches; the greatest branching ratio for spontaneous fission is about 5×10−5% for 238U, or about one in every two million decays. The shorter-lived trace isotopes 237U and 239U exclusively undergo beta decay, with respective half-lives of 6.752 days and 23.45 minutes. In total, 28 isotopes of uranium have been identified, ranging in mass number from 214 to 242, with the exception of 220. Among the uranium isotopes not found in natural samples or nuclear fuel, the longest-lived is 230U, an alpha emitter with a half-life of 20.23 days. This isotope has been considered for use in targeted alpha-particle therapy (TAT). All other isotopes have half-lives shorter than one hour, except for 231U (half-life 4.2 days) and 240U (half-life 14.1 hours). The shortest-lived known isotope is 221U, with a half-life of 660 nanoseconds, and it is expected that the hitherto unknown 220U has an even shorter half-life. The proton-rich isotopes lighter than 232U primarily undergo alpha decay, except for 229U and 231U, which decay to protactinium isotopes via positron emission and electron capture, respectively; the neutron-rich 240U, 241U, and 242U undergo beta decay to form neptunium isotopes. Enrichment In nature, uranium is found as uranium-238 (99.2742%) and uranium-235 (0.7204%). Isotope separation concentrates (enriches) the fissile uranium-235 for nuclear weapons and most nuclear power plants, except for gas cooled reactors and pressurized heavy water reactors. Most neutrons released by a fissioning atom of uranium-235 must impact other uranium-235 atoms to sustain the nuclear chain reaction. The concentration and amount of uranium-235 needed to achieve this is called a 'critical mass'. To be considered 'enriched', the uranium-235 fraction should be between 3% and 5%. This process produces huge quantities of uranium that is depleted of uranium-235 and with a correspondingly increased fraction of uranium-238, called depleted uranium or 'DU'. To be considered 'depleted', the 235U concentration should be no more than 0.3%. The price of uranium has risen since 2001, so enrichment tailings containing more than 0.35% uranium-235 are being considered for re-enrichment, driving the price of depleted uranium hexafluoride above $130 per kilogram in July 2007 from $5 in 2001. The gas centrifuge process, where gaseous uranium hexafluoride (UF6) is separated by the difference in molecular weight between 235UF6 and 238UF6 using high-speed centrifuges, is the cheapest and leading enrichment process. The gaseous diffusion process had been the leading method for enrichment and was used in the Manhattan Project. In this process, uranium hexafluoride is repeatedly diffused through a silver-zinc membrane, and the different isotopes of uranium are separated by diffusion rate (since uranium-238 is heavier it diffuses slightly slower than uranium-235). The molecular laser isotope separation method employs a laser beam of precise energy to sever the bond between uranium-235 and fluorine. This leaves uranium-238 bonded to fluorine and allows uranium-235 metal to precipitate from the solution. An alternative laser method of enrichment is known as atomic vapor laser isotope separation (AVLIS) and employs visible tunable lasers such as dye lasers. Another method used is liquid thermal diffusion. The only significant deviation from the 235U to 238U ratio in any known natural samples occurs in Oklo, Gabon, where natural nuclear fission reactors consumed some of the 235U some two billion years ago when the ratio of 235U to 238U was more akin to that of low enriched uranium allowing regular ("light") water to act as a neutron moderator akin to the process in humanmade light water reactors. The existence of such natural fission reactors which had been theoretically predicted beforehand was proven as the slight deviation of 235U concentration from the expected values were discovered during uranium enrichment in France. Subsequent investigations to rule out any nefarious human action (such as stealing of 235U) confirmed the theory by finding isotope ratios of common fission products (or rather their stable daughter nuclides) in line with the values expected for fission but deviating from the values expected for non-fission derived samples of those elements. Human exposure A person can be exposed to uranium (or its radioactive daughters, such as radon) by inhaling dust in air or by ingesting contaminated water and food. The amount of uranium in air is usually very small; however, people who work in factories that process phosphate fertilizers, live near government facilities that made or tested nuclear weapons, live or work near a modern battlefield where depleted uranium weapons have been used, or live or work near a coal-fired power plant, facilities that mine or process uranium ore, or enrich uranium for reactor fuel, may have increased exposure to uranium. Houses or structures that are over uranium deposits (either natural or man-made slag deposits) may have an increased incidence of exposure to radon gas. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set the permissible exposure limit for uranium exposure in the workplace as 0.25 mg/m3 over an 8-hour workday. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has set a recommended exposure limit (REL) of 0.2 mg/m3 over an 8-hour workday and a short-term limit of 0.6 mg/m3. At 10 mg/m3, uranium is immediately dangerous to life and health. Most ingested uranium is excreted during digestion. Only 0.5% is absorbed when insoluble forms of uranium, such as its oxide, are ingested, whereas absorption of the more soluble uranyl ion can be up to 5%. However, soluble uranium compounds tend to quickly pass through the body, whereas insoluble uranium compounds, especially when inhaled by way of dust into the lungs, pose a more serious exposure hazard. After entering the bloodstream, the absorbed uranium tends to bioaccumulate and stay for many years in bone tissue because of uranium's affinity for phosphates. Incorporated uranium becomes uranyl ions, which accumulate in bone, liver, kidney, and reproductive tissues. Radiological and chemical toxicity of uranium combine by the fact that elements of high atomic number Z like uranium exhibit phantom or secondary radiotoxicity through absorption of natural background gamma and X-rays and re-emission of photoelectrons, which in combination with the high affinity of uranium to the phosphate moiety of DNA cause increased single and double strand DNA breaks. Uranium is not absorbed through the skin, and alpha particles released by uranium cannot penetrate the skin. Uranium can be decontaminated from steel surfaces and aquifers. Effects and precautions Normal functioning of the kidney, brain, liver, heart, and other systems can be affected by uranium exposure, because, besides being weakly radioactive, uranium is a toxic metal. Uranium is also a reproductive toxicant. Radiological effects are generally local because alpha radiation, the primary form of 238U decay, has a very short range, and will not penetrate skin. Alpha radiation from inhaled uranium has been demonstrated to cause lung cancer in exposed nuclear workers. While the CDC has published one study that no human cancer has been seen as a result of exposure to natural or depleted uranium, exposure to uranium and its decay products, especially radon, is a significant health threat. Exposure to strontium-90, iodine-131, and other fission products is unrelated to uranium exposure, but may result from medical procedures or exposure to spent reactor fuel or fallout from nuclear weapons. Although accidental inhalation exposure to a high concentration of uranium hexafluoride has resulted in human fatalities, those deaths were associated with the generation of highly toxic hydrofluoric acid and uranyl fluoride rather than with uranium itself. Finely divided uranium metal presents a fire hazard because uranium is pyrophoric; small grains will ignite spontaneously in air at room temperature. Uranium metal is commonly handled with gloves as a sufficient precaution. Uranium concentrate is handled and contained so as to ensure that people do not inhale or ingest it. See also Notes References Sources cited Emsley, John (2001). "Uranium". Nature's Building Blocks: An A to Z Guide to the Elements. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 476–482. ISBN 978-0-19-850340-8. Seaborg, Glenn T. (1968). "Uranium". The Encyclopedia of the Chemical Elements. Skokie, Illinois: Reinhold Book Corporation. pp. 773–786. LCCN 68029938. External links Nuclear fuel data and analysis from the U.S. Energy Information Administration World Uranium deposit maps Dittmar, William (1888). "Uranium" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. XXIV (9th ed.). p. 7. Annotated bibliography for uranium from the Alsos Digital Library NLM Hazardous Substances Databank – Uranium, Radioactive CDC – NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards ATSDR Case Studies in Environmental Medicine: Uranium Toxicity U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Uranium at The Periodic Table of Videos (University of Nottingham)

Mendelevium

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendelevium

Mendelevium is a synthetic chemical element; it has symbol Md (formerly Mv) and atomic number 101. A metallic radioactive transuranium element in the actinide series, it is the first element by atomic number that currently cannot be produced in macroscopic quantities by neutron bombardment of lighter elements. It is the third-to-last actinide and the ninth transuranic element and the first transfermium. It can only be produced in particle accelerators by bombarding lighter elements with charged particles. Seventeen isotopes are known; the most stable is 258Md with half-life 51.59 days; however, the shorter-lived 256Md (half-life 77.7 minutes) is most commonly used in chemistry because it can be produced on a larger scale. Mendelevium was discovered by bombarding einsteinium with alpha particles in 1955, the method still used to produce it today. It is named after Dmitri Mendeleev, the father of the periodic table. Using available microgram quantities of einsteinium-253, over a million mendelevium atoms may be made each hour. The chemistry of mendelevium is typical for the late actinides, with a preponderance of the +3 oxidation state but also an accessible +2 oxidation state. All known isotopes of mendelevium have short half-lives; there are currently no uses for it outside basic scientific research, and only small amounts are produced. Discovery Mendelevium was the ninth transuranic element to be synthesized. It was first synthesized by Albert Ghiorso, Glenn T. Seaborg, Gregory Robert Choppin, Bernard G. Harvey, and team leader Stanley G. Thompson in early 1955 at the University of California, Berkeley. The team produced 256Md (half-life of 77.7 minutes) when they bombarded an 253Es target consisting of only a billion (109) einsteinium atoms with alpha particles (helium nuclei) in the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory's 60-inch cyclotron, thus increasing the target's atomic number by two. 256Md thus became the first isotope of any element to be synthesized one atom at a time. In total, seventeen mendelevium atoms were produced. This discovery was part of a program, begun in 1952, that irradiated plutonium with neutrons to transmute it into heavier actinides. This method was necessary as the previous method used to synthesize transuranic elements, neutron capture, could not work because of a lack of known beta decaying isotopes of fermium that would produce isotopes of the next element, mendelevium, and also due to the very short half-life to spontaneous fission of 258Fm that thus constituted a hard limit to the success of the neutron capture process. To predict if the production of mendelevium would be possible, the team made use of a rough calculation. The number of atoms that would be produced would be approximately equal to the product of the number of atoms of target material, the target's cross section, the ion beam intensity, and the time of bombardment; this last factor was related to the half-life of the product when bombarding for a time on the order of its half-life. This gave one atom per experiment. Thus under optimum conditions, the preparation of only one atom of element 101 per experiment could be expected. This calculation demonstrated that it was feasible to go ahead with the experiment. The target material, einsteinium-253, could be produced readily from irradiating plutonium: one year of irradiation would give a billion atoms, and its three-week half-life meant that the element 101 experiments could be conducted in one week after the produced einsteinium was separated and purified to make the target. However, it was necessary to upgrade the cyclotron to obtain the needed intensity of 1014 alpha particles per second; Seaborg applied for the necessary funds. While Seaborg applied for funding, Harvey worked on the einsteinium target, while Thomson and Choppin focused on methods for chemical isolation. Choppin suggested using α-hydroxyisobutyric acid to separate the mendelevium atoms from those of the lighter actinides. The actual synthesis was done by a recoil technique, introduced by Albert Ghiorso. In this technique, the einsteinium was placed on the opposite side of the target from the beam, so that the recoiling mendelevium atoms would get enough momentum to leave the target and be caught on a catcher foil made of gold. This recoil target was made by an electroplating technique, developed by Alfred Chetham-Strode. This technique gave a very high yield, which was absolutely necessary when working with such a rare and valuable product as the einsteinium target material. The recoil target consisted of 109 atoms of 253Es which were deposited electrolytically on a thin gold foil. It was bombarded by 41 MeV alpha particles in the Berkeley cyclotron with a very high beam density of 6×1013 particles per second over an area of 0.05 cm2. The target was cooled by water or liquid helium, and the foil could be replaced. Initial experiments were carried out in September 1954. No alpha decay was seen from mendelevium atoms; thus, Ghiorso suggested that the mendelevium had all decayed by electron capture to fermium and that the experiment should be repeated to search instead for spontaneous fission events. The repetition of the experiment happened in February 1955. On the day of discovery, 19 February, alpha irradiation of the einsteinium target occurred in three three-hour sessions. The cyclotron was in the University of California campus, while the Radiation Laboratory was on the next hill. To deal with this situation, a complex procedure was used: Ghiorso took the catcher foils (there were three targets and three foils) from the cyclotron to Harvey, who would use aqua regia to dissolve it and pass it through an anion-exchange resin column to separate out the transuranium elements from the gold and other products. The resultant drops entered a test tube, which Choppin and Ghiorso took in a car to get to the Radiation Laboratory as soon as possible. There Thompson and Choppin used a cation-exchange resin column and the α-hydroxyisobutyric acid. The solution drops were collected on platinum disks and dried under heat lamps. The three disks were expected to contain respectively the fermium, no new elements, and the mendelevium. Finally, they were placed in their own counters, which were connected to recorders such that spontaneous fission events would be recorded as huge deflections in a graph showing the number and time of the decays. There thus was no direct detection, but by observation of spontaneous fission events arising from its electron-capture daughter 256Fm. The first one was identified with a "hooray" followed by a "double hooray" and a "triple hooray". The fourth one eventually officially proved the chemical identification of the 101st element, mendelevium. In total, five decays were reported up until 4 a.m. Seaborg was notified and the team left to sleep. Additional analysis and further experimentation showed the produced mendelevium isotope to have mass 256 and to decay by electron capture to fermium-256 with a half-life of 157.6 minutes. We thought it fitting that there be an element named for the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, who had developed the periodic table. In nearly all our experiments discovering transuranium elements, we'd depended on his method of predicting chemical properties based on the element's position in the table. But in the middle of the Cold War, naming an element for a Russian was a somewhat bold gesture that did not sit well with some American critics. Being the first of the second hundred of the chemical elements, it was decided that the element would be named "mendelevium" after the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, father of the periodic table. Because this discovery came during the Cold War, Seaborg had to request permission of the government of the United States to propose that the element be named for a Russian, but it was granted. The name "mendelevium" was accepted by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) in 1955 with symbol "Mv", which was changed to "Md" in the next IUPAC General Assembly (Paris, 1957). Characteristics Physical In the periodic table, mendelevium is located to the right of the actinide fermium, to the left of the actinide nobelium, and below the lanthanide thulium. Mendelevium metal has not yet been prepared in bulk quantities, and bulk preparation is currently impossible. Nevertheless, a number of predictions and some preliminary experimental results have been done regarding its properties. The lanthanides and actinides, in the metallic state, can exist as either divalent (such as europium and ytterbium) or trivalent (most other lanthanides) metals. The former have fns2 configurations, whereas the latter have fn−1d1s2 configurations. In 1975, Johansson and Rosengren examined the measured and predicted values for the cohesive energies (enthalpies of crystallization) of the metallic lanthanides and actinides, both as divalent and trivalent metals. The conclusion was that the increased binding energy of the [Rn]5f126d17s2 configuration over the [Rn]5f137s2 configuration for mendelevium was not enough to compensate for the energy needed to promote one 5f electron to 6d, as is true also for the very late actinides: thus einsteinium, fermium, mendelevium, and nobelium were expected to be divalent metals. The increasing predominance of the divalent state well before the actinide series concludes is attributed to the relativistic stabilization of the 5f electrons, which increases with increasing atomic number. Thermochromatographic studies with trace quantities of mendelevium by Zvara and Hübener from 1976 to 1982 confirmed this prediction. In 1990, Haire and Gibson estimated mendelevium metal to have an enthalpy of sublimation between 134 and 142 kJ/mol. Divalent mendelevium metal should have a metallic radius of around 194±10 pm. Like the other divalent late actinides (except the once again trivalent lawrencium), metallic mendelevium should assume a face-centered cubic crystal structure. Mendelevium's melting point has been estimated at 800 °C, the same value as that predicted for the neighboring element nobelium. Its density is predicted to be around 10.3±0.7 g/cm3. Chemical The chemistry of mendelevium is mostly known only in solution, in which it can take on the +3 or +2 oxidation states. The +1 state has also been reported, but has not yet been confirmed. Before mendelevium's discovery, Seaborg and Katz predicted that it should be predominantly trivalent in aqueous solution and hence should behave similarly to other tripositive lanthanides and actinides. After the synthesis of mendelevium in 1955, these predictions were confirmed, first in the observation at its discovery that it eluted just after fermium in the trivalent actinide elution sequence from a cation-exchange column of resin, and later the 1967 observation that mendelevium could form insoluble hydroxides and fluorides that coprecipitated with trivalent lanthanide salts. Cation-exchange and solvent extraction studies led to the conclusion that mendelevium was a trivalent actinide with an ionic radius somewhat smaller than that of the previous actinide, fermium. Mendelevium can form coordination complexes with 1,2-cyclohexanedinitrilotetraacetic acid (DCTA). In reducing conditions, mendelevium(III) can be easily reduced to mendelevium(II), which is stable in aqueous solution. The standard reduction potential of the E°(Md3+→Md2+) couple was variously estimated in 1967 as −0.10 V or −0.20 V: later 2013 experiments established the value as −0.16±0.05 V. In comparison, E°(Md3+→Md0) should be around −1.74 V, and E°(Md2+→Md0) should be around −2.5 V. Mendelevium(II)'s elution behavior has been compared with that of strontium(II) and europium(II). In 1973, mendelevium(I) was reported to have been produced by Russian scientists, who obtained it by reducing higher oxidation states of mendelevium with samarium(II). It was found to be stable in neutral water–ethanol solution and be homologous to caesium(I). However, later experiments found no evidence for mendelevium(I) and found that mendelevium behaved like divalent elements when reduced, not like the monovalent alkali metals. Nevertheless, the Russian team conducted further studies on the thermodynamics of cocrystallizing mendelevium with alkali metal chlorides, and concluded that mendelevium(I) had formed and could form mixed crystals with divalent elements, thus cocrystallizing with them. The status of the +1 oxidation state is still tentative. The electrode potential E°(Md4+→Md3+) was predicted in 1975 to be +5.4 V; 1967 experiments with the strong oxidizing agent sodium bismuthate were unable to oxidize mendelevium(III) to mendelevium(IV). Atomic A mendelevium atom has 101 electrons. They are expected to be arranged in the configuration [Rn]5f137s2 (ground state term symbol 2F7/2), although experimental verification of this electron configuration had not yet been made as of 2006. The fifteen electrons in the 5f and 7s subshells are valence electrons. In forming compounds, three valence electrons may be lost, leaving behind a [Rn]5f12 core: this conforms to the trend set by the other actinides with their [Rn] 5fn electron configurations in the tripositive state. The first ionization potential of mendelevium was measured to be at most (6.58 ± 0.07) eV in 1974, based on the assumption that the 7s electrons would ionize before the 5f ones; this value has since not yet been refined further due to mendelevium's scarcity and high radioactivity. The ionic radius of hexacoordinate Md3+ had been preliminarily estimated in 1978 to be around 91.2 pm; 1988 calculations based on the logarithmic trend between distribution coefficients and ionic radius produced a value of 89.6 pm, as well as an enthalpy of hydration of −3654±12 kJ/mol. Md2+ should have an ionic radius of 115 pm and hydration enthalpy −1413 kJ/mol; Md+ should have ionic radius 117 pm. Isotopes Seventeen isotopes of mendelevium are known, with mass numbers from 244 to 260; all are radioactive. Additionally, 14 nuclear isomers are known. Of these, the longest-lived isotope is 258Md with a half-life of 51.59 days, and the longest-lived isomer is 258mMd with a half-life of 57.0 minutes. Nevertheless, the shorter-lived 256Md (half-life 1.295 hours) is more often used in chemical experimentation because it can be produced in larger quantities from alpha particle irradiation of einsteinium. After 258Md, the next most stable mendelevium isotopes are 260Md with a half-life of 27.8 days, 257Md with a half-life of 5.52 hours, 259Md with a half-life of 1.60 hours, and 256Md with a half-life of 1.295 hours. All of the remaining mendelevium isotopes have half-lives that are less than an hour, and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than 5 minutes. The half-lives of mendelevium isotopes mostly increase smoothly from 244Md onwards, reaching a maximum at 258Md. Experiments and predictions suggest that the half-lives will then decrease, apart from 260Md with a half-life of 27.8 days, as spontaneous fission becomes the dominant decay mode due to the mutual repulsion of the protons posing a limit to the island of relative stability of long-lived nuclei in the actinide series. In addition, mendelevium is the element with the highest atomic number that has a known isotope with a half-life longer than one day. Mendelevium-256, the chemically most important isotope of mendelevium, decays through electron capture 90% of the time and alpha decay 10% of the time. It is most easily detected through the spontaneous fission of its electron capture daughter fermium-256, but in the presence of other nuclides that undergo spontaneous fission, alpha decays at the characteristic energies for mendelevium-256 (7.205 and 7.139 MeV) can provide more useful identification. Production and isolation The lightest isotopes (244Md to 247Md) are mostly produced through bombardment of bismuth targets with argon ions, while slightly heavier ones (248Md to 253Md) are produced by bombarding plutonium and americium targets with ions of carbon and nitrogen. The most important and most stable isotopes are in the range from 254Md to 258Md and are produced through bombardment of einsteinium with alpha particles: einsteinium-253, −254, and −255 can all be used. 259Md is produced as a daughter of 259No, and 260Md can be produced in a transfer reaction between einsteinium-254 and oxygen-18. Typically, the most commonly used isotope 256Md is produced by bombarding either einsteinium-253 or −254 with alpha particles: einsteinium-254 is preferred when available because it has a longer half-life and therefore can be used as a target for longer. Using available microgram quantities of einsteinium, femtogram quantities of mendelevium-256 may be produced. The recoil momentum of the produced mendelevium-256 atoms is used to bring them physically far away from the einsteinium target from which they are produced, bringing them onto a thin foil of metal (usually beryllium, aluminium, platinum, or gold) just behind the target in a vacuum. This eliminates the need for immediate chemical separation, which is both costly and prevents reusing of the expensive einsteinium target. The mendelevium atoms are then trapped in a gas atmosphere (frequently helium), and a gas jet from a small opening in the reaction chamber carries the mendelevium along. Using a long capillary tube, and including potassium chloride aerosols in the helium gas, the mendelevium atoms can be transported over tens of meters to be chemically analyzed and have their quantity determined. The mendelevium can then be separated from the foil material and other fission products by applying acid to the foil and then coprecipitating the mendelevium with lanthanum fluoride, then using a cation-exchange resin column with a 10% ethanol solution saturated with hydrochloric acid, acting as an eluant. However, if the foil is made of gold and thin enough, it is enough to simply dissolve the gold in aqua regia before separating the trivalent actinides from the gold using anion-exchange chromatography, the eluant being 6 M hydrochloric acid. Mendelevium can finally be separated from the other trivalent actinides using selective elution from a cation-exchange resin column, the eluant being ammonia α-HIB. Using the gas-jet method often renders the first two steps unnecessary. The above procedure is the most commonly used one for the separation of transeinsteinium elements. Another possible way to separate the trivalent actinides is via solvent extraction chromatography using bis-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (abbreviated as HDEHP) as the stationary organic phase and nitric acid as the mobile aqueous phase. The actinide elution sequence is reversed from that of the cation-exchange resin column, so that the heavier actinides elute later. The mendelevium separated by this method has the advantage of being free of organic complexing agent compared to the resin column; the disadvantage is that mendelevium then elutes very late in the elution sequence, after fermium. Another method to isolate mendelevium exploits the distinct elution properties of Md2+ from those of Es3+ and Fm3+. The initial steps are the same as above, and employs HDEHP for extraction chromatography, but coprecipitates the mendelevium with terbium fluoride instead of lanthanum fluoride. Then, 50 mg of chromium is added to the mendelevium to reduce it to the +2 state in 0.1 M hydrochloric acid with zinc or mercury. The solvent extraction then proceeds, and while the trivalent and tetravalent lanthanides and actinides remain on the column, mendelevium(II) does not and stays in the hydrochloric acid. It is then reoxidized to the +3 state using hydrogen peroxide and then isolated by selective elution with 2 M hydrochloric acid (to remove impurities, including chromium) and finally 6 M hydrochloric acid (to remove the mendelevium). It is also possible to use a column of cationite and zinc amalgam, using 1 M hydrochloric acid as an eluant, reducing Md(III) to Md(II) where it behaves like the alkaline earth metals. Thermochromatographic chemical isolation could be achieved using the volatile mendelevium hexafluoroacetylacetonate: the analogous fermium compound is also known and is also volatile. Toxicity Though few people come in contact with mendelevium, the International Commission on Radiological Protection has set annual exposure limits for the most stable isotope. For mendelevium-258, the ingestion limit was set at 9×105 becquerels (1 Bq = 1 decay per second). Given the half-life of this isotope, this is only 2.48 ng (nanograms). The inhalation limit is at 6000 Bq or 16.5 pg (picogram). Notes References Bibliography Silva, Robert J. (2006). "Fermium, Mendelevium, Nobelium, and Lawrencium" (PDF). In Morss, Lester R.; Edelstein, Norman M.; Fuger, Jean (eds.). The Chemistry of the Actinide and Transactinide Elements. Vol. 3 (3rd ed.). Dordrecht: Springer. pp. 1621–1651. doi:10.1007/1-4020-3598-5_13. ISBN 978-1-4020-3555-5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-07-17. Further reading Hoffman, D.C., Ghiorso, A., Seaborg, G. T. The transuranium people: the inside story, (2000), 201–229 Morss, L. R., Edelstein, N. M., Fuger, J., The chemistry of the actinide and transactinide element, 3, (2006), 1630–1636 A Guide to the Elements – Revised Edition, Albert Stwertka, (Oxford University Press; 1998) ISBN 0-19-508083-1 External links Los Alamos National Laboratory – Mendelevium It's Elemental – Mendelevium Mendelevium at The Periodic Table of Videos (University of Nottingham) Environmental Chemistry – Md info

Periodic_table

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodic_table

The periodic table, also known as the periodic table of the elements, is an ordered arrangement of the chemical elements into rows ("periods") and columns ("groups"). It is an icon of chemistry and is widely used in physics and other sciences. It is a depiction of the periodic law, which states that when the elements are arranged in order of their atomic numbers an approximate recurrence of their properties is evident. The table is divided into four roughly rectangular areas called blocks. Elements in the same group tend to show similar chemical characteristics. Vertical, horizontal and diagonal trends characterize the periodic table. Metallic character increases going down a group and from right to left across a period. Nonmetallic character increases going from the bottom left of the periodic table to the top right. The first periodic table to become generally accepted was that of the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869; he formulated the periodic law as a dependence of chemical properties on atomic mass. As not all elements were then known, there were gaps in his periodic table, and Mendeleev successfully used the periodic law to predict some properties of some of the missing elements. The periodic law was recognized as a fundamental discovery in the late 19th century. It was explained early in the 20th century, with the discovery of atomic numbers and associated pioneering work in quantum mechanics, both ideas serving to illuminate the internal structure of the atom. A recognisably modern form of the table was reached in 1945 with Glenn T. Seaborg's discovery that the actinides were in fact f-block rather than d-block elements. The periodic table and law are now a central and indispensable part of modern chemistry. The periodic table continues to evolve with the progress of science. In nature, only elements up to atomic number 94 exist; to go further, it was necessary to synthesize new elements in the laboratory. By 2010, the first 118 elements were known, thereby completing the first seven rows of the table; however, chemical characterization is still needed for the heaviest elements to confirm that their properties match their positions. New discoveries will extend the table beyond these seven rows, though it is not yet known how many more elements are possible; moreover, theoretical calculations suggest that this unknown region will not follow the patterns of the known part of the table. Some scientific discussion also continues regarding whether some elements are correctly positioned in today's table. Many alternative representations of the periodic law exist, and there is some discussion as to whether there is an optimal form of the periodic table. Structure Each chemical element has a unique atomic number (Z— for "Zahl", German for "number") representing the number of protons in its nucleus. Each distinct atomic number therefore corresponds to a class of atom: these classes are called the chemical elements. The chemical elements are what the periodic table classifies and organizes. Hydrogen is the element with atomic number 1; helium, atomic number 2; lithium, atomic number 3; and so on. Each of these names can be further abbreviated by a one- or two-letter chemical symbol; those for hydrogen, helium, and lithium are respectively H, He, and Li. Neutrons do not affect the atom's chemical identity, but do affect its weight. Atoms with the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons are called isotopes of the same chemical element. Naturally occurring elements usually occur as mixes of different isotopes; since each isotope usually occurs with a characteristic abundance, naturally occurring elements have well-defined atomic weights, defined as the average mass of a naturally occurring atom of that element. All elements have multiple isotopes, variants with the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons. For example, carbon has three naturally occurring isotopes: all of its atoms have six protons and most have six neutrons as well, but about one per cent have seven neutrons, and a very small fraction have eight neutrons. Isotopes are never separated in the periodic table; they are always grouped together under a single element. When atomic mass is shown, it is usually the weighted average of naturally occurring isotopes; but if no isotopes occur naturally in significant quantities, the mass of the most stable isotope usually appears, often in parentheses. In the standard periodic table, the elements are listed in order of increasing atomic number. A new row (period) is started when a new electron shell has its first electron. Columns (groups) are determined by the electron configuration of the atom; elements with the same number of electrons in a particular subshell fall into the same columns (e.g. oxygen, sulfur, and selenium are in the same column because they all have four electrons in the outermost p-subshell). Elements with similar chemical properties generally fall into the same group in the periodic table, although in the f-block, and to some respect in the d-block, the elements in the same period tend to have similar properties, as well. Thus, it is relatively easy to predict the chemical properties of an element if one knows the properties of the elements around it. Today, 118 elements are known, the first 94 of which are known to occur naturally on Earth at present. The remaining 24, americium to oganesson (95–118), occur only when synthesized in laboratories. Of the 94 naturally occurring elements, 83 are primordial and 11 occur only in decay chains of primordial elements. A few of the latter are so rare that they were not discovered in nature, but were synthesized in the laboratory before it was determined that they do exist in nature after all: technetium (element 43), promethium (element 61), astatine (element 85), neptunium (element 93), and plutonium (element 94). No element heavier than einsteinium (element 99) has ever been observed in macroscopic quantities in its pure form, nor has astatine; francium (element 87) has been only photographed in the form of light emitted from microscopic quantities (300,000 atoms). Of the 94 natural elements, eighty have a stable isotope and one more (bismuth) has an almost-stable isotope (with a half-life of 2.01×1019 years, over a billion times the age of the universe). Two more, thorium and uranium, have isotopes undergoing radioactive decay with a half-life comparable to the age of the Earth. The stable elements plus bismuth, thorium, and uranium make up the 83 primordial elements that survived from the Earth's formation. The remaining eleven natural elements decay quickly enough that their continued trace occurrence rests primarily on being constantly regenerated as intermediate products of the decay of thorium and uranium. All 24 known artificial elements are radioactive. Group names and numbers Under an international naming convention, the groups are numbered numerically from 1 to 18 from the leftmost column (the alkali metals) to the rightmost column (the noble gases). The f-block groups are ignored in this numbering. Groups can also be named by their first element, e.g. the "scandium group" for group 3. Previously, groups were known by Roman numerals. In the United States, the Roman numerals were followed by either an "A" if the group was in the s- or p-block, or a "B" if the group was in the d-block. The Roman numerals used correspond to the last digit of today's naming convention (e.g. the group 4 elements were group IVB, and the group 14 elements were group IVA). In Europe, the lettering was similar, except that "A" was used for groups 1 through 7, and "B" was used for groups 11 through 17. In addition, groups 8, 9 and 10 used to be treated as one triple-sized group, known collectively in both notations as group VIII. In 1988, the new IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) naming system (1–18) was put into use, and the old group names (I–VIII) were deprecated. Presentation forms For reasons of space, the periodic table is commonly presented with the f-block elements cut out and positioned as a distinct part below the main body. This reduces the number of element columns from 32 to 18. Both forms represent the same periodic table. The form with the f-block included in the main body is sometimes called the 32-column or long form; the form with the f-block cut out the 18-column or medium-long form. The 32-column form has the advantage of showing all elements in their correct sequence, but it has the disadvantage of requiring more space. The form chosen is an editorial choice, and does not imply any change of scientific claim or statement. For example, when discussing the composition of group 3, the options can be shown equally (unprejudiced) in both forms. Periodic tables usually at least show the elements' symbols; many also provide supplementary information about the elements, either via colour-coding or as data in the cells. The above table shows the names and atomic numbers of the elements, and also their blocks, natural occurrences and standard atomic weights. For the short-lived elements without standard atomic weights, the mass number of the most stable known isotope is used instead. Other tables may include properties such as state of matter, melting and boiling points, densities, as well as provide different classifications of the elements. Electron configurations The periodic table is a graphic description of the periodic law, which states that the properties and atomic structures of the chemical elements are a periodic function of their atomic number. Elements are placed in the periodic table according to their electron configurations, the periodic recurrences of which explain the trends in properties across the periodic table. An electron can be thought of as inhabiting an atomic orbital, which characterizes the probability it can be found in any particular region around the atom. Their energies are quantised, which is to say that they can only take discrete values. Furthermore, electrons obey the Pauli exclusion principle: different electrons must always be in different states. This allows classification of the possible states an electron can take in various energy levels known as shells, divided into individual subshells, which each contain one or more orbitals. Each orbital can contain up to two electrons: they are distinguished by a quantity known as spin, conventionally labelled "up" or "down". In a cold atom (one in its ground state), electrons arrange themselves in such a way that the total energy they have is minimized by occupying the lowest-energy orbitals available. Only the outermost electrons (so-called valence electrons) have enough energy to break free of the nucleus and participate in chemical reactions with other atoms. The others are called core electrons. Elements are known with up to the first seven shells occupied. The first shell contains only one orbital, a spherical s orbital. As it is in the first shell, this is called the 1s orbital. This can hold up to two electrons. The second shell similarly contains a 2s orbital, and it also contains three dumbbell-shaped 2p orbitals, and can thus fill up to eight electrons (2×1 + 2×3 = 8). The third shell contains one 3s orbital, three 3p orbitals, and five 3d orbitals, and thus has a capacity of 2×1 + 2×3 + 2×5 = 18. The fourth shell contains one 4s orbital, three 4p orbitals, five 4d orbitals, and seven 4f orbitals, thus leading to a capacity of 2×1 + 2×3 + 2×5 + 2×7 = 32. Higher shells contain more types of orbitals that continue the pattern, but such types of orbitals are not filled in the ground states of known elements. The subshell types are characterized by the quantum numbers. Four numbers describe an orbital in an atom completely: the principal quantum number n, the azimuthal quantum number ℓ (the orbital type), the orbital magnetic quantum number mℓ, and the spin magnetic quantum number ms. Order of subshell filling The sequence in which the subshells are filled is given in most cases by the Aufbau principle, also known as the Madelung or Klechkovsky rule (after Erwin Madelung and Vsevolod Klechkovsky respectively). This rule was first observed empirically by Madelung, and Klechkovsky and later authors gave it theoretical justification. The shells overlap in energies, and the Madelung rule specifies the sequence of filling according to: 1s ≪ 2s < 2p ≪ 3s < 3p ≪ 4s < 3d < 4p ≪ 5s < 4d < 5p ≪ 6s < 4f < 5d < 6p ≪ 7s < 5f < 6d < 7p ≪ ... Here the sign ≪ means "much less than" as opposed to < meaning just "less than". Phrased differently, electrons enter orbitals in order of increasing n + ℓ, and if two orbitals are available with the same value of n + ℓ, the one with lower n is occupied first. In general, orbitals with the same value of n + ℓ are similar in energy, but in the case of the s-orbitals (with ℓ = 0), quantum effects raise their energy to approach that of the next n + ℓ group. Hence the periodic table is usually drawn to begin each row (often called a period) with the filling of a new s-orbital, which corresponds to the beginning of a new shell. Thus, with the exception of the first row, each period length appears twice: 2, 8, 8, 18, 18, 32, 32, ... The overlaps get quite close at the point where the d-orbitals enter the picture, and the order can shift slightly with atomic number and atomic charge. Starting from the simplest atom, this lets us build up the periodic table one at a time in order of atomic number, by considering the cases of single atoms. In hydrogen, there is only one electron, which must go in the lowest-energy orbital 1s. This electron configuration is written 1s1, where the superscript indicates the number of electrons in the subshell. Helium adds a second electron, which also goes into 1s, completely filling the first shell and giving the configuration 1s2. Starting from the third element, lithium, the first shell is full, so its third electron occupies a 2s orbital, giving a 1s2 2s1 configuration. The 2s electron is lithium's only valence electron, as the 1s subshell is now too tightly bound to the nucleus to participate in chemical bonding to other atoms: such a shell is called a "core shell". The 1s subshell is a core shell for all elements from lithium onward. The 2s subshell is completed by the next element beryllium (1s2 2s2). The following elements then proceed to fill the 2p subshell. Boron (1s2 2s2 2p1) puts its new electron in a 2p orbital; carbon (1s2 2s2 2p2) fills a second 2p orbital; and with nitrogen (1s2 2s2 2p3) all three 2p orbitals become singly occupied. This is consistent with Hund's rule, which states that atoms usually prefer to singly occupy each orbital of the same type before filling them with the second electron. Oxygen (1s2 2s2 2p4), fluorine (1s2 2s2 2p5), and neon (1s2 2s2 2p6) then complete the already singly filled 2p orbitals; the last of these fills the second shell completely. Starting from element 11, sodium, the second shell is full, making the second shell a core shell for this and all heavier elements. The eleventh electron begins the filling of the third shell by occupying a 3s orbital, giving a configuration of 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s1 for sodium. This configuration is abbreviated [Ne] 3s1, where [Ne] represents neon's configuration. Magnesium ([Ne] 3s2) finishes this 3s orbital, and the following six elements aluminium, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, chlorine, and argon fill the three 3p orbitals ([Ne] 3s2 3p1 through [Ne] 3s2 3p6). This creates an analogous series in which the outer shell structures of sodium through argon are analogous to those of lithium through neon, and is the basis for the periodicity of chemical properties that the periodic table illustrates: at regular but changing intervals of atomic numbers, the properties of the chemical elements approximately repeat. The first eighteen elements can thus be arranged as the start of a periodic table. Elements in the same column have the same number of valence electrons and have analogous valence electron configurations: these columns are called groups. The single exception is helium, which has two valence electrons like beryllium and magnesium, but is typically placed in the column of neon and argon to emphasise that its outer shell is full. (Some contemporary authors question even this single exception, preferring to consistently follow the valence configurations and place helium over beryllium.) There are eight columns in this periodic table fragment, corresponding to at most eight outer-shell electrons. A period begins when a new shell starts filling. Finally, the colouring illustrates the blocks: the elements in the s-block (coloured red) are filling s-orbitals, while those in the p-block (coloured yellow) are filling p-orbitals. Starting the next row, for potassium and calcium the 4s subshell is the lowest in energy, and therefore they fill it. Potassium adds one electron to the 4s shell ([Ar] 4s1), and calcium then completes it ([Ar] 4s2). However, starting from scandium ([Ar] 3d1 4s2) the 3d subshell becomes the next highest in energy. The 4s and 3d subshells have approximately the same energy and they compete for filling the electrons, and so the occupation is not quite consistently filling the 3d orbitals one at a time. The precise energy ordering of 3d and 4s changes along the row, and also changes depending on how many electrons are removed from the atom. For example, due to the repulsion between the 3d electrons and the 4s ones, at chromium the 4s energy level becomes slightly higher than 3d, and so it becomes more profitable for a chromium atom to have a [Ar] 3d5 4s1 configuration than an [Ar] 3d4 4s2 one. A similar anomaly occurs at copper, whose atom has a [Ar] 3d10 4s1 configuration rather than the expected [Ar] 3d9 4s2. These are violations of the Madelung rule. Such anomalies, however, do not have any chemical significance: most chemistry is not about isolated gaseous atoms, and the various configurations are so close in energy to each other that the presence of a nearby atom can shift the balance. Therefore, the periodic table ignores them and considers only idealized configurations. At zinc ([Ar] 3d10 4s2), the 3d orbitals are completely filled with a total of ten electrons. Next come the 4p orbitals, completing the row, which are filled progressively by gallium ([Ar] 3d10 4s2 4p1) through krypton ([Ar] 3d10 4s2 4p6), in a manner analogous to the previous p-block elements. From gallium onwards, the 3d orbitals form part of the electronic core, and no longer participate in chemistry. The s- and p-block elements, which fill their outer shells, are called main-group elements; the d-block elements (coloured blue below), which fill an inner shell, are called transition elements (or transition metals, since they are all metals). The next eighteen elements fill the 5s orbitals (rubidium and strontium), then 4d (yttrium through cadmium, again with a few anomalies along the way), and then 5p (indium through xenon). Again, from indium onward the 4d orbitals are in the core. Hence the fifth row has the same structure as the fourth. The sixth row of the table likewise starts with two s-block elements: caesium and barium. After this, the first f-block elements (coloured green below) begin to appear, starting with lanthanum. These are sometimes termed inner transition elements. As there are now not only 4f but also 5d and 6s subshells at similar energies, competition occurs once again with many irregular configurations; this resulted in some dispute about where exactly the f-block is supposed to begin, but most who study the matter agree that it starts at lanthanum in accordance with the Aufbau principle. Even though lanthanum does not itself fill the 4f subshell as a single atom, because of repulsion between electrons, its 4f orbitals are low enough in energy to participate in chemistry. At ytterbium, the seven 4f orbitals are completely filled with fourteen electrons; thereafter, a series of ten transition elements (lutetium through mercury) follows, and finally six main-group elements (thallium through radon) complete the period. From lutetium onwards the 4f orbitals are in the core, and from thallium onwards so are the 5d orbitals. The seventh row is analogous to the sixth row: 7s fills (francium and radium), then 5f (actinium to nobelium), then 6d (lawrencium to copernicium), and finally 7p (nihonium to oganesson). Starting from lawrencium the 5f orbitals are in the core, and probably the 6d orbitals join the core starting from nihonium. Again there are a few anomalies along the way: for example, as single atoms neither actinium nor thorium actually fills the 5f subshell, and lawrencium does not fill the 6d shell, but all these subshells can still become filled in chemical environments. For a very long time, the seventh row was incomplete as most of its elements do not occur in nature. The missing elements beyond uranium started to be synthesized in the laboratory in 1940, when neptunium was made. (However, the first element to be discovered by synthesis rather than in nature was technetium in 1937.) The row was completed with the synthesis of tennessine in 2010 (the last element oganesson had already been made in 2002), and the last elements in this seventh row were given names in 2016. This completes the modern periodic table, with all seven rows completely filled to capacity. Electron configuration table The following table shows the electron configuration of a neutral gas-phase atom of each element. Different configurations can be favoured in different chemical environments. The main-group elements have entirely regular electron configurations; the transition and inner transition elements show twenty irregularities due to the aforementioned competition between subshells close in energy level. For the last ten elements (109–118), experimental data is lacking and therefore calculated configurations have been shown instead. Completely filled subshells have been greyed out. Variations Period 1 Although the modern periodic table is standard today, the placement of the period 1 elements hydrogen and helium remains an open issue under discussion, and some variation can be found. Following their respective s1 and s2 electron configurations, hydrogen would be placed in group 1, and helium would be placed in group 2. The group 1 placement of hydrogen is common, but helium is almost always placed in group 18 with the other noble gases. The debate has to do with conflicting understandings of the extent to which chemical or electronic properties should decide periodic table placement. Like the group 1 metals, hydrogen has one electron in its outermost shell and typically loses its only electron in chemical reactions. Hydrogen has some metal-like chemical properties, being able to displace some metals from their salts. But it forms a diatomic nonmetallic gas at standard conditions, unlike the alkali metals which are reactive solid metals. This and hydrogen's formation of hydrides, in which it gains an electron, brings it close to the properties of the halogens which do the same (though it is rarer for hydrogen to form H− than H+). Moreover, the lightest two halogens (fluorine and chlorine) are gaseous like hydrogen at standard conditions. Some properties of hydrogen are not a good fit for either group: hydrogen is neither highly oxidizing nor highly reducing and is not reactive with water. Hydrogen thus has properties corresponding to both those of the alkali metals and the halogens, but matches neither group perfectly, and is thus difficult to place by its chemistry. Therefore, while the electronic placement of hydrogen in group 1 predominates, some rarer arrangements show either hydrogen in group 17, duplicate hydrogen in both groups 1 and 17, or float it separately from all groups. This last option has nonetheless been criticized by the chemist and philosopher of science Eric Scerri on the grounds that it appears to imply that hydrogen is above the periodic law altogether, unlike all the other elements. Helium is the only element that routinely occupies a position in the periodic table that is not consistent with its electronic structure. It has two electrons in its outermost shell, whereas the other noble gases have eight; and it is an s-block element, whereas all other noble gases are p-block elements. However it is unreactive at standard conditions, and has a full outer shell: these properties are like the noble gases in group 18, but not at all like the reactive alkaline earth metals of group 2. For these reasons helium is nearly universally placed in group 18 which its properties best match; a proposal to move helium to group 2 was rejected by IUPAC in 1988 for these reasons. Nonetheless, helium is still occasionally placed in group 2 today, and some of its physical and chemical properties are closer to the group 2 elements and support the electronic placement. Solid helium crystallises in a hexagonal close-packed structure, which matches beryllium and magnesium in group 2, but not the other noble gases in group 18. Recent theoretical developments in noble gas chemistry, in which helium is expected to show slightly less inertness than neon and to form (HeO)(LiF)2 with a structure similar to the analogous beryllium compound (but with no expected neon analogue), have resulted in more chemists advocating a placement of helium in group 2. This relates to the electronic argument, as the reason for neon's greater inertness is repulsion from its filled p-shell that helium lacks, though realistically it is unlikely that helium-containing molecules will be stable outside extreme low-temperature conditions (around 10 K). The first-row anomaly in the periodic table has additionally been cited to support moving helium to group 2. It arises because the first orbital of any type is unusually small, since unlike its higher analogues, it does not experience interelectronic repulsion from a smaller orbital of the same type. This makes the first row of elements in each block unusually small, and such elements tend to exhibit characteristic kinds of anomalies for their group. Some chemists arguing for the repositioning of helium have pointed out that helium exhibits these anomalies if it is placed in group 2, but not if it is placed in group 18: on the other hand, neon, which would be the first group 18 element if helium was removed from that spot, does exhibit those anomalies. The relationship between helium and beryllium is then argued to resemble that between hydrogen and lithium, a placement which is much more commonly accepted. For example, because of this trend in the sizes of orbitals, a large difference in atomic radii between the first and second members of each main group is seen in groups 1 and 13–17: it exists between neon and argon, and between helium and beryllium, but not between helium and neon. This similarly affects the noble gases' boiling points and solubilities in water, where helium is too close to neon, and the large difference characteristic between the first two elements of a group appears only between neon and argon. Moving helium to group 2 makes this trend consistent in groups 2 and 18 as well, by making helium the first group 2 element and neon the first group 18 element: both exhibit the characteristic properties of a kainosymmetric first element of a group. The group 18 placement of helium nonetheless remains near-universal due to its extreme inertness. Additionally, tables that float both hydrogen and helium outside all groups may rarely be encountered. Group 3 In many periodic tables, the f-block is shifted one element to the right, so that lanthanum and actinium become d-block elements in group 3, and Ce–Lu and Th–Lr form the f-block. Thus the d-block is split into two very uneven portions. This is a holdover from early mistaken measurements of electron configurations; modern measurements are more consistent with the form with lutetium and lawrencium in group 3, and with La–Yb and Ac–No as the f-block. The 4f shell is completely filled at ytterbium, and for that reason Lev Landau and Evgeny Lifshitz in 1948 considered it incorrect to group lutetium as an f-block element. They did not yet take the step of removing lanthanum from the d-block as well, but Jun Kondō realized in 1963 that lanthanum's low-temperature superconductivity implied the activity of its 4f shell. In 1965, David C. Hamilton linked this observation to its position in the periodic table, and argued that the f-block should be composed of the elements La–Yb and Ac–No. Since then, physical, chemical, and electronic evidence has supported this assignment. The issue was brought to wide attention by William B. Jensen in 1982, and the reassignment of lutetium and lawrencium to group 3 was supported by IUPAC reports dating from 1988 (when the 1–18 group numbers were recommended) and 2021. The variation nonetheless still exists because most textbook writers are not aware of the issue. A third form can sometimes be encountered in which the spaces below yttrium in group 3 are left empty, such as the table appearing on the IUPAC web site, but this creates an inconsistency with quantum mechanics by making the f-block 15 elements wide (La–Lu and Ac–Lr) even though only 14 electrons can fit in an f-subshell. There is moreover some confusion in the literature on which elements are then implied to be in group 3. While the 2021 IUPAC report noted that 15-element-wide f-blocks are supported by some practitioners of a specialized branch of relativistic quantum mechanics focusing on the properties of superheavy elements, the project's opinion was that such interest-dependent concerns should not have any bearing on how the periodic table is presented to "the general chemical and scientific community". Other authors focusing on superheavy elements since clarified that the "15th entry of the f-block represents the first slot of the d-block which is left vacant to indicate the place of the f-block inserts", which would imply that this form still has lutetium and lawrencium (the 15th entries in question) as d-block elements in group 3. Indeed, when IUPAC publications expand the table to 32 columns, they make this clear and place lutetium and lawrencium under yttrium in group 3. Several arguments in favour of Sc-Y-La-Ac can be encountered in the literature, but they have been challenged as being logically inconsistent. For example, it has been argued that lanthanum and actinium cannot be f-block elements because as individual gas-phase atoms, they have not begun to fill the f-subshells. But the same is true of thorium which is never disputed as an f-block element, and this argument overlooks the problem on the other end: that the f-shells complete filling at ytterbium and nobelium, matching the Sc-Y-Lu-Lr form, and not at lutetium and lawrencium as the Sc-Y-La-Ac form would have it. Not only are such exceptional configurations in the minority, but they have also in any case never been considered as relevant for positioning any other elements on the periodic table: in gaseous atoms, the d-shells complete their filling at copper, palladium, and gold, but it is universally accepted by chemists that these configurations are exceptional and that the d-block really ends in accordance with the Madelung rule at zinc, cadmium, and mercury. The relevant fact for placement is that lanthanum and actinium (like thorium) have valence f-orbitals that can become occupied in chemical environments, whereas lutetium and lawrencium do not: their f-shells are in the core, and cannot be used for chemical reactions. Thus the relationship between yttrium and lanthanum is only a secondary relationship between elements with the same number of valence electrons but different kinds of valence orbitals, such as that between chromium and uranium; whereas the relationship between yttrium and lutetium is primary, sharing both valence electron count and valence orbital type. Periodic trends As chemical reactions involve the valence electrons, elements with similar outer electron configurations may be expected to react similarly and form compounds with similar proportions of elements in them. Such elements are placed in the same group, and thus there tend to be clear similarities and trends in chemical behaviour as one proceeds down a group. As analogous configurations occur at regular intervals, the properties of the elements thus exhibit periodic recurrences, hence the name of the periodic table and the periodic law. These periodic recurrences were noticed well before the underlying theory that explains them was developed. Atomic radius Historically, the physical size of atoms was unknown until the early 20th century. The first calculated estimate of the atomic radius of hydrogen was published by physicist Arthur Haas in 1910 to within an order of magnitude (a factor of 10) of the accepted value, the Bohr radius (~0.529 Å). In his model, Haas used a single-electron configuration based on the classical atomic model proposed by J. J. Thomson in 1904, often called the plum-pudding model. Atomic radii (the size of atoms) are dependent on the sizes of their outermost orbitals. They generally decrease going left to right along the main-group elements, because the nuclear charge increases but the outer electrons are still in the same shell. However, going down a column, the radii generally increase, because the outermost electrons are in higher shells that are thus further away from the nucleus. The first row of each block is abnormally small, due to an effect called kainosymmetry or primogenic repulsion: the 1s, 2p, 3d, and 4f subshells have no inner analogues. For example, the 2p orbitals do not experience strong repulsion from the 1s and 2s orbitals, which have quite different angular charge distributions, and hence are not very large; but the 3p orbitals experience strong repulsion from the 2p orbitals, which have similar angular charge distributions. Thus higher s-, p-, d-, and f-subshells experience strong repulsion from their inner analogues, which have approximately the same angular distribution of charge, and must expand to avoid this. This makes significant differences arise between the small 2p elements, which prefer multiple bonding, and the larger 3p and higher p-elements, which do not. Similar anomalies arise for the 1s, 2p, 3d, 4f, and the hypothetical 5g elements: the degree of this first-row anomaly is highest for the s-block, is moderate for the p-block, and is less pronounced for the d- and f-blocks. In the transition elements, an inner shell is filling, but the size of the atom is still determined by the outer electrons. The increasing nuclear charge across the series and the increased number of inner electrons for shielding somewhat compensate each other, so the decrease in radius is smaller. The 4p and 5d atoms, coming immediately after new types of transition series are first introduced, are smaller than would have been expected, because the added core 3d and 4f subshells provide only incomplete shielding of the nuclear charge for the outer electrons. Hence for example gallium atoms are slightly smaller than aluminium atoms. Together with kainosymmetry, this results in an even-odd difference between the periods (except in the s-block) that is sometimes known as secondary periodicity: elements in even periods have smaller atomic radii and prefer to lose fewer electrons, while elements in odd periods (except the first) differ in the opposite direction. Thus for example many properties in the p-block show a zigzag rather than a smooth trend along the group. For example, phosphorus and antimony in odd periods of group 15 readily reach the +5 oxidation state, whereas nitrogen, arsenic, and bismuth in even periods prefer to stay at +3. A similar situation holds for the d-block, with lutetium through tungsten atoms being slightly smaller than yttrium through molybdenum atoms respectively. Thallium and lead atoms are about the same size as indium and tin atoms respectively, but from bismuth to radon the 6p atoms are larger than the analogous 5p atoms. This happens because when atomic nuclei become highly charged, special relativity becomes needed to gauge the effect of the nucleus on the electron cloud. These relativistic effects result in heavy elements increasingly having differing properties compared to their lighter homologues in the periodic table. Spin–orbit interaction splits the p-subshell: one p-orbital is relativistically stabilized and shrunken (it fills in thallium and lead), but the other two (filling in bismuth through radon) are relativistically destabilized and expanded. Relativistic effects also explain why gold is golden and mercury is a liquid at room temperature. They are expected to become very strong in the late seventh period, potentially leading to a collapse of periodicity. Electron configurations are only clearly known until element 108 (hassium), and experimental chemistry beyond 108 has only been done for 112 (copernicium), 113 (nihonium), and 114 (flerovium), so the chemical characterization of the heaviest elements remains a topic of current research. The trend that atomic radii decrease from left to right is also present in ionic radii, though it is more difficult to examine because the most common ions of consecutive elements normally differ in charge. Ions with the same electron configuration decrease in size as their atomic number rises, due to increased attraction from the more positively charged nucleus: thus for example ionic radii decrease in the series Se2−, Br−, Rb+, Sr2+, Y3+, Zr4+, Nb5+, Mo6+, Tc7+. Ions of the same element get smaller as more electrons are removed, because the attraction from the nucleus begins to outweigh the repulsion between electrons that causes electron clouds to expand: thus for example ionic radii decrease in the series V2+, V3+, V4+, V5+. Ionisation energy The first ionisation energy of an atom is the energy required to remove an electron from it. This varies with the atomic radius: ionisation energy increases left to right and down to up, because electrons that are closer to the nucleus are held more tightly and are more difficult to remove. Ionisation energy thus is minimized at the first element of each period – hydrogen and the alkali metals – and then generally rises until it reaches the noble gas at the right edge of the period. There are some exceptions to this trend, such as oxygen, where the electron being removed is paired and thus interelectronic repulsion makes it easier to remove than expected. In the transition series, the outer electrons are preferentially lost even though the inner orbitals are filling. For example, in the 3d series, the 4s electrons are lost first even though the 3d orbitals are being filled. The shielding effect of adding an extra 3d electron approximately compensates the rise in nuclear charge, and therefore the ionisation energies stay mostly constant, though there is a small increase especially at the end of each transition series. As metal atoms tend to lose electrons in chemical reactions, ionisation energy is generally correlated with chemical reactivity, although there are other factors involved as well. Electron affinity The opposite property to ionisation energy is the electron affinity, which is the energy released when adding an electron to the atom. A passing electron will be more readily attracted to an atom if it feels the pull of the nucleus more strongly, and especially if there is an available partially filled outer orbital that can accommodate it. Therefore, electron affinity tends to increase down to up and left to right. The exception is the last column, the noble gases, which have a full shell and have no room for another electron. This gives the halogens in the next-to-last column the highest electron affinities. Some atoms, like the noble gases, have no electron affinity: they cannot form stable gas-phase anions. (They can form metastable resonances if the incoming electron arrives with enough kinetic energy, but these inevitably and rapidly autodetach: for example, the lifetime of the most long-lived He− level is about 359 microseconds.) The noble gases, having high ionisation energies and no electron affinity, have little inclination towards gaining or losing electrons and are generally unreactive. Some exceptions to the trends occur: oxygen and fluorine have lower electron affinities than their heavier homologues sulfur and chlorine, because they are small atoms and hence the newly added electron would experience significant repulsion from the already present ones. For the nonmetallic elements, electron affinity likewise somewhat correlates with reactivity, but not perfectly since other factors are involved. For example, fluorine has a lower electron affinity than chlorine (because of extreme interelectronic repulsion for the very small fluorine atom), but is more reactive. Valence and oxidation states The valence of an element can be defined either as the number of hydrogen atoms that can combine with it to form a simple binary hydride, or as twice the number of oxygen atoms that can combine with it to form a simple binary oxide (that is, not a peroxide or a superoxide). The valences of the main-group elements are directly related to the group number: the hydrides in the main groups 1–2 and 13–17 follow the formulae MH, MH2, MH3, MH4, MH3, MH2, and finally MH. The highest oxides instead increase in valence, following the formulae M2O, MO, M2O3, MO2, M2O5, MO3, M2O7. Today the notion of valence has been extended by that of the oxidation state, which is the formal charge left on an element when all other elements in a compound have been removed as their ions. The electron configuration suggests a ready explanation from the number of electrons available for bonding; indeed, the number of valence electrons starts at 1 in group 1, and then increases towards the right side of the periodic table, only resetting at 3 whenever each new block starts. Thus in period 6, Cs–Ba have 1–2 valence electrons; La–Yb have 3–16; Lu–Hg have 3–12; and Tl–Rn have 3–8. However, towards the right side of the d- and f-blocks, the theoretical maximum corresponding to using all valence electrons is not achievable at all; the same situation affects oxygen, fluorine, and the light noble gases up to krypton. A full explanation requires considering the energy that would be released in forming compounds with different valences rather than simply considering electron configurations alone. For example, magnesium forms Mg2+ rather than Mg+ cations when dissolved in water, because the latter would spontaneously disproportionate into Mg0 and Mg2+ cations. This is because the enthalpy of hydration (surrounding the cation with water molecules) increases in magnitude with the charge and radius of the ion. In Mg+, the outermost orbital (which determines ionic radius) is still 3s, so the hydration enthalpy is small and insufficient to compensate the energy required to remove the electron; but ionizing again to Mg2+ uncovers the core 2p subshell, making the hydration enthalpy large enough to allow magnesium(II) compounds to form. For similar reasons, the common oxidation states of the heavier p-block elements (where the ns electrons become lower in energy than the np) tend to vary by steps of 2, because that is necessary to uncover an inner subshell and decrease the ionic radius (e.g. Tl+ uncovers 6s, and Tl3+ uncovers 5d, so once thallium loses two electrons it tends to lose the third one as well). Analogous arguments based on orbital hybridization can be used for the less electronegative p-block elements. For transition metals, common oxidation states are nearly always at least +2 for similar reasons (uncovering the next subshell); this holds even for the metals with anomalous dx+1s1 or dx+2s0 configurations (except for silver), because repulsion between d-electrons means that the movement of the second electron from the s- to the d-subshell does not appreciably change its ionisation energy. Because ionizing the transition metals further does not uncover any new inner subshells, their oxidation states tend to vary by steps of 1 instead. The lanthanides and late actinides generally show a stable +3 oxidation state, removing the outer s-electrons and then (usually) one electron from the (n−2)f-orbitals, that are similar in energy to ns. The common and maximum oxidation states of the d- and f-block elements tend to depend on the ionisation energies. As the energy difference between the (n−1)d and ns orbitals rises along each transition series, it becomes less energetically favourable to ionize further electrons. Thus, the early transition metal groups tend to prefer higher oxidation states, but the +2 oxidation state becomes more stable for the late transition metal groups. The highest formal oxidation state thus increases from +3 at the beginning of each d-block row, to +7 or +8 in the middle (e.g. OsO4), and then decrease to +2 at the end. The lanthanides and late actinides usually have high fourth ionisation energies and hence rarely surpass the +3 oxidation state, whereas early actinides have low fourth ionisation energies and so for example neptunium and plutonium can reach +7. The very last actinides go further than the lanthanides towards low oxidation states: mendelevium is more easily reduced to the +2 state than thulium or even europium (the lanthanide with the most stable +2 state, on account of its half-filled f-shell), and nobelium outright favours +2 over +3, in contrast to ytterbium. As elements in the same group share the same valence configurations, they usually exhibit similar chemical behaviour. For example, the alkali metals in the first group all have one valence electron, and form a very homogeneous class of elements: they are all soft and reactive metals. However, there are many factors involved, and groups can often be rather heterogeneous. For instance, hydrogen also has one valence electron and is in the same group as the alkali metals, but its chemical behaviour is quite different. The stable elements of group 14 comprise a nonmetal (carbon), two semiconductors (silicon and germanium), and two metals (tin and lead); they are nonetheless united by having four valence electrons. This often leads to similarities in maximum and minimum oxidation states (e.g. sulfur and selenium in group 16 both have maximum oxidation state +6, as in SO3 and SeO3, and minimum oxidation state −2, as in sulfides and selenides); but not always (e.g. oxygen is not known to form oxidation state +6, despite being in the same group as sulfur and selenium). Electronegativity Another important property of elements is their electronegativity. Atoms can form covalent bonds to each other by sharing electrons in pairs, creating an overlap of valence orbitals. The degree to which each atom attracts the shared electron pair depends on the atom's electronegativity – the tendency of an atom towards gaining or losing electrons. The more electronegative atom will tend to attract the electron pair more, and the less electronegative (or more electropositive) one will attract it less. In extreme cases, the electron can be thought of as having been passed completely from the more electropositive atom to the more electronegative one, though this is a simplification. The bond then binds two ions, one positive (having given up the electron) and one negative (having accepted it), and is termed an ionic bond. Electronegativity depends on how strongly the nucleus can attract an electron pair, and so it exhibits a similar variation to the other properties already discussed: electronegativity tends to fall going up to down, and rise going left to right. The alkali and alkaline earth metals are among the most electropositive elements, while the chalcogens, halogens, and noble gases are among the most electronegative ones. Electronegativity is generally measured on the Pauling scale, on which the most electronegative reactive atom (fluorine) is given electronegativity 4.0, and the least electronegative atom (caesium) is given electronegativity 0.79. In fact neon is the most electronegative element, but the Pauling scale cannot measure its electronegativity because it does not form covalent bonds with most elements. An element's electronegativity varies with the identity and number of the atoms it is bonded to, as well as how many electrons it has already lost: an atom becomes more electronegative when it has lost more electrons. This sometimes makes a large difference: lead in the +2 oxidation state has electronegativity 1.87 on the Pauling scale, while lead in the +4 oxidation state has electronegativity 2.33. Metallicity A simple substance is a substance formed from atoms of one chemical element. The simple substances of the more electronegative atoms tend to share electrons (form covalent bonds) with each other. They form either small molecules (like hydrogen or oxygen, whose atoms bond in pairs) or giant structures stretching indefinitely (like carbon or silicon). The noble gases simply stay as single atoms, as they already have a full shell. Substances composed of discrete molecules or single atoms are held together by weaker attractive forces between the molecules, such as the London dispersion force: as electrons move within the molecules, they create momentary imbalances of electrical charge, which induce similar imbalances on nearby molecules and create synchronized movements of electrons across many neighbouring molecules. The more electropositive atoms, however, tend to instead lose electrons, creating a "sea" of electrons engulfing cations. The outer orbitals of one atom overlap to share electrons with all its neighbours, creating a giant structure of molecular orbitals extending over all the atoms. This negatively charged "sea" pulls on all the ions and keeps them together in a metallic bond. Elements forming such bonds are often called metals; those which do not are often called nonmetals. Some elements can form multiple simple substances with different structures: these are called allotropes. For example, diamond and graphite are two allotropes of carbon. The metallicity of an element can be predicted from electronic properties. When atomic orbitals overlap during metallic or covalent bonding, they create both bonding and antibonding molecular orbitals of equal capacity, with the antibonding orbitals of higher energy. Net bonding character occurs when there are more electrons in the bonding orbitals than there are in the antibonding orbitals. Metallic bonding is thus possible when the number of electrons delocalized by each atom is less than twice the number of orbitals contributing to the overlap. This is the situation for elements in groups 1 through 13; they also have too few valence electrons to form giant covalent structures where all atoms take equivalent positions, and so almost all of them metallise. The exceptions are hydrogen and boron, which have too high an ionisation energy. Hydrogen thus forms a covalent H2 molecule, and boron forms a giant covalent structure based on icosahedral B12 clusters. In a metal, the bonding and antibonding orbitals have overlapping energies, creating a single band that electrons can freely flow through, allowing for electrical conduction. In group 14, both metallic and covalent bonding become possible. In a diamond crystal, covalent bonds between carbon atoms are strong, because they have a small atomic radius and thus the nucleus has more of a hold on the electrons. Therefore, the bonding orbitals that result are much lower in energy than the antibonding orbitals, and there is no overlap, so electrical conduction becomes impossible: carbon is a nonmetal. However, covalent bonding becomes weaker for larger atoms and the energy gap between the bonding and antibonding orbitals decreases. Therefore, silicon and germanium have smaller band gaps and are semiconductors at ambient conditions: electrons can cross the gap when thermally excited. (Boron is also a semiconductor at ambient conditions.) The band gap disappears in tin, so that tin and lead become metals. As the temperature rises, all nonmetals develop some semiconducting properties, to a greater or lesser extent depending on the size of the band gap. Thus metals and nonmetals may be distinguished by the temperature dependence of their electrical conductivity: a metal's conductivity lowers as temperature rises (because thermal motion makes it more difficult for the electrons to flow freely), whereas a nonmetal's conductivity rises (as more electrons may be excited to cross the gap). Elements in groups 15 through 17 have too many electrons to form giant covalent molecules that stretch in all three dimensions. For the lighter elements, the bonds in small diatomic molecules are so strong that a condensed phase is disfavoured: thus nitrogen (N2), oxygen (O2), white phosphorus and yellow arsenic (P4 and As4), sulfur and red selenium (S8 and Se8), and the stable halogens (F2, Cl2, Br2, and I2) readily form covalent molecules with few atoms. The heavier ones tend to form long chains (e.g. red phosphorus, grey selenium, tellurium) or layered structures (e.g. carbon as graphite, black phosphorus, grey arsenic, antimony, bismuth) that only extend in one or two rather than three dimensions. Both kinds of structures can be found as allotropes of phosphorus, arsenic, and selenium, although the long-chained allotropes are more stable in all three. As these structures do not use all their orbitals for bonding, they end up with bonding, nonbonding, and antibonding bands in order of increasing energy. Similarly to group 14, the band gaps shrink for the heavier elements and free movement of electrons between the chains or layers becomes possible. Thus for example black phosphorus, black arsenic, grey selenium, tellurium, and iodine are semiconductors; grey arsenic, antimony, and bismuth are semimetals (exhibiting quasi-metallic conduction, with a very small band overlap); and polonium and probably astatine are true metals. Finally, the natural group 18 elements all stay as individual atoms. The dividing line between metals and nonmetals is roughly diagonal from top left to bottom right, with the transition series appearing to the left of this diagonal (as they have many available orbitals for overlap). This is expected, as metallicity tends to be correlated with electropositivity and the willingness to lose electrons, which increases right to left and up to down. Thus the metals greatly outnumber the nonmetals. Elements near the borderline are difficult to classify: they tend to have properties that are intermediate between those of metals and nonmetals, and may have some properties characteristic of both. They are often termed semimetals or metalloids. The term "semimetal" used in this sense should not be confused with its strict physical sense having to do with band structure: bismuth is physically a semimetal, but is generally considered a metal by chemists. The following table considers the most stable allotropes at standard conditions. The elements coloured yellow form simple substances that are well-characterised by metallic bonding. Elements coloured light blue form giant network covalent structures, whereas those coloured dark blue form small covalently bonded molecules that are held together by weaker van der Waals forces. The noble gases are coloured in violet: their molecules are single atoms and no covalent bonding occurs. Greyed-out cells are for elements which have not been prepared in sufficient quantities for their most stable allotropes to have been characterized in this way. Theoretical considerations and current experimental evidence suggest that all of those elements would metallise if they could form condensed phases, except perhaps for oganesson. Generally, metals are shiny and dense. They usually have high melting and boiling points due to the strength of the metallic bond, and are often malleable and ductile (easily stretched and shaped) because the atoms can move relative to each other without breaking the metallic bond. They conduct electricity because their electrons are free to move in all three dimensions. Similarly, they conduct heat, which is transferred by the electrons as extra kinetic energy: they move faster. These properties persist in the liquid state, as although the crystal structure is destroyed on melting, the atoms still touch and the metallic bond persists, though it is weakened. Metals tend to be reactive towards nonmetals. Some exceptions can be found to these generalizations: for example, beryllium, chromium, manganese, antimony, bismuth, and uranium are brittle (not an exhaustive list); chromium is extremely hard; gallium, rubidium, caesium, and mercury are liquid at or close to room temperature; and noble metals such as gold are chemically very inert. Nonmetals exhibit different properties. Those forming giant covalent crystals exhibit high melting and boiling points, as it takes considerable energy to overcome the strong covalent bonds. Those forming discrete molecules are held together mostly by dispersion forces, which are more easily overcome; thus they tend to have lower melting and boiling points, and many are liquids or gases at room temperature. Nonmetals are often dull-looking. They tend to be reactive towards metals, except for the noble gases, which are inert towards most substances. They are brittle when solid as their atoms are held tightly in place. They are less dense and conduct electricity poorly, because there are no mobile electrons. Near the borderline, band gaps are small and thus many elements in that region are semiconductors, such as silicon, germanium, and tellurium. Selenium has both a semiconducting grey allotrope and an insulating red allotrope; arsenic has a metallic grey allotrope, a semiconducting black allotrope, and an insulating yellow allotrope (though the last is unstable at ambient conditions). Again there are exceptions; for example, diamond has the highest thermal conductivity of all known materials, greater than any metal. It is common to designate a class of metalloids straddling the boundary between metals and nonmetals, as elements in that region are intermediate in both physical and chemical properties. However, no consensus exists in the literature for precisely which elements should be so designated. When such a category is used, silicon, germanium, arsenic, and tellurium are almost always included, and boron and antimony usually are; but most sources include other elements as well, without agreement on which extra elements should be added, and some others subtract from this list instead. For example, unlike all the other elements generally considered metalloids or nonmetals, antimony's only stable form has metallic conductivity. Moreover, the element resembles bismuth and, more generally, the other p-block metals in its physical and chemical behaviour. On this basis some authors have argued that it is better classified as a metal than as a metalloid. On the other hand, selenium has some semiconducting properties in its most stable form (though it also has insulating allotropes) and it has been argued that it should be considered a metalloid – though this situation also holds for phosphorus, which is a much rarer inclusion among the metalloids. Further manifestations of periodicity There are some other relationships throughout the periodic table between elements that are not in the same group, such as the diagonal relationships between elements that are diagonally adjacent (e.g. lithium and magnesium). Some similarities can also be found between the main groups and the transition metal groups, or between the early actinides and early transition metals, when the elements have the same number of valence electrons. Thus uranium somewhat resembles chromium and tungsten in group 6, as all three have six valence electrons. Relationships between elements with the same number of valence electrons but different types of valence orbital have been called secondary or isodonor relationships: they usually have the same maximum oxidation states, but not the same minimum oxidation states. For example, chlorine and manganese both have +7 as their maximum oxidation state (e.g. Cl2O7 and Mn2O7), but their respective minimum oxidation states are −1 (e.g. HCl) and −3 (K2[Mn(CO)4]). Elements with the same number of valence vacancies but different numbers of valence electrons are related by a tertiary or isoacceptor relationship: they usually have similar minimum but not maximum oxidation states. For example, hydrogen and chlorine both have −1 as their minimum oxidation state (in hydrides and chlorides), but hydrogen's maximum oxidation state is +1 (e.g. H2O) while chlorine's is +7. Many other physical properties of the elements exhibit periodic variation in accordance with the periodic law, such as melting points, boiling points, heats of fusion, heats of vaporization, atomisation energy, and so on. Similar periodic variations appear for the compounds of the elements, which can be observed by comparing hydrides, oxides, sulfides, halides, and so on. Chemical properties are more difficult to describe quantitatively, but likewise exhibit their own periodicities. Examples include the variation in the acidic and basic properties of the elements and their compounds, the stabilities of compounds, and methods of isolating the elements. Periodicity is and has been used very widely to predict the properties of unknown new elements and new compounds, and is central to modern chemistry. Classification of elements Many terms have been used in the literature to describe sets of elements that behave similarly. The group names alkali metal, alkaline earth metal, triel, tetrel, pnictogen, chalcogen, halogen, and noble gas are acknowledged by IUPAC; the other groups can be referred to by their number, or by their first element (e.g., group 6 is the chromium group). Some divide the p-block elements from groups 13 to 16 by metallicity, although there is neither an IUPAC definition nor a precise consensus on exactly which elements should be considered metals, nonmetals, or semi-metals (sometimes called metalloids). Neither is there a consensus on what the metals succeeding the transition metals ought to be called, with post-transition metal and poor metal being among the possibilities having been used. Some advanced monographs exclude the elements of group 12 from the transition metals on the grounds of their sometimes quite different chemical properties, but this is not a universal practice and IUPAC does not presently mention it as allowable in its Principles of Chemical Nomenclature. The lanthanides are considered to be the elements La–Lu, which are all very similar to each other: historically they included only Ce–Lu, but lanthanum became included by common usage. The rare earth elements (or rare earth metals) add scandium and yttrium to the lanthanides. Analogously, the actinides are considered to be the elements Ac–Lr (historically Th–Lr), although variation of properties in this set is much greater than within the lanthanides. IUPAC recommends the names lanthanoids and actinoids to avoid ambiguity, as the -ide suffix typically denotes a negative ion; however lanthanides and actinides remain common. With the increasing recognition of lutetium and lawrencium as d-block elements, some authors began to define the lanthanides as La–Yb and the actinides as Ac–No, matching the f-block. The transactinides or superheavy elements are the short-lived elements beyond the actinides, starting at lawrencium or rutherfordium (depending on where the actinides are taken to end). Many more categorizations exist and are used according to certain disciplines. In astrophysics, a metal is defined as any element with atomic number greater than 2, i.e. anything except hydrogen and helium. The term "semimetal" has a different definition in physics than it does in chemistry: bismuth is a semimetal by physical definitions, but chemists generally consider it a metal. A few terms are widely used, but without any very formal definition, such as "heavy metal", which has been given such a wide range of definitions that it has been criticized as "effectively meaningless". The scope of terms varies significantly between authors. For example, according to IUPAC, the noble gases extend to include the whole group, including the very radioactive superheavy element oganesson. However, among those who specialize in the superheavy elements, this is not often done: in this case "noble gas" is typically taken to imply the unreactive behaviour of the lighter elements of the group. Since calculations generally predict that oganesson should not be particularly inert due to relativistic effects, and may not even be a gas at room temperature if it could be produced in bulk, its status as a noble gas is often questioned in this context. Furthermore, national variations are sometimes encountered: in Japan, alkaline earth metals often do not include beryllium and magnesium as their behaviour is different from the heavier group 2 metals. History Early history In 1817, German physicist Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner began to formulate one of the earliest attempts to classify the elements. In 1829, he found that he could form some of the elements into groups of three, with the members of each group having related properties. He termed these groups triads. Chlorine, bromine, and iodine formed a triad; as did calcium, strontium, and barium; lithium, sodium, and potassium; and sulfur, selenium, and tellurium. Today, all these triads form part of modern-day groups: the halogens, alkaline earth metals, alkali metals, and chalcogens. Various chemists continued his work and were able to identify more and more relationships between small groups of elements. However, they could not build one scheme that encompassed them all. John Newlands published a letter in the Chemical News in February 1863 on the periodicity among the chemical elements. In 1864 Newlands published an article in the Chemical News showing that if the elements are arranged in the order of their atomic weights, those having consecutive numbers frequently either belong to the same group or occupy similar positions in different groups, and he pointed out that each eighth element starting from a given one is in this arrangement a kind of repetition of the first, like the eighth note of an octave in music (The Law of Octaves). However, Newlands's formulation only worked well for the main-group elements, and encountered serious problems with the others. German chemist Lothar Meyer noted the sequences of similar chemical and physical properties repeated at periodic intervals. According to him, if the atomic weights were plotted as ordinates (i.e. vertically) and the atomic volumes as abscissas (i.e. horizontally)—the curve obtained a series of maximums and minimums—the most electropositive elements would appear at the peaks of the curve in the order of their atomic weights. In 1864, a book of his was published; it contained an early version of the periodic table containing 28 elements, and classified elements into six families by their valence—for the first time, elements had been grouped according to their valence. Works on organizing the elements by atomic weight had until then been stymied by inaccurate measurements of the atomic weights. In 1868, he revised his table, but this revision was published as a draft only after his death. Mendeleev The definitive breakthrough came from the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev. Although other chemists (including Meyer) had found some other versions of the periodic system at about the same time, Mendeleev was the most dedicated to developing and defending his system, and it was his system that most affected the scientific community. On 17 February 1869 (1 March 1869 in the Gregorian calendar), Mendeleev began arranging the elements and comparing them by their atomic weights. He began with a few elements, and over the course of the day his system grew until it encompassed most of the known elements. After he found a consistent arrangement, his printed table appeared in May 1869 in the journal of the Russian Chemical Society. When elements did not appear to fit in the system, he boldly predicted that either valencies or atomic weights had been measured incorrectly, or that there was a missing element yet to be discovered. In 1871, Mendeleev published a long article, including an updated form of his table, that made his predictions for unknown elements explicit. Mendeleev predicted the properties of three of these unknown elements in detail: as they would be missing heavier homologues of boron, aluminium, and silicon, he named them eka-boron, eka-aluminium, and eka-silicon ("eka" being Sanskrit for "one").: 45  In 1875, the French chemist Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, working without knowledge of Mendeleev's prediction, discovered a new element in a sample of the mineral sphalerite, and named it gallium. He isolated the element and began determining its properties. Mendeleev, reading de Boisbaudran's publication, sent a letter claiming that gallium was his predicted eka-aluminium. Although Lecoq de Boisbaudran was initially sceptical, and suspected that Mendeleev was trying to take credit for his discovery, he later admitted that Mendeleev was correct. In 1879, the Swedish chemist Lars Fredrik Nilson discovered a new element, which he named scandium: it turned out to be eka-boron. Eka-silicon was found in 1886 by German chemist Clemens Winkler, who named it germanium. The properties of gallium, scandium, and germanium matched what Mendeleev had predicted. In 1889, Mendeleev noted at the Faraday Lecture to the Royal Institution in London that he had not expected to live long enough "to mention their discovery to the Chemical Society of Great Britain as a confirmation of the exactitude and generality of the periodic law". Even the discovery of the noble gases at the close of the 19th century, which Mendeleev had not predicted, fitted neatly into his scheme as an eighth main group. Mendeleev nevertheless had some trouble fitting the known lanthanides into his scheme, as they did not exhibit the periodic change in valencies that the other elements did. After much investigation, the Czech chemist Bohuslav Brauner suggested in 1902 that the lanthanides could all be placed together in one group on the periodic table. He named this the "asteroid hypothesis" as an astronomical analogy: just as there is an asteroid belt instead of a single planet between Mars and Jupiter, so the place below yttrium was thought to be occupied by all the lanthanides instead of just one element. Atomic number After the internal structure of the atom was probed, amateur Dutch physicist Antonius van den Broek proposed in 1913 that the nuclear charge determined the placement of elements in the periodic table. The New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford coined the word "atomic number" for this nuclear charge. In van den Broek's published article he illustrated the first electronic periodic table showing the elements arranged according to the number of their electrons. Rutherford confirmed in his 1914 paper that Bohr had accepted the view of van den Broek. The same year, English physicist Henry Moseley using X-ray spectroscopy confirmed van den Broek's proposal experimentally. Moseley determined the value of the nuclear charge of each element from aluminium to gold and showed that Mendeleev's ordering actually places the elements in sequential order by nuclear charge. Nuclear charge is identical to proton count and determines the value of the atomic number (Z) of each element. Using atomic number gives a definitive, integer-based sequence for the elements. Moseley's research immediately resolved discrepancies between atomic weight and chemical properties; these were cases such as tellurium and iodine, where atomic number increases but atomic weight decreases. Although Moseley was soon killed in World War I, the Swedish physicist Manne Siegbahn continued his work up to uranium, and established that it was the element with the highest atomic number then known (92). Based on Moseley and Siegbahn's research, it was also known which atomic numbers corresponded to missing elements yet to be found: 43, 61, 72, 75, 85, and 87. (Element 75 had in fact already been found by Japanese chemist Masataka Ogawa in 1908 and named nipponium, but he mistakenly assigned it as element 43 instead of 75 and so his discovery was not generally recognized until later. The contemporarily accepted discovery of element 75 came in 1925, when Walter Noddack, Ida Tacke, and Otto Berg independently rediscovered it and gave it its present name, rhenium.) The dawn of atomic physics also clarified the situation of isotopes. In the decay chains of the primordial radioactive elements thorium and uranium, it soon became evident that there were many apparent new elements that had different atomic weights but exactly the same chemical properties. In 1913, Frederick Soddy coined the term "isotope" to describe this situation, and considered isotopes to merely be different forms of the same chemical element. This furthermore clarified discrepancies such as tellurium and iodine: tellurium's natural isotopic composition is weighted towards heavier isotopes than iodine's, but tellurium has a lower atomic number. Electron shells The Danish physicist Niels Bohr applied Max Planck's idea of quantization to the atom. He concluded that the energy levels of electrons were quantised: only a discrete set of stable energy states were allowed. Bohr then attempted to understand periodicity through electron configurations, surmising in 1913 that the inner electrons should be responsible for the chemical properties of the element. In 1913, he produced the first electronic periodic table based on a quantum atom. Bohr called his electron shells "rings" in 1913: atomic orbitals within shells did not exist at the time of his planetary model. Bohr explains in Part 3 of his famous 1913 paper that the maximum electrons in a shell is eight, writing, "We see, further, that a ring of n electrons cannot rotate in a single ring round a nucleus of charge ne unless n < 8." For smaller atoms, the electron shells would be filled as follows: "rings of electrons will only join if they contain equal numbers of electrons; and that accordingly the numbers of electrons on inner rings will only be 2, 4, 8." However, in larger atoms the innermost shell would contain eight electrons: "on the other hand, the periodic system of the elements strongly suggests that already in neon N = 10 an inner ring of eight electrons will occur." His proposed electron configurations for the atoms (shown to the right) mostly do not accord with those now known. They were improved further after the work of Arnold Sommerfeld and Edmund Stoner discovered more quantum numbers. The first one to systematically expand and correct the chemical potentials of Bohr's atomic theory was Walther Kossel in 1914 and in 1916. Kossel explained that in the periodic table new elements would be created as electrons were added to the outer shell. In Kossel's paper, he writes: "This leads to the conclusion that the electrons, which are added further, should be put into concentric rings or shells, on each of which ... only a certain number of electrons—namely, eight in our case—should be arranged. As soon as one ring or shell is completed, a new one has to be started for the next element; the number of electrons, which are most easily accessible, and lie at the outermost periphery, increases again from element to element and, therefore, in the formation of each new shell the chemical periodicity is repeated." In a 1919 paper, Irving Langmuir postulated the existence of "cells" which we now call orbitals, which could each only contain two electrons each, and these were arranged in "equidistant layers" which we now call shells. He made an exception for the first shell to only contain two electrons. The chemist Charles Rugeley Bury suggested in 1921 that eight and eighteen electrons in a shell form stable configurations. Bury proposed that the electron configurations in transitional elements depended upon the valence electrons in their outer shell. He introduced the word transition to describe the elements now known as transition metals or transition elements. Bohr's theory was vindicated by the discovery of element 72: Georges Urbain claimed to have discovered it as the rare earth element celtium, but Bury and Bohr had predicted that element 72 could not be a rare earth element and had to be a homologue of zirconium. Dirk Coster and Georg von Hevesy searched for the element in zirconium ores and found element 72, which they named hafnium after Bohr's hometown of Copenhagen (Hafnia in Latin). Urbain's celtium proved to be simply purified lutetium (element 71). Hafnium and rhenium thus became the last stable elements to be discovered. Prompted by Bohr, Wolfgang Pauli took up the problem of electron configurations in 1923. Pauli extended Bohr's scheme to use four quantum numbers, and formulated his exclusion principle which stated that no two electrons could have the same four quantum numbers. This explained the lengths of the periods in the periodic table (2, 8, 18, and 32), which corresponded to the number of electrons that each shell could occupy. In 1925, Friedrich Hund arrived at configurations close to the modern ones. As a result of these advances, periodicity became based on the number of chemically active or valence electrons rather than by the valences of the elements. The Aufbau principle that describes the electron configurations of the elements was first empirically observed by Erwin Madelung in 1926, though the first to publish it was Vladimir Karapetoff in 1930. In 1961, Vsevolod Klechkovsky derived the first part of the Madelung rule (that orbitals fill in order of increasing n + ℓ) from the Thomas–Fermi model; the complete rule was derived from a similar potential in 1971 by Yury N. Demkov and Valentin N. Ostrovsky. The quantum theory clarified the transition metals and lanthanides as forming their own separate groups, transitional between the main groups, although some chemists had already proposed tables showing them this way before then: the English chemist Henry Bassett did so in 1892, the Danish chemist Julius Thomsen in 1895, and the Swiss chemist Alfred Werner in 1905. Bohr used Thomsen's form in his 1922 Nobel Lecture; Werner's form is very similar to the modern 32-column form. In particular, this supplanted Brauner's asteroidal hypothesis. The exact position of the lanthanides, and thus the composition of group 3, remained under dispute for decades longer because their electron configurations were initially measured incorrectly. On chemical grounds Bassett, Werner, and Bury grouped scandium and yttrium with lutetium rather than lanthanum (the former two left an empty space below yttrium as lutetium had not yet been discovered). Hund assumed in 1927 that all the lanthanide atoms had configuration [Xe]4f0−145d16s2, on account of their prevailing trivalency. It is now known that the relationship between chemistry and electron configuration is more complicated than that. Early spectroscopic evidence seemed to confirm these configurations, and thus the periodic table was structured to have group 3 as scandium, yttrium, lanthanum, and actinium, with fourteen f-elements breaking up the d-block between lanthanum and hafnium. But it was later discovered that this is only true for four of the fifteen lanthanides (lanthanum, cerium, gadolinium, and lutetium), and that the other lanthanide atoms do not have a d-electron. In particular, ytterbium completes the 4f shell and thus Soviet physicists Lev Landau and Evgeny Lifshitz noted in 1948 that lutetium is correctly regarded as a d-block rather than an f-block element; that bulk lanthanum is an f-metal was first suggested by Jun Kondō in 1963, on the grounds of its low-temperature superconductivity. This clarified the importance of looking at low-lying excited states of atoms that can play a role in chemical environments when classifying elements by block and positioning them on the table. Many authors subsequently rediscovered this correction based on physical, chemical, and electronic concerns and applied it to all the relevant elements, thus making group 3 contain scandium, yttrium, lutetium, and lawrencium and having lanthanum through ytterbium and actinium through nobelium as the f-block rows: this corrected version achieves consistency with the Madelung rule and vindicates Bassett, Werner, and Bury's initial chemical placement. In 1988, IUPAC released a report supporting this composition of group 3, a decision that was reaffirmed in 2021. Variation can still be found in textbooks on the composition of group 3, and some argumentation against this format is still published today, but chemists and physicists who have considered the matter largely agree on group 3 containing scandium, yttrium, lutetium, and lawrencium and challenge the counterarguments as being inconsistent. Synthetic elements By 1936, the pool of missing elements from hydrogen to uranium had shrunk to four: elements 43, 61, 85, and 87 remained missing. Element 43 eventually became the first element to be synthesized artificially via nuclear reactions rather than discovered in nature. It was discovered in 1937 by Italian chemists Emilio Segrè and Carlo Perrier, who named their discovery technetium, after the Greek word for "artificial". Elements 61 (promethium) and 85 (astatine) were likewise produced artificially in 1945 and 1940 respectively; element 87 (francium) became the last element to be discovered in nature, by French chemist Marguerite Perey in 1939. The elements beyond uranium were likewise discovered artificially, starting with Edwin McMillan and Philip Abelson's 1940 discovery of neptunium (via bombardment of uranium with neutrons). Glenn T. Seaborg and his team at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) continued discovering transuranium elements, starting with plutonium in 1941, and discovered that contrary to previous thinking, the elements from actinium onwards were congeners of the lanthanides rather than transition metals. Bassett (1892), Werner (1905), and the French engineer Charles Janet (1928) had previously suggested this, but their ideas did not then receive general acceptance. Seaborg thus called them the actinides. Elements up to 101 (named mendelevium in honour of Mendeleev) were synthesized up to 1955, either through neutron or alpha-particle irradiation, or in nuclear explosions in the cases of 99 (einsteinium) and 100 (fermium). A significant controversy arose with elements 102 through 106 in the 1960s and 1970s, as competition arose between the LBNL team (now led by Albert Ghiorso) and a team of Soviet scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) led by Georgy Flyorov. Each team claimed discovery, and in some cases each proposed their own name for the element, creating an element naming controversy that lasted decades. These elements were made by bombardment of actinides with light ions. IUPAC at first adopted a hands-off approach, preferring to wait and see if a consensus would be forthcoming. But as it was also the height of the Cold War, it became clear that this would not happen. As such, IUPAC and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) created a Transfermium Working Group (TWG, fermium being element 100) in 1985 to set out criteria for discovery, which were published in 1991. After some further controversy, these elements received their final names in 1997, including seaborgium (106) in honour of Seaborg. The TWG's criteria were used to arbitrate later element discovery claims from LBNL and JINR, as well as from research institutes in Germany (GSI) and Japan (Riken). Currently, consideration of discovery claims is performed by a IUPAC/IUPAP Joint Working Party. After priority was assigned, the elements were officially added to the periodic table, and the discoverers were invited to propose their names. By 2016, this had occurred for all elements up to 118, therefore completing the periodic table's first seven rows. The discoveries of elements beyond 106 were made possible by techniques devised by Yuri Oganessian at the JINR: cold fusion (bombardment of lead and bismuth by heavy ions) made possible the 1981–2004 discoveries of elements 107 through 112 at GSI and 113 at Riken, and he led the JINR team (in collaboration with American scientists) to discover elements 114 through 118 using hot fusion (bombardment of actinides by calcium ions) in 1998–2010. The heaviest known element, oganesson (118), is named in Oganessian's honour. Element 114 is named flerovium in honour of his predecessor and mentor Flyorov. In celebration of the periodic table's 150th anniversary, the United Nations declared the year 2019 as the International Year of the Periodic Table, celebrating "one of the most significant achievements in science". The discovery criteria set down by the TWG were updated in 2020 in response to experimental and theoretical progress that had not been foreseen in 1991. Today, the periodic table is among the most recognisable icons of chemistry. IUPAC is involved today with many processes relating to the periodic table: the recognition and naming of new elements, recommending group numbers and collective names, and the updating of atomic weights. Future extension beyond the seventh period The most recently named elements – nihonium (113), moscovium (115), tennessine (117), and oganesson (118) – completed the seventh row of the periodic table. Future elements would have to begin an eighth row. These elements may be referred to either by their atomic numbers (e.g. "element 164"), or by the IUPAC systematic element names adopted in 1978, which directly relate to the atomic numbers (e.g. "unhexquadium" for element 164, derived from Latin unus "one", Greek hexa "six", Latin quadra "four", and the traditional -ium suffix for metallic elements). All attempts to synthesize such elements have failed so far. An attempt to make element 119 has been ongoing since 2018 at the Riken research institute in Japan. The LBNL in the United States, the JINR in Russia, and the Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou (HIRFL) in China also plan to make their own attempts at synthesizing the first few period 8 elements. If the eighth period followed the pattern set by the earlier periods, then it would contain fifty elements, filling the 8s, 5g, 6f, 7d, and finally 8p subshells in that order. But by this point, relativistic effects should result in significant deviations from the Madelung rule. Various different models have been suggested for the configurations of eighth-period elements, as well as how to show the results in a periodic table. All agree that the eighth period should begin like the previous ones with two 8s elements, 119 and 120. However, after that the massive energetic overlaps between the 5g, 6f, 7d, and 8p subshells means that they all begin to fill together, and it is not clear how to separate out specific 5g and 6f series. Elements 121 through 156 thus do not fit well as chemical analogues of any previous group in the earlier parts of the table, although they have sometimes been placed as 5g, 6f, and other series to formally reflect their electron configurations. Eric Scerri has raised the question of whether an extended periodic table should take into account the failure of the Madelung rule in this region, or if such exceptions should be ignored. The shell structure may also be fairly formal at this point: already the electron distribution in an oganesson atom is expected to be rather uniform, with no discernible shell structure. The situation from elements 157 to 172 should return to normalcy and be more reminiscent of the earlier rows. The heavy p-shells are split by the spin–orbit interaction: one p-orbital (p1/2) is more stabilized, and the other two (p3/2) are destabilized. (Such shifts in the quantum numbers happen for all types of shells, but it makes the biggest difference to the order for the p-shells.) It is likely that by element 157, the filled 8s and 8p1/2 shells with four electrons in total have sunk into the core. Beyond the core, the next orbitals are 7d and 9s at similar energies, followed by 9p1/2 and 8p3/2 at similar energies, and then a large gap. Thus, the 9s and 9p1/2 orbitals in essence replace the 8s and 8p1/2 ones, making elements 157–172 probably chemically analogous to groups 3–18: for example, element 164 would appear two places below lead in group 14 under the usual pattern, but is calculated to be very analogous to palladium in group 10 instead. Thus, it takes fifty-four elements rather than fifty to reach the next noble element after 118. However, while these conclusions about elements 157 through 172's chemistry are generally agreed by models, there is disagreement on whether the periodic table should be drawn to reflect chemical analogies, or if it should reflect likely formal electron configurations, which should be quite different from earlier periods and are not agreed between sources. Discussion about the format of the eighth row thus continues. Beyond element 172, calculation is complicated by the 1s electron energy level becoming imaginary. Such a situation does have physical interpretation, and does not in itself pose an electronic limit to the periodic table, but the correct way to incorporate such states into multi-electron calculations is still an open problem. This would need to be solved to continue calculating the periodic table's structure beyond this point. Nuclear stability will likely prove a decisive factor constraining the number of possible elements. It depends on the balance between the electric repulsion between protons and the strong force binding protons and neutrons together. Protons and neutrons are arranged in shells, just like electrons, and so a closed shell can significantly increase stability: the known superheavy nuclei exist because of such a shell closure, probably at around 114–126 protons and 184 neutrons. They are probably close to a predicted island of stability, where superheavy nuclides should be more long-lived than expected: predictions for the longest-lived nuclides on the island range from microseconds to millions of years. It should nonetheless be noted that these are essentially extrapolations into an unknown part of the chart of nuclides, and systematic model uncertainties need to be taken into account. As the closed shells are passed, the stabilizing effect should vanish: thus, superheavy nuclides with more than 184 neutrons are expected to have much shorter lifetimes, spontaneously fissioning within 10−15 seconds. If this is so, then it would not make sense to consider them chemical elements: IUPAC defines an element to exist only if the nucleus lives longer than 10−14 seconds, the time needed for it to gather an electron cloud. Nonetheless, theoretical estimates of half-lives are very model-dependent, ranging over many orders of magnitude. The extreme repulsion between protons is predicted to result in exotic nuclear topologies, with bubbles, rings, and tori expected: this further complicates extrapolation. It is not clear if any further-out shell closures exist, due to an expected smearing out of distinct nuclear shells (as is already expected for the electron shells at oganesson). Furthermore, even if later shell closures exist, it is not clear if they would allow such heavy elements to exist. As such, it may be that the periodic table practically ends around element 120, as elements become too short-lived to observe, and then too short-lived to have chemistry; the era of discovering new elements would thus be close to its end. If another proton shell closure beyond 126 does exist, then it probably occurs around 164; thus the region where periodicity fails more or less matches the region of instability between the shell closures. Alternatively, quark matter may become stable at high mass numbers, in which the nucleus is composed of freely flowing up and down quarks instead of binding them into protons and neutrons; this would create a continent of stability instead of an island. Other effects may come into play: for example, in very heavy elements the 1s electrons are likely to spend a significant amount of time so close to the nucleus that they are actually inside it, which would make them vulnerable to electron capture. Even if eighth-row elements can exist, producing them is likely to be difficult, and it should become even more difficult as atomic number rises. Although the 8s elements 119 and 120 are expected to be reachable with present means, the elements beyond that are expected to require new technology, if they can be produced at all. Experimentally characterizing these elements chemically would also pose a great challenge. Alternative periodic tables The periodic law may be represented in multiple ways, of which the standard periodic table is only one. Within 100 years of the appearance of Mendeleev's table in 1869, Edward G. Mazurs had collected an estimated 700 different published versions of the periodic table. Many forms retain the rectangular structure, including Charles Janet's left-step periodic table (pictured below), and the modernised form of Mendeleev's original 8-column layout that is still common in Russia. Other periodic table formats have been shaped much more exotically, such as spirals (Otto Theodor Benfey's pictured to the right), circles and triangles. Alternative periodic tables are often developed to highlight or emphasize chemical or physical properties of the elements that are not as apparent in traditional periodic tables, with different ones skewed more towards emphasizing chemistry or physics at either end. The standard form, which remains by far the most common, is somewhere in the middle. The many different forms of the periodic table have prompted the questions of whether there is an optimal or definitive form of the periodic table, and if so, what it might be. There are no current consensus answers to either question. Janet's left-step table is being increasingly discussed as a candidate for being the optimal or most fundamental form; Scerri has written in support of it, as it clarifies helium's nature as an s-block element, increases regularity by having all period lengths repeated, faithfully follows Madelung's rule by making each period correspond to one value of n + ℓ, and regularises atomic number triads and the first-row anomaly trend. While he notes that its placement of helium atop the alkaline earth metals can be seen a disadvantage from a chemical perspective, he counters this by appealing to the first-row anomaly, pointing out that the periodic table "fundamentally reduces to quantum mechanics", and that it is concerned with "abstract elements" and hence atomic properties rather than macroscopic properties. See also Nucleosynthesis Notes References Bibliography Further reading External links Periodic Table featured topic page on Science History Institute Digital Collections featuring select visual representations of the periodic table of the elements, with an emphasis on alternative layouts including circular, cylindrical, pyramidal, spiral, and triangular forms. IUPAC Periodic Table of the Elements Dynamic periodic table, with interactive layouts Eric Scerri, leading philosopher of science specializing in the history and philosophy of the periodic table The Internet Database of Periodic Tables Periodic table of endangered elements Periodic table of samples Periodic table of videos Archived 3 July 2023 at the Wayback Machine WebElements The Periodic Graphics of Elements

Father_of_Asahd

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_of_Asahd

Father of Asahd is the eleventh studio album by American disc jockey and record producer DJ Khaled. It was released on May 17, 2019, by We the Best Music Group and Epic Records. It features the singles "Top Off" and "No Brainer" along with collaborations with Cardi B, 21 Savage and Meek Mill. On May 16, DJ Khaled revealed the track listing and features, as well as that the music videos for "Higher", "Just Us", "Celebrate", "Jealous" and "Holy Mountain" would be released throughout the day of May 17, followed by the video for "You Stay" on May 18, and "Wish Wish" and "Weather the Storm" on May 20. DJ Khaled scored his third career Grammy nomination with "Higher" which won the Best Rap/Sung Performance at the 62nd Grammy Awards. Background In March 2018, DJ Khaled announced the title, upon releasing the lead single, called "Top Off". He named the album after his eldest child, Asahd Tuck Khaled. In March 2019, he announced the release date, while in the meantime, promoting the album extensively on his social media accounts. He also posted a trailer for the album. DJ Khaled has also teased numerous collaborations on his social media, which, along with Future, Jay-Z and Beyoncé on "Top Off", and Justin Bieber, Chance the Rapper and Quavo on "No Brainer", include J Balvin, Cardi B, Meek Mill, Post Malone, Travis Scott, Chief Keef, Bryson Tiller, Sizzla, and 2 Chainz. In April 2019, TMZ reported that "Higher" featuring Nipsey Hussle and John Legend would appear on the album. DJ Khaled, Nipsey Hussle, and John Legend shot the music video before Nipsey's death on March 31, 2019. Critical reception Father of Asahd received mixed reviews among critics. On Metacritic which assigns a rating of up to 100, the album received an average of 59, indicating "Mixed or average reviews" based on 7 critics. Andy Kellman of AllMusic gave the album 3.5 stars out of 5 and also noted in his review on the album by saying "Although instant, maximum commercial impact is no doubt the primary objective, the album does come across as more considered than the average Khaled LP." Commercial performance Father of Asahd debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 with 136,000 album-equivalent units, with 34,000 copies as pure album sales in its first week. In the second week, the album remained at number two on the chart, earning an additional 58,000 album-equivalent units. In its third week, the album dropped to number three on the chart, earning 39,000 more units. In its fourth week, the album dropped to number eight on the chart, earning 31,000 more units, bringing its four-week total to 264,000 album-equivalent units. On May 17, 2020, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over 1,000,000 units in the United States. Controversy On June 5, 2019, sources reported DJ Khaled was fuming at his label after Father of Asahd failed to debut at the top of the Billboard 200. Father of Asahd debuted behind American rapper and record producer Tyler, the Creator's fifth studio album, Igor. On June 6, DJ Khaled posted a now-deleted video on his Instagram page that many believe was aimed at Tyler, the Creator after his album beat out Father of Asahd for the number one spot on the Billboard charts. In the video, Khaled stated, "Here's the thing, I make albums so people can play it. And you actually hear it. You know, driving your car you hear another car playing it. Go to the barber shop, you hear them playing it. You know, turn the radio on, and you hear them playing it. It's playing everywhere - it's called great music. It's called albums that you actually hear the songs. Not no mysterious shit, and you never hear it." Many people took the "mysterious shit" line to be about Tyler, who responded on Twitter when a follower told him, "Wow doin pretty good for some mysterious shit." Tyler told the follower, "yeah i am, IGOR OUT NOW." Track listing Credits adapted from Tidal. Notes ^[a] signifies a co-producer ^[b] signifies a miscellaneous producer ^[c] signifies an uncredited additional producer Sample credits "Holy Mountain" contains a sample from "One Spliff a Day", written by Henry Lawes and Billy Rowe, as performed by Billy Boyo. “Jealous” contain a sample from “Shy Guy” written by Diana King, Kingsley Gardner, and Andrew Saidenberg, as performed by Diana King. "Just Us" contain a sample from "Ms. Jackson", written by André Benjamin, Antwan Patton, and David Sheats, as performed by OutKast. "Freak n You" contain a sample from "Freek'n You", written by Donald DeGrate, Jr., as performed by Jodeci. "Holy Ground" contains a sample from "To Zion", written by Charles Fox, and Norman Gimbel, performed by Lauryn Hill. Personnel Credits adapted from Tidal. Musicians Maxime Breton – guitar (track 14) Leah Marie – background vocals (track 14) Nicky Burt – background vocals (track 15) Adina Myrie – background vocals (track 15) Charts Certifications == References ==

DJ_Khaled

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DJ_Khaled

Khaled Mohammed Khaled (; born November 26, 1975), known professionally as DJ Khaled, is an American DJ, record producer, and record executive. Originally a Miami-based radio personality, Khaled has since become known for enlisting high-profile music industry artists to perform on singles and albums, for which he often serves as hype man. His distinctions are his booming voice presence, "motivational" abstractions, and numerous catchphrases. While his musical contribution is often questioned, Khaled's role has been described as "organization, direction, [and] promotion". Khaled was born in New Orleans to Palestinian immigrant parents. He first gained recognition as a radio host in the 1990s for the radio station 99 Jamz, and translated his popularity by working with Fat Joe's hip hop collective, Terror Squad, as a DJ for their live performances. Following his production credits on the group's material, Khaled enlisted several hip hop artists associated with the group and his native Miami to perform on his debut studio album, Listennn... the Album (2006). His second album, We the Best (2007), spawned the hit single "I'm So Hood" (featuring T-Pain, Trick Daddy, Rick Ross and Plies). His two subsequent releases—We Global (2008) and Victory (2010)—both peaked within the top ten of the Billboard 200; the latter was supported by the single "All I Do Is Win" (featuring T-Pain, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg and Rick Ross), which received triple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). His fifth studio album and major label debut, We the Best Forever (2011), saw continued commercial success and brought Khaled to mainstream prominence by spawning his first Billboard Hot 100-top ten single, "I'm on One" (featuring Drake, Rick Ross and Lil Wayne). His following three albums—Kiss the Ring (2012), Suffering from Success (2013), and I Changed a Lot (2015)—were released to moderate critical and commercial reception. Throughout 2015 and 2016, Khaled gained wider recognition as a public figure due to his social media activity. This, along with several Internet memes, foresaw the release of his ninth studio album, Major Key (2016), which was met with further critical and commercial success as it debuted atop the Billboard 200 and was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards. His tenth album, Grateful (2017), became his second consecutive number-one album and was preceded by the singles "I'm the One" (featuring Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper and Lil Wayne) and "Wild Thoughts" (featuring Rihanna and Bryson Tiller), which peaked at numbers one and two on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively. His eleventh album, Father of Asahd (2019), contained the song "Higher" (featuring Nipsey Hussle and John Legend), which won Best Rap/Sung Performance at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards—Khaled's first Grammy Award win. His eponymous twelfth album (2021) and thirteenth album, God Did (2022), both debuted atop the Billboard 200. The latter's title track (featuring Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, John Legend and Fridayy) earned three nominations at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards: Song of the Year, Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance. Outside of music, Khaled has gained success as a writer, with his book The Keys featuring on the New York Times Best Seller list. He has also performed as an actor for the films Spies in Disguise (2019) and Bad Boys for Life (2020). His record label, We the Best Music Group has distributed his releases since its formation in 2008, though Khaled signed other artists to the imprint including Ace Hood, Kent Jones, Mavado, Flipp Dinero, and Vado, among others. Early life Khaled Mohammed Khaled was born on November 26, 1975, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to Palestinian parents who immigrated to the United States; his father was from Mazra'a ash-Sharqiya, and his mother from Ramallah. His brother Alec Ledd (Alaa Khaled) is an actor. His musician parents played Arabic music; Khaled started developing an interest in rap and soul music at a young age, and his parents supported his interest. He worked in a local Merry-Go-Round record store. Career During his early career, Khaled became acquainted with several young artists and helped them before their breakthrough; these include Birdman, Lil Wayne, and Mavado. One of his first jobs was at the New Orleans record store Odyssey where he met both Birdman and Lil Wayne in 1993. After leaving Odyssey, he began DJing in reggae sound clashes, mixing dancehall and hip-hop. His first radio gig was on a pirate station. In 1998, he moved to Miami and co-hosted The Luke Show on WEDR "99 Jamz" with 2 Live Crew's Luther Campbell. In 2003, he started hosting a weeknight radio show on 99 Jamz called The Takeover. During his career, Khaled has used many monikers, including "Arab Attack", "Big Dog Pitbull", "Terror Squadian" (used during his time with the hip hop group Terror Squad), Beat Novacane (a moniker under which he produces beats), The Don Dada, Mr. Miami etc. Khaled explained that "Arab Attack" meant "attack with music"; he stopped using it after the September 11 attacks to avoid appearing insensitive. 2006–2008: Listennn... the Album, We the Best, and We Global On June 6, 2006, his debut album, Listennn... the Album, was released by Koch Records; it premiered on the US Billboard 200 chart at number 12. We the Best (2007) is his second album, with singles "I'm So Hood" (with T-Pain, Trick Daddy, Plies, and Rick Ross) and "We Takin' Over" (with Akon, T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Birdman, and Lil Wayne). "We Takin' Over" peaked at number 28 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 11 on the US Hot Rap Tracks chart and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on November 20, 2007. Khaled made a guest appearance on Birdman's 2007 album 5 * Stunna on the single "100 Million", which also features Rick Ross, Dre, Young Jeezy and Lil Wayne. That year, Khaled won two Ozone Awards: one for Best Video ("We Takin' Over") and another for Best Radio DJ. In 2008, Khaled's third album We Global came out with singles "Out Here Grindin" (with Akon, Rick Ross, Lil' Boosie, Trick Daddy, Ace Hood, and Plies) followed by "Go Hard" (featuring Kanye West and T-Pain). RIAA certified the single "I'm So Hood" Platinum on June 4, 2008. That year, Khaled won DJ of the Year awards from the BET Hip Hop Awards and Ozone Awards. He was appointed the president of Def Jam South in February 2009. That same month, 50 Cent released a video titled "A Psychic Told Me" in which he spoke of harming Khaled's mother and showed alleged footage of Khaled's mother's workplace and his mother herself. Following this, Khaled refused to comment, not wanting to give 50 Cent the publicity, simply stating: "I'm not gonna let him bait me". 2010–2012: Victory, We the Best Forever, and Kiss the Ring His fourth studio album Victory was released on March 2, 2010. The album featured guest appearances from Drake, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Nas, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, Nelly, and more. The single "All I Do Is Win" featuring Ludacris, Rick Ross, Snoop Dogg, and T-Pain was certified as a double-platinum single. Other singles include: "Put Your Hands Up" featuring Ross, Young Jeezy, Plies, and Schife, and "Fed Up" featuring Usher, Drake, Ross, and Jeezy. The album had low sales and debuted at number 12 on the Billboard 200. DJ Khaled announced the title his next album, We the Best Forever, on Twitter. On August 19, Khaled signed to Cash Money Records along to Universal Motown, the album will be released under the label, also under E1 Entertainment, Terror Squad, Def Jam South, and Khaled's own label We the Best Music Group, with confirmed guests as Fat Joe, Chris Brown, Keyshia Cole, Cee Lo Green, Cool & Dre, Rick Ross, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Nas, Birdman, Lil Wayne, T.I., Akon, Drake, and Nicki Minaj The first single, "Welcome to My Hood", featuring Rick Ross, Plies, Lil Wayne and T-Pain was released on January 13, 2011; it was produced by the Renegades, and co-produced by DJ Khaled himself along with the Nasty Beatmakers. The song was his first release under Cash Money Records and Universal Motown Records, a music video was filmed in Miami, Florida, and directed by Gil Green, featuring cameos by Flo Rida, Bow Wow, Busta Rhymes, and other artists. The next single, "I'm on One", featuring Drake, Rick Ross and Lil Wayne, was released on May 20, 2011. Khaled performed the song at BET Awards 2011, which aired on June 26, 2011. On December 10, 2011, DJ Khaled announced the title of his next album, Kiss the Ring in an online video, with the release date as "coming soon" in 2012. Guests on the album include T-Pain, French Montana, Future, Wiz Khalifa, Nas, Plies, Ace Hood, Kanye West, Rick Ross, Meek Mill, Big Sean, 2 Chainz, Jadakiss, Kirko Bangz, Mack Maine, Tyga, T.I., J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Big K.R.I.T., Mavado, and Wale. Khaled mentioned that he had a verse from someone "very special", which was later revealed as Scarface. The first single released was "Take It to the Head", featuring Chris Brown, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne. The second single was "I Wish You Would", featuring Kanye West and Rick Ross. Kiss the Ring was released on August 21, 2012 and debuted at number four on the Billboard 200. The third single was "Bitches and Bottles" featuring T.I., Lil Wayne, and Future. In 2012, Khaled and other producers, including No I.D., worked with Kanye West on his sixth studio album Yeezus, although Khaled's contributions were ultimately omitted from the album. 2013–2015: Suffering from Success and I Changed a Lot In January 2013, Khaled announced that he began work on his seventh album, Suffering from Success. After attending a doctor due to a bald spot on his beard, Khaled was told that he was "suffering from success", which inspired the album's title. The first single from the album, "No New Friends", features Drake, Lil Wayne and Rick Ross, and was produced by Canadian producers Boi-1da and Noah "40" Shebib. On April 14, 2013, Khaled released a promotional video for Suffering for Success, and the music video for the aforementioned single. The single was premiered the following day and released to iTunes of April 19, 2013. "No New Friends" has since debuted at #55 on the Billboard Hot 100. On June 10, 2013, it was announced that Suffering from Success would be released on September 24, 2013. On July 25, 2013, Khaled publicly "proposed" to fellow Cash Money artist Nicki Minaj via MTV. He supported his offer with a 10-karat diamond ring from Rafaello & Co., valued at about $500,000. Later, he reaffirmed his proposal in an interview with Power 106's DJ Felli Fel, stating: "I ain't a young boy no more. I'm on my thinking the future. I just had to be honest. I always liked her. She's my friend, of course. And I like her. It's more than a crush." On July 29, 2013, in an interview with Funkmaster Flex, Minaj denied Khaled's proposal, saying: "Khaled is my brother and Khaled was not serious with that damn proposal, ya'll. Please let it go. He was kidding." The same day, Flex premiered Khaled's new single, "I Wanna Be with You", which featured Minaj, as well as frequent collaborators Future and Rick Ross. This lead some to believe that his proposal was a "publicity stunt" to promote his new single. On April 28, 2014, DJ Khaled announced in an interview with MTV that Jay-Z would be featured on his new single. The interview was noted due to Khaled "cursing, gesturing, and tossing the microphone to the floor in an effort to convey the importance and impact of the music he has coming this summer." A few hours after that, he released the single called "They Don't Love You No More", also featuring frequent collaborators Rick Ross, Meek Mill and French Montana. The song will be on his eight studio album, I Changed A Lot, which was released in 2015. The following day, "They Don't Love You No More" was serviced to mainstream urban radio in the United States. On July 1, 2014, Khaled announced that he has partnered with Danish audio company Bang & Olufsen to launch his own brand of headphones, titled "We the Best Sound". The brand is advertised in the video "They Don't Love You No More." On August 8, 2014, Khaled released the official artwork for the second single from I Changed A Lot entitled "Hold You Down" which features Chris Brown, August Alsina, Future and Jeremih, and is produced by Bkorn, Lee on the Beats and LDB. The single was released on August 11, 2014, along with a music video, directed by Gil Green. On November 3, 2014, Khaled released the remix to "Hold You Down" featuring Usher, Rick Ross, Fabolous, and Ace Hood. On May 11, 2015, DJ Khaled revealed that he had amicably parted ways with Cash Money Records. "I'm not signed to Cash Money at all. I've been off for a minute," Khaled revealed. "It's not that I'm here to promote that I've been off. That's family. But, nah, it's just We The Best. Nothing negative, everything's beautiful." On the same day, DJ Khaled released the third single off the album I Changed a Lot titled "How Many Times", featuring Chris Brown, Lil Wayne and Big Sean produced Bkorn, Lee on the Beats and OZ. DJ Khaled revealed that his long-delayed album, I Changed A Lot, released on October 23, 2015, and also revealed the album's artwork. 2016–2019: Major Key, Grateful and Father of Asahd On February 5, 2016, DJ Khaled premiered the debut his new We The Best Radio show on Beats 1 with the premiere of Future's fourth studio album EVOL. On February 14, 2016, DJ Khaled announced that he would debut French Montana's new mixtape on We The Best Radio. The Wave Gods titled mixtape premiered on February 19, 2016. On February 29, 2016, Khaled signed a management-only deal with Jay Z's company, Roc Nation and announced his ninth studio album, Major Key, was going to be released in 2016, specifically on July 29, and has a lion on the cover. On June 3, 2016, Khaled released the first single off Major Key, "For Free", which was produced by the OVO team of Nineteen85 and Jordan Ullman. He announced his album would feature Jay Z, Future, Kanye West, Big Sean, Lil Wayne, and Rick Ross. He later released a track called "I Got the Keys" with Jay Z and Future, that premiered after the 2016 BET Awards. In late 2015 to early 2016, a number of Snapchat videos of Khaled's detailing his "key to success" received significant attention on the internet due to his larger-than-life persona. This newfound online recognition caused him to gain popularity; becoming an "internet phenomenon", with some now describing him as a "living meme" or "meme in human form". In October 2016, he appeared in advertising for the alcoholic beverage Cîroc Mango and starred in "Let's Get It: Khaled's Odyssey", an episode of Let's Get It. On December 24, 2016, Khaled announced on Twitter that he was working on his tenth studio album. In January 2017, he was seen in the studio on his Snapchat with potential collaborators, such as Chance the Rapper, Justin Bieber, Migos and Mariah Carey. On February 9, DJ Khaled announced his tenth studio album would be titled Grateful and said that it was going to be released in June. On February 12, DJ Khaled released "Shining", the lead single of Grateful which features Beyoncé and Jay-Z. He had a cameo appearance in promotional material for Spider-Man: Homecoming, and later appeared as a fictionalized version of himself in Pitch Perfect 3 (2017), in which his character is featured as both a performer and a major plot point. Also that year, he announced he would join Demi Lovato as the opening act for their Tell Me You Love Me Tour. On March 1, 2018, Khaled announced his eleventh studio album would be titled Father of Asahd, titled after his older son Asahd. The album's lead single, "Top Off", featuring Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Future, was released the following day, on March 2. On July 23, Khaled announced the next single, titled "No Brainer", featuring Justin Bieber, Chance the Rapper and Quavo, which was released on July 27. On March 5, 2019, Khaled announced that the album would be released in May 2019. It was released on May 17, 2019. He released several music videos for the album's singles on that day through May 20, including one for "Higher", featuring late rapper Nipsey Hussle and John Legend, a track which also garnered Khaled his first Grammy Award. 2020–present: Khaled Khaled and God Did On July 17, 2020, Khaled released two singles simultaneously, titled "Popstar" and "Greece", both featuring Canadian rapper Drake. Two days prior, on July 15, Khaled announced his twelfth studio album would be titled Khaled Khaled, after his legal name. The announcement was accompanied with a video trailer documenting his life and career, including the birth of his sons Asahd and Aalam, who both would executive produce the album, and winning his first Grammy Award. In March 2021, Khaled collaborated with Dolce & Gabbana on a collection of ready-to-wear and beachwear pieces. On April 30, 2021, Khaled released his 12th studio album, "Khaled Khaled". The title of the album is taken from Khaled's real name, Khaled Khaled. Allah is, as well as Khaled's two sons, credited as an executive producer due to the Khaled family's religious beliefs and spirituality in Islam. The album included 14 tracks and song features with the likes of Nas, Beyoncé and Jeremih. Two days after the release of the album, Khaled revealed an updated track listing that added the track "Big Paper", which features American rapper Cardi B, which was not on the previous track listing. On July 6, 2022, he announced the title of his upcoming 13th studio album, God Did, and released the album on August 26, 2022. Artist relationships Rick Ross Rick Ross has been described as one of Khaled's “longest-running collaborators”. With reference to Khaled, Ross has stated: “He knows what's going to get me excited… He'll run in the room yelling, ‘I got some shit, Rozay!' — and nine times out of 10, when he's that excited, it's something that's going to end up feeling good. That's always been the dynamic, since “I'm So Hood,” and the list goes on.” On their relationship, Khaled states: “Ross is my brother,” he said. “That's Day 1. That's family. Me and him come from the bottom, the mud, to marble floors. When he's shouting me out on that record, that's what you call a real friend, family. [He] loves me and I love him back. Me and him are forever. Music or no music. It's Khaled and Ross forever.” In 2006, Khaled produced the song "I'm a G" (featuring Lil Wayne and Brisco) on Ross's debut, Port of Miami. The same year, Ross made guest performances on two singles from Khaled's debut Listennn... the Album: "Born-N-Raised" and "Holla at Me". In 2007, Ross featured on the hit single "I'm So Hood" as part of Khaled's second album, We the Best. Ross also contributed vocals to “We Takin' Over”, a song on the same album, which peaked at number 28 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 11 on the US Hot Rap Tracks chart and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on November 20, 2007. The same year, both Ross and Khaled made a guest appearance on the single "100 Million" as part of Birdman's 2007 album 5 * Stunna. In 2008, Ross featured on the single "Out Here Grindin" as part of Khaled's third album, We Global. In 2010, Ross featured on the hit single "All I Do Is Win", part of Khaled's fourth album Victory. The track became triple platinum-certified. In 2011, Ross featured on what became a Billboard Hot 100 top ten single, "I'm on One", as part of Khaled's fifth studio album, We the Best Forever. Ross also featured on the song "Welcome to My Hood" in the same album. In 2012, Ross featured on two singles from Khaled's sixth album, Kiss the Ring: "Take It to the Head" and "I Wish You Would". In early 2013, Ross featured on the single "No New Friends" as part of Khaled's seventh album, Suffering from Success. On 16 May 2013, Birdman and Ross announced that their collaborative album The H would be released as a mixtape hosted by Khaled on 23 May 2013. In April 2014, Ross featured on the song "They Don't Love You No More", the first single from Khaled's eighth studio album I Changed a Lot. In August 2014, both Khaled and Ross featured on "Don't Shoot", a single by American rapper the Game. In November 2014, Ross also featured on the remix to "Hold You Down". In 2016, Ross featured on two songs from Khaled's ninth studio album, Major Key: the single “Do You Mind” and the track "Fuck Up the Club". In 2017, Ross featured on three tracks from Khaled's tenth studio album, Grateful: "On Everything", "Down for Life" and "Whatever". In 2019, Ross featured on one track from Khaled's eleventh studio album, Father of Asahd: "Big Boy Talk". In 2021, Ross featured on one song from Khaled's twelfth studio album, Khaled Khaled: "This Is My Year". In 2022, Ross rapped the first verse of the title track of Khaled's thirteenth album, God Did. The song earned three nominations at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards: Song of the Year, Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance. The same year, Ross and Khaled both featured on the GQ Hype Debate Show, debating the greatest snack of all time. Ross was a proponent of his own Rap Snacks whereas Khaled endorsed Cinnamon Toast Crunch. In 2023, Khaled produced the song “Above the Law” from Rick Ross’ thirteenth album, Too Good to Be True. Drake The relationship between Drake and Khaled has been described as “uniquely fruitful”. Lil Wayne Lil Wayne has stated: “DJ Khaled is one of one… He's produced so many memorable tracks. There's no one like him.” Public figure Jeff Ihaza of the Rolling Stone has described Khaled thus: “Khaled wears a pristinely lined haircut. His beard follows sharp angles that enforce a perfect symmetry along his face. When he's trying to muster up the right word, either for clarity or comedic timing, his eyes carry a piercing seriousness, like an athlete laser-focused on a play. But he's largely instinctive in his delivery — in plucking whatever he's trying to convey from his brain and placing it into yours.” He has also been described as “a natural in front of the camera”. Khaled is known for his social media presence; he states: “I don't do too many interviews… cause I've got my own interview: I say what I want to say anytime I want.” Personal life Khaled and his wife Nicole Tuck have a son, Asahd Tuck Khaled, born on October 23, 2016. Khaled garnered national attention after streaming the birth live on his Snapchat account. On January 20, 2020, Tuck gave birth to their second son, Aalam Tuck Khaled. In January 2017, Khaled purchased Robbie Williams's former house in Mulholland Estates, a gated community in Los Angeles, California. In 2018, Khaled purchased a waterfront home in Miami for $25.9 million. The mansion is larger than 12,000 square-feet and has been dubbed as “the Resort” by Khaled. Khaled owns several cars, including a Maybach which is one of 150 special-edition models custom-designed by the Virgil Abloh. Khaled has named this vehicle the “Cappuccino”. Khaled has described himself as a devout Muslim. Other ventures Film Khaled provided a voice in the animated film Spies in Disguise, which was released on December 25, 2019. He also appeared in Bad Boys for Life and Bad Boys: Ride or Die. Literature In 2016, he wrote a book, The Keys: A memoir, which includes his opinions on success, recounts life stories, and describes contributions from other musicians. The book became a New York Times bestseller. Furniture Inspired by his own home and lifestyle, he designed a new luxury furniture line "We the Best Home" and launched it in August 2018. Golfing Khaled is known for his love of golf, paired with his catchphrase: “Let's go golfing!” He has appeared on the cover of Golf Digest and is a frequenter of the Miami Beach Golf Club. Khaled's We the Best Foundation hosted its inaugural golf tournament in 2023, raising thousands for organisations which aid youth in Miami. Sean Combs alone reportedly donated $150,000 to the cause. 2018 SEC settlement In November 2018, together with Floyd Mayweather Jr., Khaled agreed to a total settlement of $750,000 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for failing to disclose payments accepted from issuers of an initial coin offering, specifying a personal $50,000 promotional payment from beleaguered cryptocurrency firm Centra Tech Inc., whose co-founders were indicted for fraud in May 2018. According to the SEC, "they are its first cases involving charges for violating rules on touting investments in so-called initial coin offerings, or ICOs." As part of the settlement, Khaled agreed to not enter any endorsement or promotional agreement with a securities participant for two years. Discography Studio albums Listennn... the Album (2006) We the Best (2007) We Global (2008) Victory (2010) We the Best Forever (2011) Kiss the Ring (2012) Suffering from Success (2013) I Changed a Lot (2015) Major Key (2016) Grateful (2017) Father of Asahd (2019) Khaled Khaled (2021) God Did (2022) Til Next Time (2024) Filmography Awards and nominations References External links Official website DJ Khaled on Twitter DJ Khaled at AllMusic DJ Khaled at IMDb

Dr._Phillips_High_School

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Phillips_High_School

Dr. Phillips High School is a public high school in Dr. Phillips, Florida, United States, near Orlando. It serves the Dr. Phillips census-designated place (CDP), the Bay Hill CDP, and the residential portion of Lake Buena Vista. History Dr. Phillips High School opened in fall of 1987 and was built for about 2,500 students in the Dr. Phillips area of southwest Orange County, Florida. The campus sits on 55 acres (220,000 m2) in the Orlando city limits and unincorporated Orange County, opposite Universal Orlando. The school serves as a Visual and Performing Arts Magnet and Center for International Studies magnet for Orange County Public Schools. The school's first principal, Bill Spoone, went on to be elected to the Orange County School Board. The football stadium is named after him. The school's gymnasium is named after its second principal, Larry Payne, and is nicknamed "The House of Payne." The school opened with enrollment above capacity and began using portable classrooms on the North Campus, formerly known as the 9th Grade Center. Due to overflow from main campus, many non-freshman classes were moved into additional portable classrooms at the 9th Grade Center, which was renamed North Campus, with the main campus renamed the South Campus. Portable classrooms are still used on the North Campus and are primarily for freshman-level classes. As of the 2014–15 school year the school had 3,641 students, of whom 35% were white, 32% African American, 24% Hispanic, 7% Asian, and 2% multiracial. The school underwent a series of renovations which finished in 2015. A new building has been added, along with new VPA classrooms on the South Campus. Athletics The press box at Bill Spoone Stadium is dedicated to Mike Murray, "The Voice of the Panthers" since the school opened its doors in 1987. A full-time employee of a large aerospace contractor and not formally employed by the school, Murray was elected to their Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001. The school's baseball facility is John Barbati Field. In 1992, the baseball facilities were completely renovated with a state of the art press box, team office and facilities. The new facilities were designed and constructed by William P. Riegert, CEO of Cox Associates, Architects, and donated to the OC School Board in a dedication ceremony on February 22, 1992. Accepting for the OC School Board were Assistant Superintendent Dave Wofford, Assistant Superintendent Dave Sojourner, Superintendent Don Shaw, Bill Spoone, and Bill Thompson. Today the Press Box is dedicated to Scott Muhlhann, a baseball player and 1992 school valedictorian who died of cancer in 1998. The mascot for Dr. Phillips is the Panther; specifically, the Florida panther. They have many sports including lacrosse, football, baseball, golf, basketball and swimming. The Panthers have won FHSAA state championships in the following sports: Football (2017) Baseball (1996) Men's Basketball (2021) Women's Basketball (1992, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2022, 2023, 2024) Men's Golf (1990, 1991, 1997, 1999) Women's Golf (1993, 1994) Men's Swimming & Diving (1995) Women's Swimming & Diving (1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998) Competitive Cheerleading (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2020) Women's Flag Football (2011) Athletic program accomplishments: FHSAA State All-Sports Award - 2012-13 FHSAA State All-Sports Award - 2010-11 FHSAA State All-Sports Award - 1998-99 FHSAA State All-Sports Award - 1995-96 Notable alumni Athletes References External links Official site

Mark_Ruiz

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Ruiz

Mark Ruiz (born April 9, 1979 in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico), is an Olympic diver from Puerto Rico. Ruiz represented the United States in the 2000 Olympic Games and the 2004 Olympic Games. Childhood Ruiz took up diving at the age of 9. Upon a coach's suggestion, he moved to the U.S. at 12 to take advantage of the better training system. During the spring nationals in 1999, he swept all three events (10-meter platform, 3-meter springboard and the non-Olympic event of 1-meter springboard), becoming the first diver since Greg Louganis in 1988 to accomplish this feat. Ruiz is a graduate of Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, Florida. He was a member of the swimming and diving team and was the individual state champion for diving all four years he competed. Competition Mark's first attempt at the Olympics happened at the 1996 Trials. Ruiz also competes in synchronized diving (springboard and platform), which will have medal events for the first time in Sydney. Ruiz, a four-time national champion in the platform, has already qualified in the platform and 3-meter springboard. He and partner Rio Ramirez finished fourth in the 3-meter springboard at the 2000 World Cup. Mark retired (temporarily) after the 2004 Olympics in Greece. Career After his temporary retirement from competition, Ruiz taught diving clinics at the YMCA Aquatic Center. In 2010 Mark's former team, Team Orlando Diving (TOD) affiliated with the YMCA of Central Florida and became YCF Diving. Mark Ruiz was named head coach and continues in this position today. Achievements 2004 Olympic Team 2000 Olympic Team 2000 Olympic Team Trials, platform, 3-meter springboard, 1st 2000 National Indoor Championships, platform, 3-meter springboard, 1st 2000 National Indoor Championships, synchronized, platform, 1st 2000 World Cup, platform, 5th; 3-meter springboard, 7th 1999 Summer National Championships, synchronized, 3-meter springboard, 1st, platform, 2nd 1999 Summer National Championships, platform, 3- and 1-meter springboard, 1st 1999 Pan American Games, 3-meter springboard, 1st, platform, 5th 1999 World Cup, platform, 3rd 1999 Spring National Championships, synchronized, platform, 1st; 3-meter springboard, 3rd 1999 Spring National Championships, platform, 3- and 1-meter springboard, 1st 1998 Summer National Championships, synchronized, platform, 1st 1998 Summer National Championships, platform, 1-meter springboard, 1st; 3-meter springboard, 2nd 1998 Goodwill Games, 3-meter springboard, 10th; platform, 6th 1997 World Cup, platform, 5th References External links Olympic Trial Photos Mark Ruiz Bio - YCF Diving Mark Ruiz Diving Camps Mark Ruiz at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)

Monaco

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monaco

Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, on the Mediterranean Sea. It is a semi-enclave bordered by France to the north, east and west. The principality is home to 38,682 residents, of whom 9,486 are Monégasque nationals; it is recognised as one of the wealthiest and most expensive places in the world. The official language is French; Monégasque, English and Italian are spoken and understood by many residents. With an area of 2.08 km2 (0.80 sq mi), Monaco is the second-smallest sovereign state in the world, after Vatican City. Its population of 38,367 in 2023 makes it the most densely populated sovereign state. Monaco has the world's shortest coastline: 3.83 km (2.38 mi). The principality is about 15 km (9.3 mi) from the border with Italy and consists of nine administrative wards, the largest of which is Monte Carlo. The principality is governed under a form of constitutional monarchy, with Prince Albert II as head of state, who wields political power despite his constitutional status. The prime minister, who is the head of government, can be either a Monégasque or French citizen; the monarch consults with the Government of France before an appointment. Key members of the judiciary are detached French magistrates. The House of Grimaldi has ruled Monaco, with brief interruptions, since 1297. The state's sovereignty was officially recognised by the Franco-Monégasque Treaty of 1861, with Monaco becoming a full United Nations voting member in 1993. Despite Monaco's independence and separate foreign policy, its defence is the responsibility of France, besides maintenance of two small military units. Monaco's economic development was spurred in the late 19th century with the opening of the state's first casino, the Monte Carlo Casino, and a rail connection to Paris. Monaco's mild climate, scenery, and gambling facilities have contributed to its status as a tourist destination and recreation centre for the rich. Monaco has become a major banking centre and sought to diversify into the services sector and small, high-value-added, non-polluting industries. Monaco is a tax haven; it has no personal income tax (except for French citizens) and low business taxes. Over 30% of residents are millionaires, with real estate prices reaching €100,000 ($116,374) per square metre in 2018. Monaco is a global hub of money laundering, and in June 2024 the Financial Action Task Force placed Monaco under increased monitoring or a “grey list” to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. Monaco is not part of the European Union (EU), but participates in certain EU policies, including customs and border controls. Through its relationship with France, Monaco uses the euro as its sole currency. Monaco joined the Council of Europe in 2004 and is a member of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). It hosts the annual motor race, the Monaco Grand Prix, one of the original Grands Prix of Formula One. The local motorsports association gives its name to the Monte Carlo Rally, hosted in January in the French Alps. The principality has a club football team, AS Monaco, which competes in French Ligue 1 and been French champions on multiple occasions, and a basketball team, which plays in the EuroLeague. A centre of research into marine conservation, Monaco is home to one of the world's first protected marine habitats, an Oceanographic Museum, and the International Atomic Energy Agency Marine Environment Laboratories, the only marine laboratory in the UN structure. History Monaco's name comes from the nearby 6th-century BC Phocaean Greek colony. Referred to by the Ligurians as Monoikos, from the Greek "μόνοικος", "single house", from "μόνος" (monos) "alone, single" + "οἶκος" (oikos) "house". According to an ancient myth, Hercules passed through the Monaco area and turned away the previous gods. As a result, a temple was constructed there. Because this "House" of Hercules was the only temple in the area, the city was called Monoikos. It ended up in the hands of the Holy Roman Empire, which gave it to the Genoese. An ousted branch of a Genoese family, the Grimaldi, contested it for a hundred years before actually gaining control. Though the Republic of Genoa would last until the 19th century, they allowed the Grimaldi family to keep Monaco, and, likewise, both France and Spain left it alone for hundreds of years. France did not annex it until the French Revolution, but after the defeat of Napoleon it was put under the care of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In the 19th century, when Sardinia became a part of Italy, the region came under French influence but France allowed it to remain independent. Like France, Monaco was overrun by the Axis powers during the Second World War and for a short time was administered by Italy, then the Third Reich, before finally being liberated. Although the occupation lasted for just a short time, it resulted in the deportation of the Jewish population and execution of several resistance members from Monaco. Since then Monaco has been independent. It has taken some steps towards integration with the European Union. Arrival of the Grimaldi family Following a grant of land from Emperor Henry VI in 1191, Monaco was refounded in 1215 as a colony of Genoa. Monaco was first ruled by a member of the House of Grimaldi in 1297, when Francesco Grimaldi, known as "Malizia" (translated from Italian either as "The Malicious One" or "The Cunning One"), and his men captured the fortress protecting the Rock of Monaco while dressed as Franciscan friars – a monaco in Italian – although this is a coincidence as the area was already known by this name. Francesco was evicted a few years later by the Genoese forces, and the struggle over "the Rock" continued for another century. The Grimaldi family was Genoese and the struggle was something of a family feud. The Genoese engaged in other conflicts, and in the late 1300s Genoa lost Monaco after fighting the Crown of Aragon over Corsica. Aragon eventually became part of a united Spain, and other parts of the land grant came to be integrated piecemeal into other states. Between 1346 and 1355, Monaco annexed the towns of Menton and Roquebrune, increasing its territory by almost ten times. 1400–1800 In 1419, the Grimaldi family purchased Monaco from the Crown of Aragon and became the official and undisputed rulers of "the Rock of Monaco". In 1612, Honoré II began to style himself "Prince" of Monaco. In the 1630s, he sought French protection against the Spanish forces and, in 1642, was received at the court of Louis XIII as a "duc et pair étranger". The princes of Monaco thus became vassals of the French kings while at the same time remaining sovereign princes. Though successive princes and their families spent most of their lives in Paris, and intermarried with French and Italian nobilities, the House of Grimaldi is Italian. The principality continued its existence as a protectorate of France until the French Revolution. 19th century In 1793, Revolutionary forces captured Monaco and until 1814 it was occupied by the French (in this period much of Europe had been overrun by the French armies under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte). The principality was reestablished in 1814 under the Grimaldis, only to be designated a protectorate of the Kingdom of Sardinia by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Monaco remained in this position until 1860 when, by the Treaty of Turin, the Sardinian forces pulled out of the principality; the surrounding County of Nice (as well as Savoy) was ceded to France. Monaco became a French protectorate once again. Italian was the official language in Monaco until 1860, when it was replaced by French. Before this time there was unrest in Menton and Roquebrune, where the townspeople had become weary of heavy taxation by the Grimaldi family. They declared their independence as the Free Cities of Menton and Roquebrune, hoping for annexation by Sardinia. France protested. The unrest continued until Charles III of Monaco gave up his claim to the two mainland towns (some 95% of the principality at the time) that had been ruled by the Grimaldi family for over 500 years. These were ceded to France in return for 4,100,000 francs. The transfer and Monaco's sovereignty were recognised by the Franco-Monégasque Treaty of 1861. In 1869, the principality stopped collecting income tax from its residents — an indulgence the Grimaldi family could afford to entertain thanks solely to the extraordinary success of the casino. This made Monaco not only a playground for the rich, but a favoured place for them to live. 20th century Until the Monégasque Revolution of 1910 forced the adoption of the 1911 Constitution of Monaco, the princes of Monaco were absolute rulers. The new constitution slightly reduced the autocratic rule of the Grimaldi family and Prince Albert I soon suspended it during the First World War. In July 1918, a new Franco-Monégasque Treaty was signed, providing for limited French protection over Monaco. The treaty, endorsed in 1919 by the Treaty of Versailles, established that Monégasque international policy would be aligned with French political, military and economic interests. It also resolved the Monaco succession crisis. In 1943, the Italian Army invaded and occupied Monaco, forming a fascist administration. In September 1943, after Mussolini's fall from power, the German Wehrmacht occupied Italy and Monaco, and the Nazi deportation of the Jewish population began. René Blum, the prominent French Jew who founded the Ballet de l'Opéra in Monte Carlo, was arrested in his Paris home and held in the Drancy deportation camp outside the French capital before being transported to Auschwitz, where he was later murdered. Blum's colleague Raoul Gunsbourg, the director of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, helped by the French Resistance, escaped arrest and fled to Switzerland. In August 1944, the Germans executed René Borghini, Joseph-Henri Lajoux and Esther Poggio, who were Resistance leaders. Rainier III, succeeded to the throne on the death of his grandfather, Prince Louis II, in 1949, and then ruled until 2005. On 19 April 1956, Prince Rainier married the American actress Grace Kelly, an event that was widely televised and covered in the popular press, focusing the world's attention on the tiny principality. A 1962 amendment to the constitution abolished capital punishment, provided for women's suffrage and established a Supreme Court of Monaco to guarantee fundamental liberties. In 1963, a crisis developed when Charles de Gaulle blockaded Monaco, angered by its status as a tax haven for wealthy French citizens. In 1993, the Principality of Monaco became a member of the United Nations, with full voting rights. 21st century In 2002, a new treaty between France and Monaco specified that, should there be no heirs to carry on the Grimaldi dynasty, the principality would still remain an independent nation rather than revert to France. Monaco's military defense is still the responsibility of France. On 31 March 2005, Rainier III, who was too ill to exercise his duties, relinquished them to his only son and heir, Albert. He died six days later, after a reign of 56 years, with his son succeeding him as Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco. Following a period of official mourning, Prince Albert II formally assumed the princely crown on 12 July 2005, in a celebration that began with a solemn Mass at Saint Nicholas Cathedral, where his father had been buried three months earlier. His accession to the Monégasque throne was a two-step event with a further ceremony, drawing heads of state for an elaborate reception, held on 18 November 2005, at the historic Prince's Palace in Monaco-Ville. On 27 August 2015, Albert II apologised for Monaco's role during World War II in facilitating the deportation of a total of 90 Jews and resistance fighters, of whom only nine survived. "We committed the irreparable in handing over to the neighbouring authorities women, men and a child who had taken refuge with us to escape the persecutions they had suffered in France," Albert said at a ceremony in which a monument to the victims was unveiled at the Monaco cemetery. "In distress, they came specifically to take shelter with us, thinking they would find neutrality." In 2015, Monaco unanimously approved a modest land reclamation expansion intended primarily to accommodate desperately needed housing and a small green/park area. Monaco had previously considered an expansion in 2008, but had called it off. The plan is for about six hectares (15 acres) of apartment buildings, parks, shops and offices to a land value of about 1 billion euros. The development will be adjacent to the Larvotto district and also will include a small marina. There were four main proposals, and the final mix of use will be finalised as the development progresses. The name for the new district is Anse du Portier. On 29 February 2020, Monaco announced its first case of COVID-19, a man who was admitted to the Princess Grace Hospital Centre then transferred to Nice University Hospital in France. On 3 September 2020, the first Monégasque satellite, OSM-1 CICERO, was launched into space from French Guiana aboard a Vega rocket. The satellite was built in Monaco by Orbital Solutions Monaco. In July 2024, Monaco hosted the start line for final 33km stage of the 111th Tour de France bicycle race for the first time in 15 years; the prestigious bicycle race presence was cause for celebration in the City-state. Government Politics Monaco has been governed under a constitutional monarchy since 1911, with the Sovereign Prince of Monaco as head of state. The executive branch consists of a Prime Minister as the head of government, who presides over the other five members of the Council of Government. Until 2002, the Prime Minister was a French citizen appointed by the prince from among candidates proposed by the Government of France; since a constitutional amendment in 2002, the Prime Minister can be French or Monégasque. On 2 September 2024, Prince Albert II appointed a French citizen, Didier Guillaume, to the office. Under the 1962 Constitution of Monaco, the prince shares his veto power with the unicameral National Council. The 24 members of the National Council are elected for five-year terms; 16 are chosen through a majority electoral system and 8 by proportional representation. All legislation requires the approval of the National Council. Following the 2023 Monegasque general election, all 24 seats are held by the pro-monarchist Monegasque National Union. The principality's city affairs are managed by the Municipality of Monaco. The municipality is directed by the Communal Council, which consists of 14 elected members and is presided over by a mayor. Georges Marsan has been mayor since 2003. Unlike the National Council, communal councillors are elected for four-year terms and are strictly non-partisan; oppositions inside the council frequently form. Members of the judiciary of Monaco are appointed by the Sovereign Prince. Key positions within the judiciary are held by French magistrates, proposed by the Government of France. Monaco currently has three examining magistrates. Security The wider defence of the nation is provided by France. Monaco has no navy or air force, but on both a per-capita and per-area basis, Monaco has one of the largest police forces (515 police officers for about 38,000 people) and police presences in the world. Its police includes a special unit which operates patrol and surveillance boats jointly with the military. Police forces in Monaco are commanded by a French officer. There is also a small military force. This consists of a bodyguard unit for the prince and his palace in Monaco-Ville called the Compagnie des Carabiniers du Prince (Prince's Company of Carabiniers); together with the militarised, armed fire and civil defence corps (Sapeurs-Pompiers) it forms Monaco's total forces. The Compagnie des Carabiniers du Prince was created by Prince Honoré IV in 1817 for the protection of the principality and the princely family. The company numbers exactly 116 officers and men; while the non-commissioned officers and soldiers are local, the officers have generally served in the French Army. In addition to their guard duties as described, the carabiniers patrol the principality's beaches and coastal waters. Geography Monaco is a sovereign city-state, with five quarters and ten wards, located on the French Riviera in Western Europe. It is bordered by France's Alpes-Maritimes department on three sides, with one side bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Its centre is about 16 km (9.9 mi) from Italy and only 13 km (8.1 mi) northeast of Nice. It has an area of 2.1 km2 (0.81 sq mi), or 208 ha (510 acres), and a population of 38,400, making Monaco the second-smallest and the most densely populated country in the world. The country has a land border of only 5.47 km (3.40 mi), a coastline of 3.83 km (2.38 mi), a maritime claim that extends 22.2 km (13.8 mi), and a width that varies between 1,700 and 349 m (5,577 and 1,145 ft). Jurassic-era limestone is a prominent bedrock which is locally karstified. It hosts the Grotte de l'Observatoire, which has been open to the public since 1946. The highest point in the country is at the access to the Patio Palace residential building on the Chemin des Révoires (ward Les Révoires) from the D6007 (Moyenne Corniche street) at 164.4 m (539 ft) above sea level. The lowest point in the country is the Mediterranean Sea. Saint-Jean brook is the longest flowing body of water, around 0.19 km (190 m; 0.12 mi; 620 ft) in length, and Fontvieille is the largest lake, approximately 0.5 ha (1.2 acres) in area. Monaco's most populated quartier is Monte Carlo, and the most populated ward is Larvotto/Bas Moulins. After the expansion of Port Hercules, Monaco's total area grew to 2.08 km2 (0.80 sq mi) or 208 ha (510 acres); subsequently, new plans were approved to extend the district of Fontvieille by 0.08 km2 (0.031 sq mi) or 8 ha (20 acres), with land reclaimed from the Mediterranean Sea. Land reclamation projects include extending the district of Fontvieille. There are two ports in Monaco, Port Hercules and Port Fontvieille. There is a neighbouring French port called Cap d'Ail that is near Monaco. Monaco's only natural resource is fishing; with almost the entire country being an urban area, Monaco lacks any sort of commercial agriculture industry. A small residential expansion formerly called Le Portier was nearing completion in 2023, and additionally a new esplanade was added at Larvatto beach which also had some maintenance. Administrative divisions Monaco is the second-smallest country by area in the world; only Vatican City is smaller. Monaco is the most densely populated country in the world. The state consists of only one municipality (commune), the Municipality of Monaco. There is no geographical distinction between the State and City of Monaco, although responsibilities of the government (state-level) and of the municipality (city-level) are different. According to the constitution of 1911, the principality was subdivided into three municipalities: Monaco-Ville, the old city and seat of government of the principality on a rocky promontory extending into the Mediterranean, known as the Rock of Monaco, or simply "The Rock"; Monte Carlo, the principal residential and resort area with the Monte Carlo Casino in the east and northeast; La Condamine, the southwestern section including the port area, Port Hercules. The municipalities were merged into one in 1917, and they were accorded the status of Wards or Quartiers thereafter. Fontvieille was added as a fourth ward, a newly constructed area claimed from the sea in the 1970s; Moneghetti became the fifth ward, created from part of La Condamine; Larvotto became the sixth ward, created from part of Monte Carlo; La Rousse/Saint Roman (including Le Ténao) became the seventh ward, also created from part of Monte Carlo. Subsequently, three additional wards were created, but then again were dissolved in 2013: Saint Michel, created from part of Monte Carlo; La Colle, created from part of La Condamine; Les Révoires, also created from part of La Condamine. Most of Saint Michel became part of Monte Carlo again in 2013. La Colle and Les Révoires were merged the same year as part of a redistricting process, where they became part of the larger Jardin Exotique ward. An additional ward was planned by new land reclamation to be settled beginning in 2014 but Prince Albert II announced in his 2009 New Year Speech that he had ended plans due to the economic climate at the time. Prince Albert II in mid-2010 firmly restarted the programme. In 2015, a new development called Anse du Portier was announced. Traditional quarters and modern geographic areas The four traditional quartiers of Monaco are Monaco-Ville, La Condamine, Monte Carlo and Fontvieille. The suburb of Moneghetti, the high-level part of La Condamine, is generally seen today as an effective fifth Quartier of Monaco, having a very distinct atmosphere and topography when compared with low-level La Condamine. Wards For town planning purposes, a sovereign ordinance in 1966 divided the principality into reserved sectors, "whose current character must be preserved", and wards. The number and boundaries of these sectors and wards have been modified several times. The latest division dates from 2013 and created two reserved sectors and seven wards. A new 6-hectare district, Le Portier, is currently being built on the sea. Note: for statistical purposes, the Wards of Monaco are further subdivided into 178 city blocks (îlots), which are comparable to the census blocks in the United States. Another possibility was Fontvieille II Development to commence in 2013 Architecture Monaco exhibits a wide range of architecture, but the principality's signature style, particularly in Monte Carlo, is that of the Belle Époque. It finds its most florid expression in the 1878–9 Casino and the Salle Garnier created by Charles Garnier and Jules Dutrou. Decorative elements include turrets, balconies, pinnacles, multi-coloured ceramics, and caryatids. These were blended to create a picturesque fantasy of pleasure and luxury, and an alluring expression of how Monaco sought and still seeks, to portray itself. This capriccio of French, Italian, and Spanish elements were incorporated into hacienda villas and apartments. Following major development in the 1970s, Prince Rainier III banned high-rise development in the principality. His successor, Prince Albert II, overturned this Sovereign Order. In recent years the accelerating demolition of Monaco's architectural heritage, including its single-family villas, has created dismay. The principality has no heritage protection legislation. Climate Monaco has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csa), with strong maritime influences, with some resemblances to the humid subtropical climate (Cfa). As a result, it has balmy warm, dry summers and mild, rainy winters. The winters are very mild considering the city's latitude, being as mild as locations located much further south in the Mediterranean Basin. Cool and rainy interludes can interrupt the dry summer season, the average length of which is also shorter. Summer afternoons are infrequently hot (indeed, temperatures greater than 30 °C or 86 °F are rare) as the atmosphere is temperate because of constant sea breezes. On the other hand, the nights are very mild, due to the fairly high temperature of the sea in summer. Generally, temperatures do not drop below 20 °C (68 °F) in this season. In the winter, frosts and snowfalls are extremely rare and generally occur once or twice every ten years. On 27 February 2018, both Monaco and Monte Carlo experienced snowfall. Economy Monaco has the world's highest GDP nominal per capita at US$185,742, GDP PPP per capita at $132,571 and GNI per capita at $183,150. It also has an unemployment rate of 2%, with over 48,000 workers who commute from France and Italy each day. According to the CIA World Factbook, Monaco has the world's lowest poverty rate and the highest number of millionaires and billionaires per capita in the world. For the fourth year in a row, Monaco in 2012 had the world's most expensive real estate market, at $58,300 per square metre. Although the average price went down in 2020, to an average price of $53,378 per square metre, Monaco remains one of the most expensive places in the world to buy property. The world's most expensive apartment is located in Monaco, a penthouse at the Odeon Tower valued at $335 million according to Forbes in 2016. One of Monaco's main sources of income is tourism. Each year many foreigners are attracted to its casinos and pleasant climate. It has also become a major banking centre, holding over €100 billion worth of funds. Banks in Monaco specialise in providing private banking, asset and wealth management services. Monaco is the only place in Europe where credit card points are not redeemable. Hotel points are not able to be accumulated nor are transactions recorded, allowing for an increase in privacy that is sought by many of the locals. The principality has successfully sought to diversify its economic base into services and small, high-value-added, non-polluting industries, such as cosmetics. The state retains monopolies in numerous sectors, including tobacco and the postal service. The telephone network (Monaco Telecom) used to be fully owned by the state. Its monopoly now comprises only 45%, while the remaining 55% is owned by Cable & Wireless Communications (49%) and Compagnie Monégasque de Banque (6%). Living standards are high, roughly comparable to those in prosperous French metropolitan areas. Monaco is not a member of the European Union, but very closely linked via a customs union with France. As such, its currency is the same as that of France, the euro. Before 2002, Monaco minted its own coins, the Monegasque franc. Monaco has acquired the right to mint euro coins with Monegasque designs on its national side. Gambling industry The plan for casino gambling was drafted during the reign of Florestan I in 1846. Under Louis-Philippe's petite-bourgeois regime a dignitary such as the Prince of Monaco was not allowed to operate a gambling house. All this changed in the dissolute Second French Empire under Napoleon III. The House of Grimaldi was in dire need of money. The towns of Menton and Roquebrune, which had been the main sources of income for the Grimaldi family for centuries, were now accustomed to a much-improved standard of living and lenient taxation thanks to the Sardinian intervention and clamoured for financial and political concession, even for separation. The Grimaldi family hoped the newly legal industry would help alleviate the difficulties they faced, above all the crushing debt the family had incurred, but Monaco's first casino would not be ready to operate until after Charles III assumed the throne in 1856. The grantee of the princely concession (licence) was unable to attract enough business to sustain the operation and, after relocating the casino several times, sold the concession to French casino magnates François and Louis Blanc for 1.7 million francs. The Blancs had already set up a highly successful casino (in fact the largest in Europe) in Bad-Homburg in the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Homburg, a small German principality comparable to Monaco, and quickly petitioned Charles III to rename a depressed seaside area known as "Les Spelugues (Den of Thieves)" to "Monte Carlo (Mount Charles)." They then constructed their casino in the newly dubbed "Monte Carlo" and cleared out the area's less-than-savoury elements to make the neighbourhood surrounding the establishment more conducive to tourism. The Blancs opened Le Grand Casino de Monte Carlo in 1858 and the casino benefited from the tourist traffic the newly built French railway system created. Due to the combination of the casino and the railroads, Monaco finally recovered from the previous half-century of economic slump and the principality's success attracted other businesses. In the years following the casino's opening, Monaco founded its Oceanographic Museum and the Monte Carlo Opera House, 46 hotels were built and the number of jewellers operating in Monaco increased by nearly five-fold. In an apparent effort not to overtax citizens, it was decreed that the Monégasque citizens were prohibited from entering the casino unless they were employees. By 1869, the casino was making such a vast sum of money that the principality could afford to end tax collection from the Monegasques—a masterstroke that was to attract affluent residents from all over Europe in a policy that still exists today. Today, Société des bains de mer de Monaco, which owns Le Grand Casino, still operates in the original building that the Blancs constructed and has since been joined by several other casinos, including the Le Casino Café de Paris, the Monte Carlo Sporting Club & Casino and the Sun Casino. The most recent addition in Monte Carlo is the Monte Carlo Bay Casino, which sits on 4 hectares of the Mediterranean Sea; among other things, it offers 145 slot machines, all equipped with "ticket-in, ticket-out" (TITO). It is the first Mediterranean casino to use this technology. Low taxes Monaco has a 20% VAT plus high social-insurance taxes, payable by both employers and employees. The employers' contributions are between 28% and 40% (averaging 35%) of gross salary, including benefits, and employees pay a further 10% to 14% (averaging 13%). Monaco has never levied income tax on individuals, and foreigners are thus able to use it as a "tax haven" from their own country's high taxes, because as an independent country, Monaco is not obliged to pay taxes to other countries. The absence of a personal income tax has attracted many wealthy "tax refugee" residents from European countries, who derive the majority of their income from activity outside Monaco. Celebrities, such as Formula One drivers, attract most of the attention but the vast majority are lesser-known business people. Per a bilateral treaty with France, French citizens who reside in Monaco must still pay income and wealth taxes to France. The principality also actively discourages the registration of foreign corporations, charging a 33 per cent corporation tax on profits unless they can show that at least three-quarters of turnover is generated within Monaco. Unlike classic tax havens, Monaco does not offer offshore financial services. In 1998, the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, part of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), issued a first report on the consequences of the financial systems of known tax havens. Monaco did not appear in the list of these territories until 2004, when the OECD became indignant regarding the Monegasque situation and denounced it in a report, along with Andorra, Liechtenstein, Liberia, and the Marshall Islands. The report underlined Monaco's lack of co-operation regarding financial information disclosure and availability. Later, Monaco overcame the OECD's objections and was removed from the "grey list" of uncooperative jurisdictions. In 2009, Monaco went a step further and secured a place on the "white list" after signing twelve information exchange treaties with other jurisdictions. In 2000, the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) stated: "The anti-money laundering system in Monaco is comprehensive. Difficulties have been encountered with Monaco by countries in international investigations on serious crimes that appear to be linked also with tax matters. In addition, the FIU of Monaco (SICCFIN) suffers a great lack of adequate resources. The authorities of Monaco have stated that they will provide additional resources to SICCFIN." Also in 2000, a report by French politicians Arnaud Montebourg and Vincent Peillon stated that Monaco had relaxed policies with respect to money laundering including within its casino and that the Government of Monaco had been placing political pressure on the judiciary so that alleged crimes were not being properly investigated. In its Progress Report of 2005, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) identified Monaco, along with 36 other territories, as a tax haven, but in its FATF report of the same year it took a positive view of Monaco's measures against money-laundering. The Council of Europe also decided to issue reports naming tax havens. Twenty-two territories, including Monaco, were thus evaluated between 1998 and 2000 on a first round. Monaco was the only territory that refused to perform the second round, between 2001 and 2003, whereas the 21 other territories had planned to implement the third and final round, planned between 2005 and 2007. In June 2024, the FATF added Monaco to its "grey list", which includes countries needing "increased monitoring" due to statewide issues of money laundering and terrorist financing. Numismatics Monaco issued its own coins in various devaluations connected to the écu already in the seventeenth century, but its first decimal coins of the Monégasque franc were issued in 1837 continued until 2001. Although Monaco is not a European Union member, it is allowed to use the euro as its currency by arrangement with the Council of the European Union; it is also granted the right to use its own designs on the national side of the euro coins, which was introduced in 2002. In preparation for this date, the minting of the new euro coins started as early as 2001. Like Belgium, Finland, France, the Netherlands, and Spain, Monaco decided to put the minting date on its coins. This is why the first euro coins from Monaco have the year 2001 on them, instead of 2002, like the other countries of the Eurozone that decided to put the year of first circulation (2002) on their coins. Three different designs were selected for the Monégasque coins. The design was changed in 2006 after Prince Rainier's death to feature the effigy of Prince Albert. Demographics Monaco's total population was 38,400 in 2015, and estimated by the United Nations to be 36,297 as of 1 July 2023. Monaco's population is unusual in that the native Monégasques are a minority in their own country: the largest group are French nationals at 28.4%, followed by Monégasque (21.6%), Italian (18.7%), British (7.5%), Belgian (2.8%), German (2.5%), Swiss (2.5%) and U.S. nationals (1.2%). According to 2019 studies, 31% of Monaco's population is reported to be millionaires equalling up to 12,248 individuals Citizens of Monaco, whether born in the country or naturalised, are called Monégasque. Monaco has the world's highest life expectancy at nearly 90 years. Language The main and official language of Monaco is French, while Italian is spoken by the principality's sizeable community from Italy. French and Italian are in fact more spoken in the principality today than Monégasque, its historic vernacular language. A variety of Ligurian, Monégasque is not recognised as an official language; nevertheless, some signage appears in both French and Monégasque, and the language is taught in schools. English is also used. Italian was the official language in Monaco until 1860, when it was replaced by French. This was due to the annexation of the surrounding County of Nice to France following the Treaty of Turin (1860). The Grimaldi, princes of Monaco, are of Ligurian origin; thus, the traditional national language is Monégasque, a variety of Ligurian, now spoken by only a minority of residents and as a common second language by many native residents. In Monaco-Ville, street signs are printed in both French and Monégasque. Religion Christianity Christians comprise a total of 86% of Monaco's population. According to Monaco 2012 International Religious Freedom Report, Roman Catholic Christians are Monaco's largest religious group, followed by Protestant Christians. The Report states that there are two Protestant churches, an Anglican church and a Reformed church. There are also various other Evangelical Protestant communities that gather periodically. Catholicism The official religion is Catholicism, with freedom of other religions guaranteed by the constitution. There are five Catholic parish churches in Monaco and one cathedral, which is the seat of the archbishop of Monaco. The diocese, which has existed since the mid-19th century, was raised to a non-metropolitan archbishopric in 1981 as the Archdiocese of Monaco and remains exempt (i.e. immediately subject to the Holy See). The patron saint is Saint Devota. Anglican Communion There is one Anglican church (St Paul's Church), located in the Avenue de Grande Bretagne in Monte Carlo. The church was dedicated in 1925. In 2007 this had a formal membership of 135 Anglican residents in the principality but was also serving a considerably larger number of Anglicans temporarily in the country, mostly as tourists. The church site also accommodates an English-language library of over 3,000 books. The church is part of the Anglican Diocese in Europe. Reformed Church of Monaco There is one Reformed church, which meets in a building located in Rue Louis Notari. The building dates from 1958 to 1959. The church is affiliated with the United Protestant Church of France (Église Protestante Unie de France, EPUF), a group that incorporates the former Reformed Church of France (Église Réformée de France). Through this affiliation with EPUF, the church is part of the World Communion of Reformed Churches. The church acts as a host church to some other Christian communities, allowing them to use its building. Charismatic Episcopal Church The Monaco Parish of the Charismatic Episcopal Church (Parish of St Joseph) dates from 2017 and meets in the Reformed Church's Rue Louis Notari building. Christian Fellowship The Monaco Christian Fellowship, formed in 1996, meets in the Reformed Church's Rue Louis Notari building. Greek Orthodoxy Monaco's 2012 International Religious Freedom Report states that there is one Greek Orthodox church in Monaco. Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Parish of the Holy Royal Martyrs meets in the Reformed Church's Rue Louis Notari building. Hinduism According to the Monaco Statistics database (IMSEE), there are around 100 Hindus living in the country. Judaism The Association Culturelle Israélite de Monaco (founded in 1948) is a converted house containing a synagogue, a community Hebrew school, and a kosher food shop, located in Monte Carlo. The community mainly consists of retirees from Britain (40%) and North Africa. Half of the Jewish population is Sephardic, mainly from North Africa, while the other half is Ashkenazi. Islam The Muslim population of Monaco consists of about 280 people, most of whom are residents, not citizens. The majority of the Muslim population of Monaco are Arabs, though there is a Turkish minority as well. Monaco does not have any official mosques. Sports Two important sports for Monaco are football and racing, but there are a number of other sports played;sports are also a part of Monaco's economy and culture. Formula One Since 1929, the Monaco Grand Prix has been held annually in the streets of Monaco. It is widely considered to be one of the most prestigious automobile races in the world. The erection of the Circuit de Monaco takes six weeks to complete and the removal after the race takes another three weeks. The circuit is narrow and tight and its tunnel, tight corners and many elevation changes make it perhaps the most demanding Formula One track. Driver Nelson Piquet compared driving the circuit to "riding a bicycle around your living room". Despite the challenging nature of the course it has only had two fatalities, Luigi Fagioli who died from injuries received in practice for the 1952 Monaco Grand Prix (run to sports car regulations that year, not Formula 1) and Lorenzo Bandini, who crashed, burned and died three days later from his injuries in 1967. Two other drivers had lucky escapes after they crashed into the harbour, the most famous being Alberto Ascari in the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix and Paul Hawkins, during the 1965 race. In 2020, the Monaco Grand Prix was cancelled for the first time since 1954 because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Monégasque Formula 1 drivers There have been five Formula One drivers from Monaco: Charles Leclerc (2018–present) Winner of the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix Robert Doornbos (2005, Dutch driver under a Monégasque licence) Olivier Beretta (1994) André Testut (1958–1959) Louis Chiron (1950–1958) Winner of the 1931 Monaco Grand Prix Formula E Starting in 2015 Formula E started racing biennially with the Historic Grand Prix of Monaco on the Monaco ePrix and used a shorter configuration of the full Formula 1 circuit, keeping it around Port Hercules until 2021. ROKiT Venturi Racing is the only motor racing team based in the principality, headquartered in Fontvieille. The marque competes in Formula E and was one of the founding teams of the fully-electric championship. Managed by former racing drivers Susie Wolff (CEO) and Jérôme d'Ambrosio (Team Principal), the outfit holds 16 podiums in the series to date including five victories. 1997 Formula One World Champion Jacques Villeneuve and eleven-time Formula One race winner Felipe Massa have raced for the team previously. Ten-time Macau winner and 2021 vice World Champion Edoardo Mortara and Season 3 Formula E champion Lucas di Grassi currently race for the team. Monte Carlo Rally Since 1911 part of the Monte Carlo Rally has been held in the principality, originally held at the behest of Prince Albert I. Like the Grand Prix, the rally is organised by Automobile Club de Monaco. It has long been considered to be one of the toughest and most prestigious events in rallying and from 1973 to 2008 was the opening round of the World Rally Championship (WRC). From 2009 until 2011, the rally served as the opening round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge. The rally returned to the WRC calendar in 2012 and has been held annually since. Due to Monaco's limited size, all but the ending of the rally is held on French territory. Football Monaco hosts two major football teams in the principality: the men's football club, AS Monaco FC, and the women's football club, OS Monaco. AS Monaco plays at the Stade Louis II and competes in Ligue 1, the first division of French football. The club is historically one of the most successful clubs in the French league, having won Ligue 1 eight times (most recently in 2016–17) and competed at the top level for all but six seasons since 1953. The club reached the 2004 UEFA Champions League Final, with a team that included Dado Pršo, Fernando Morientes, Jérôme Rothen, Akis Zikos and Ludovic Giuly, but lost 3–0 to Portuguese team FC Porto. French World Cup-winners Thierry Henry, Fabien Barthez, David Trezeguet, and Kylian Mbappe have played for the club. The Stade Louis II also played host to the annual UEFA Super Cup from 1998 to 2012 between the winners of the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. The women's team, OS Monaco, competes in the women's French football league system. The club plays in the local regional league, deep down in the league system. It once played in the Division 1 Féminine, in the 1994–95 season, but was quickly relegated. The Monaco national football team represents the nation in association football and is controlled by the Monégasque Football Federation, the governing body for football in Monaco. Monaco is one of two sovereign states in Europe (along with the Vatican City) that is not a member of UEFA and so does not take part in any UEFA European Football Championship or FIFA World Cup competitions. They are instead affiliated with CONIFA, where they compete against other national teams that are not FIFA members. The team plays its home matches in the Stade Louis II. Rugby Monaco's national rugby team, as of April 2019, is 101st in the World Rugby Rankings. Basketball Multi-sport club AS Monaco owns AS Monaco Basket which was founded in 1928. They play in the top-tier European basketball league, the EuroLeague, and the French top flight, the LNB Pro A. They have three Pro A Leaders Cup, two Pro B (2nd-tier), and one NM1 (3rd-tier) championship. They play in Salle Gaston Médecin, which is part of Stade Louis II. Professional boxing Due in part to its position both as a tourist and gambling centre, Monaco has staged major professional boxing world title and non-title fights from time to time; those include the Carlos Monzon versus Nino Benvenuti rematch, Monzon's rematch with Emile Griffith, Monzon's two classic fights with Rodrigo Valdes, Davey Moore versus Wilfredo Benitez, the double knockout-ending classic between Lee Roy Murphy and Chisanda Mutti (won by Murphy), and Julio César Chávez Sr. versus Rocky Lockridge. All of the aforementioned contests took place at the first Stade Louis II or the second Stade Louis II stadiums. Other sports and events The Monte-Carlo Masters is held annually in neighbouring Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France, as a professional tournament for men as part of tennis's ATP Masters Series. The tournament has been held since 1897. Golf's Monte Carlo Open was also held at the Monte Carlo Golf Club at Mont Agel in France between 1984 and 1992. Monaco has a national Davis Cup team, which plays in the European/African Zone. Monaco has also competed in the Olympic Games, although, no athlete from Monaco has ever won an Olympic medal. At the Youth Olympic Winter Games, Monaco won a bronze medal in bobsleigh. The 2009 Tour de France, the world's premier cycle race, started from Monaco with a 15 km (9 mi) closed-circuit individual time trial starting and finishing there on the first day, and the 182 km (113 mi) second leg starting there on the following day and ending in Brignoles, France. Monaco has also staged part of the Global Champions Tour (International Show-jumping). In 2009, the Monaco stage of the Global Champions tour took place between 25 and 27 June. The Monaco Marathon is the only marathon in the world to pass through three countries, those of Monaco, France and Italy, before the finish at the Stade Louis II. The Monaco Ironman 70.3 triathlon race is an annual event with over 1,000 athletes competing and attracts top professional athletes from around the world. The race includes a 1.9 km (1.2 mi) swim, 90 km (56 mi) bike ride and 21.1 km (13.1 mi) run. Since 1993, the headquarters of the International Association of Athletics Federations, the world governing body of athletics, is located in Monaco. An IAAF Diamond League meet is annually held at Stade Louis II. A municipal sports complex, the Rainier III Nautical Stadium in the Port Hercules district consists of a heated saltwater Olympic-size swimming pool, diving boards and a slide. The pool is converted into an ice rink from December to March. In addition to Formula One, the Circuit de Monaco hosts several support series, including FIA Formula 2, Porsche Supercup and Formula Regional Europe. It has in the past also hosted Formula Three and Formula Renault. From 10 to 12 July 2014 Monaco inaugurated the Solar1 Monte Carlo Cup, a series of ocean races exclusively for solar-powered boats., The women team of the chess club CE Monte Carlo won the European Chess Club Cup several times. Culture Cuisine The cuisine of Monaco is a Mediterranean cuisine shaped by the cooking style of Provence and the influences of nearby northern Italian and southern French cooking, in addition to Monaco's own culinary traditions. Two famous restaurants in Monaco include the Le Lous XV, currently with three Michelin stars, and the Café de Paris. The Café de Paris is next to the Casino and first opened in 1868, though it has been renovated several times over its lifetime. Music Monaco has an opera house, a symphony orchestra and a classical ballet company. Monaco participated regularly in the Eurovision Song Contest between 1959–1979 and 2004–2006, winning in 1971, although none of the artists participating for the principality was originally Monegasque. French-born Minouche Barelli, however, acquired Monegasque citizenship in 2002, 35 years after her representing the principality in 1967. Visual arts Monaco has a national museum of contemporary visual art at the New National Museum of Monaco. In 1997, the Audiovisual Institute of Monaco was founded aimed to preserve audiovisual archives and show how the Principality of Monaco is represented in cinema. The country also has numerous works of public art, statues, museums, and memorials (see list of public art in Monaco). Museums in Monaco Monaco Top Cars Collection Napoleon Museum (Monaco) Oceanographic Museum Events, festivals, and shows The Principality of Monaco hosts major international events such as : International Circus Festival of Monte-Carlo Mondial du Théâtre Monte-Carlo Television Festival Bread Festival Monaco also has an annual bread festival on 17 September every year. Parks and Gardens There is several gardens in Monaco, which are in a variety of styles and purpose. There is an exotic plant garden, Saint Martin garden, African plants garden, Casino Gardens, Princess Grace Rose Garden, and a Japanese Gardens. Education Primary and secondary schools Monaco has ten state-operated schools, including: seven nursery and primary schools; one secondary school, Collège Charles III; one lycée that provides general and technological training, Lycée Albert 1er; and one lycée that provides vocational and hotel training, Lycée technique et hôtelier de Monte-Carlo. There are also two grant-aided denominational private schools, Institution François d'Assise Nicolas Barré and Ecole des Sœurs Dominicaines, and one international school, the International School of Monaco, founded in 1994. Colleges and universities There is one university located in Monaco, namely the International University of Monaco (IUM), an English-language university specialising in business education and operated by the Institut des hautes études économiques et commerciales (INSEEC) group. Flag The flag of Monaco is one of the world's oldest national flag designs. Adopted by Monaco on 4 April 1881 its based on the Monaco Royal colors going back to the 14th century. The flag has similarities to the flags of German state of Hesse, Thuringia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Poland in the modern times. Transport The Monaco-Monte Carlo station is served by the SNCF, the French national rail system. The Monaco Heliport provides helicopter service to the closest airport, Côte d'Azur Airport in Nice, France. The Monaco bus company (CAM) covers all the tourist attractions, museums, Exotic garden, business centres, and the Casino or the Louis II Stadium. There is about 77 km (48 miles) of roads in Monaco, many sections of which are also used for automotive and other races. The main port is Port Hercules which inculdes a deep-water pier, and there is another smaller harbor between the Rock and Fontvieille. Relations with other countries Monaco is so old that it has outlived many of the nations and institutions that it has had relations with. The Crown of Aragon and Republic of Genoa became a part of other countries, as did the Kingdom of Sardinia. Honoré II, Prince of Monaco secured recognition of his independent sovereignty from Spain in 1633, and then from Louis XIII of France by the Treaty of Péronne (1641). Monaco made a special agreement with France in 1963 in which French customs laws apply in Monaco and its territorial waters. Monaco uses the euro but is not a member of the European Union. Monaco shares a 6 km (3.7 mi) border with France but also has about 2 km (1.2 mi) of coastline with the Mediterranean sea. Two important agreements that support Monaco's independence from France include the Franco-Monégasque Treaty of 1861 and the French Treaty of 1918 (see also Kingdom of Sardinia). The United States CIA Factbook records 1419 as the year of Monaco's independence. France and Italy have embassies within Monaco, while most other nations represented via operations in Paris. There are about another 30 or so consulates. By the 21st century Monaco maintained embassies in Belgium (Brussels), France (Paris), Germany (Berlin), the Vatican, Italy (Rome), Portugal (Lisbon), Spain (Madrid), Switzerland (Bern), United Kingdom (London) and the United States (Washington). As of 2000 nearly two-thirds of the residents of Monaco were foreigners. In 2015 the immigrant population was estimated at 60% It is reported to be difficult to gain citizenship in Monaco, or at least in relative number there are not many people who do so. In 2015 an immigration rate of about 4 people per 1,000 was noted, or about 100–150 people a year. The population of Monaco went from 35,000 in 2008 to 36,000 in 2013, and of that about 20 per cent were native Monegasque (see also Nationality law of Monaco). A recurring issue Monaco encounters with other countries is the attempt by foreign nationals to use Monaco to avoid paying taxes in their own country. Monaco actually collects a number of taxes including a 20% VAT and 33% on companies unless they make over 75% of their income inside Monaco. Monaco does not allow dual citizenship but does have multiple paths to citizenship including by declaration and naturalisation. In many cases the key issue for obtaining citizenship, rather than attaining residency in Monaco, is the person's ties to their departure country. For example, French citizens must still pay taxes to France even if they live full-time in Monaco unless they resided in the country before 1962 for at least 5 years. In the early 1960s there was some tension between France and Monaco over taxation. There are no border formalities entering or leaving France. For visitors, a souvenir passport stamp is available on request at Monaco's tourist office. This is located on the far side of the gardens that face the Casino. See also Notes References External links Government Official Government Portal Archived 2 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine Official website of the Prince's Palace of Monaco Archived 17 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine Chief of State and Cabinet Members. (Archived 7 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine.) Monaco Statistics Pocket – Edition 2014 Archived 17 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine General information Monaco Archived 30 December 2021 at the Wayback Machine. The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. Monaco from UCB Libraries GovPubs Monaco Archived 19 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Information about Monaco. History of Monaco: Primary documents Archived 15 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine Wikimedia Atlas of Monaco Geographic data related to Monaco at OpenStreetMap Google Earth view Archived 8 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine Travel Official website for tourism Archived 24 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine News Monaco Archived 21 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine from the BBC News NEWS.MC Archived 15 April 2023 at the Wayback Machine. English-language Monaco news source and publisher of daily newsletter Good Morning Monaco. Monacolife.net Archived 15 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine. English news portal. The Monaco Times Archived 25 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine – A regular feature in The Riviera Times is the English language newspaper for the French–Italian Riviera and the Principality of Monaco provides monthly local news and information about the business, art and culture, people and lifestyle, events and also the real estate market. Monaco-IQ Archived 2 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Monaco information and news aggregator. Other Order of the doctors of Monaco Archived 21 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine (in French)

List_of_Chevrolet_vehicles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chevrolet_vehicles

Chevrolet is a division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM), which produces vehicles since 1911 worldwide. Current production vehicles Keys Vehicles currently not sold in the United States and Canada Currently produced under license Chevrolet Cobalt (Uzbekistan) Chevrolet D-Max (Ecuador) Chevrolet T-Series (Egypt) Notes Former production vehicles United States Models originally designed and manufactured in the United States (rebadged models are included in another separate list): Notes Global Chevrolet cars marketed and/or produced outside the United States: Notes Other past vehicles Notes Concept cars Experimental cars CERV I (1959) CERV II (1963) CERV III (1985) CERV IV (1993) CERV IV-B (1997) Prototypes Corvette (1983) Corvette ZR-1 Active Suspension prototype (1990) See also List of Chevrolet pickup trucks == References ==

Chevrolet_Monte_Carlo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Monte_Carlo

The Chevrolet Monte Carlo is a two-door coupe that was manufactured and marketed by the Chevrolet division of General Motors. Deriving its name from the city in Monaco, the Monte Carlo was marketed as the first personal luxury car of the Chevrolet brand. Introduced for the 1970 model year, the model line was produced across six generations through the 2007 model year, with a hiatus from 1989 until 1994. The Monte Carlo was a variant of the Pontiac Grand Prix throughout its production. From 1970 until 1972, the Monte Carlo rode on the unique "A-Special" platform with the Grand Prix, shifting to the standard A-body intermediate chassis from the 1973 through 1977 model years. For 1978, the Monte Carlo line underwent downsizing, but was still considered a midsized coupe. The rear-wheel drive A-body platform of this generation of Monte Carlo was redesignated as the G-body when GM's front-wheel drive A-body cars were introduced for the 1982 model year. After an abbreviated 1988 model year, the Monte Carlo was replaced by the two-door Chevrolet Lumina. For the 1995 model year, the Monte Carlo was revived, replacing the two-door Lumina. It shared the front-wheel drive W-platform with the two-door Grand Prix, and was the largest coupe in the Chevrolet lineup. After the 2002 model year, the Grand Prix coupe was discontinued, the Monte Carlo became the largest two-door model produced by an American auto manufacturer. In response to declining sales of the model line, Chevrolet discontinued the Monte Carlo after the 2008 model year. During much of its production, the Monte Carlo represented the Chevrolet brand in stock car racing. During the 1980s, the Monte Carlo SS was introduced, featuring aerodynamically-enhanced styling; as part of its revival, the Monte Carlo again represented Chevrolet in stock car racing from 1995 through its discontinuation. Development For the 1968 model year, GM instituted a split-wheelbase policy for its A-platform intermediate-sized cars. Two-door models would have a 112 in (2,845 mm) wheelbase, 116 in (2,946 mm) for sedans, and 121 in (3,073 mm) for station wagons. In 1969, GM introduced the Pontiac Grand Prix, a two-door that used the A-platform layout that was stretched ahead of the firewall to make it 210.2-inch (5,339 mm) long. This gave the design an unusually long hood design, helping the new Grand Prix to outsell its larger B-body predecessor despite higher prices. The new layout was first known as the A-body Special, but would evolve into its own class known as the G-platform. The Monte Carlo began as Chevrolet's version of the Pontiac Grand Prix, as conceived by Elliot M. (Pete) Estes, general manager of Chevrolet, and Chevrolet's chief stylist, David Holls, giving Chevrolet and Pontiac an alternative to the E-body Buick Riviera and Oldsmobile Toronado. They modeled the styling on the contemporary Cadillac Eldorado. However, much of the body and structure were shared with the Chevrolet Chevelle (firewall, windshield, decklid, and rear window were the same). New exterior "coke bottle styling" featured concealed windshield wipers. A fiber-optic exterior light monitoring system was optional. A mid-1990s article in the magazine Chevrolet High Performance stated that the first generation Monte Carlo was known to Chevrolet management under the working name Concours. The usual practice at the time was that all Chevrolet model development names started with a "C". At one point, the proposal called for a formal coupe, sedan, and convertible. It has been noted that the sedan resembled a full-size Oldsmobile 98 before the use of the GM G platform, with at least one photograph showing the pull-up door handles that would be introduced on the 1970 Camaro and then on 1971 Vegas and full-sized Chevys. Monte Carlos received this design on the 1973 second-generation model. The 1970 Monte Carlo was available only as a two-door hardtop. The Monte Carlo was developed at Chevrolet under the leadership of Pete Estes, it was formally introduced in September 1969 by John Z. DeLorean, who succeeded Estes as Chevrolet's general manager earlier in the year after previously heading the Pontiac division, where he led the development of the Series 276 Grand Prix. First generation (1970–1972) 1970 The styling of the 1970 model-year Monte Carlo is distinguished by its chromed rectangular grille having a fine grid pattern of 720 small squares with two horizontal dividers and centered in it was a chrome and red crest emblem adorned by a Corinthian helmet (commonly referred to as the "knight's crest"), a thin hood spear with no vertical hood ornament, round headlamps with rounded chrome bezels (which appeared on a prototype 1970 Chevelle front end proposal which was rejected for the four headlight design), circular parking lamps inset into the front bumper directly below the headlamps, and taillights with chrome trim around the perimeter of the lens, only. The standard powertrain was the 350 cu in (5.7 L) Chevrolet "Turbo-Fire" small-block V8 with a two-barrel carburetor, rated at 250 hp (190 kW; 250 PS) (gross) at 4500 rpm and 345 lb⋅ft (468 N⋅m) of torque at 2800 rpm, mated to a column-mounted 3-speed Synchro-Mesh manual transmission. Front disc brakes were standard equipment. The dashboard was identical to the Chevelle except for simulated wood veneer trim, according to Holls, a photographic reproduction of the elm trim used by Rolls-Royce, and higher grade nylon or vinyl upholstery and deep-twist carpeting were used. Base priced at US$3,123, the Monte Carlo cost $218 more than a comparable Chevelle Malibu, yet lower than a Chevrolet Caprice Sport Coupe. Various options were available. A two-speed Powerglide automatic transmission (on 350 cu in (5.7 L) engines only), three-speed Turbo-Hydramatic, or a four-speed manual; most Monte Carlos were built with the Turbo-Hydramatic. Variable-ratio power steering, power windows, air conditioning, power seats, "rally" wheels, bucket seats, center console, full instrumentation, rear wheel fender skirts, and other accessories were also available, bringing the price of a fully equipped Monte Carlo to more than $5,000. Optional engines included the four-barrel carbureted "Turbo-Fire" 350 cu in (5.7 L) small block V8, rated at 300 hp (220 kW; 300 PS) at 4800 rpm and 380 lb⋅ft (520 N⋅m) at 3200 rpm; the "Turbo-Fire" (400 cu in (6.6 L)) with a two-barrel carburetor, rated at 265 hp (198 kW; 269 PS) at 4800 rpm and 400 lb⋅ft (540 N⋅m) at 3800 rpm; and the "Turbo-Jet" (402 cu in (6.6 L)) with a four-barrel carburetor, rated at 330 hp (250 kW; 330 PS) at 4800 rpm and 410 lb⋅ft (560 N⋅m) at 3200 rpm. The sporty and most powerful option was the Monte Carlo SS 454 package. Priced at $420, it included a standard Turbo-Jet (454 cu in (7.4 L)) with a four-barrel carburetor, rated at 360 hp (268 kW; 365 PS) at 4800 rpm. It also included heavy-duty suspension, wider wheels and tires, "SS 454" badging, and an automatic load-leveling rear suspension. The Turbo Hydra-Matic three-speed automatic was the only transmission available for this package. The rear axle came standard with a 3.06 ratio, with 2.56 and 3.31 available for $222 extra. Total SS 454s production was 3,823 for the year. A labor strike at Chevrolet's Flint, Michigan, assembly plant (where most Monte Carlo production was scheduled) during the early months of the 1970 model year immediately following the car's introduction on September 18, 1969, limited overall model-year sales to 159,341; short of the projected 185,000. During those early months, Monte Carlos were in short supply, with full production not achieved until February 1970. Popular Mechanics reported that 82% of readers who bought a Monte Carlo got one for the styling. However, 10.1% of readers disliked the amount of rear legroom. 1971 The 1971 model saw minor styling changes, mostly cosmetic. The headlamp bezels were more of a squircle shape with rectangular front parking lamps. The grille had no horizontal divider, and the openings were rectangular. The hood spear included a stand-up ornament with "Chevrolet" script lettering. The grill emblem featured the year, "1971" in Roman numerals. The trunk lock keyhole had the Monte Carlo crest surrounding it. The taillights now had two horizontal and one vertical chrome strip. The SS model featured new "European" symbol control knobs and a four-spoke steering wheel became optional. AM/FM stereo radios with 8-track tape players were also optional. Mechanically it was largely unchanged, although the small-block Turbo-Fire 400 two-barrel engine was dropped. Other engines had compression ratios lowered to allow the use of regular leaded, low-lead, or unleaded gasoline, per a GM corporate edict. Engine ratings fell to 245 hp (183 kW; 248 PS) for the base Turbo-Fire 350 cu in (5.7 L) two-barrel, 270 hp (201 kW; 274 PS) for the Turbo-Fire 350-4V, and 300 hp (224 kW; 304 PS) for the Turbo-Jet 400. The SS 454 engine was raised to a nominal 365 hp (272 kW; 370 PS) rating despite the reduction in compression ratio. This increase in horsepower resulted from the 454 engine using the more aggressive camshaft compared to the previous 390 hp (291 kW; 395 PS) 454 rating in the 1970 Chevrolet Corvette and full-sized sedans. Chevrolet listed both gross and SAE net horsepower figures in 1971, with the impending change to SAE net ratings in 1972. The ratings compared as follows: After this year, the SS 454 package would be discontinued after the production of 1,919 units, but the 454 CID V8 engine would remain optional in Monte Carlos through 1975. The reason for discontinuing the SS was that the Monte Carlo was marketed as a luxury vehicle instead of a muscle car. The Monte Carlo was considered the best-suited Chevrolet model for stock car racing by most NASCAR teams due to its 116 in (2,900 mm) wheelbase (only one inch above NASCAR's minimum requirements at that time, the Chevelle two-door body style had a shorter 112-inch wheelbase) and long-hood design which placed the engine further back in the chassis than most other vehicles for better weight distribution. Thus, the Monte Carlo became Chevy's standard-bearer for NASCAR from 1971 until 1989. Production of the 1971 Monte Carlo started slowly due to a 67-day corporate-wide walkout (labor strike) that coincided with the introduction of the 1971 models in September 1970. This left dealerships with only a small shipment of 1971 models (built before the strike) in stock until the strike was settled in mid-November 1970, and then slow-going in reaching normal production levels until around January 1, 1971. Model-year production ended at 128,600, including 1,919 SS models. A total of twelve 1971 Monte Carlos were shipped to Australia in 1971 and converted to RH drive, four of these were SS models from the 1,919 produced. 1972 A Cadillac-like egg-crate grille similar to the 1971 Chevrolet Caprice, rectangular front parking lamps moved to the left and right edges of the grille, a wider hood spear without stand-up ornament, and a metal rear trim molding highlighted the changes to the 1972 Monte Carlo, the final year for the first-generation design. The SS was dropped, but a new Monte Carlo Custom option appeared as a one-year-only offering that included a unique suspension and other items previously included with the SS option. Unlike the departed SS package, it was available with any engine on the roster. The Monte Carlo Custom badging was similar to the Impala Custom. The engines were essentially unchanged, but an industry-wide switch to SAE net hp numbers reduced the rated power of all Chevrolet engines. Chevrolet did not list gross horsepower figures for 1972. Compared to the 1971 model year output, only the 402 and 454 had a decrease in power. The new ratings for the Monte Carlo were: In California, which had emissions standards more stringent than federal law, the 4-barrel carbureted 350 was the standard and only available engine. Also, the only transmission offered in California was the Turbo Hydramatic. For 1972, the four-speed manual transmission was discontinued from the option list as a line in the Monte Carlo brochure describing its market position as a personal luxury car stated, "Sorry, no four-on-the-floor." The standard three-speed manual and optional two-speed Powerglide automatic transmissions were offered only with the base 350 CID two-barrel engine, with the three-speed Turbo Hydramatic also available with this engine and a mandatory option with each of the optional engines. Mechanically, the most significant change was that variable-ratio power steering became standard equipment for the first time. Interior trim was relatively unchanged from 1971 other than the availability of all-vinyl upholstery with the standard bench seat and the optional Strato bucket seats. Cloth interiors were available with the bench or bucket seats. The 1972 model year's production increased to 180,819 to set a new record in the final year for the first-generation A-body. Monte Carlo and other Chevrolet models were promoted as part of a new ad campaign. The cars in print and broadcast ads were pictured at domestic tourist attractions and sites with the tagline "Chevrolet: Building a Better Way To See The USA." Second generation (1973–1977) 1973 A redesigned Monte Carlo was introduced alongside other GM intermediates. Like other GM mid-size cars, the 1973 Monte Carlo was no longer a hardtop, but a pillared "Colonnade" coupe with rear side opera windows and frameless door glass. Prominent styling included an egg-crate grille, a Monte Carlo emblem, and vertical taillights above the bumper. The front bumper was a large federally mandated 5 mph (8.0 km/h) bumper that was among the required 1973 federal safety standards for all passenger cars sold in the U.S. with the 5 mph (8.0 km/h) requirement extended to rear bumpers on 1974 models. Also new was a double-shell roof for improved noise reduction and rollover protection, along with the flush-mounted pull-up exterior door handles first introduced on the 1970½ Camaro and 1971 full-sized Chevrolets and Vegas. The separate body-on-frame construction carried over for 1973, along with the basic all-coil suspension. The standard Monte Carlo with manual transmission retained "traditional" steering and bias-ply tires, but the radial-tuned system was included when the automatic transmission was ordered, earning the Monte Carlo S label. Optional were radial-ply tires, "Pliacell" shock absorbers (internal plastic membranes that separate the hydraulic fluid from the gas), high-caster steering, and front and rear anti-roll bars (previously offered only with the SS package). A new model for 1973 was the Monte Carlo Landau, an "S" with a rear quarter Landau vinyl roof, Turbine II wheels, and driver and passenger-side sports mirrors. The interior of the 1973 Monte Carlo featured an all-new, wraparound cockpit-style instrument panel, similar to that found in some contemporary Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles, and Buicks, in which gauges and various instruments were centered within easy reach of the driver. The simulated burl elm trim was retained. A split bench seat was standard, but "Strato Bucket" seats of a new design were optional, along with a floor console featuring an equally new shifter with knob and button similar to Pontiac's Rally Sports Shifter replacing the Buick-like horseshoe shifter of previous years, and storage compartment. The bucket seats were of a one-piece high-back design with built-in headrests and could swivel almost 90 degrees to permit the driver and front passenger easier entry and exit, a feature previously offered on the 1962 Chrysler 300H. Cloth and vinyl trims were offered for bench and bucket seats. The standard engine was a 145 hp (108 kW) 350 cu in (5.7 L) "Turbo-Fire" V8. Optional engines included a 175 hp (130 kW) 350 cu in (5.7 L) with a four-barrel carburetor and a four-barrel carbureted 454 cu in (7.4 L) "Turbo-Jet" V8 rated at 245 hp (183 kW). The 1973 Monte Carlo was named "Car of the Year" by Motor Trend based on its new styling and emphasis on Euro-style ride and handling. The 1973 Monte Carlo set a new sales record for Chevrolet, with nearly 250,000 sold for the model year. The success of the Monte Carlo and Pontiac's similar Grand Prix led to several new personal luxury cars from competitors, including a revised Mercury Cougar, the Ford Gran Torino Elite, the Chrysler Cordoba, and restyled Dodge Charger as well as high-line versions of the AMC Matador that introduced a new coupe design for 1974. 1974 The 1974 Monte Carlo received minor detail changes from its 1973 predecessor, most notably a revised egg-crate grille in the front, flush mount taillights (no longer recessed with horizontal chrome bars), a shorter trunk deck that housed the relocated license plate and the trunk lock mechanism. In 1973, the trunk lock was below the trunk deck and above the rear bumper in a space that no longer existed in the 1974 versions. A larger 5 mph (8.0 km/h) rear bumper was added. The driver and passenger door map pockets were no longer available. The base Monte Carlo with a manual transmission, standard suspension, and bias-ply tires was discontinued, leaving only the "S" and "Landau" models equipped with radial-ply tires, upgraded suspensions, and standard power steering and front disc brakes. A three-speed manual transmission was listed as standard equipment on 1974 "S" and "Landau" models equipped with the standard 350 cu in (5.7 L) and an automatic transmission was a required option with the larger 400 and 454 CID V8s. However, some sources indicate that Chevrolet built almost all 1974 Monte Carlos with the Turbo Hydra-Matic transmission. The standard 350 cu in (5.7 L) "Turbo-Fire" V8 was again rated at 145 hp (108 kW) with a two-barrel carburetor in 49 states. For Californians, the standard engine was a 350 "Turbo-Fire" V8 with a four-barrel carburetor rated at 160 hp (120 kW) that was not offered in the other 49 states. Reappearing on the options list for the first time since 1970 was a 400 cu in (6.6 L) "Turbo-Fire" small block V8 rated at 150 hp (110 kW) with a two-barrel carburetor (not offered in California) or 180 hp (130 kW) with a four-barrel carburetor. The top engine was again the 454 cu in (7.4 L) "Turbo-Jet" big block V8 rated at 235 hp (175 kW). Despite the Arab Oil Embargo of late 1973 and early 1974 that significantly cut into sales of standard and intermediate-sized cars in favor of smaller compacts and imported subcompacts, the Monte Carlo went the other way on the sales charts by setting a new sales record this year of over 300,000 units despite the long lines at gas stations and record-high gasoline prices. The Monte Carlo continued to lead in intermediate personal luxury car sales, with the Grand Prix placing second and the arrival of new competitors this year, including an upsized Mercury Cougar, Ford Gran Torino Elite, and AMC's Matador coupe. Chrysler would introduce its entries in this field for 1975, including the Chrysler Cordoba and redesigned Dodge Charger. Interior Dimensions 1975 The 1975 Monte Carlo received only minor styling changes from the 1974 model, including a new grille with the Monte Carlo emblem moved to the center section and new vertically shaped taillights with horizontal louvers. All models received catalytic converters to meet Federal and California emission requirements, including bonuses such as improved fuel economy and drivability, extended spark plug and muffler life, but required lower-octane unleaded gasoline. Engines were a carryover from 1974, except for the addition of GM's High Energy electronic ignition, which was made standard equipment. Power ratings for all engines were decreased due to the addition of the catalytic converter. The 454 cu in (7.4 L) V8 was no longer offered on California cars, leaving the 400 cu in (6.6 L) four-barrel the top engine in that market. The base 350 cu in (5.7 L) two-barrel was rated at 145 hp (108 kW) (standard in 49 states), the 350 CID 4-barrel was rated at 155 hp (116 kW) (available only in California), the 400 CID 4-barrel 175 hp (130 kW), and the 454 CID 4-barrel 215 hp (160 kW) (now equipped with single exhaust with dual exhaust as an option). A three-speed manual transmission was standard equipment with the base 350 CID V8 used in 49 states and California-only 350 four-barrel V8. The Turbo Hydra-Matic was optional and a required option for the 400 and 454 V8s. Company sources claim that all 1975 Monte Carlos were equipped with the Turbo Hydra-Matic transmission, which became standard equipment for 1976. New for 1975 was a Custom interior option that included a plusher cloth 50/50 bench seat with recliner on the passenger side and lower door panel carpeting. The standard interior consisted of a bench seat with knit-cloth and vinyl or all-vinyl upholstery. The swiveling Strato bucket seats with a center console and floor shifter were still optional, along with a knit cloth or vinyl upholstery. Also, white all-vinyl interiors were available for the first time this year, with either bench or bucket seats and contrasting colors for carpeting and instrument panels, including black, red, blue, and green. A gauge that showed if one was using too much gas, a part of the "Economider" Gauge package, became optional. Sales dropped from 1974's record-setting pace due to higher list prices, a domestic economy with double-digit inflation, and new competition from Chrysler's Cordoba and Dodge's Charger SE. Monte Carlo production ended up at around 250,000 units. 1976 A new crosshatch grille, vertically mounted rectangular headlamps, and reshaped taillights identified the 1976 Monte Carlo (the reshaped taillight pattern was later incorporated into the fourth-generation Monte Carlo). Under the hood, a new 140 hp (104 kW) 305 cu in (5.0 L) 2-barrel V8 became the standard engine with the 145 hp (108 kW) 350 cu in (5.7 L) 2-barrel and 175 hp (130 kW) 400 cu in (6.6 L) V8s optional. California cars included a 165 hp (123 kW) 350 cu in (5.7 L) 4-barrel as the base engine (not available in 49 states), and could be equipped with the 400 cu in (6.6 L) 4-barrel V8. The big-block 454 cu in (7.4 L) V8 was discontinued. The Turbo Hydramatic transmission became standard equipment on all 1976 Monte Carlos. Interior trims remained the same as in 1975, with both base and custom levels, but the instrument panel and steering wheel featured a new rosewood trim that replaced the burled elm of previous years. A new option was a two-toned "Fashion Tone" paint combination. Monte Carlo sales hit a record total with 353,272 units this year. Of these, 191,370 were "S" Coupes and 161,902 Landau Coupes, which was an extra $293. 1977 A revised grille with smaller segments with the Monte Carlo "knight's crest" emblem moved to a stand-up hood ornament and revised taillight lenses marked the 1977 Monte Carlo, which was the last year for the 1973-vintage design before the introduction of a downsized 1978 Monte Carlo. Engine offerings were reduced to two engines for 1977. The base engine for 49 states was the 140 hp (100 kW) 305 cu in (5.0 L) 2-barrel V8 and the 170 hp (130 kW) 350 cu in (5.7 L) 4-barrel V8 was optional (standard in California). The 400-cubic-inch V8 was dropped as an engine option. The only transmission was the Turbo Hydra-Matic transmission. Interior trim received only minor revisions this year with upholstery choices, including cloth, velour, and vinyl in base and Custom trims. Swivel-out front seats and an 8-track tape player were optional. This model year marks the only time in history when an intermediate model was bigger in every dimension than Chevrolet's full-sized models. The B-body Chevrolet Caprice/Impala had been redesigned and downsized for 1977. The Monte Carlo also weighed more. In 1977, sales totaled 224,327 S coupes and 186,711 Landau coupes. Third generation (1978–1980) 1978 All GM intermediate-sized cars, including the Monte Carlo, were downsized for the 1978 model year in response to the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo and CAFE requirements. The 1978 model was 700-800 lb lighter and 15 inches shorter than the 1977 model. The 1978 model also had more interior and trunk space than the 1977 model. The engines offered in previous years were dropped in favor of a standard 231 cu in (3.8 L) V6 built by Buick or an optional Chevrolet 305 cu in (5.0 L) V8. New one-piece wall-to-wall carpeting was standard. The three-speed manual transmission reappeared as standard equipment on the base model with the V6 engine with the automatic optional. The optional V8 and all Landau models came standard with the automatic. A four-speed manual transmission with floor shifter was optional with the 305 cu in (5.0 L) V8, the first time a four-speed manual was offered on the Monte Carlo since 1971. 1979 Minor trim changes were made to the 1979 Monte Carlo, including a restyled grille, revised parking lamp detail, and new wrap-around taillamps. Mechanical changes included a new Chevrolet-built 200 cu in (3.3 L) V6 as the standard engine for the base Monte Carlo in 49 states while the Buick 231 cu in (3.8 L) V6 remained standard on base models in California and all Landau models. A new 125 hp (93 kW) 267 cu in (4.4 L) V8 became optional and the 140 hp (100 kW) 305 cu in (5.0 L) V8 continued as an option but was joined by a 160 hp 235 lbf⋅ft (319 N⋅m) version with a four-barrel carburetor. The same transmissions were carried over from 1978, including a standard three-speed manual, an optional four-speed manual, or an optional three-speed Turbo Hydramatic automatic. This was the last year that Chevrolet offered manual transmissions on the Monte Carlo due to low buyer interest. 1980 For 1980, the car received a mild frontal restyle, with quad headlights and turn indicators mounted beneath. The metric 200 three-speed automatic transmission became standard on all models and a new Chevrolet-built 229 cu in (3.8 L) V6 with 2-barrel Rochester carburetor replaced both the 200 cu in (3.3 L) V6 of 1979 and the Buick engine offered on all 1978 models and the 1979 Landau as the standard engine in 49 states (California cars continued to use the Buick engine). A new option for 1980 was Buick's turbocharged version of the 231 cu in (3.8 L) V6 rated at 170 hp (130 kW). Other optional engines included 267 or 305 cu in (4.4 or 5.0 L) versions of the Chevrolet small-block V8 with up to 155 hp (116 kW). The front headroom was 37.6 inches, while the rear was 37.8 inches. A power trunk opener was still optional. There were 13,839 turbo Monte Carlos built in 1980. A new five-slot, 14-inch rally wheel option was introduced (the slots having squared ends and a pointed edge), this was later shared with subsequent Chevrolet/GMC A/G-bodies and the Chevrolet S10 light-duty truck. Production Figures: Fourth generation (1981–1988) 1981 The body was restyled with the other GM mid-size formal coupes (Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, Pontiac Grand Prix, Buick Regal). It featured a smoother profile than the previous models and new vertical taillights similar to the 1973 through 1977 models. Engine offerings were carried over, including the standard 229 cu in (3.8 L) Chevrolet V6 (231 cu in (3.8 L) Buick V6 in California) an optional 267 cu in (4.4 L) V8 (not available in California), a 305 cu in (5.0 L) V8 in the base and Landau models, and a turbocharged 170 hp (130 kW) 231 cu in (3.8 L) Buick V6 in the Monte Carlo Turbo. There were a total of 3,027 Monte Carlo Turbos for 1981. The Monte Carlo Turbo appeared slightly different from other Monte Carlos that year because, in addition to the turbo, it also was equipped with a small hood scoop on the left side of the hood. It also had "Turbo 3.8" badges with a Chevrolet bowtie on the sides of the hood scoop, the trunk lid, and the right side of the dash. Standard equipment included automatic transmission, power steering, and front disc brakes. While some considered this car much better looking (and appeared more aerodynamic) than its Buick Regal, Pontiac Grand Prix, and Olds Cutlass cousins, only one team attempted to use the Monte Carlo in NASCAR cup racing. While the big Monte Carlo was the dominant body style in the late 1970s, winning many races, the downsized 1981 body would only take two checkered flags during the 1981 and 1982 seasons. 1982 Few revisions were made on the 1982 Monte Carlo. All engines, except for the turbocharged 231 cu in (3.8 L) V6, which was discontinued along with the Monte Carlo Turbo model, were carried over from 1981. New for 1982 were a 260 cu in (4.3 L) V6 and an Oldsmobile 350 cu in (5.7 L) V8, both of which were diesel engines. With the introduction of GM's new mid-size platform that saw the introduction of the Buick Century, Chevrolet Celebrity, Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, and Pontiac 6000, the chassis designations were changed. The new mid-size cars were designated as A-body cars, whereas the cars previously designated as A-bodies were now called G-bodies. A black exterior was not offered in 1982 and also not available in 1982 for the first time in Monte Carlo history was a sportier interior option with Strato bucket seats and console, as only the standard notchback bench or optional 55/45 bench were offered this year. Weight distribution was 57% in the front and 43% in the rear. 1983 Receiving only minor updates, the 1983 model year Monte Carlo gained a revised grille and interior trim patterns. The standard engine continued to be the 229 cu in (3.8 L) V6, and the 150 hp (112 kW; 152 PS) 305 cu in (5.0 L) V8 was optional. The Monte Carlo SS was reintroduced in 1983 with the 175 hp (130 kW; 177 PS) 305 cu in (5.0 L) HO being standard, following twelve years of being discontinued. The Monte Carlo SS featured European body color-coding, a new front fascia, a rear spoiler, a performance axle ratio, the F41 suspension package, model-specific wheels and tires, as well as interior upgrades. 1984 The 1984 year model coupe production totaled 112,730 with an additional 24,050 had the SS option (with a 180 hp (130 kW) 305 V8 that saw a 5 hp (3.7 kW) boost from the previous year). The Monte Carlo SS was available with Strato bucket seats and floor console as extra-cost options for the first time in place of the standard split bench seat with armrest (the Strato buckets also returned as an option on the regular Monte after a two-year absence along with the T-top option.). The regular Monte Carlo came standard with a 125 hp (93 kW) 229 cu in (3.8 L) V6 (231 cu in (3.8 L) V6 for California) and a 165 hp (123 kW) 305 cu in (5.0 L) V8 was optional. The 350 cu in (5.7 L) diesel engine was available for the last year in a base Monte Carlo and were only 168 manufactured. All engines for 1984 included the three-speed automatic transmission except for three SSs at the end of the 1984 production run that received the Turbo Hydramatic 200-4R transmission with overdrive. In 1984, a limited number of Monte Carlo SSs were made in Mexico for Mexican sale. The differences are many compared to US/Canadian SSs. There was no rear spoiler. The wheels were 14-inch checker style, an option on the base Monte Carlos in the US. The side mirrors are in a different style and painted black. The interior is from the Grand Prix and is only in blue. The engine was a 350 cu in (5.7 L) V8, and the transmission was a 4-speed manual with a Hurst shifter. 1985 For 1985, additional SS colors (black, maroon, and silver in addition to white), pinstriping, and options were made available. The (later to be highly sought after) medium blue ("gunmetal") color for the SS was dropped. A four-speed automatic overdrive transmission, the Turbo Hydramatic 200-4R, with a revised sport rear axle ratio with a 3.73:1 gear, became standard on the SS. Discontinued were the 229 cu in (3.8 L) V6 and 350 cu in (5.7 L) V8 diesel engines. Introduced in place of the 229 V6 was a 262 cu in (4.3 L) V6 (RPO LB4) that was fuel-injected with throttle-body fuel injection. The small block 305 cu in (5.0 L) V8s included computer-controlled 2-barrel Quadrajet carburetors with an automatic choke to improve starting. The 1985 Chevrolet Monte Carlo was no longer available with a diesel engine. The base model's previously standard 3.8 L Chevy V6 was changed to a 4.3 L V6 with throttle-body fuel injection. This increased output to 130. The optional 5.0 L V8 gained horsepower via an increased compression ratio. Horsepower rating went from 150 to 165. The High Output 5.0 L V8 in the 1985 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS remained at 180 horsepower. 10.5-inch front disc brakes were standard, with drum brakes on the rear. A/C was $730. The V6 and base V8 were available with either a three- or four-speed automatic transmission, but the H.O. V8 in the SS came only with a four-speed automatic this year. The base coupe was visually unchanged except for pin-striping, optional T-tops, or a vinyl-covered roof. The SS version was modified. Previously offered only in white or dark blue metallic, color choices were expanded to include silver, maroon, and black. "Removable glass roof panels" (T-tops) came on board as a midyear option. Nearly 120,000 Monte Carlos were sold in 1985. Though the total was down from 1984, the SS model saw sales climb from 24,050 to 35,484. The 1985 Monte Carlo SS also came with a 35-millimeter sway bar. 1986 For 1986, there were four distinct body styles available. The base model Sport Coupe was still available with the same general body panels that it had since 1981, but featured new "aero" side mirrors similar to those on Camaros and Chevrolet Corvette of the 1980s. New for the 1986 model year was a Luxury Sport model with a revised front fascia, new "aero" side mirrors, and an updated sleek-looking rear fascia. The LS front fascia included "Euro" headlights with removable bulbs in a glass composite headlamp housing, versus the smaller sealed beam glass headlights of previous years. The rear bumper of the LS no longer had a "notch" between the bumper and trunk, and the taillights wrapped around so that they were visible from the sides of the car. The 1986 Super Sport model incorporated "aero" mirrors yet utilized the previous year's styling for the rear bumper. New for 1986 was the Aerocoupe model. Modifications to the Super Sport body included a more deeply sloped rear window and a shorter trunk lid with a lower spoiler than the previous Super Sports version. A total of 200 Aerocoupes were sold, which was the number NASCAR required for road model features to be incorporated into the racing cars. All 200 were built in Arlington, Texas, finished in white with burgundy interior and sent to Cars & Concepts in Michigan for the conversion. 1987 In 1987, Chevrolet eliminated the Sport Coupe version of the Monte Carlo, leaving the LS, SS, and Aerocoupe. The Super Sport incorporated the "smoothed" rear bumper and tail lamps first introduced on the 1986 Luxury Sport; the "lay-down" spoiler was introduced midway through the production year. The Aerocoupe made up 6,052 of the 39,251 Super Sports produced that year. A total of 39,794 Luxury Sports were produced in 1987. 1988 The Monte Carlo returned for a shortened 1988 model year, largely carryover from 1987. The Monte Carlo SS now only offered a lay-down style spoiler (dropping the stand-up spoiler), with the LS seeing no visible changes. The Aerocoupe did not return, as Chevrolet had unveiled its intention to enter the Chevrolet Lumina coupe into NASCAR racing for 1989 – before the production vehicle was released to dealers as an early 1990 model. The design was more aerodynamic compared to the Monte Carlo SS. The final G-platform Monte Carlo – a silver SS — was produced by Arlington Assembly on December 12, 1987; production in the shortened model year fell to 30,174 units (16,204 Monte Carlo SS). Production Figures: Fifth generation (1995–1999) The two-door Lumina was renamed as Monte Carlo for the 1995 model year. Deriving its design from a namesake 1992 concept car, the fifth-generation Monte Carlo was again a counterpart of the Buick Regal, Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, and Pontiac Grand Prix coupes (and sedans). Shifting to the GM W-body chassis meant the Monte Carlo became front-wheel drive for the first time and no V8 engine was available. The Monte Carlo was assembled alongside the Lumina in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. In its revival, the Monte Carlo was exclusively a coupe (in contrast to its divisional counterparts). Alongside the second-generation Lumina, the Monte Carlo was fitted with dual airbags and ABS (adding daytime running lights in 1997). The Monte Carlo shared its trim with the second-generation Lumina, including a base LS and a sport-oriented Z34. The two versions were externally similar, with the Z34 featuring red-colored badging, a lower front air dam, and blacked-out trim (instead of chrome). Z34s were equipped with 16-inch 5-spoke alloy wheels, which were an option for the LS (in place of 15-inch wheelcovers). For 1998, the Z34 received redesigned alloy wheels, with the previous style remaining optional on the LS. The LS was powered by a 160hp 3.1L V6; the Z34 used a 215hp 3.4L V6; for 1998, the Z34 received a 200hp 3.8L V6 (increasing torque output). All three V6 engines were paired to a 4-speed automatic transmission. In LS trim, the fifth-generation Monte Carlo was the final mass-produced six-passenger, two-door sedan offered for sale. As with nearly all coupes (and many four-doors), the Z34 was offered with bucket seats and a floor-mounted shifter. Special editions A run of four hundred 1995 Z34s were made called the "Monte Carlo Brickyard 400 Pace Car". The $2195 option included interior ornamentation, embroidered leather 45/55 seating with a full floor console, an aero wing spoiler, and an accent stripe package. For 1997, Chevrolet made a limited production run of Monte Carlo Brickyard 400 pace cars, though none were available for consumers. Production totals Models Sixth generation (2000–2007) 2000–2005 For 2000, Chevrolet not only again called upon GM Motorsports for design inspiration. The Super Sport moniker returned, replacing the Z34 designation of the fifth generation, which was a Lumina Coupe. Chevrolet also retired the Lumina name, bringing back the Impala nameplate for the Monte Carlo's sedan counterpart. At the request of racing teams, Chevrolet stylists added a slight "hump" on the rear trunk. From the NASCAR circuit came the aerodynamic styling and ducktail spoiler. The 6th generation Monte Carlo is based on the Monte Carlo "Intimidator" concept car, presented in 1997. Trim levels initially were the LS and SS, the latter being the first front-drive SS in the Chevrolet lineup. The LS used a 3.4 L OHV V6, while the SS used the 3.8 L V6. A Supercharged SS model was added for 2004 and 2005; the naturally aspirated SS continued as well, but was relabeled as LT for MY 2005. 2006–2007 The facelifted 2006 Monte Carlo and the companion Impala sedan were introduced at the 2005 Los Angeles Auto Show. The base engine was a 3.5 L V6 producing 211 hp (156 kW). Trim series for this generation include the entry-level LS, the mid-level LT, the upper-level LTZ and, the top-of-the-line SS. Only 14,829 SS models were produced over the two years, 8,794 in 2006 and 6,035 in 2007. The SS models used the generation IV small-block V8 — the first V8 since 1988. The 5.3 L V8 produced 303 hp (226 kW). The interior for 2006 was mildly redesigned. The revised model also added an improved interior with expanded Driver Information Center (DIC), enhanced ABS and traction control, as well as optional, seat-mounted side airbags for the front driver and passenger. The LT and LTZ models were available with the 3.9 L engine in 2006. For 2007 the LTZ model was dropped along with the engine in favor of the Flex Fuel 3.5 L as the exclusive engine for non-SS models. Specialty nameplates Chevrolet released several models inspired by then-current NASCAR drivers: The first model released was the 2002 Dale Earnhardt Signature Edition, also called Intimidator Edition. This car had two color schemes: a black body with galaxy silver rocker panels, front and rear air dams, and an all-black body with black ground effects. A thin red stripe above the silver ground effects was also included. Just behind the rear side windows, the Dale Number 3 logo was placed with Earnhardt's signature below the Number 3 logo. The car also featured silver "Intimidator" SS badges on the right side of the trunk, and standard Monte Carlo SS badges on the bottom of the vehicle, just in front of the rear tires. An Intimidator badge with the number 3 also appeared on the dash, and Earnhardt's signature appeared on the gauge cluster. The interior is all black ("charcoal") leather. This edition also came with 5-spoke, diamond-cut wheels and received a GM L36 3800 V6 engine. In 2003, the Jeff Gordon edition was released. The vehicle came with a superior blue body and silver ground effects, just like the Intimidator Edition; however, the Jeff Gordon edition also received lighter blue ghost flames on the body. It featured the number 24 behind the rear side windows. A Jeff Gordon signature was placed on the right side of the trunk, and inside the car received a Jeff Gordon badge on the dashboard and a two-tone gray and black leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob. It featured 5-spoke, diamond-cut wheels and a GM L36 3800 V6 engine. In 2004, the Dale Jr. Edition came out; it was red with a black high sport kit. The number 8, with an "E" stripe design went from the doors to the rear bumper. The 5-spoke diamond cut wheels featured a black stripe through each spoke, and Dale Jr.'s signature appeared on the right side of the trunk lid. On the sides, the vehicle received Supercharged SS badges. Inside, a #8 badge appeared on the dash, and Dale Jr.'s signature was on the cluster. This edition also featured the #8 on floor mats and headrests. This was also the first nameplate car to receive a GM L67 Supercharged 3800 V6 engine. The fan speed for heat and air conditioning was changed from the previous year's five settings to 10. The Intimidator Edition was re-released in 2004. However, the vehicle featured "Intimidator" badges on the trunk lid and both side panels. The car was all black, received the five-spoke, diamond cut wheels, and included the GM L67 Supercharged 3800 V6 engine. The 2005 featured the final commemorative edition, the Tony Stewart version. It was all black but featured a white/orange line that thickened as it reached the back of the vehicle and contained the number 20 just before the rear tires. Tony Stewart's signature also appeared behind the rear windows on both sides. The Chevy bowtie on the trunk was white in this edition, and another was painted on the front of the hood. The Monte Carlo badge was removed and replaced with the black Tony Stewart grille. The wheels were the same design as the Dale Jr. Edition, except the bowtie on the center cap was white this time. This edition also received a GM L67 Supercharged 3800 V6 engine. Pace Car Editions General Motors released several Monte Carlos branded as "Pace Car" replicas. Each year featured a different color and had limited production; however, all cars had some standard features. All pace cars received: Galaxy Silver ground effects, checkered flagging on fenders & doors, "Tasmanian Devil" decals on quarter panels, and trunk lid behind the "Monte Carlo" script. It also has a "race-inspired" rear spoiler that resembles the look of the NASCAR spoiler, a limited edition plaque on the trunk lid, "Monte Carlo" script on the dash is replaced with "PACE CAR" a gauge cluster displays "LIMITED EDITION" below the speedometer where it would say "Apply Brake To Shift From Park," 16-inch diamond-cut cast-aluminum wheels, door opening kick plates featuring the Monte Carlo nameplate, and stainless-steel dual exhaust tips. Interiors had two-tone leather from 1999 through 2002 to match the exterior with 2003 being solid black and Chevy "bow-tie" embroidered headrests. All cars also came with GMs L36 3800 V6 engine. 2000 Pace Car: Production limited to 2,222 cars. Sports two-tone leather black and red. Exterior: Torch Red with Galaxy Silver ground effects. 2001 Pace Car: Production limited to 1,300 cars. Sports two-tone leather black and silver. Exterior: Black with Galaxy Silver ground effects. 2002 Pace Car: Production limited to 1,150 cars. Sports two-tone leather black. Exterior: Competition Yellow with Galaxy Silver ground effects. 2003 Pace Car: Production limited to 1,401 cars. Sports leather Ebony Black seats with ebony and gray leather-wrapped steering wheel. Exterior: Superior Blue Metallic with Galaxy Silver ground effects. Engines Production totals Production of the 2006–2007 SS totaled 14,829 units. Discontinuation The Monte Carlo ceased production at Oshawa Car Assembly Plant #1 following an announcement in February 2007 of its demise. On June 19, 2007, the last two 2007 Chevrolet Monte Carlo models rolled off the line at the Oshawa Assembly Plant. The last two models were identical "SS" models with Precision Red exterior paint, silver rally stripes, and Ebony Nuance leather interior. The vehicle was discontinued due to declining sales in coupes in general and the company's plans to revive the Chevrolet Camaro, which would cannibalize sales of the Monte Carlo. General Motors retained the final Monte Carlo off the production line for the Heritage Center collection. The second-to-last Monte off the line was auctioned on August 15, at Manheim's Statesville Auto Auction in Statesville, North Carolina. The winning bid went to Fred Simon, owner of Simon Chevrolet in Woonsocket, RI, where it is displayed at the dealership. This car was at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway over the weekend of July 27–29 for the 2007 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. While there, it was signed by all the current Team Chevrolet drivers who were active in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series. NASCAR From 1971 until the car's end of production in 1988, the Monte Carlo campaigned in NASCAR racing. The 1973–1977 cars were the dominant body style through the years until 1980, when NASCAR mandated a move to the shorter 110-inch (2,794 mm) wheelbase cars being built by Detroit. The 1981 and 1982 (referred to as the "flat-nose") Monte Carlo was raced by few teams and only won two races in those years. In 1983, the addition of the SS nose became the Monte Carlo body style used in NASCAR until the car went out of production. The Monte Carlo returned for the 1995 season with the fifth-generation body, but NASCAR allowed the car to have wider rear quarter panels, and this deviated from factory sheet metal, which the race-spec cars had to use until that time. The 1995 body style was also a favorite on the NASCAR circuit and enjoyed considerable success at the track. The car captured several NASCAR Manufacturers Cup awards until it again was discontinued from production in 2007, and replaced by the Impala for racing. Notes External links Chevrolet Monte Carlo at the Internet Movie Cars Database

Moon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon

The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It orbits at an average distance of 384,400 km (238,900 mi), about 30 times the diameter of Earth. Tidal forces between Earth and the Moon have synchronized the Moon's orbital period (lunar month) with its rotation period (lunar day) at 29.5 Earth days, causing the same side of the Moon to always face Earth. The Moon's gravitational pull—and, to a lesser extent, the Sun's—are the main drivers of Earth's tides. In geophysical terms, the Moon is a planetary-mass object or satellite planet. Its mass is 1.2% that of the Earth, and its diameter is 3,474 km (2,159 mi), roughly one-quarter of Earth's (about as wide as the United States from coast to coast). Within the Solar System, it is the largest and most massive satellite in relation to its parent planet, the fifth largest and most massive moon overall, and larger and more massive than all known dwarf planets. Its surface gravity is about one sixth of Earth's, about half of that of Mars, and the second highest among all Solar System moons, after Jupiter's moon Io. The body of the Moon is differentiated and terrestrial, with no significant hydrosphere, atmosphere, or magnetic field. It formed 4.51 billion years ago, not long after Earth's formation, out of the debris from a giant impact between Earth and a hypothesized Mars-sized body called Theia. The lunar surface is covered in lunar dust and marked by mountains, impact craters, their ejecta, ray-like streaks, rilles and, mostly on the near side of the Moon, by dark maria ("seas"), which are plains of cooled magma. These maria were formed when molten lava flowed into ancient impact basins. The Moon is, except when passing through Earth's shadow during a lunar eclipse, always illuminated by the Sun, but from Earth the visible illumination shifts during its orbit, producing the lunar phases. The Moon is the brightest celestial object in Earth's night sky. This is mainly due to its large angular diameter, while the reflectance of the lunar surface is comparable to that of asphalt. The apparent size is nearly the same as that of the Sun, allowing it to cover the Sun completely during a total solar eclipse. From Earth about 59% of the lunar surface is visible over time due to cyclical shifts in perspective (libration), making parts of the far side of the Moon visible. The Moon has been an important source of inspiration and knowledge for humans, having been crucial to cosmography, mythology, religion, art, time keeping, natural science, and spaceflight. In 1959, the first human-made objects to leave Earth and reach another body arrived at the Moon, with the flyby of the Soviet Union's Luna 1 and the intentional impact of Luna 2. In 1966, the Moon became the first extraterrestrial body with a soft landing by Luna 9 and a orbital insertion by Luna 10 were achieved. On July 20, 1969, humans for the first time landed on the Moon and any extraterrestrial body, at Mare Tranquillitatis with the lander Eagle of the United States' Apollo 11 mission. Five more crews were sent between then and 1972, each with two men landing on the surface. The longest stay was 75 hours by the Apollo 17 crew. Since then, exploration of the Moon has continued robotically, and crewed missions are being planned to return beginning in the late 2020s. Names and etymology The usual English proper name for Earth's natural satellite is simply Moon, with a capital M. The noun moon is derived from Old English mōna, which (like all its Germanic cognates) stems from Proto-Germanic *mēnōn, which in turn comes from Proto-Indo-European *mēnsis 'month' (from earlier *mēnōt, genitive *mēneses) which may be related to the verb 'measure' (of time). Occasionally, the name Luna is used in scientific writing and especially in science fiction to distinguish the Earth's moon from others, while in poetry "Luna" has been used to denote personification of the Moon. Cynthia is another poetic name, though rare, for the Moon personified as a goddess, while Selene (literally 'Moon') is the Greek goddess of the Moon. The English adjective pertaining to the Moon is lunar, derived from the Latin word for the Moon, lūna. Selenian is an adjective used to describe the Moon as a world, rather than as a celestial object, but its use is rare. It is derived from σελήνη selēnē, the Greek word for the Moon, and its cognate selenic was originally a rare synonym but now nearly always refers to the chemical element selenium. The element name selenium and the prefix seleno- (as in selenography, the study of the physical features of the Moon) come from this Greek word. The Greek goddess of the wilderness and the hunt, Artemis, equated with the Roman Diana, one of whose symbols was the Moon and who was often regarded as the goddess of the Moon, was also called Cynthia, from her legendary birthplace on Mount Cynthus. These names – Luna, Cynthia and Selene – are reflected in technical terms for lunar orbits such as apolune, pericynthion and selenocentric. The astronomical symbol for the Moon is a crescent\decrescent, \, for example in M☾ 'lunar mass' (also ML). Natural history Lunar geologic timescale The lunar geological periods are named after their characteristic features, from most impact craters outside the dark mare, to the mare and later craters, and finally the young, still bright and therefore readily visible craters with ray systems like Copernicus or Tycho. Formation Isotope dating of lunar samples suggests the Moon formed around 50 million years after the origin of the Solar System. Historically, several formation mechanisms have been proposed, but none satisfactorily explains the features of the Earth–Moon system. A fission of the Moon from Earth's crust through centrifugal force would require too great an initial rotation rate of Earth. Gravitational capture of a pre-formed Moon depends on an unfeasibly extended atmosphere of Earth to dissipate the energy of the passing Moon. A co-formation of Earth and the Moon together in the primordial accretion disk does not explain the depletion of metals in the Moon. None of these hypotheses can account for the high angular momentum of the Earth–Moon system. The prevailing theory is that the Earth–Moon system formed after a giant impact of a Mars-sized body (named Theia) with the proto-Earth. The oblique impact blasted material into orbit about the Earth and the material accreted and formed the Moon just beyond the Earth's Roche limit of ~2.56 R🜨. Giant impacts are thought to have been common in the early Solar System. Computer simulations of giant impacts have produced results that are consistent with the mass of the lunar core and the angular momentum of the Earth–Moon system. These simulations show that most of the Moon derived from the impactor, rather than the proto-Earth. However, models from 2007 and later suggest a larger fraction of the Moon derived from the proto-Earth. Other bodies of the inner Solar System such as Mars and Vesta have, according to meteorites from them, very different oxygen and tungsten isotopic compositions compared to Earth. However, Earth and the Moon have nearly identical isotopic compositions. The isotopic equalization of the Earth-Moon system might be explained by the post-impact mixing of the vaporized material that formed the two, although this is debated. The impact would have released enough energy to liquefy both the ejecta and the Earth's crust, forming a magma ocean. The liquefied ejecta could have then re-accreted into the Earth–Moon system. The newly formed Moon would have had its own magma ocean; its depth is estimated from about 500 km (300 miles) to 1,737 km (1,079 miles). While the giant-impact theory explains many lines of evidence, some questions are still unresolved, most of which involve the Moon's composition. Models that have the Moon acquiring a significant amount of the proto-earth are more difficult to reconcile with geochemical data for the isotopes of zirconium, oxygen, silicon, and other elements. A study published in 2022, using high-resolution simulations (up to 108 particles), found that giant impacts can immediately place a satellite with similar mass and iron content to the Moon into orbit far outside Earth's Roche limit. Even satellites that initially pass within the Roche limit can reliably and predictably survive, by being partially stripped and then torqued onto wider, stable orbits. On November 1, 2023, scientists reported that, according to computer simulations, remnants of a protoplanet, named Theia, could be inside the Earth, left over from a collision with the Earth in ancient times, which also formed the Moon. Natural development The newly formed Moon settled into a much closer Earth orbit than it has today. Each body therefore appeared much larger in the sky of the other, eclipses were more frequent, and tidal effects were stronger. Due to tidal acceleration, the Moon's orbit around Earth has become significantly larger, with a longer period. Following formation, the Moon has cooled and most of its atmosphere has been stripped. The lunar surface has since been shaped by large impact events and many small ones, forming a landscape featuring craters of all ages. The Moon was volcanically active until 1.2 billion years ago, which laid down the prominent lunar maria. Most of the mare basalts erupted during the Imbrian period, 3.3–3.7 billion years ago, though some are as young as 1.2 billion years and some as old as 4.2 billion years. There are differing explanations for the eruption of mare basalts, particularly their uneven occurrence which mainly appear on the near-side. Causes of the distribution of the lunar highlands on the far side are also not well understood. Topological measurements show the near side crust is thinner than the far side. One possible scenario then is that large impacts on the near side may have made it easier for lava to flow onto the surface. Physical characteristics The Moon is a very slightly scalene ellipsoid due to tidal stretching, with its long axis displaced 30° from facing the Earth, due to gravitational anomalies from impact basins. Its shape is more elongated than current tidal forces can account for. This 'fossil bulge' indicates that the Moon solidified when it orbited at half its current distance to the Earth, and that it is now too cold for its shape to restore hydrostatic equilibrium at its current orbital distance. Size and mass The Moon is by size and mass the fifth largest natural satellite of the Solar System, categorizable as one of its planetary-mass moons, making it a satellite planet under the geophysical definitions of the term. It is smaller than Mercury and considerably larger than the largest dwarf planet of the Solar System, Pluto. While the minor-planet moon Charon of the Pluto-Charon system is larger relative to Pluto, the Moon is the largest natural satellite of the Solar System relative to their primary planets. The Moon's diameter is about 3,500 km, more than a quarter of Earth's, with the face of the Moon comparable to the width of either Mainland Australia, Europe or the Contiguous United States (which excludes Alaska, etc.). The whole surface area of the Moon is about 38 million square kilometers, comparable to North and South America combined, the combined American landmass having an area (excluding all islands) of 37.7 million square kilometers. The Moon's mass is 1/81 of Earth's, being the second densest among the planetary moons, and having the second highest surface gravity, after Io, at 0.1654 g and an escape velocity of 2.38 km/s (8600 km/h; 5300 mph). Structure The Moon is a differentiated body that was initially in hydrostatic equilibrium but has since departed from this condition. It has a geochemically distinct crust, mantle, and core. The Moon has a solid iron-rich inner core with a radius possibly as small as 240 kilometres (150 mi) and a fluid outer core primarily made of liquid iron with a radius of roughly 300 kilometres (190 mi). Around the core is a partially molten boundary layer with a radius of about 500 kilometres (310 mi). This structure is thought to have developed through the fractional crystallization of a global magma ocean shortly after the Moon's formation 4.5 billion years ago. Crystallization of this magma ocean would have created a mafic mantle from the precipitation and sinking of the minerals olivine, clinopyroxene, and orthopyroxene; after about three-quarters of the magma ocean had crystallized, lower-density plagioclase minerals could form and float into a crust atop. The final liquids to crystallize would have been initially sandwiched between the crust and mantle, with a high abundance of incompatible and heat-producing elements. Consistent with this perspective, geochemical mapping made from orbit suggests a crust of mostly anorthosite. The Moon rock samples of the flood lavas that erupted onto the surface from partial melting in the mantle confirm the mafic mantle composition, which is more iron-rich than that of Earth. The crust is on average about 50 kilometres (31 mi) thick. The Moon is the second-densest satellite in the Solar System, after Io. However, the inner core of the Moon is small, with a radius of about 350 kilometres (220 mi) or less, around 20% of the radius of the Moon. Its composition is not well understood, but is probably metallic iron alloyed with a small amount of sulfur and nickel; analyzes of the Moon's time-variable rotation suggest that it is at least partly molten. The pressure at the lunar core is estimated to be 5 GPa (49,000 atm). Gravitational field On average the Moon's surface gravity is 1.62 m/s2 (0.1654 g; 5.318 ft/s2), about half of the surface gravity of Mars and about a sixth of Earth's. The Moon's gravitational field is not uniform. The details of the gravitational field have been measured through tracking the Doppler shift of radio signals emitted by orbiting spacecraft. The main lunar gravity features are mascons, large positive gravitational anomalies associated with some of the giant impact basins, partly caused by the dense mare basaltic lava flows that fill those basins. The anomalies greatly influence the orbit of spacecraft about the Moon. There are some puzzles: lava flows by themselves cannot explain all of the gravitational signature, and some mascons exist that are not linked to mare volcanism. Magnetic field The Moon has an external magnetic field of less than 0.2 nanoteslas, or less than one hundred thousandth that of Earth. The Moon does not have a global dipolar magnetic field and only has crustal magnetization likely acquired early in its history when a dynamo was still operating. Early in its history, 4 billion years ago, its magnetic field strength was likely close to that of Earth today. This early dynamo field apparently expired by about one billion years ago, after the lunar core had crystallized. Theoretically, some of the remnant magnetization may originate from transient magnetic fields generated during large impacts through the expansion of plasma clouds. These clouds are generated during large impacts in an ambient magnetic field. This is supported by the location of the largest crustal magnetizations situated near the antipodes of the giant impact basins. Atmosphere The Moon has an atmosphere so tenuous as to be nearly vacuum, with a total mass of less than 10 tonnes (9.8 long tons; 11 short tons). The surface pressure of this small mass is around 3 × 10−15 atm (0.3 nPa); it varies with the lunar day. Its sources include outgassing and sputtering, a product of the bombardment of lunar soil by solar wind ions. Elements that have been detected include sodium and potassium, produced by sputtering (also found in the atmospheres of Mercury and Io); helium-4 and neon from the solar wind; and argon-40, radon-222, and polonium-210, outgassed after their creation by radioactive decay within the crust and mantle. The absence of such neutral species (atoms or molecules) as oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen and magnesium, which are present in the regolith, is not understood. Water vapor has been detected by Chandrayaan-1 and found to vary with latitude, with a maximum at ~60–70 degrees; it is possibly generated from the sublimation of water ice in the regolith. These gases either return into the regolith because of the Moon's gravity or are lost to space, either through solar radiation pressure or, if they are ionized, by being swept away by the solar wind's magnetic field. Studies of Moon magma samples retrieved by the Apollo missions demonstrate that the Moon had once possessed a relatively thick atmosphere for a period of 70 million years between 3 and 4 billion years ago. This atmosphere, sourced from gases ejected from lunar volcanic eruptions, was twice the thickness of that of present-day Mars. The ancient lunar atmosphere was eventually stripped away by solar winds and dissipated into space. A permanent Moon dust cloud exists around the Moon, generated by small particles from comets. Estimates are 5 tons of comet particles strike the Moon's surface every 24 hours, resulting in the ejection of dust particles. The dust stays above the Moon approximately 10 minutes, taking 5 minutes to rise, and 5 minutes to fall. On average, 120 kilograms of dust are present above the Moon, rising up to 100 kilometers above the surface. Dust counts made by LADEE's Lunar Dust EXperiment (LDEX) found particle counts peaked during the Geminid, Quadrantid, Northern Taurid, and Omicron Centaurid meteor showers, when the Earth, and Moon pass through comet debris. The lunar dust cloud is asymmetric, being more dense near the boundary between the Moon's dayside and nightside. Surface conditions Ionizing radiation from cosmic rays, the Sun and the resulting neutron radiation produce radiation levels on average of 1.369 millisieverts per day during lunar daytime, which is about 2.6 times more than on the International Space Station with 0.53 millisieverts per day at about 400 km above Earth in orbit, 5–10 times more than during a trans-Atlantic flight, 200 times more than on Earth's surface. For further comparison radiation on a flight to Mars is about 1.84 millisieverts per day and on Mars on average 0.64 millisieverts per day, with some locations on Mars possibly having levels as low as 0.342 millisieverts per day. The Moon's axial tilt with respect to the ecliptic is only 1.5427°, much less than the 23.44° of Earth. Because of this small tilt, the Moon's solar illumination varies much less with season than on Earth and it allows for the existence of some peaks of eternal light at the Moon's north pole, at the rim of the crater Peary. The surface is exposed to drastic temperature differences ranging from 120 °C to −171 °C depending on the solar irradiance. Because of the lack of atmosphere, temperatures of different areas vary particularly upon whether they are in sunlight or shadow, making topographical details play a decisive role on local surface temperatures. Parts of many craters, particularly the bottoms of many polar craters, are permanently shadowed, these "craters of eternal darkness" have extremely low temperatures. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter measured the lowest summer temperatures in craters at the southern pole at 35 K (−238 °C; −397 °F) and just 26 K (−247 °C; −413 °F) close to the winter solstice in the north polar crater Hermite. This is the coldest temperature in the Solar System ever measured by a spacecraft, colder even than the surface of Pluto. Blanketed on top of the Moon's crust is a highly comminuted (broken into ever smaller particles) and impact gardened mostly gray surface layer called regolith, formed by impact processes. The finer regolith, the lunar soil of silicon dioxide glass, has a texture resembling snow and a scent resembling spent gunpowder. The regolith of older surfaces is generally thicker than for younger surfaces: it varies in thickness from 10–15 m (33–49 ft) in the highlands and 4–5 m (13–16 ft) in the maria. Beneath the finely comminuted regolith layer is the megaregolith, a layer of highly fractured bedrock many kilometers thick. These extreme conditions for example are considered to make it unlikely for spacecraft to harbor bacterial spores at the Moon longer than just one lunar orbit. Surface features The topography of the Moon has been measured with laser altimetry and stereo image analysis. Its most extensive topographic feature is the giant far-side South Pole–Aitken basin, some 2,240 km (1,390 mi) in diameter, the largest crater on the Moon and the second-largest confirmed impact crater in the Solar System. At 13 km (8.1 mi) deep, its floor is the lowest point on the surface of the Moon. The highest elevations of the Moon's surface are located directly to the northeast, which might have been thickened by the oblique formation impact of the South Pole–Aitken basin. Other large impact basins such as Imbrium, Serenitatis, Crisium, Smythii, and Orientale possess regionally low elevations and elevated rims. The far side of the lunar surface is on average about 1.9 km (1.2 mi) higher than that of the near side. The discovery of fault scarp cliffs suggest that the Moon has shrunk by about 90 metres (300 ft) within the past billion years. Similar shrinkage features exist on Mercury. Mare Frigoris, a basin near the north pole long assumed to be geologically dead, has cracked and shifted. Since the Moon does not have tectonic plates, its tectonic activity is slow and cracks develop as it loses heat. Scientists have confirmed the presence of a cave on the Moon near the Sea of Tranquillity, not far from the 1969 Apollo 11 landing site. The cave, identified as an entry point to a collapsed lava tube, is roughly 45 meters wide and up to 80 m long. This discovery marks the first confirmed entry point to a lunar cave. The analysis was based on photos taken in 2010 by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The cave's stable temperature of around 17 °C could provide a hospitable environment for future astronauts, protecting them from extreme temperatures, solar radiation, and micrometeorites. However, challenges include accessibility and risks of avalanches and cave-ins. This discovery offers potential for future lunar bases or emergency shelters. Volcanic features The main features visible from Earth by the naked eye are dark and relatively featureless lunar plains called maria (singular mare; Latin for "seas", as they were once believed to be filled with water) are vast solidified pools of ancient basaltic lava. Although similar to terrestrial basalts, lunar basalts have more iron and no minerals altered by water. The majority of these lava deposits erupted or flowed into the depressions associated with impact basins, though the Moon's largest expanse of basalt flooding, Oceanus Procellarum, does not correspond to an obvious impact basin. Different episodes of lava flows in maria can often be recognized by variations in surface albedo and distinct flow margins. As the maria formed, cooling and contraction of the basaltic lava created wrinkle ridges in some areas. These low, sinuous ridges can extend for hundreds of kilometers and often outline buried structures within the mare. Another result of maria formation is the creation of concentric depressions along the edges, known as arcuate rilles. These features occur as the mare basalts sink inward under their own weight, causing the edges to fracture and separate. In addition to the visible maria, the Moon has mare deposits covered by ejecta from impacts. Called cryptomares, these hidden mares are likely older than the exposed ones. Conversely, mare lava has obscured many impact melt sheets and pools. Impact melts are formed when intense shock pressures from collisions vaporize and melt zones around the impact site. Where still exposed, impact melt can be distinguished from mare lava by its distribution, albedo, and texture. Sinuous rilles, found in and around maria, are likely extinct lava channels or collapsed lava tubes. They typically originate from volcanic vents, meandering and sometimes branching as they progress. The largest examples, such as Schroter's Valley and Rima Hadley, are significantly longer, wider, and deeper than terrestrial lava channels, sometimes featuring bends and sharp turns that again, are uncommon on Earth. Mare volcanism has altered impact craters in various ways, including filling them to varying degrees, and raising and fracturing their floors from uplift of mare material beneath their interiors. Examples of such craters include Taruntius and Gassendi. Some craters, such as Hyginus, are of wholly volcanic origin, forming as calderas or collapse pits. Such craters are relatively rare, and tend to be smaller (typically a few kilometers wide), shallower, and more irregularly shaped than impact craters. They also lack the upturned rims characteristic of impact craters. Several geologic provinces containing shield volcanoes and volcanic domes are found within the near side maria. There are also some regions of pyroclastic deposits, scoria cones and non-basaltic domes made of particularly high viscosity lava. Almost all maria are on the near side of the Moon, and cover 31% of the surface of the near side compared with 2% of the far side. This is likely due to a concentration of heat-producing elements under the crust on the near side, which would have caused the underlying mantle to heat up, partially melt, rise to the surface and erupt. Most of the Moon's mare basalts erupted during the Imbrian period, 3.3–3.7 billion years ago, though some being as young as 1.2 billion years and as old as 4.2 billion years. In 2006, a study of Ina, a tiny depression in Lacus Felicitatis, found jagged, relatively dust-free features that, because of the lack of erosion by infalling debris, appeared to be only 2 million years old. Moonquakes and releases of gas indicate continued lunar activity. Evidence of recent lunar volcanism has been identified at 70 irregular mare patches, some less than 50 million years old. This raises the possibility of a much warmer lunar mantle than previously believed, at least on the near side where the deep crust is substantially warmer because of the greater concentration of radioactive elements. Evidence has been found for 2–10 million years old basaltic volcanism within the crater Lowell, inside the Orientale basin. Some combination of an initially hotter mantle and local enrichment of heat-producing elements in the mantle could be responsible for prolonged activities on the far side in the Orientale basin. The lighter-colored regions of the Moon are called terrae, or more commonly highlands, because they are higher than most maria. They have been radiometrically dated to having formed 4.4 billion years ago, and may represent plagioclase cumulates of the lunar magma ocean. In contrast to Earth, no major lunar mountains are believed to have formed as a result of tectonic events. The concentration of maria on the near side likely reflects the substantially thicker crust of the highlands of the Far Side, which may have formed in a slow-velocity impact of a second moon of Earth a few tens of millions of years after the Moon's formation. Alternatively, it may be a consequence of asymmetrical tidal heating when the Moon was much closer to the Earth. Impact craters A major geologic process that has affected the Moon's surface is impact cratering, with craters formed when asteroids and comets collide with the lunar surface. There are estimated to be roughly 300,000 craters wider than 1 km (0.6 mi) on the Moon's near side. Lunar craters exhibit a variety of forms, depending on their size. In order of increasing diameter, the basic types are simple craters with smooth bowl shaped interiors and upturned rims, complex craters with flat floors, terraced walls and central peaks, peak ring basins, and multi-ring basins with two or more concentric rings of peaks. The vast majority of impact craters are circular, but some, like Cantor and Janssen, have more polygonal outlines, possibly guided by underlying faults and joints. Others, such as the Messier pair, Schiller, and Daniell, are elongated. Such elongation can result from highly oblique impacts, binary asteroid impacts, fragmentation of impactors before surface strike, or closely spaced secondary impacts. The lunar geologic timescale is based on the most prominent impact events, such as multi-ring formations like Nectaris, Imbrium, and Orientale that are between hundreds and thousands of kilometers in diameter and associated with a broad apron of ejecta deposits that form a regional stratigraphic horizon. The lack of an atmosphere, weather, and recent geological processes mean that many of these craters are well-preserved. Although only a few multi-ring basins have been definitively dated, they are useful for assigning relative ages. Because impact craters accumulate at a nearly constant rate, counting the number of craters per unit area can be used to estimate the age of the surface. However care needs to be exercised with the crater counting technique due to the potential presence of secondary craters. Ejecta from impacts can create secondary craters that often appear in clusters or chains, but can also occur as isolated formations at a considerable distance from the impact. These can resemble primary craters, and may even dominate small crater populations, so their unidentified presence can distort age estimates. The radiometric ages of impact-melted rocks collected during the Apollo missions cluster between 3.8 and 4.1 billion years old: this has been used to propose a Late Heavy Bombardment period of increased impacts. High-resolution images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in the 2010s show a contemporary crater-production rate significantly higher than was previously estimated. A secondary cratering process caused by distal ejecta is thought to churn the top two centimeters of regolith on a timescale of 81,000 years. This rate is 100 times faster than the rate computed from models based solely on direct micrometeorite impacts. Lunar swirls Lunar swirls are enigmatic features found across the Moon's surface. They are characterized by a high albedo, appear optically immature (i.e. the optical characteristics of a relatively young regolith), and often have a sinuous shape. Their shape is often accentuated by low albedo regions that wind between the bright swirls. They are located in places with enhanced surface magnetic fields and many are located at the antipodal point of major impacts. Well known swirls include the Reiner Gamma feature and Mare Ingenii. They are hypothesized to be areas that have been partially shielded from the solar wind, resulting in slower space weathering. Presence of water Liquid water cannot persist on the lunar surface. When exposed to solar radiation, water quickly decomposes through a process known as photodissociation and is lost to space. However, since the 1960s, scientists have hypothesized that water ice may be deposited by impacting comets or possibly produced by the reaction of oxygen-rich lunar rocks, and hydrogen from solar wind, leaving traces of water which could possibly persist in cold, permanently shadowed craters at either pole on the Moon. Computer simulations suggest that up to 14,000 km2 (5,400 sq mi) of the surface may be in permanent shadow. The presence of usable quantities of water on the Moon is an important factor in rendering lunar habitation as a cost-effective plan; the alternative of transporting water from Earth would be prohibitively expensive. In years since, signatures of water have been found to exist on the lunar surface. In 1994, the bistatic radar experiment located on the Clementine spacecraft, indicated the existence of small, frozen pockets of water close to the surface. However, later radar observations by Arecibo, suggest these findings may rather be rocks ejected from young impact craters. In 1998, the neutron spectrometer on the Lunar Prospector spacecraft showed that high concentrations of hydrogen are present in the first meter of depth in the regolith near the polar regions. Volcanic lava beads, brought back to Earth aboard Apollo 15, showed small amounts of water in their interior. The 2008 Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft has since confirmed the existence of surface water ice, using the on-board Moon Mineralogy Mapper. The spectrometer observed absorption lines common to hydroxyl, in reflected sunlight, providing evidence of large quantities of water ice, on the lunar surface. The spacecraft showed that concentrations may possibly be as high as 1,000 ppm. Using the mapper's reflectance spectra, indirect lighting of areas in shadow confirmed water ice within 20° latitude of both poles in 2018. In 2009, LCROSS sent a 2,300 kg (5,100 lb) impactor into a permanently shadowed polar crater, and detected at least 100 kg (220 lb) of water in a plume of ejected material. Another examination of the LCROSS data showed the amount of detected water to be closer to 155 ± 12 kg (342 ± 26 lb). In May 2011, 615–1410 ppm water in melt inclusions in lunar sample 74220 was reported, the famous high-titanium "orange glass soil" of volcanic origin collected during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The inclusions were formed during explosive eruptions on the Moon approximately 3.7 billion years ago. This concentration is comparable with that of magma in Earth's upper mantle. Although of considerable selenological interest, this insight does not mean that water is easily available since the sample originated many kilometers below the surface, and the inclusions are so difficult to access that it took 39 years to find them with a state-of-the-art ion microprobe instrument. Analysis of the findings of the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) revealed in August 2018 for the first time "definitive evidence" for water-ice on the lunar surface. The data revealed the distinct reflective signatures of water-ice, as opposed to dust and other reflective substances. The ice deposits were found on the North and South poles, although it is more abundant in the South, where water is trapped in permanently shadowed craters and crevices, allowing it to persist as ice on the surface since they are shielded from the sun. In October 2020, astronomers reported detecting molecular water on the sunlit surface of the Moon by several independent spacecraft, including the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). Earth–Moon system Orbit The Earth and the Moon form the Earth-Moon satellite system with a shared center of mass, or barycenter. This barycenter is 1,700 km (1,100 mi) (about a quarter of Earth's radius) beneath the Earth's surface. The Moon's orbit is slightly elliptical, with an orbital eccentricity of 0.055. The semi-major axis of the geocentric lunar orbit, called the lunar distance, is approximately 400,000 km (250,000 miles or 1.28 light-seconds), comparable to going around Earth 9.5 times. The Moon makes a complete orbit around Earth with respect to the fixed stars, its sidereal period, about once every 27.3 days. However, because the Earth-Moon system moves at the same time in its orbit around the Sun, it takes slightly longer, 29.5 days, to return at the same lunar phase, completing a full cycle, as seen from Earth. This synodic period or synodic month is commonly known as the lunar month and is equal to the length of the solar day on the Moon. Due to tidal locking, the Moon has a 1:1 spin–orbit resonance. This rotation–orbit ratio makes the Moon's orbital periods around Earth equal to its corresponding rotation periods. This is the reason for only one side of the Moon, its so-called near side, being visible from Earth. That said, while the movement of the Moon is in resonance, it still is not without nuances such as libration, resulting in slightly changing perspectives, making over time and location on Earth about 59% of the Moon's surface visible from Earth. Unlike most satellites of other planets, the Moon's orbital plane is closer to the ecliptic plane than to the planet's equatorial plane. The Moon's orbit is subtly perturbed by the Sun and Earth in many small, complex and interacting ways. For example, the plane of the Moon's orbit gradually rotates once every 18.61 years, which affects other aspects of lunar motion. These follow-on effects are mathematically described by Cassini's laws. Tidal effects The gravitational attraction that Earth and the Moon (as well as the Sun) exert on each other manifests in a slightly greater attraction on the sides closest to each other, resulting in tidal forces. Ocean tides are the most widely experienced result of this, but tidal forces also considerably affect other mechanics of Earth, as well as the Moon and their system. The lunar solid crust experiences tides of around 10 cm (4 in) amplitude over 27 days, with three components: a fixed one due to Earth, because they are in synchronous rotation, a variable tide due to orbital eccentricity and inclination, and a small varying component from the Sun. The Earth-induced variable component arises from changing distance and libration, a result of the Moon's orbital eccentricity and inclination (if the Moon's orbit were perfectly circular and un-inclined, there would only be solar tides). According to recent research, scientists suggest that the Moon's influence on the Earth may contribute to maintaining Earth's magnetic field. The cumulative effects of stress built up by these tidal forces produces moonquakes. Moonquakes are much less common and weaker than are earthquakes, although moonquakes can last for up to an hour – significantly longer than terrestrial quakes – because of scattering of the seismic vibrations in the dry fragmented upper crust. The existence of moonquakes was an unexpected discovery from seismometers placed on the Moon by Apollo astronauts from 1969 through 1972. The most commonly known effect of tidal forces are elevated sea levels called ocean tides. While the Moon exerts most of the tidal forces, the Sun also exerts tidal forces and therefore contributes to the tides as much as 40% of the Moon's tidal force; producing in interplay the spring and neap tides. The tides are two bulges in the Earth's oceans, one on the side facing the Moon and the other on the side opposite. As the Earth rotates on its axis, one of the ocean bulges (high tide) is held in place "under" the Moon, while another such tide is opposite. As a result, there are two high tides, and two low tides in about 24 hours. Since the Moon is orbiting the Earth in the same direction of the Earth's rotation, the high tides occur about every 12 hours and 25 minutes; the 25 minutes is due to the Moon's time to orbit the Earth. If the Earth were a water world (one with no continents) it would produce a tide of only one meter, and that tide would be very predictable, but the ocean tides are greatly modified by other effects: the frictional coupling of water to Earth's rotation through the ocean floors the inertia of water's movement ocean basins that grow shallower near land the sloshing of water between different ocean basins As a result, the timing of the tides at most points on the Earth is a product of observations that are explained, incidentally, by theory. System evolution Delays in the tidal peaks of both ocean and solid-body tides cause torque in opposition to the Earth's rotation. This "drains" angular momentum and rotational kinetic energy from Earth's rotation, slowing the Earth's rotation. That angular momentum, lost from the Earth, is transferred to the Moon in a process known as tidal acceleration, which lifts the Moon into a higher orbit while lowering orbital speed around the Earth. Thus the distance between Earth and Moon is increasing, and the Earth's rotation is slowing in reaction. Measurements from laser reflectors left during the Apollo missions (lunar ranging experiments) have found that the Moon's distance increases by 38 mm (1.5 in) per year (roughly the rate at which human fingernails grow). Atomic clocks show that Earth's day lengthens by about 17 microseconds every year, slowly increasing the rate at which UTC is adjusted by leap seconds. This tidal drag makes the rotation of the Earth and the orbital period of the Moon very slowly match. This matching first results in tidally locking the lighter body of the orbital system, as is already the case with the Moon. Theoretically, in 50 billion years, the Earth's rotation will have slowed to the point of matching the Moon's orbital period, causing the Earth to always present the same side to the Moon. However, the Sun will become a red giant, most likely engulfing the Earth-Moon system long before then. If the Earth-Moon system isn't engulfed by the enlarged Sun, the drag from the solar atmosphere can cause the orbit of the Moon to decay. Once the orbit of the Moon closes to a distance of 18,470 km (11,480 mi), it will cross Earth's Roche limit, meaning that tidal interaction with Earth would break apart the Moon, turning it into a ring system. Most of the orbiting rings will begin to decay, and the debris will impact Earth. Hence, even if the Sun does not swallow up Earth, the planet may be left moonless. Position and appearance The Moon's highest altitude at culmination varies by its lunar phase, or more correctly its orbital position, and time of the year, or more correctly the position of the Earth's axis. The full moon is highest in the sky during winter and lowest during summer (for each hemisphere respectively), with its altitude changing towards dark moon to the opposite. At the North and South Poles the Moon is 24 hours above the horizon for two weeks every tropical month (about 27.3 days), comparable to the polar day of the tropical year. Zooplankton in the Arctic use moonlight when the Sun is below the horizon for months on end. The apparent orientation of the Moon depends on its position in the sky and the hemisphere of the Earth from which it is being viewed. In the northern hemisphere it appears upside down compared to the view from the southern hemisphere. Sometimes the "horns" of a crescent moon appear to be pointing more upwards than sideways. This phenomenon is called a wet moon and occurs more frequently in the tropics. The distance between the Moon and Earth varies from around 356,400 km (221,500 mi) (perigee) to 406,700 km (252,700 mi) (apogee), making the Moon's distance and apparent size fluctuate up to 14%. On average the Moon's angular diameter is about 0.52°, roughly the same apparent size as the Sun (see § Eclipses). In addition, a purely psychological effect, known as the Moon illusion, makes the Moon appear larger when close to the horizon. Despite the Moon's tidal locking, the effect of libration makes about 59% of the Moon's surface visible from Earth over the course of one month. Rotation The tidally locked synchronous rotation of the Moon as it orbits the Earth results in it always keeping nearly the same face turned towards the planet. The side of the Moon that faces Earth is called the near side, and the opposite the far side. The far side is often inaccurately called the "dark side", but it is in fact illuminated as often as the near side: once every 29.5 Earth days. During dark moon to new moon, the near side is dark. The Moon originally rotated at a faster rate, but early in its history its rotation slowed and became tidally locked in this orientation as a result of frictional effects associated with tidal deformations caused by Earth. With time, the energy of rotation of the Moon on its axis was dissipated as heat, until there was no rotation of the Moon relative to Earth. In 2016, planetary scientists using data collected on the 1998-99 NASA Lunar Prospector mission, found two hydrogen-rich areas (most likely former water ice) on opposite sides of the Moon. It is speculated that these patches were the poles of the Moon billions of years ago before it was tidally locked to Earth. Illumination and phases Half of the Moon's surface is always illuminated by the Sun (except during a lunar eclipse). Earth also reflects light onto the Moon, observable at times as Earthlight when it is reflected back to Earth from areas of the near side of the Moon that are not illuminated by the Sun. Since the Moon's axial tilt with respect to the ecliptic is 1.5427°, in every draconic year (346.62 days) the Sun moves from being 1.5427° north of the lunar equator to being 1.5427° south of it and then back, just as on Earth the Sun moves from the Tropic of Cancer to the Tropic of Capricorn and back once every tropical year. The poles of the Moon are therefore in the dark for half a draconic year (or with only part of the Sun visible) and then lit for half a draconic year. The amount of sunlight falling on horizontal areas near the poles depends on the altitude angle of the Sun. But these "seasons" have little effect in more equatorial areas. With the different positions of the Moon, different areas of it are illuminated by the Sun. This illumination of different lunar areas, as viewed from Earth, produces the different lunar phases during the synodic month. The phase is equal to the area of the visible lunar sphere that is illuminated by the Sun. This area or degree of illumination is given by ( 1 − cos ⁡ e ) / 2 = sin 2 ⁡ ( e / 2 ) {\displaystyle (1-\cos e)/2=\sin ^{2}(e/2)} , where e {\displaystyle e} is the elongation (i.e., the angle between Moon, the observer on Earth, and the Sun). Brightness and apparent size of the Moon changes also due to its elliptic orbit around Earth. At perigee (closest), since the Moon is up to 14% closer to Earth than at apogee (most distant), it subtends a solid angle which is up to 30% larger. Consequently, given the same phase, the Moon's brightness also varies by up to 30% between apogee and perigee. A full (or new) moon at such a position is called a supermoon. Observational phenomena There has been historical controversy over whether observed features on the Moon's surface change over time. Today, many of these claims are thought to be illusory, resulting from observation under different lighting conditions, poor astronomical seeing, or inadequate drawings. However, outgassing does occasionally occur and could be responsible for a minor percentage of the reported lunar transient phenomena. Recently, it has been suggested that a roughly 3 km (1.9 mi) diameter region of the lunar surface was modified by a gas release event about a million years ago. Albedo and color The Moon has an exceptionally low albedo, giving it a reflectance that is slightly brighter than that of worn asphalt. Despite this, it is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun. This is due partly to the brightness enhancement of the opposition surge; the Moon at quarter phase is only one-tenth as bright, rather than half as bright, as at full moon. Additionally, color constancy in the visual system recalibrates the relations between the colors of an object and its surroundings, and because the surrounding sky is comparatively dark, the sunlit Moon is perceived as a bright object. The edges of the full moon seem as bright as the center, without limb darkening, because of the reflective properties of lunar soil, which retroreflects light more towards the Sun than in other directions. The Moon's color depends on the light the Moon reflects, which in turn depends on the Moon's surface and its features, having for example large darker regions. In general the lunar surface reflects a brown-tinged gray light. At times, the Moon can appear red or blue. It may appear red during a lunar eclipse, because of the red spectrum of the Sun's light being refracted onto the Moon by Earth's atmosphere. Because of this red color, lunar eclipses are also sometimes called blood moons. The Moon can also seem red when it appears at low angles and through a thick atmosphere. The Moon may appear blue depending on the presence of certain particles in the air, such as volcanic particles, in which case it can be called a blue moon. Because the words "red moon" and "blue moon" can also be used to refer to specific full moons of the year, they do not always refer to the presence of red or blue moonlight. Eclipses Eclipses only occur when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are all in a straight line (termed "syzygy"). Solar eclipses occur at new moon, when the Moon is between the Sun and Earth. In contrast, lunar eclipses occur at full moon, when Earth is between the Sun and Moon. The apparent size of the Moon is roughly the same as that of the Sun, with both being viewed at close to one-half a degree wide. The Sun is much larger than the Moon but it is the vastly greater distance that gives it the same apparent size as the much closer and much smaller Moon from the perspective of Earth. The variations in apparent size, due to the non-circular orbits, are nearly the same as well, though occurring in different cycles. This makes possible both total (with the Moon appearing larger than the Sun) and annular (with the Moon appearing smaller than the Sun) solar eclipses. In a total eclipse, the Moon completely covers the disc of the Sun and the solar corona becomes visible to the naked eye. Because the distance between the Moon and Earth is very slowly increasing over time, the angular diameter of the Moon is decreasing. As it evolves toward becoming a red giant, the size of the Sun, and its apparent diameter in the sky, are slowly increasing. The combination of these two changes means that hundreds of millions of years ago, the Moon would always completely cover the Sun on solar eclipses, and no annular eclipses were possible. Likewise, hundreds of millions of years in the future, the Moon will no longer cover the Sun completely, and total solar eclipses will not occur. As the Moon's orbit around Earth is inclined by about 5.145° (5° 9') to the orbit of Earth around the Sun, eclipses do not occur at every full and new moon. For an eclipse to occur, the Moon must be near the intersection of the two orbital planes. The periodicity and recurrence of eclipses of the Sun by the Moon, and of the Moon by Earth, is described by the saros, which has a period of approximately 18 years. Because the Moon continuously blocks the view of a half-degree-wide circular area of the sky, the related phenomenon of occultation occurs when a bright star or planet passes behind the Moon and is occulted: hidden from view. In this way, a solar eclipse is an occultation of the Sun. Because the Moon is comparatively close to Earth, occultations of individual stars are not visible everywhere on the planet, nor at the same time. Because of the precession of the lunar orbit, each year different stars are occulted. History of exploration and human presence Pre-telescopic observation (before 1609) It is believed by some that the oldest cave paintings from up to 40,000 BP of bulls and geometric shapes, or 20–30,000 year old tally sticks were used to observe the phases of the Moon, keeping time using the waxing and waning of the Moon's phases. One of the earliest-discovered possible depictions of the Moon is a 3,000 BCE rock carving Orthostat 47 at Knowth, Ireland. Lunar deities like Nanna/Sin featuring crescents are found since the 3rd millennium BCE. Though the oldest found and identified astronomical depiction of the Moon is the Nebra sky disc from c. 1800–1600 BCE. The ancient Greek philosopher Anaxagoras (d. 428 BC) reasoned that the Sun and Moon were both giant spherical rocks, and that the latter reflected the light of the former.: 227  Elsewhere in the 5th century BC to 4th century BC, Babylonian astronomers had recorded the 18-year Saros cycle of lunar eclipses, and Indian astronomers had described the Moon's monthly elongation. The Chinese astronomer Shi Shen (fl. 4th century BC) gave instructions for predicting solar and lunar eclipses.: 411  In Aristotle's (384–322 BC) description of the universe, the Moon marked the boundary between the spheres of the mutable elements (earth, water, air and fire), and the imperishable stars of aether, an influential philosophy that would dominate for centuries. Archimedes (287–212 BC) designed a planetarium that could calculate the motions of the Moon and other objects in the Solar System. In the 2nd century BC, Seleucus of Seleucia correctly thought that tides were due to the attraction of the Moon, and that their height depends on the Moon's position relative to the Sun. In the same century, Aristarchus computed the size and distance of the Moon from Earth, obtaining a value of about twenty times the radius of Earth for the distance. The Chinese of the Han dynasty believed the Moon to be energy equated to qi and their 'radiating influence' theory recognized that the light of the Moon was merely a reflection of the Sun; Jing Fang (78–37 BC) noted the sphericity of the Moon.: 413–414  Ptolemy (90–168 AD) greatly improved on the numbers of Aristarchus, calculating a mean distance of 59 times Earth's radius and a diameter of 0.292 Earth diameters, close to the correct values of about 60 and 0.273 respectively. In the 2nd century AD, Lucian wrote the novel A True Story, in which the heroes travel to the Moon and meet its inhabitants. In 510 AD, the Indian astronomer Aryabhata mentioned in his Aryabhatiya that reflected sunlight is the cause of the shining of the Moon. The astronomer and physicist Ibn al-Haytham (965–1039) found that sunlight was not reflected from the Moon like a mirror, but that light was emitted from every part of the Moon's sunlit surface in all directions. Shen Kuo (1031–1095) of the Song dynasty created an allegory equating the waxing and waning of the Moon to a round ball of reflective silver that, when doused with white powder and viewed from the side, would appear to be a crescent.: 415–416  During the Middle Ages, before the invention of the telescope, the Moon was increasingly recognized as a sphere, though many believed that it was "perfectly smooth". Telescopic exploration (1609–1959) In 1609, Galileo Galilei used an early telescope to make drawings of the Moon for his book Sidereus Nuncius, and deduced that it was not smooth but had mountains and craters. Thomas Harriot had made, but not published such drawings a few months earlier. Telescopic mapping of the Moon followed: later in the 17th century, the efforts of Giovanni Battista Riccioli and Francesco Maria Grimaldi led to the system of naming of lunar features in use today. The more exact 1834–1836 Mappa Selenographica of Wilhelm Beer and Johann Heinrich von Mädler, and their associated 1837 book Der Mond, the first trigonometrically accurate study of lunar features, included the heights of more than a thousand mountains, and introduced the study of the Moon at accuracies possible in earthly geography. Lunar craters, first noted by Galileo, were thought to be volcanic until the 1870s proposal of Richard Proctor that they were formed by collisions. This view gained support in 1892 from the experimentation of geologist Grove Karl Gilbert, and from comparative studies from 1920 to the 1940s, leading to the development of lunar stratigraphy, which by the 1950s was becoming a new and growing branch of astrogeology. First missions to the Moon (1959–1976) After World War II the first launch systems were developed and by the end of the 1950s they reached capabilities that allowed the Soviet Union and the United States to launch spacecraft into space. The Cold War fueled a closely followed development of launch systems by the two states, resulting in the so-called Space Race and its later phase the Moon Race, accelerating efforts and interest in exploration of the Moon. After the first spaceflight of Sputnik 1 in 1957 during International Geophysical Year the spacecraft of the Soviet Union's Luna program were the first to accomplish a number of goals. Following three unnamed failed missions in 1958, the first human-made object Luna 1 escaped Earth's gravity and passed near the Moon in 1959. Later that year the first human-made object Luna 2 reached the Moon's surface by intentionally impacting. By the end of the year Luna 3 reached as the first human-made object the normally occluded far side of the Moon, taking the first photographs of it. The first spacecraft to perform a successful lunar soft landing was Luna 9 and the first vehicle to orbit the Moon was Luna 10, both in 1966. Following President John F. Kennedy's 1961 commitment to a crewed Moon landing before the end of the decade, the United States, under NASA leadership, launched a series of uncrewed probes to develop an understanding of the lunar surface in preparation for human missions: the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Ranger program, the Lunar Orbiter program and the Surveyor program. The crewed Apollo program was developed in parallel; after a series of uncrewed and crewed tests of the Apollo spacecraft in Earth orbit, and spurred on by a potential Soviet lunar human landing, in 1968 Apollo 8 made the first human mission to lunar orbit (the first Earthlings, two tortoises, had circled the Moon three months earlier on the Soviet Union's Zond 5, followed by turtles on Zond 6). The first time a person landed on the Moon and any extraterrestrial body was when Neil Armstrong, the commander of the American mission Apollo 11, set foot on the Moon at 02:56 UTC on July 21, 1969. Considered the culmination of the Space Race, an estimated 500 million people worldwide watched the transmission by the Apollo TV camera, the largest television audience for a live broadcast at that time. While at the same time another mission, the robotic sample return mission Luna 15 by the Soviet Union had been in orbit around the Moon, becoming together with Apollo 11 the first ever case of two extraterrestrial missions being conducted at the same time. The Apollo missions 11 to 17 (except Apollo 13, which aborted its planned lunar landing) removed 380.05 kilograms (837.87 lb) of lunar rock and soil in 2,196 separate samples. Scientific instrument packages were installed on the lunar surface during all the Apollo landings. Long-lived instrument stations, including heat flow probes, seismometers, and magnetometers, were installed at the Apollo 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 landing sites. Direct transmission of data to Earth concluded in late 1977 because of budgetary considerations, but as the stations' lunar laser ranging corner-cube retroreflector arrays are passive instruments, they are still being used. Apollo 17 in 1972 remains the last crewed mission to the Moon. Explorer 49 in 1973 was the last dedicated U.S. probe to the Moon until the 1990s. The Soviet Union continued sending robotic missions to the Moon until 1976, deploying in 1970 with Luna 17 the first remote controlled rover Lunokhod 1 on an extraterrestrial surface, and collecting and returning 0.3 kg of rock and soil samples with three Luna sample return missions (Luna 16 in 1970, Luna 20 in 1972, and Luna 24 in 1976). Moon Treaty and explorational absence (1976–1990) A near lunar quietude of fourteen years followed the last Soviet mission to the Moon of 1976. Astronautics had shifted its focus towards the exploration of the inner (e.g. Venera program) and outer (e.g. Pioneer 10, 1972) Solar System planets, but also towards Earth orbit, developing and continuously operating, beside communication satellites, Earth observation satellites (e.g. Landsat program, 1972), space telescopes and particularly space stations (e.g. Salyut program, 1971). The until 1979 negotiated Moon treaty, with its ratification in 1984 by its few signatories was about the only major activity regarding the Moon until 1990. Renewed exploration (1990–present) In 1990 Hiten-Hagoromo, the first dedicated lunar mission since 1976, reached the Moon. Sent by Japan, it became the first mission that was not a Soviet Union or U.S. mission to the Moon. In 1994, the U.S. dedicated a mission to fly a spacecraft (Clementine) to the Moon again for the first time since 1973. This mission obtained the first near-global topographic map of the Moon, and the first global multispectral images of the lunar surface. In 1998, this was followed by the Lunar Prospector mission, whose instruments indicated the presence of excess hydrogen at the lunar poles, which is likely to have been caused by the presence of water ice in the upper few meters of the regolith within permanently shadowed craters. The next years saw a row of first missions to the Moon by a new group of states actively exploring the Moon. Between 2004 and 2006 the first spacecraft by the European Space Agency (ESA) (SMART-1) reached the Moon, recording the first detailed survey of chemical elements on the lunar surface. The Chinese Lunar Exploration Program reached the Moon for the first time with the orbiter Chang'e 1 (2007–2009), obtaining a full image map of the Moon. India reached, orbited and impacted the Moon in 2008 for the first time with its Chandrayaan-1 and Moon Impact Probe, becoming the fifth and sixth state to do so, creating a high-resolution chemical, mineralogical and photo-geological map of the lunar surface, and confirming the presence of water molecules in lunar soil. The U.S. launched the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the LCROSS impactor on June 18, 2009. LCROSS completed its mission by making a planned and widely observed impact in the crater Cabeus on October 9, 2009, whereas LRO is currently in operation, obtaining precise lunar altimetry and high-resolution imagery. China continued its lunar program in 2010 with Chang'e 2, mapping the surface at a higher resolution over an eight-month period, and in 2013 with Chang'e 3, a lunar lander along with a lunar rover named Yutu (Chinese: 玉兔; lit. 'Jade Rabbit'). This was the first lunar rover mission since Lunokhod 2 in 1973 and the first lunar soft landing since Luna 24 in 1976, making China the third country to achieve this. In 2014 the first privately funded probe, the Manfred Memorial Moon Mission, reached the Moon. Another Chinese rover mission, Chang'e 4, achieved the first landing on the Moon's far side in early 2019. Also in 2019, India successfully sent its second probe, Chandrayaan-2 to the Moon. In 2020, China carried out its first robotic sample return mission (Chang'e 5), bringing back 1,731 grams of lunar material to Earth. The U.S. developed plans for returning to the Moon beginning in 2004, and with the signing of the U.S.-led Artemis Accords in 2020, the Artemis program aims to return the astronauts to the Moon in the 2020s. The Accords have been joined by a growing number of countries. The introduction of the Artemis Accords has fueled a renewed discussion about the international framework and cooperation of lunar activity, building on the Moon Treaty and the ESA-led Moon Village concept. 2023 and 2024 India and Japan became the fourth and fifth country to soft land a spacecraft on the Moon, following the Soviet Union and United States in the 1960s, and China in the 2010s. Notably, Japan's spacecraft, the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, survived 3 lunar nights. The IM-1 lander became the first commercially built lander to land on the Moon in 2024. China launched the Chang'e 6 on May 3, 2024, which conducted another lunar sample return from the far side of the Moon. It also carried a Chinese rover to conduct infrared spectroscopy of lunar surface. Pakistan sent a lunar orbiter called ICUBE-Q along with Chang'e 6. Nova-C 2, iSpace Lander and Blue Ghost are all planned to launch to the Moon in 2024. Future Beside the progressing Artemis program and supporting Commercial Lunar Payload Services, leading an international and commercial crewed opening up of the Moon and sending the first woman, person of color and non-US citizen to the Moon in the 2020s, China is continuing its ambitious Chang'e program, having announced with Russia's struggling Luna-Glob program joint missions. Both the Chinese and US lunar programs have the goal to establish in the 2030s a lunar base with their international partners, though the US and its partners will first establish an orbital Lunar Gateway station in the 2020s, from which Artemis missions will land the Human Landing System to set up temporary surface camps. While the Apollo missions were explorational in nature, the Artemis program plans to establish a more permanent presence. To this end, NASA is partnering with industry leaders to establish key elements such as modern communication infrastructure. A 4G connectivity demonstration is to be launched aboard an Intuitive Machines Nova-C lander in 2024. Another focus is on in situ resource utilization, which is a key part of the DARPA lunar programs. DARPA has requested that industry partners develop a 10–year lunar architecture plan to enable the beginning of a lunar economy. Human presence Humans last landed on the Moon during the Apollo Program, a series of crewed exploration missions carried out from 1969 to 1972. Lunar orbit has seen uninterrupted presence of orbiters since 2006, performing mainly lunar observation and providing relayed communication for robotic missions on the lunar surface. Lunar orbits and orbits around Earth–Moon Lagrange points are used to establish a near-lunar infrastructure to enable increasing human activity in cislunar space as well as on the Moon's surface. Missions at the far side of the Moon or the lunar north and south polar regions need spacecraft with special orbits, such as the Queqiao and Queqiao-2 relay satellite or the planned first extraterrestrial space station, the Lunar Gateway. Human impact While the Moon has the lowest planetary protection target-categorization, its degradation as a pristine body and scientific place has been discussed. If there is astronomy performed from the Moon, it will need to be free from any physical and radio pollution. While the Moon has no significant atmosphere, traffic and impacts on the Moon causes clouds of dust that can spread far and possibly contaminate the original state of the Moon and its special scientific content. Scholar Alice Gorman asserts that, although the Moon is inhospitable, it is not dead, and that sustainable human activity would require treating the Moon's ecology as a co-participant. The so-called "Tardigrade affair" of the 2019 crashed Beresheet lander and its carrying of tardigrades has been discussed as an example for lacking measures and lacking international regulation for planetary protection. Space debris beyond Earth around the Moon has been considered as a future challenge with increasing numbers of missions to the Moon, particularly as a danger for such missions. As such lunar waste management has been raised as an issue which future lunar missions, particularly on the surface, need to tackle. Human remains have been transported to the Moon, including by private companies such as Celestis and Elysium Space. Because the Moon has been sacred or significant to many cultures, the practice of space burials have attracted criticism from indigenous peoples leaders. For example, then–Navajo Nation president Albert Hale criticized NASA for sending the cremated ashes of scientist Eugene Shoemaker to the Moon in 1998. Beside the remains of human activity on the Moon, there have been some intended permanent installations like the Moon Museum art piece, Apollo 11 goodwill messages, six lunar plaques, the Fallen Astronaut memorial, and other artifacts. Longterm missions continuing to be active are some orbiters such as the 2009-launched Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter surveilling the Moon for future missions, as well as some Landers such as the 2013-launched Chang'e 3 with its Lunar Ultraviolet Telescope still operational. Five retroreflectors have been installed on the Moon since the 1970s and since used for accurate measurements of the physical librations through laser ranging to the Moon. There are several missions by different agencies and companies planned to establish a longterm human presence on the Moon, with the Lunar Gateway as the currently most advanced project as part of the Artemis program. Astronomy from the Moon The Moon is recognized as an excellent site for telescopes. It is relatively nearby; certain craters near the poles are permanently dark and cold and especially useful for infrared telescopes; and radio telescopes on the far side would be shielded from the radio chatter of Earth. The lunar soil, although it poses a problem for any moving parts of telescopes, can be mixed with carbon nanotubes and epoxies and employed in the construction of mirrors up to 50 meters in diameter. A lunar zenith telescope can be made cheaply with an ionic liquid. In April 1972, the Apollo 16 mission recorded various astronomical photos and spectra in ultraviolet with the Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph. The Moon has been also a site of Earth observation, particularly culturally as in the 1968 photograph called Earthrise, taken by Bill Anders of Apollo 8. The Earth appears in the Moon's sky with an apparent size of 1° 48′ to 2°, three to four times the size of the Moon or Sun in Earth's sky, or about the apparent width of two little fingers at an arm's length away. Living on the Moon The only instances of humans living on the Moon have taken place in an Apollo Lunar Module for several days at a time (for example, during the Apollo 17 mission). One challenge to astronauts during their stay on the surface is that lunar dust sticks to their suits and is carried into their quarters. Astronauts could taste and smell the dust, which smells like gunpowder and was called the "Apollo aroma". This fine lunar dust can cause health issues. In 2019, at least one plant seed sprouted in an experiment on the Chang'e 4 lander. It was carried from Earth along with other small life in its Lunar Micro Ecosystem. Legal status Although Luna landers scattered pennants of the Soviet Union on the Moon, and U.S. flags were symbolically planted at their landing sites by the Apollo astronauts, no nation claims ownership of any part of the Moon's surface. Likewise no private ownership of parts of the Moon, or as a whole, is considered credible. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty defines the Moon and all outer space as the "province of all mankind". It restricts the use of the Moon to peaceful purposes, explicitly banning military installations and weapons of mass destruction. A majority of countries are parties of this treaty. The 1979 Moon Agreement was created to elaborate, and restrict the exploitation of the Moon's resources by any single nation, leaving it to a yet unspecified international regulatory regime. As of January 2020, it has been signed and ratified by 18 nations, none of which have human spaceflight capabilities. Since 2020, countries have joined the U.S. in their Artemis Accords, which are challenging the treaty. The U.S. has furthermore emphasized in a presidential executive order ("Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources.") that "the United States does not view outer space as a 'global commons'" and calls the Moon Agreement "a failed attempt at constraining free enterprise." With Australia signing and ratifying both the Moon Treaty in 1986 as well as the Artemis Accords in 2020, there has been a discussion if they can be harmonized. In this light an Implementation Agreement for the Moon Treaty has been advocated for, as a way to compensate for the shortcomings of the Moon Treaty and to harmonize it with other laws and agreements such as the Artemis Accords, allowing it to be more widely accepted. In the face of such increasing commercial and national interest, particularly prospecting territories, U.S. lawmakers have introduced in late 2020 specific regulation for the conservation of historic landing sites and interest groups have argued for making such sites World Heritage Sites and zones of scientific value protected zones, all of which add to the legal availability and territorialization of the Moon. In 2021, the Declaration of the Rights of the Moon was created by a group of "lawyers, space archaeologists and concerned citizens", drawing on precedents in the Rights of Nature movement and the concept of legal personality for non-human entities in space. Coordination and regulation Increasing human activity at the Moon has raised the need for coordination to safeguard international and commercial lunar activity. Issues from cooperation to mere coordination, through for example the development of a shared Lunar time, have been raised. In particular the establishment of an international or United Nations regulatory regime for lunar human activity has been called for by the Moon Treaty and suggested through an Implementation Agreement, but remains contentious. Current lunar programs are multilateral, with the US-led Artemis program and the China-led International Lunar Research Station. For broader international cooperation and coordination the International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG), the Moon Village Association (MVA) and more generally the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) has been established. In culture and life Timekeeping Since pre-historic times people have taken note of the Moon's phases and its waxing and waning cycle, and used it to keep record of time. Tally sticks, notched bones dating as far back as 20–30,000 years ago, are believed by some to mark the phases of the Moon. The counting of the days between the Moon's phases gave eventually rise to generalized time periods of lunar cycles as months, and possibly of its phases as weeks. The words for the month in a range of different languages carry this relation between the period of the month and the Moon etymologically. The English month as well as moon, and its cognates in other Indo-European languages (e.g. the Latin mensis and Ancient Greek μείς (meis) or μήν (mēn), meaning "month") stem from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root of moon, *méh1nōt, derived from the PIE verbal root *meh1-, "to measure", "indicat[ing] a functional conception of the Moon, i.e. marker of the month" (cf. the English words measure and menstrual). To give another example from a different language family, the Chinese language uses the same word (月) for moon as well as for month, which furthermore can be found in the symbols for the word week (星期). This lunar timekeeping gave rise to the historically dominant, but varied, lunisolar calendars. The 7th-century Islamic calendar is an example of a purely lunar calendar, where months are traditionally determined by the visual sighting of the hilal, or earliest crescent moon, over the horizon. Of particular significance has been the occasion of full moon, highlighted and celebrated in a range of calendars and cultures, an example being the Buddhist Vesak. The full moon around the southern or northern autumnal equinox is often called the harvest moon and is celebrated with festivities such as the Harvest Moon Festival of the Chinese lunar calendar, its second most important celebration after the Chinese lunisolar Lunar New Year. Furthermore, association of time with the Moon can also be found in religion, such as the ancient Egyptian temporal and lunar deity Khonsu. Cultural representation Since prehistoric times humans have depicted and later described their perception of the Moon and its importance for them and their cosmologies. It has been characterized and associated in many different ways, from having a spirit or being a deity, and an aspect thereof or an aspect in astrology. Crescent For the representation of the Moon, especially its lunar phases, the crescent (🌙) has been a recurring symbol in a range of cultures since at least 3,000 BCE or possibly earlier with bull horns dating to the earliest cave paintings at 40,000 BP. In writing systems such as Chinese the crescent has developed into the symbol 月, the word for Moon, and in ancient Egyptian it was the symbol 𓇹, meaning Moon and spelled like the ancient Egyptian lunar deity Iah, which the other ancient Egyptian lunar deities Khonsu and Thoth were associated with. Iconographically the crescent was used in Mesopotamia as the primary symbol of Nanna/Sîn, the ancient Sumerian lunar deity, who was the father of Inanna/Ishtar, the goddess of the planet Venus (symbolized as the eight pointed Star of Ishtar), and Utu/Shamash, the god of the Sun (symbolized as a disc, optionally with eight rays), all three often depicted next to each other. Nanna/Sîn is, like some other lunar deities, for example Iah and Khonsu of ancient Egypt, Mene/Selene of ancient Greece and Luna of ancient Rome, depicted as a horned deity, featuring crescent shaped headgears or crowns. The particular arrangement of the crescent with a star known as the star and crescent (☪️) goes back to the Bronze Age, representing either the Sun and Moon, or the Moon and the planet Venus, in combination. It came to represent the selene goddess Artemis, and via the patronage of Hecate, which as triple deity under the epithet trimorphos/trivia included aspects of Artemis/Diana, came to be used as a symbol of Byzantium, with Virgin Mary (Queen of Heaven) later taking her place, becoming depicted in Marian veneration on a crescent and adorned with stars. Since then the heraldric use of the star and crescent proliferated, Byzantium's symbolism possibly influencing the development of the Ottoman flag, specifically the combination of the Turkish crescent with a star, and becoming a popular symbol for Islam (as the hilal of the Islamic calendar) and for a range of nations. Other association The features of the Moon, the contrasting brighter highlands and darker maria, have been seen by different cultures forming abstract shapes. Such shapes are among others the Man in the Moon (e.g. Coyolxāuhqui) or the Moon Rabbit (e.g. the Chinese Tu'er Ye or in Indigenous American mythologies the aspect of the Mayan Moon goddess, from which possibly Awilix is derived, or of Metztli/Tēcciztēcatl). Occasionally some lunar deities have been also depicted driving a chariot across the sky, such as the Hindu Chandra/Soma, the Greek Artemis, which is associated with Selene, or Luna, Selene's ancient Roman equivalent. Color and material wise the Moon has been associated in Western alchemy with silver, while gold is associated with the Sun. Through a miracle, the so-called splitting of the Moon (Arabic: انشقاق القمر) in Islam, association with the Moon applies also to Muhammad. Modern culture representation The perception of the Moon in modern times has been informed by telescope enabled modern astronomy and later by spaceflight enabled actual human activity at the Moon, particularly the culturally impactful lunar landings. These new insights inspired cultural references, connecting romantic reflections about the Moon and speculative fiction such as science-fiction dealing with the Moon. Contemporarily the Moon has been seen as a place for economic expansion into space, with missions prospecting for lunar resources. This has been accompanied with renewed public and critical reflection on humanity's cultural and legal relation to the celestial body, especially regarding colonialism, as in the 1970 poem "Whitey on the Moon". In this light the Moon's nature has been invoked, particularly for lunar conservation and as a common. In 2021 20 July, the date of the first crewed Moon landing, became the annual International Moon Day. Lunar effect The lunar effect is a purported unproven correlation between specific stages of the roughly 29.5-day lunar cycle and behavior and physiological changes in living beings on Earth, including humans. The Moon has long been associated with insanity and irrationality; the words lunacy and lunatic are derived from the Latin name for the Moon, Luna. Philosophers Aristotle and Pliny the Elder argued that the full moon induced insanity in susceptible individuals, believing that the brain, which is mostly water, must be affected by the Moon and its power over the tides, but the Moon's gravity is too slight to affect any single person. Even today, people who believe in a lunar effect claim that admissions to psychiatric hospitals, traffic accidents, homicides or suicides increase during a full moon, but dozens of studies invalidate these claims. See also List of natural satellites Selenography (geography of the Moon) Coordinated Lunar Time Explanatory notes References Further reading External links NASA images and videos about the Moon Video (04:56) – The Moon in 4K (NASA, April 2018) on YouTube "Find moonrise, moonset and moonphase for a location". 2008. Retrieved February 18, 2008. Cartographic resources Unified Geologic Map of the Moon – United States Geological Survey Moon Trek – An integrated map browser of datasets and maps for the Moon "Consolidated Lunar Atlas". Lunar and Planetary Institute. Retrieved February 26, 2012. 3D zoomable globes: The Moon on Google Maps, a 3-D rendition of the Moon akin to Google Earth "Moon". World Wind Central. NASA. 2007. Retrieved April 12, 2007. Aeschliman, R. "Lunar Maps". Planetary Cartography and Graphics. Archived from the original on May 29, 2015. Retrieved April 12, 2007. Maps and panoramas at Apollo landing sites. Lunar Earthside chart (4497 x 3150px). Archived October 30, 2020, at the Wayback Machine. Large image of the Moon's north pole area. Archived August 18, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.

Apollo_program

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program

The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which succeeded in preparing and landing the first men on the Moon from 1968 to 1972. It was first conceived in 1960 during President Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration as a three-person spacecraft to follow the one-person Project Mercury, which put the first Americans in space. Apollo was later dedicated to President John F. Kennedy's national goal for the 1960s of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" in an address to Congress on May 25, 1961. It was the third US human spaceflight program to fly, preceded by the two-person Project Gemini conceived in 1961 to extend spaceflight capability in support of Apollo. Kennedy's goal was accomplished on the Apollo 11 mission when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed their Apollo Lunar Module (LM) on July 20, 1969, and walked on the lunar surface, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command and service module (CSM), and all three landed safely on Earth in the Pacific Ocean on July 24. Five subsequent Apollo missions also landed astronauts on the Moon, the last, Apollo 17, in December 1972. In these six spaceflights, twelve people walked on the Moon. Apollo ran from 1961 to 1972, with the first crewed flight in 1968. It encountered a major setback in 1967 when an Apollo 1 cabin fire killed the entire crew during a prelaunch test. After the first successful landing, sufficient flight hardware remained for nine follow-on landings with a plan for extended lunar geological and astrophysical exploration. Budget cuts forced the cancellation of three of these. Five of the remaining six missions achieved successful landings, but the Apollo 13 landing had to be aborted after an oxygen tank exploded en route to the Moon, crippling the CSM. The crew barely managed a safe return to Earth by using the lunar module as a "lifeboat" on the return journey. Apollo used the Saturn family of rockets as launch vehicles, which were also used for an Apollo Applications Program, which consisted of Skylab, a space station that supported three crewed missions in 1973–1974, and the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, a joint United States-Soviet Union low Earth orbit mission in 1975. Apollo set several major human spaceflight milestones. It stands alone in sending crewed missions beyond low Earth orbit. Apollo 8 was the first crewed spacecraft to orbit another celestial body, and Apollo 11 was the first crewed spacecraft to land humans on one. Overall, the Apollo program returned 842 pounds (382 kg) of lunar rocks and soil to Earth, greatly contributing to the understanding of the Moon's composition and geological history. The program laid the foundation for NASA's subsequent human spaceflight capability and funded construction of its Johnson Space Center and Kennedy Space Center. Apollo also spurred advances in many areas of technology incidental to rocketry and human spaceflight, including avionics, telecommunications, and computers. Name The program was named after Apollo, the Greek god of light, music, and the Sun, by NASA manager Abe Silverstein, who later said, "I was naming the spacecraft like I'd name my baby." Silverstein chose the name at home one evening, early in 1960, because he felt "Apollo riding his chariot across the Sun was appropriate to the grand scale of the proposed program". The context of this was that the program focused at its beginning mainly on developing an advanced crewed spacecraft, the Apollo command and service module, succeeding the Mercury program. A lunar landing became the focus of the program only in 1961. Thereafter Project Gemini instead followed the Mercury program to test and study advanced crewed spaceflight technology. Background Origin and spacecraft feasibility studies The Apollo program was conceived during the Eisenhower administration in early 1960, as a follow-up to Project Mercury. While the Mercury capsule could support only one astronaut on a limited Earth orbital mission, Apollo would carry three. Possible missions included ferrying crews to a space station, circumlunar flights, and eventual crewed lunar landings. In July 1960, NASA Deputy Administrator Hugh L. Dryden announced the Apollo program to industry representatives at a series of Space Task Group conferences. Preliminary specifications were laid out for a spacecraft with a mission module cabin separate from the command module (piloting and reentry cabin), and a propulsion and equipment module. On August 30, a feasibility study competition was announced, and on October 25, three study contracts were awarded to General Dynamics/Convair, General Electric, and the Glenn L. Martin Company. Meanwhile, NASA performed its own in-house spacecraft design studies led by Maxime Faget, to serve as a gauge to judge and monitor the three industry designs. Political pressure builds In November 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected president after a campaign that promised American superiority over the Soviet Union in the fields of space exploration and missile defense. Up to the election of 1960, Kennedy had been speaking out against the "missile gap" that he and many other senators said had developed between the Soviet Union and the United States due to the inaction of President Eisenhower. Beyond military power, Kennedy used aerospace technology as a symbol of national prestige, pledging to make the US not "first but, first and, first if, but first period". Despite Kennedy's rhetoric, he did not immediately come to a decision on the status of the Apollo program once he became president. He knew little about the technical details of the space program, and was put off by the massive financial commitment required by a crewed Moon landing. When Kennedy's newly appointed NASA Administrator James E. Webb requested a 30 percent budget increase for his agency, Kennedy supported an acceleration of NASA's large booster program but deferred a decision on the broader issue. On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly in space, reinforcing American fears about being left behind in a technological competition with the Soviet Union. At a meeting of the US House Committee on Science and Astronautics one day after Gagarin's flight, many congressmen pledged their support for a crash program aimed at ensuring that America would catch up. Kennedy was circumspect in his response to the news, refusing to make a commitment on America's response to the Soviets. On April 20, Kennedy sent a memo to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, asking Johnson to look into the status of America's space program, and into programs that could offer NASA the opportunity to catch up. Johnson responded approximately one week later, concluding that "we are neither making maximum effort nor achieving results necessary if this country is to reach a position of leadership." His memo concluded that a crewed Moon landing was far enough in the future that it was likely the United States would achieve it first. On May 25, 1961, twenty days after the first US crewed spaceflight Freedom 7, Kennedy proposed the crewed Moon landing in a Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs: Now it is time to take longer strides—time for a great new American enterprise—time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on Earth. ... I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important in the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. NASA expansion At the time of Kennedy's proposal, only one American had flown in space—less than a month earlier—and NASA had not yet sent an astronaut into orbit. Even some NASA employees doubted whether Kennedy's ambitious goal could be met. By 1963, Kennedy even came close to agreeing to a joint US-USSR Moon mission, to eliminate duplication of effort. With the clear goal of a crewed landing replacing the more nebulous goals of space stations and circumlunar flights, NASA decided that, in order to make progress quickly, it would discard the feasibility study designs of Convair, GE, and Martin, and proceed with Faget's command and service module design. The mission module was determined to be useful only as an extra room, and therefore unnecessary. They used Faget's design as the specification for another competition for spacecraft procurement bids in October 1961. On November 28, 1961, it was announced that North American Aviation had won the contract, although its bid was not rated as good as the Martin proposal. Webb, Dryden and Robert Seamans chose it in preference due to North American's longer association with NASA and its predecessor. Landing humans on the Moon by the end of 1969 required the most sudden burst of technological creativity, and the largest commitment of resources ($25 billion; $182 billion in 2023 US dollars) ever made by any nation in peacetime. At its peak, the Apollo program employed 400,000 people and required the support of over 20,000 industrial firms and universities. On July 1, 1960, NASA established the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama. MSFC designed the heavy lift-class Saturn launch vehicles, which would be required for Apollo. Manned Spacecraft Center It became clear that managing the Apollo program would exceed the capabilities of Robert R. Gilruth's Space Task Group, which had been directing the nation's crewed space program from NASA's Langley Research Center. So Gilruth was given authority to grow his organization into a new NASA center, the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC). A site was chosen in Houston, Texas, on land donated by Rice University, and Administrator Webb announced the conversion on September 19, 1961. It was also clear NASA would soon outgrow its practice of controlling missions from its Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch facilities in Florida, so a new Mission Control Center would be included in the MSC. In September 1962, by which time two Project Mercury astronauts had orbited the Earth, Gilruth had moved his organization to rented space in Houston, and construction of the MSC facility was under way, Kennedy visited Rice to reiterate his challenge in a famous speech: But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? ... We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills; because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win ... The MSC was completed in September 1963. It was renamed by the US Congress in honor of Lyndon Johnson soon after his death in 1973. Launch Operations Center It also became clear that Apollo would outgrow the Canaveral launch facilities in Florida. The two newest launch complexes were already being built for the Saturn I and IB rockets at the northernmost end: LC-34 and LC-37. But an even bigger facility would be needed for the mammoth rocket required for the crewed lunar mission, so land acquisition was started in July 1961 for a Launch Operations Center (LOC) immediately north of Canaveral at Merritt Island. The design, development and construction of the center was conducted by Kurt H. Debus, a member of Wernher von Braun's original V-2 rocket engineering team. Debus was named the LOC's first Director. Construction began in November 1962. Following Kennedy's death, President Johnson issued an executive order on November 29, 1963, to rename the LOC and Cape Canaveral in honor of Kennedy. The LOC included Launch Complex 39, a Launch Control Center, and a 130-million-cubic-foot (3,700,000 m3) Vertical Assembly Building (VAB). in which the space vehicle (launch vehicle and spacecraft) would be assembled on a mobile launcher platform and then moved by a crawler-transporter to one of several launch pads. Although at least three pads were planned, only two, designated A and B, were completed in October 1965. The LOC also included an Operations and Checkout Building (OCB) to which Gemini and Apollo spacecraft were initially received prior to being mated to their launch vehicles. The Apollo spacecraft could be tested in two vacuum chambers capable of simulating atmospheric pressure at altitudes up to 250,000 feet (76 km), which is nearly a vacuum. Organization Administrator Webb realized that in order to keep Apollo costs under control, he had to develop greater project management skills in his organization, so he recruited George E. Mueller for a high management job. Mueller accepted, on the condition that he have a say in NASA reorganization necessary to effectively administer Apollo. Webb then worked with Associate Administrator (later Deputy Administrator) Seamans to reorganize the Office of Manned Space Flight (OMSF). On July 23, 1963, Webb announced Mueller's appointment as Deputy Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, to replace then Associate Administrator D. Brainerd Holmes on his retirement effective September 1. Under Webb's reorganization, the directors of the Manned Spacecraft Center (Gilruth), Marshall Space Flight Center (von Braun), and the Launch Operations Center (Debus) reported to Mueller. Based on his industry experience on Air Force missile projects, Mueller realized some skilled managers could be found among high-ranking officers in the U.S. Air Force, so he got Webb's permission to recruit General Samuel C. Phillips, who gained a reputation for his effective management of the Minuteman program, as OMSF program controller. Phillips's superior officer Bernard A. Schriever agreed to loan Phillips to NASA, along with a staff of officers under him, on the condition that Phillips be made Apollo Program Director. Mueller agreed, and Phillips managed Apollo from January 1964, until it achieved the first human landing in July 1969, after which he returned to Air Force duty. Charles Fishman, in One Giant Leap, estimated the number of people and organizations involved into the Apollo program as "410,000 men and women at some 20,000 different companies contributed to the effort". Choosing a mission mode Once Kennedy had defined a goal, the Apollo mission planners were faced with the challenge of designing a spacecraft that could meet it while minimizing risk to human life, limiting cost, and not exceeding limits in possible technology and astronaut skill. Four possible mission modes were considered: Direct Ascent: The spacecraft would be launched as a unit and travel directly to the lunar surface, without first going into lunar orbit. A 50,000-pound (23,000 kg) Earth return ship would land all three astronauts atop a 113,000-pound (51,000 kg) descent propulsion stage, which would be left on the Moon. This design would have required development of the extremely powerful Saturn C-8 or Nova launch vehicle to carry a 163,000-pound (74,000 kg) payload to the Moon. Earth Orbit Rendezvous (EOR): Multiple rocket launches (up to 15 in some plans) would carry parts of the Direct Ascent spacecraft and propulsion units for translunar injection (TLI). These would be assembled into a single spacecraft in Earth orbit. Lunar Surface Rendezvous: Two spacecraft would be launched in succession. The first, an automated vehicle carrying propellant for the return to Earth, would land on the Moon, to be followed some time later by the crewed vehicle. Propellant would have to be transferred from the automated vehicle to the crewed vehicle. Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR): This turned out to be the winning configuration, which achieved the goal with Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969: a single Saturn V launched a 96,886-pound (43,947 kg) spacecraft that was composed of a 63,608-pound (28,852 kg) Apollo command and service module which remained in orbit around the Moon and a 33,278-pound (15,095 kg) two-stage Apollo Lunar Module spacecraft which was flown by two astronauts to the surface, flown back to dock with the command module and was then discarded. Landing the smaller spacecraft on the Moon, and returning an even smaller part (10,042 pounds or 4,555 kilograms) to lunar orbit, minimized the total mass to be launched from Earth, but this was the last method initially considered because of the perceived risk of rendezvous and docking. In early 1961, direct ascent was generally the mission mode in favor at NASA. Many engineers feared that rendezvous and docking, maneuvers that had not been attempted in Earth orbit, would be nearly impossible in lunar orbit. LOR advocates including John Houbolt at Langley Research Center emphasized the important weight reductions that were offered by the LOR approach. Throughout 1960 and 1961, Houbolt campaigned for the recognition of LOR as a viable and practical option. Bypassing the NASA hierarchy, he sent a series of memos and reports on the issue to Associate Administrator Robert Seamans; while acknowledging that he spoke "somewhat as a voice in the wilderness", Houbolt pleaded that LOR should not be discounted in studies of the question. Seamans's establishment of an ad hoc committee headed by his special technical assistant Nicholas E. Golovin in July 1961, to recommend a launch vehicle to be used in the Apollo program, represented a turning point in NASA's mission mode decision. This committee recognized that the chosen mode was an important part of the launch vehicle choice, and recommended in favor of a hybrid EOR-LOR mode. Its consideration of LOR—as well as Houbolt's ceaseless work—played an important role in publicizing the workability of the approach. In late 1961 and early 1962, members of the Manned Spacecraft Center began to come around to support LOR, including the newly hired deputy director of the Office of Manned Space Flight, Joseph Shea, who became a champion of LOR. The engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), who were heavily invested in direct ascent, took longer to become convinced of its merits, but their conversion was announced by Wernher von Braun at a briefing on June 7, 1962. But even after NASA reached internal agreement, it was far from smooth sailing. Kennedy's science advisor Jerome Wiesner, who had expressed his opposition to human spaceflight to Kennedy before the President took office, and had opposed the decision to land people on the Moon, hired Golovin, who had left NASA, to chair his own "Space Vehicle Panel", ostensibly to monitor, but actually to second-guess NASA's decisions on the Saturn V launch vehicle and LOR by forcing Shea, Seamans, and even Webb to defend themselves, delaying its formal announcement to the press on July 11, 1962, and forcing Webb to still hedge the decision as "tentative". Wiesner kept up the pressure, even making the disagreement public during a two-day September visit by the President to Marshall Space Flight Center. Wiesner blurted out "No, that's no good" in front of the press, during a presentation by von Braun. Webb jumped in and defended von Braun, until Kennedy ended the squabble by stating that the matter was "still subject to final review". Webb held firm and issued a request for proposal to candidate Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) contractors. Wiesner finally relented, unwilling to settle the dispute once and for all in Kennedy's office, because of the President's involvement with the October Cuban Missile Crisis, and fear of Kennedy's support for Webb. NASA announced the selection of Grumman as the LEM contractor in November 1962. Space historian James Hansen concludes that: Without NASA's adoption of this stubbornly held minority opinion in 1962, the United States may still have reached the Moon, but almost certainly it would not have been accomplished by the end of the 1960s, President Kennedy's target date. The LOR method had the advantage of allowing the lander spacecraft to be used as a "lifeboat" in the event of a failure of the command ship. Some documents prove this theory was discussed before and after the method was chosen. In 1964 an MSC study concluded, "The LM [as lifeboat] ... was finally dropped, because no single reasonable CSM failure could be identified that would prohibit use of the SPS." Ironically, just such a failure happened on Apollo 13 when an oxygen tank explosion left the CSM without electrical power. The lunar module provided propulsion, electrical power and life support to get the crew home safely. Spacecraft Faget's preliminary Apollo design employed a cone-shaped command module, supported by one of several service modules providing propulsion and electrical power, sized appropriately for the space station, cislunar, and lunar landing missions. Once Kennedy's Moon landing goal became official, detailed design began of a command and service module (CSM) in which the crew would spend the entire direct-ascent mission and lift off from the lunar surface for the return trip, after being soft-landed by a larger landing propulsion module. The final choice of lunar orbit rendezvous changed the CSM's role to the translunar ferry used to transport the crew, along with a new spacecraft, the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM, later shortened to LM (Lunar Module) but still pronounced ) which would take two individuals to the lunar surface and return them to the CSM. Command and service module The command module (CM) was the conical crew cabin, designed to carry three astronauts from launch to lunar orbit and back to an Earth ocean landing. It was the only component of the Apollo spacecraft to survive without major configuration changes as the program evolved from the early Apollo study designs. Its exterior was covered with an ablative heat shield, and had its own reaction control system (RCS) engines to control its attitude and steer its atmospheric entry path. Parachutes were carried to slow its descent to splashdown. The module was 11.42 feet (3.48 m) tall, 12.83 feet (3.91 m) in diameter, and weighed approximately 12,250 pounds (5,560 kg). A cylindrical service module (SM) supported the command module, with a service propulsion engine and an RCS with propellants, and a fuel cell power generation system with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen reactants. A high-gain S-band antenna was used for long-distance communications on the lunar flights. On the extended lunar missions, an orbital scientific instrument package was carried. The service module was discarded just before reentry. The module was 24.6 feet (7.5 m) long and 12.83 feet (3.91 m) in diameter. The initial lunar flight version weighed approximately 51,300 pounds (23,300 kg) fully fueled, while a later version designed to carry a lunar orbit scientific instrument package weighed just over 54,000 pounds (24,000 kg). North American Aviation won the contract to build the CSM, and also the second stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle for NASA. Because the CSM design was started early before the selection of lunar orbit rendezvous, the service propulsion engine was sized to lift the CSM off the Moon, and thus was oversized to about twice the thrust required for translunar flight. Also, there was no provision for docking with the lunar module. A 1964 program definition study concluded that the initial design should be continued as Block I which would be used for early testing, while Block II, the actual lunar spacecraft, would incorporate the docking equipment and take advantage of the lessons learned in Block I development. Apollo Lunar Module The Apollo Lunar Module (LM) was designed to descend from lunar orbit to land two astronauts on the Moon and take them back to orbit to rendezvous with the command module. Not designed to fly through the Earth's atmosphere or return to Earth, its fuselage was designed totally without aerodynamic considerations and was of an extremely lightweight construction. It consisted of separate descent and ascent stages, each with its own engine. The descent stage contained storage for the descent propellant, surface stay consumables, and surface exploration equipment. The ascent stage contained the crew cabin, ascent propellant, and a reaction control system. The initial LM model weighed approximately 33,300 pounds (15,100 kg), and allowed surface stays up to around 34 hours. An extended lunar module weighed over 36,200 pounds (16,400 kg), and allowed surface stays of more than three days. The contract for design and construction of the lunar module was awarded to Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, and the project was overseen by Thomas J. Kelly. Launch vehicles Before the Apollo program began, Wernher von Braun and his team of rocket engineers had started work on plans for very large launch vehicles, the Saturn series, and the even larger Nova series. In the midst of these plans, von Braun was transferred from the Army to NASA and was made Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center. The initial direct ascent plan to send the three-person Apollo command and service module directly to the lunar surface, on top of a large descent rocket stage, would require a Nova-class launcher, with a lunar payload capability of over 180,000 pounds (82,000 kg). The June 11, 1962, decision to use lunar orbit rendezvous enabled the Saturn V to replace the Nova, and the MSFC proceeded to develop the Saturn rocket family for Apollo. Since Apollo, like Mercury, used more than one launch vehicle for space missions, NASA used spacecraft-launch vehicle combination series numbers: AS-10x for Saturn I, AS-20x for Saturn IB, and AS-50x for Saturn V (compare Mercury-Redstone 3, Mercury-Atlas 6) to designate and plan all missions, rather than numbering them sequentially as in Project Gemini. This was changed by the time human flights began. Little Joe II Since Apollo, like Mercury, would require a launch escape system (LES) in case of a launch failure, a relatively small rocket was required for qualification flight testing of this system. A rocket bigger than the Little Joe used by Mercury would be required, so the Little Joe II was built by General Dynamics/Convair. After an August 1963 qualification test flight, four LES test flights (A-001 through 004) were made at the White Sands Missile Range between May 1964 and January 1966. Saturn I Saturn I, the first US heavy lift launch vehicle, was initially planned to launch partially equipped CSMs in low Earth orbit tests. The S-I first stage burned RP-1 with liquid oxygen (LOX) oxidizer in eight clustered Rocketdyne H-1 engines, to produce 1,500,000 pounds-force (6,670 kN) of thrust. The S-IV second stage used six liquid hydrogen-fueled Pratt & Whitney RL-10 engines with 90,000 pounds-force (400 kN) of thrust. The S-V third stage flew inactively on Saturn I four times. The first four Saturn I test flights were launched from LC-34, with only the first stage live, carrying dummy upper stages filled with water. The first flight with a live S-IV was launched from LC-37. This was followed by five launches of boilerplate CSMs (designated AS-101 through AS-105) into orbit in 1964 and 1965. The last three of these further supported the Apollo program by also carrying Pegasus satellites, which verified the safety of the translunar environment by measuring the frequency and severity of micrometeorite impacts. In September 1962, NASA planned to launch four crewed CSM flights on the Saturn I from late 1965 through 1966, concurrent with Project Gemini. The 22,500-pound (10,200 kg) payload capacity would have severely limited the systems which could be included, so the decision was made in October 1963 to use the uprated Saturn IB for all crewed Earth orbital flights. Saturn IB The Saturn IB was an upgraded version of the Saturn I. The S-IB first stage increased the thrust to 1,600,000 pounds-force (7,120 kN) by uprating the H-1 engine. The second stage replaced the S-IV with the S-IVB-200, powered by a single J-2 engine burning liquid hydrogen fuel with LOX, to produce 200,000 pounds-force (890 kN) of thrust. A restartable version of the S-IVB was used as the third stage of the Saturn V. The Saturn IB could send over 40,000 pounds (18,100 kg) into low Earth orbit, sufficient for a partially fueled CSM or the LM. Saturn IB launch vehicles and flights were designated with an AS-200 series number, "AS" indicating "Apollo Saturn" and the "2" indicating the second member of the Saturn rocket family. Saturn V Saturn V launch vehicles and flights were designated with an AS-500 series number, "AS" indicating "Apollo Saturn" and the "5" indicating Saturn V. The three-stage Saturn V was designed to send a fully fueled CSM and LM to the Moon. It was 33 feet (10.1 m) in diameter and stood 363 feet (110.6 m) tall with its 96,800-pound (43,900 kg) lunar payload. Its capability grew to 103,600 pounds (47,000 kg) for the later advanced lunar landings. The S-IC first stage burned RP-1/LOX for a rated thrust of 7,500,000 pounds-force (33,400 kN), which was upgraded to 7,610,000 pounds-force (33,900 kN). The second and third stages burned liquid hydrogen; the third stage was a modified version of the S-IVB, with thrust increased to 230,000 pounds-force (1,020 kN) and capability to restart the engine for translunar injection after reaching a parking orbit. Astronauts NASA's director of flight crew operations during the Apollo program was Donald K. "Deke" Slayton, one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts who was medically grounded in September 1962 due to a heart murmur. Slayton was responsible for making all Gemini and Apollo crew assignments. Thirty-two astronauts were assigned to fly missions in the Apollo program. Twenty-four of these left Earth's orbit and flew around the Moon between December 1968 and December 1972 (three of them twice). Half of the 24 walked on the Moon's surface, though none of them returned to it after landing once. One of the moonwalkers was a trained geologist. Of the 32, Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were killed during a ground test in preparation for the Apollo 1 mission. The Apollo astronauts were chosen from the Project Mercury and Gemini veterans, plus from two later astronaut groups. All missions were commanded by Gemini or Mercury veterans. Crews on all development flights (except the Earth orbit CSM development flights) through the first two landings on Apollo 11 and Apollo 12, included at least two (sometimes three) Gemini veterans. Harrison Schmitt, a geologist, was the first NASA scientist astronaut to fly in space, and landed on the Moon on the last mission, Apollo 17. Schmitt participated in the lunar geology training of all of the Apollo landing crews. NASA awarded all 32 of these astronauts its highest honor, the Distinguished Service Medal, given for "distinguished service, ability, or courage", and personal "contribution representing substantial progress to the NASA mission". The medals were awarded posthumously to Grissom, White, and Chaffee in 1969, then to the crews of all missions from Apollo 8 onward. The crew that flew the first Earth orbital test mission Apollo 7, Walter M. Schirra, Donn Eisele, and Walter Cunningham, were awarded the lesser NASA Exceptional Service Medal, because of discipline problems with the flight director's orders during their flight. In October 2008, the NASA Administrator decided to award them the Distinguished Service Medals. For Schirra and Eisele, this was posthumously. Lunar mission profile The first lunar landing mission was planned to proceed: Profile variations The first three lunar missions (Apollo 8, Apollo 10, and Apollo 11) used a free return trajectory, keeping a flight path coplanar with the lunar orbit, which would allow a return to Earth in case the SM engine failed to make lunar orbit insertion. Landing site lighting conditions on later missions dictated a lunar orbital plane change, which required a course change maneuver soon after TLI, and eliminated the free-return option. After Apollo 12 placed the second of several seismometers on the Moon, the jettisoned LM ascent stages on Apollo 12 and later missions were deliberately crashed on the Moon at known locations to induce vibrations in the Moon's structure. The only exceptions to this were the Apollo 13 LM which burned up in the Earth's atmosphere, and Apollo 16, where a loss of attitude control after jettison prevented making a targeted impact. As another active seismic experiment, the S-IVBs on Apollo 13 and subsequent missions were deliberately crashed on the Moon instead of being sent to solar orbit. Starting with Apollo 13, descent orbit insertion was to be performed using the service module engine instead of the LM engine, in order to allow a greater fuel reserve for landing. This was actually done for the first time on Apollo 14, since the Apollo 13 mission was aborted before landing. Development history Uncrewed flight tests Two Block I CSMs were launched from LC-34 on suborbital flights in 1966 with the Saturn IB. The first, AS-201 launched on February 26, reached an altitude of 265.7 nautical miles (492.1 km) and splashed down 4,577 nautical miles (8,477 km) downrange in the Atlantic Ocean. The second, AS-202 on August 25, reached 617.1 nautical miles (1,142.9 km) altitude and was recovered 13,900 nautical miles (25,700 km) downrange in the Pacific Ocean. These flights validated the service module engine and the command module heat shield. A third Saturn IB test, AS-203 launched from pad 37, went into orbit to support design of the S-IVB upper stage restart capability needed for the Saturn V. It carried a nose cone instead of the Apollo spacecraft, and its payload was the unburned liquid hydrogen fuel, the behavior of which engineers measured with temperature and pressure sensors, and a TV camera. This flight occurred on July 5, before AS-202, which was delayed because of problems getting the Apollo spacecraft ready for flight. Preparation for crewed flight Two crewed orbital Block I CSM missions were planned: AS-204 and AS-205. The Block I crew positions were titled Command Pilot, Senior Pilot, and Pilot. The Senior Pilot would assume navigation duties, while the Pilot would function as a systems engineer. The astronauts would wear a modified version of the Gemini spacesuit. After an uncrewed LM test flight AS-206, a crew would fly the first Block II CSM and LM in a dual mission known as AS-207/208, or AS-278 (each spacecraft would be launched on a separate Saturn IB). The Block II crew positions were titled Commander, Command Module Pilot, and Lunar Module Pilot. The astronauts would begin wearing a new Apollo A6L spacesuit, designed to accommodate lunar extravehicular activity (EVA). The traditional visor helmet was replaced with a clear "fishbowl" type for greater visibility, and the lunar surface EVA suit would include a water-cooled undergarment. Deke Slayton, the grounded Mercury astronaut who became director of flight crew operations for the Gemini and Apollo programs, selected the first Apollo crew in January 1966, with Grissom as Command Pilot, White as Senior Pilot, and rookie Donn F. Eisele as Pilot. But Eisele dislocated his shoulder twice aboard the KC135 weightlessness training aircraft, and had to undergo surgery on January 27. Slayton replaced him with Chaffee. NASA announced the final crew selection for AS-204 on March 21, 1966, with the backup crew consisting of Gemini veterans James McDivitt and David Scott, with rookie Russell L. "Rusty" Schweickart. Mercury/Gemini veteran Wally Schirra, Eisele, and rookie Walter Cunningham were announced on September 29 as the prime crew for AS-205. In December 1966, the AS-205 mission was canceled, since the validation of the CSM would be accomplished on the 14-day first flight, and AS-205 would have been devoted to space experiments and contribute no new engineering knowledge about the spacecraft. Its Saturn IB was allocated to the dual mission, now redesignated AS-205/208 or AS-258, planned for August 1967. McDivitt, Scott and Schweickart were promoted to the prime AS-258 crew, and Schirra, Eisele and Cunningham were reassigned as the Apollo 1 backup crew. Program delays The spacecraft for the AS-202 and AS-204 missions were delivered by North American Aviation to the Kennedy Space Center with long lists of equipment problems which had to be corrected before flight; these delays caused the launch of AS-202 to slip behind AS-203, and eliminated hopes the first crewed mission might be ready to launch as soon as November 1966, concurrently with the last Gemini mission. Eventually, the planned AS-204 flight date was pushed to February 21, 1967. North American Aviation was prime contractor not only for the Apollo CSM, but for the Saturn V S-II second stage as well, and delays in this stage pushed the first uncrewed Saturn V flight AS-501 from late 1966 to November 1967. (The initial assembly of AS-501 had to use a dummy spacer spool in place of the stage.) The problems with North American were severe enough in late 1965 to cause Manned Space Flight Administrator George Mueller to appoint program director Samuel Phillips to head a "tiger team" to investigate North American's problems and identify corrections. Phillips documented his findings in a December 19 letter to NAA president Lee Atwood, with a strongly worded letter by Mueller, and also gave a presentation of the results to Mueller and Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans. Meanwhile, Grumman was also encountering problems with the Lunar Module, eliminating hopes it would be ready for crewed flight in 1967, not long after the first crewed CSM flights. Apollo 1 fire Grissom, White, and Chaffee decided to name their flight Apollo 1 as a motivational focus on the first crewed flight. They trained and conducted tests of their spacecraft at North American, and in the altitude chamber at the Kennedy Space Center. A "plugs-out" test was planned for January, which would simulate a launch countdown on LC-34 with the spacecraft transferring from pad-supplied to internal power. If successful, this would be followed by a more rigorous countdown simulation test closer to the February 21 launch, with both spacecraft and launch vehicle fueled. The plugs-out test began on the morning of January 27, 1967, and immediately was plagued with problems. First, the crew noticed a strange odor in their spacesuits which delayed the sealing of the hatch. Then, communications problems frustrated the astronauts and forced a hold in the simulated countdown. During this hold, an electrical fire began in the cabin and spread quickly in the high pressure, 100% oxygen atmosphere. Pressure rose high enough from the fire that the cabin inner wall burst, allowing the fire to erupt onto the pad area and frustrating attempts to rescue the crew. The astronauts were asphyxiated before the hatch could be opened. NASA immediately convened an accident review board, overseen by both houses of Congress. While the determination of responsibility for the accident was complex, the review board concluded that "deficiencies existed in command module design, workmanship and quality control". At the insistence of NASA Administrator Webb, North American removed Harrison Storms as command module program manager. Webb also reassigned Apollo Spacecraft Program Office (ASPO) Manager Joseph Francis Shea, replacing him with George Low. To remedy the causes of the fire, changes were made in the Block II spacecraft and operational procedures, the most important of which were use of a nitrogen/oxygen mixture instead of pure oxygen before and during launch, and removal of flammable cabin and space suit materials. The Block II design already called for replacement of the Block I plug-type hatch cover with a quick-release, outward opening door. NASA discontinued the crewed Block I program, using the Block I spacecraft only for uncrewed Saturn V flights. Crew members would also exclusively wear modified, fire-resistant A7L Block II space suits, and would be designated by the Block II titles, regardless of whether a LM was present on the flight or not. Uncrewed Saturn V and LM tests On April 24, 1967, Mueller published an official Apollo mission numbering scheme, using sequential numbers for all flights, crewed or uncrewed. The sequence would start with Apollo 4 to cover the first three uncrewed flights while retiring the Apollo 1 designation to honor the crew, per their widows' wishes. In September 1967, Mueller approved a sequence of mission types which had to be successfully accomplished in order to achieve the crewed lunar landing. Each step had to be successfully accomplished before the next ones could be performed, and it was unknown how many tries of each mission would be necessary; therefore letters were used instead of numbers. The A missions were uncrewed Saturn V validation; B was uncrewed LM validation using the Saturn IB; C was crewed CSM Earth orbit validation using the Saturn IB; D was the first crewed CSM/LM flight (this replaced AS-258, using a single Saturn V launch); E would be a higher Earth orbit CSM/LM flight; F would be the first lunar mission, testing the LM in lunar orbit but without landing (a "dress rehearsal"); and G would be the first crewed landing. The list of types covered follow-on lunar exploration to include H lunar landings, I for lunar orbital survey missions, and J for extended-stay lunar landings. The delay in the CSM caused by the fire enabled NASA to catch up on human-rating the LM and Saturn V. Apollo 4 (AS-501) was the first uncrewed flight of the Saturn V, carrying a Block I CSM on November 9, 1967. The capability of the command module's heat shield to survive a trans-lunar reentry was demonstrated by using the service module engine to ram it into the atmosphere at higher than the usual Earth-orbital reentry speed. Apollo 5 (AS-204) was the first uncrewed test flight of the LM in Earth orbit, launched from pad 37 on January 22, 1968, by the Saturn IB that would have been used for Apollo 1. The LM engines were successfully test-fired and restarted, despite a computer programming error which cut short the first descent stage firing. The ascent engine was fired in abort mode, known as a "fire-in-the-hole" test, where it was lit simultaneously with jettison of the descent stage. Although Grumman wanted a second uncrewed test, George Low decided the next LM flight would be crewed. This was followed on April 4, 1968, by Apollo 6 (AS-502) which carried a CSM and a LM Test Article as ballast. The intent of this mission was to achieve trans-lunar injection, followed closely by a simulated direct-return abort, using the service module engine to achieve another high-speed reentry. The Saturn V experienced pogo oscillation, a problem caused by non-steady engine combustion, which damaged fuel lines in the second and third stages. Two S-II engines shut down prematurely, but the remaining engines were able to compensate. The damage to the third stage engine was more severe, preventing it from restarting for trans-lunar injection. Mission controllers were able to use the service module engine to essentially repeat the flight profile of Apollo 4. Based on the good performance of Apollo 6 and identification of satisfactory fixes to the Apollo 6 problems, NASA declared the Saturn V ready to fly crew, canceling a third uncrewed test. Crewed development missions Apollo 7, launched from LC-34 on October 11, 1968, was the C mission, crewed by Schirra, Eisele, and Cunningham. It was an 11-day Earth-orbital flight which tested the CSM systems. Apollo 8 was planned to be the D mission in December 1968, crewed by McDivitt, Scott and Schweickart, launched on a Saturn V instead of two Saturn IBs. In the summer it had become clear that the LM would not be ready in time. Rather than waste the Saturn V on another simple Earth-orbiting mission, ASPO Manager George Low suggested the bold step of sending Apollo 8 to orbit the Moon instead, deferring the D mission to the next mission in March 1969, and eliminating the E mission. This would keep the program on track. The Soviet Union had sent two tortoises, mealworms, wine flies, and other lifeforms around the Moon on September 15, 1968, aboard Zond 5, and it was believed they might soon repeat the feat with human cosmonauts. The decision was not announced publicly until successful completion of Apollo 7. Gemini veterans Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, and rookie William Anders captured the world's attention by making ten lunar orbits in 20 hours, transmitting television pictures of the lunar surface on Christmas Eve, and returning safely to Earth. The following March, LM flight, rendezvous and docking were successfully demonstrated in Earth orbit on Apollo 9, and Schweickart tested the full lunar EVA suit with its portable life support system (PLSS) outside the LM. The F mission was successfully carried out on Apollo 10 in May 1969 by Gemini veterans Thomas P. Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan. Stafford and Cernan took the LM to within 50,000 feet (15 km) of the lunar surface. The G mission was achieved on Apollo 11 in July 1969 by an all-Gemini veteran crew consisting of Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin. Armstrong and Aldrin performed the first landing at the Sea of Tranquility at 20:17:40 UTC on July 20, 1969. They spent a total of 21 hours, 36 minutes on the surface, and spent 2 hours, 31 minutes outside the spacecraft, walking on the surface, taking photographs, collecting material samples, and deploying automated scientific instruments, while continuously sending black-and-white television back to Earth. The astronauts returned safely on July 24. That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind. Production lunar landings In November 1969, Charles "Pete" Conrad became the third person to step onto the Moon, which he did while speaking more informally than had Armstrong: Whoopee! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me. Conrad and rookie Alan L. Bean made a precision landing of Apollo 12 within walking distance of the Surveyor 3 uncrewed lunar probe, which had landed in April 1967 on the Ocean of Storms. The command module pilot was Gemini veteran Richard F. Gordon Jr. Conrad and Bean carried the first lunar surface color television camera, but it was damaged when accidentally pointed into the Sun. They made two EVAs totaling 7 hours and 45 minutes. On one, they walked to the Surveyor, photographed it, and removed some parts which they returned to Earth. The contracted batch of 15 Saturn Vs was enough for lunar landing missions through Apollo 20. Shortly after Apollo 11, NASA publicized a preliminary list of eight more planned landing sites after Apollo 12, with plans to increase the mass of the CSM and LM for the last five missions, along with the payload capacity of the Saturn V. These final missions would combine the I and J types in the 1967 list, allowing the CMP to operate a package of lunar orbital sensors and cameras while his companions were on the surface, and allowing them to stay on the Moon for over three days. These missions would also carry the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) increasing the exploration area and allowing televised liftoff of the LM. Also, the Block II spacesuit was revised for the extended missions to allow greater flexibility and visibility for driving the LRV. The success of the first two landings allowed the remaining missions to be crewed with a single veteran as commander, with two rookies. Apollo 13 launched Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise in April 1970, headed for the Fra Mauro formation. But two days out, a liquid oxygen tank exploded, disabling the service module and forcing the crew to use the LM as a "lifeboat" to return to Earth. Another NASA review board was convened to determine the cause, which turned out to be a combination of damage of the tank in the factory, and a subcontractor not making a tank component according to updated design specifications. Apollo was grounded again, for the remainder of 1970 while the oxygen tank was redesigned and an extra one was added. Mission cutbacks About the time of the first landing in 1969, it was decided to use an existing Saturn V to launch the Skylab orbital laboratory pre-built on the ground, replacing the original plan to construct it in orbit from several Saturn IB launches; this eliminated Apollo 20. NASA's yearly budget also began to shrink in light of the successful landing, and NASA also had to make funds available for the development of the upcoming Space Shuttle. By 1971, the decision was made to also cancel missions 18 and 19. The two unused Saturn Vs became museum exhibits at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, George C. Marshall Space Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The cutbacks forced mission planners to reassess the original planned landing sites in order to achieve the most effective geological sample and data collection from the remaining four missions. Apollo 15 had been planned to be the last of the H series missions, but since there would be only two subsequent missions left, it was changed to the first of three J missions. Apollo 13's Fra Mauro mission was reassigned to Apollo 14, commanded in February 1971 by Mercury veteran Alan Shepard, with Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell. This time the mission was successful. Shepard and Mitchell spent 33 hours and 31 minutes on the surface, and completed two EVAs totalling 9 hours 24 minutes, which was a record for the longest EVA by a lunar crew at the time. In August 1971, just after conclusion of the Apollo 15 mission, President Richard Nixon proposed canceling the two remaining lunar landing missions, Apollo 16 and 17. Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director Caspar Weinberger was opposed to this, and persuaded Nixon to keep the remaining missions. Extended missions Apollo 15 was launched on July 26, 1971, with David Scott, Alfred Worden and James Irwin. Scott and Irwin landed on July 30 near Hadley Rille, and spent just under two days, 19 hours on the surface. In over 18 hours of EVA, they collected about 77 kilograms (170 lb) of lunar material. Apollo 16 landed in the Descartes Highlands on April 20, 1972. The crew was commanded by John Young, with Ken Mattingly and Charles Duke. Young and Duke spent just under three days on the surface, with a total of over 20 hours EVA. Apollo 17 was the last of the Apollo program, landing in the Taurus–Littrow region in December 1972. Eugene Cernan commanded Ronald E. Evans and NASA's first scientist-astronaut, geologist Harrison H. Schmitt. Schmitt was originally scheduled for Apollo 18, but the lunar geological community lobbied for his inclusion on the final lunar landing. Cernan and Schmitt stayed on the surface for just over three days and spent just over 23 hours of total EVA. Canceled missions Several missions were planned for but were canceled before details were finalized. Mission summary Source: Apollo by the Numbers: A Statistical Reference (Orloff 2004) Samples returned The Apollo program returned over 382 kg (842 lb) of lunar rocks and soil to the Lunar Receiving Laboratory in Houston. Today, 75% of the samples are stored at the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility built in 1979. The rocks collected from the Moon are extremely old compared to rocks found on Earth, as measured by radiometric dating techniques. They range in age from about 3.2 billion years for the basaltic samples derived from the lunar maria, to about 4.6 billion years for samples derived from the highlands crust. As such, they represent samples from a very early period in the development of the Solar System, that are largely absent on Earth. One important rock found during the Apollo Program is dubbed the Genesis Rock, retrieved by astronauts David Scott and James Irwin during the Apollo 15 mission. This anorthosite rock is composed almost exclusively of the calcium-rich feldspar mineral anorthite, and is believed to be representative of the highland crust. A geochemical component called KREEP was discovered by Apollo 12, which has no known terrestrial counterpart. KREEP and the anorthositic samples have been used to infer that the outer portion of the Moon was once completely molten (see lunar magma ocean). Almost all the rocks show evidence of impact process effects. Many samples appear to be pitted with micrometeoroid impact craters, which is never seen on Earth rocks, due to the thick atmosphere. Many show signs of being subjected to high-pressure shock waves that are generated during impact events. Some of the returned samples are of impact melt (materials melted near an impact crater.) All samples returned from the Moon are highly brecciated as a result of being subjected to multiple impact events. From analyses of the composition of the returned lunar samples, it is now believed that the Moon was created through the impact of a large astronomical body with Earth. Costs Apollo cost $25.4 billion or approximately $257 billion (2023) using improved cost analysis. Of this amount, $20.2 billion ($145 billion adjusted) was spent on the design, development, and production of the Saturn family of launch vehicles, the Apollo spacecraft, spacesuits, scientific experiments, and mission operations. The cost of constructing and operating Apollo-related ground facilities, such as the NASA human spaceflight centers and the global tracking and data acquisition network, added an additional $5.2 billion ($37.3 billion adjusted). The amount grows to $28 billion ($280 billion adjusted) if the costs for related projects such as Project Gemini and the robotic Ranger, Surveyor, and Lunar Orbiter programs are included. NASA's official cost breakdown, as reported to Congress in the Spring of 1973, is as follows: Accurate estimates of human spaceflight costs were difficult in the early 1960s, as the capability was new and management experience was lacking. Preliminary cost analysis by NASA estimated $7 billion – $12 billion for a crewed lunar landing effort. NASA Administrator James Webb increased this estimate to $20 billion before reporting it to Vice President Johnson in April 1961. Project Apollo was a massive undertaking, representing the largest research and development project in peacetime. At its peak, it employed over 400,000 employees and contractors around the country and accounted for more than half of NASA's total spending in the 1960s. After the first Moon landing, public and political interest waned, including that of President Nixon, who wanted to rein in federal spending. NASA's budget could not sustain Apollo missions which cost, on average, $445 million ($2.66 billion adjusted) each while simultaneously developing the Space Shuttle. The final fiscal year of Apollo funding was 1973. Apollo Applications Program Looking beyond the crewed lunar landings, NASA investigated several post-lunar applications for Apollo hardware. The Apollo Extension Series (Apollo X) proposed up to 30 flights to Earth orbit, using the space in the Spacecraft Lunar Module Adapter (SLA) to house a small orbital laboratory (workshop). Astronauts would continue to use the CSM as a ferry to the station. This study was followed by design of a larger orbital workshop to be built in orbit from an empty S-IVB Saturn upper stage and grew into the Apollo Applications Program (AAP). The workshop was to be supplemented by the Apollo Telescope Mount, which could be attached to the ascent stage of the lunar module via a rack. The most ambitious plan called for using an empty S-IVB as an interplanetary spacecraft for a Venus fly-by mission. The S-IVB orbital workshop was the only one of these plans to make it off the drawing board. Dubbed Skylab, it was assembled on the ground rather than in space, and launched in 1973 using the two lower stages of a Saturn V. It was equipped with an Apollo Telescope Mount. Skylab's last crew departed the station on February 8, 1974, and the station itself re-entered the atmosphere in 1979 after development of the Space Shuttle was delayed too long to save it. The Apollo–Soyuz program also used Apollo hardware for the first joint nation spaceflight, paving the way for future cooperation with other nations in the Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs. Recent observations In 2008, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's SELENE probe observed evidence of the halo surrounding the Apollo 15 Lunar Module blast crater while orbiting above the lunar surface. Beginning in 2009, NASA's robotic Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, while orbiting 50 kilometers (31 mi) above the Moon, photographed the remnants of the Apollo program left on the lunar surface, and each site where crewed Apollo flights landed. All of the U.S. flags left on the Moon during the Apollo missions were found to still be standing, with the exception of the one left during the Apollo 11 mission, which was blown over during that mission's lift-off from the lunar surface; the degree to which these flags retain their original colors remains unknown. The flags cannot be seen through a telescope from Earth. In a November 16, 2009, editorial, The New York Times opined: [T]here's something terribly wistful about these photographs of the Apollo landing sites. The detail is such that if Neil Armstrong were walking there now, we could make him out, make out his footsteps even, like the astronaut footpath clearly visible in the photos of the Apollo 14 site. Perhaps the wistfulness is caused by the sense of simple grandeur in those Apollo missions. Perhaps, too, it's a reminder of the risk we all felt after the Eagle had landed—the possibility that it might be unable to lift off again and the astronauts would be stranded on the Moon. But it may also be that a photograph like this one is as close as we're able to come to looking directly back into the human past ... There the [Apollo 11] lunar module sits, parked just where it landed 40 years ago, as if it still really were 40 years ago and all the time since merely imaginary. Legacy Science and engineering The Apollo program has been described as the greatest technological achievement in human history. Apollo stimulated many areas of technology, leading to over 1,800 spinoff products as of 2015, including advances in the development of cordless power tools, fireproof materials, heart monitors, solar panels, digital imaging, and the use of liquid methane as fuel. The flight computer design used in both the lunar and command modules was, along with the Polaris and Minuteman missile systems, the driving force behind early research into integrated circuits (ICs). By 1963, Apollo was using 60 percent of the United States' production of ICs. The crucial difference between the requirements of Apollo and the missile programs was Apollo's much greater need for reliability. While the Navy and Air Force could work around reliability problems by deploying more missiles, the political and financial cost of failure of an Apollo mission was unacceptably high. Technologies and techniques required for Apollo were developed by Project Gemini. The Apollo project was enabled by NASA's adoption of new advances in semiconductor electronic technology, including metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) in the Interplanetary Monitoring Platform (IMP) and silicon integrated circuit chips in the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC). Cultural impact The crew of Apollo 8 sent the first live televised pictures of the Earth and the Moon back to Earth, and read from the creation story in the Book of Genesis, on Christmas Eve 1968. An estimated one-quarter of the population of the world saw—either live or delayed—the Christmas Eve transmission during the ninth orbit of the Moon, and an estimated one-fifth of the population of the world watched the live transmission of the Apollo 11 moonwalk. The Apollo program also affected environmental activism in the 1970s due to photos taken by the astronauts. The most well known include Earthrise, taken by William Anders on Apollo 8, and The Blue Marble, taken by the Apollo 17 astronauts. The Blue Marble was released during a surge in environmentalism, and became a symbol of the environmental movement as a depiction of Earth's frailty, vulnerability, and isolation amid the vast expanse of space. According to The Economist, Apollo succeeded in accomplishing President Kennedy's goal of taking on the Soviet Union in the Space Race by accomplishing a singular and significant achievement, to demonstrate the superiority of the free-market system. The publication noted the irony that in order to achieve the goal, the program required the organization of tremendous public resources within a vast, centralized government bureaucracy. Apollo 11 broadcast data restoration project Prior to Apollo 11's 40th anniversary in 2009, NASA searched for the original videotapes of the mission's live televised moonwalk. After an exhaustive three-year search, it was concluded that the tapes had probably been erased and reused. A new digitally remastered version of the best available broadcast television footage was released instead. Depictions on film Documentaries Numerous documentary films cover the Apollo program and the Space Race, including: Docudramas Some missions have been dramatized: Fictional The Apollo program has been the focus of several works of fiction, including: Apollo 18 (2011), horror movie which was released to negative reviews. Men in Black 3 (2012), Science Fiction/Comedy movie. Agent J played by Will Smith goes back to the Apollo 11 launch in 1969 to ensure that a global protection system is launched in to space. For All Mankind (2019), TV series depicting an alternate history in which the Soviet Union was the first country to successfully land a man on the Moon. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023), fifth Indiana Jones film, in which Jürgen Voller, a NASA member and ex-Nazi involved with the Apollo program, wants to time travel. The New York City parade for the Apollo 11 crew is portrayed as a plot point. See also Notes References Citations Sources Further reading External links Apollo program history at NASA's Human Space Flight (HSF) website The Apollo Program at the NASA History Program Office "Apollo Spinoffs". Archived from the original on April 4, 2012. The Apollo Program at the National Air and Space Museum Apollo 35th Anniversary Interactive Feature at NASA (in Flash) Lunar Mission Timeline at the Lunar and Planetary Institute Apollo Collection, The University of Alabama in Huntsville Archives and Special Collections NASA reports Apollo Program Summary Report (PDF), NASA, JSC-09423, April 1975 NASA History Series Publications Project Apollo Drawings and Technical Diagrams at the NASA History Program Office The Apollo Lunar Surface Journal Archived June 18, 2004, at the Wayback Machine edited by Eric M. Jones and Ken Glover The Apollo Flight Journal by W. David Woods, et al. Multimedia NASA Apollo Program images and videos Apollo Image Archive at Arizona State University Audio recording and transcript of President John F. Kennedy, NASA administrator James Webb, et al., discussing the Apollo agenda (White House Cabinet Room, November 21, 1962) The Project Apollo Archive by Kipp Teague is a large repository of Apollo images, videos, and audio recordings The Project Apollo Archive on Flickr Apollo Image Atlas—almost 25,000 lunar images, Lunar and Planetary Institute The short film The Time of Apollo (1975) is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive. The short film The Time of Apollo (1975) is available for free viewing and download at the National Archives. The Journeys of Apollo – NASA Documentary on YouTube

List_of_Apollo_missions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apollo_missions

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

Pope_Paul_II

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Paul_II

Pope Paul II (Latin: Paulus II; Italian: Paolo II; 23 February 1417 – 26 July 1471), born Pietro Barbo, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 30 August 1464 to his death. When his maternal uncle became Pope Eugene IV, Barbo switched from training to be a merchant to religious studies. His rise in the Church was relatively rapid. Elected pope in 1464, Paul amassed a great collection of art and antiquities. Early life Pietro Barbo was born in Venice, the son of Niccolo and Polixena Condulmer. His mother was the sister of Pope Eugene IV (1431–1447). Through his father he was a member of the noble Barbo family. His adoption of the spiritual career, after having been trained as a merchant, was prompted by his uncle's election as pope. His consequent promotion was rapid. He became Archdeacon of Bologna, and Bishop of Cervia and of Vicenza, and in 1440 became a cardinal-deacon. While he was in Rome, Vicenza was administered by his brother, Paolo Barbo. Barbo gained popularity through his generosity. He might have boasted that if elected pope he would buy each cardinal a villa to escape the summer heat. After having been lay abbot of Santa Maria in Sylvis since 1441, in 1445 he succeeded Giuliano Cesarini as archpriest of the Vatican Basilica. Barbo was very influential under Eugene IV, Nicholas V, and Calixtus III, but less so under Pius II. Barbo had a marked propensity to enjoy dressing up in sumptuous ecclesiastical finery. Election Barbo was elected to succeed Pope Pius II by the accessus in the first ballot of the papal conclave of 30 August 1464 with a majority of fourteen of the nineteen cardinals present. He owed his election in part to the dissatisfaction of some of the cardinals with the policy of his predecessor. Upon taking office, Paul II was to convene an ecumenical council within three years. But these terms of subscription were modified by Paul II at his own discretion, and this action lost him the confidence of the College of Cardinals. The justification for setting aside the capitulations, seen to be under way by the Duke of Milan's ambassador as early as 21 September, lay in connecting any abridgement of the Pope's absolute monarchy in the Papal States with a consequent abridgement of his sole authority in spiritual matters. Almost from his coronation, Paul withdrew and became inaccessible: audiences were only granted at night and even good friends waited a fortnight to see him. His suspiciousness was widely attested. Paul wore rouge in public. The story of Cardinal Ammanati that he meant to take the name Formosus II (meaning "handsome"), after Pope Formosus, but was persuaded not to, is more often repeated than the story that he was dissuaded from Marcus, being Venetian and the Cardinal of San Marco, because it was also the war-cry of Venice. He had a papal tiara made for his own use studded with "diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, topaz, large pearls, and every kind of precious gem". He built the Palazzo San Marco (now the Palazzo Venezia) and lived there even as pope, amassing a great collection of art and antiquities. Conflict A sore point was his abuse of the practice of creating cardinals in pectore, without publishing their names. Eager to raise new cardinals to increase the number who were devoted to his interests, but restricted by the terms of the capitulation, which gave the college a voice in the creation of new members, in the winter of 1464–65 Paul created two secret cardinals both of whom died before their names could be published. In his fourth year as Pope, he created eight new cardinals on 18 September 1467. Five were candidates pressed by kings, placating respectively James II of Cyprus, Edward IV of England, Louis XI of France, Matthias Corvinus of Hungary and Ferdinand I of Naples; one was the able administrator of the Franciscans; and the last two elevated his old tutor and a first cardinal-nephew. Two further cardinal-nephews were added on 21 November 1468. In a sign of his increasing secretiveness and paranoia, he added two more cardinals secretly at the same consistory, and four more at the beginning of 1471, expecting to reveal them only in his testament. Tensions came to the fore when in attempting to eliminate redundant offices, Paul II proceeded to annul the College of Abbreviators, whose function it was to formulate papal documents; a storm of indignation arose, inasmuch as rhetoricians and poets with humanist training, had long been accustomed to benefiting from employment in such positions. Paul proceeded as well against the Roman Academy. Bartolomeo Platina was a member of both and found his papal employment abruptly curtailed. He wrote a pamphlet insolently demanding the pope recall his restrictions, and was imprisoned in the winter of 1464, but released four months later. In February 1468, when Rome was rife with political intrigue fomented by the Roman barons and the neighboring princes, Paul II arrested Platina and other members of the Academy on charges of irreligion, immorality, and an alleged conspiracy to assassinate the Pope. The prisoners were interrogated under torture and eventually released. After his release on 7 July 1469, Platina expected to be again in the employ of Paul II, who, however, declined his services. Platina threatened vengeance and executed his threat, when at the suggestion of Pope Sixtus IV he later wrote his Vitæ Pontificum Platinæ historici liber de vita Christi ac omnium pontificum qui hactenus ducenti fuere et XX (1479). Not unaccountably, Platina set forth an unfavorable delineation of the character of Paul II. Among other things, Platina reported that Pius II suggested Barbo should have been called Maria Pietissima, as "when he could not obtain what he aimed at by praying, entreating, and requesting, he would join tears to his petitions to make them the sooner believed." Some historians have suggested the nickname may also have been a possible allusion to a perceived lack of masculinity, reflecting possible homosexuality. Platina also paints his enemy as cruel, and an archenemy of science. For centuries it influenced historical opinions until critical research proved otherwise. Though Platina's writing after the conflict would tarnish the legacy of Paul II, the conflict would prove to have a greater effect on the intellectual environment of Rome. Peter Partner explains, "Probably its most important result was to convince men of letters that cultural conformity would be enforced in Rome." More tangibly, after the crackdown of Paul II, the Roman Academy took on a more religious flavour, turning in part to theology as a means of legitimizing its pursuits. Final years Pope Paul rejected George of Poděbrady (King George of Bohemia) because he upheld the conventions of the Council of Basel in favour of the Utraquists. In August 1465, Paul II summoned George before the Roman tribunal. When the King failed to come, Paul allied himself with the insurgents in Bohemia and released the King's subjects from their oath of allegiance. In December 1466, he pronounced the ban of excommunication and sentence of deposition against George. George's apologist, Gregory of Heimberg, subsequently accused Paul of immorality, a move that resulted in Gregory's own excommunication. Just when the King's goodwill disposed the Pope in favor of reconciliation, Paul died suddenly of a heart attack on 26 July 1471. Reports of the death varied. Some claimed he had collapsed from severe indigestion after eating melon in excess. Some (mainly the pontiff's critics) said that he had died whilst being sodomized by a page boy. Nevertheless, his death resulted in the creation of a power vacuum in Central Europe – especially after Poděbrady himself died in March of that same year. Legacy Although Paul II was a committed opponent of humanist learning, he oversaw and approved the introduction of printing into the Papal States, first at Subiaco in 1464 by Arnold Pannartz and Konrad Sweynheim, and at Rome itself in 1467. The result was that books and other documents became far more numerous and less expensive to procure than the previous handwritten manuscripts. Printing put the materials needed for an advanced education into the hands of more people than ever before, including an increasing number of laypeople. The output of printing presses at this period was, as a matter of course, subject to governmental scrutiny; during Paul II's reign, books produced in the Papal States were largely limited to Latin classical literature and ecclesiastical texts. The chronicler Stefano Infessura's republican and anti-papal temper makes his diary a far from neutral though well-informed witness. But it is certain that although Paul II opposed the humanists, he yet provided for popular amusements: in 1466 he permitted the horse-race that was a feature of Carnival to be run along the main street, the Via Lata, which became known from this annual event as the Via del Corso. So that nobody felt left out of the event, the Pope instituted races for boys, adult men, old people and Jews, with appropriate prizes for each group. He tried to reduce or stop blood feuds and vendettas in Italy, and to make sure that Jews were treated fairly. Paul II displayed an extravagant love of personal splendor that gratified his sense of self-importance. After his death Sixtus IV and a selected group of cardinals inspected the treasure laid up against expenditures against the Turks: they found 54 silver shells filled with pearls, to a value of 300,000 ducats, jewels and gold intended for refashioning, worth another 300,000 ducats, and a magnificent diamond worth 7,000 ducats, which was sent to Cardinal d'Estouteville to cover monies he had advanced to the pontiff. The coin was not immediately found. He had also amassed a collection of 800 gemstones. William Francis Barry considers that his character was "misunderstood by the Italian courts which never dreamt that a Pope could be an honourable man". In statecraft, Paul II lacked eminence and achieved nothing of consequence for Italy. In his own domain, however, he terminated the regime of the counts of Anguillara in 1465. See also Cardinals created by Paul II Notes References Pastor, Ludwig (1900), Antrobus, Frederick Ignatius (ed.), The history of the popes from the close of the Middle Ages : drawn from the secret archives of the Vatican and other original sources, vol. IV (2nd ed.), Kegan Paul, Trench, and Trubner Platina, Bartolomeo (2017). Hendrickson, Thomas G.; et al. (eds.). Life of Paul II (PDF) (in Latin). Faenum Publishing. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 March 2018. External links "Paul. The name of five popes. Paul II" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.

Thirteen_Years%27_War_(1454%E2%80%931466)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteen_Years%27_War_(1454%E2%80%931466)

This is the 1454-1466 Polish-Teutonic War. For a list of all Polish-German Wars, see Polish-German Wars. The Thirteen Years' War (Polish: wojna trzynastoletnia; German: Dreizehnjähriger Krieg), also called the War of the Cities, was a conflict fought in 1454–1466 between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Order. After the enormous defeat suffered by the German Order at the hand of Poland-Lithuania in 1410 and the ensuing political, military and economic problems, the state was rife with internal conflict between the ruling Order and the native Prussian warlords, who shared concerns with assimilated Prussian and German townsfolk. Eventually this tension led to an uprising by the Prussian Confederation representing the local Prussian nobility and cities, who sought the protection of the Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon. This essentially amounted to a switching of sides which the German Order immediately took as a mortal threat, and a war broke out between Poland and the Teutons. The Thirteen Years' War ended in the victory of Poland and in the Second Peace of Toruń. The Teutonic Order became a Polish fief and its Grand Masters had to commit to homage to the Polish King within 6 months of acquiring power. This was honored for approximately the next two centuries with tensions rising seldomly during this period. The Teutonic Order also returned Eastern Pomerania to Poland after nearly 150 years and ceded the bishopric of Warmia, which together formed the so-called Royal Prussia, as both lands fell under direct rule of the Polish King. Tension quickly flared up afterward, and this was soon followed by the War of the Priests (1467–1479), a drawn-out dispute over the independence of Warmia, in which the Knights sought revision of the Peace. They yet again lost to Poland, which held onto its gains. Background Reasons for war A dispute between Poland and the Teutonic Order over control of Eastern Pomerania had lasted since the 1308 Teutonic takeover of Danzig (Gdańsk), when the territory was contested and annexed by the Teutonic Order. This event resulted in a series of Polish–Teutonic Wars throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. In the 15th century, the towns of Prussia rapidly grew economically. However, this was not followed by an increase in their political influence. The rule of the Teutonic Knights was seen as more and more anachronistic – taxes (customs) and the system of grain licenses (every trader had to pay large fees for the privilege of trading grain) were hindering economic development in the province. At the same time the nobility wanted a larger say in the running of the country and were looking enviously at neighbouring Poland, where the Polish nobility enjoyed wider privileges. The Knights were also accused of violating the few existing privileges of the nobility and the cities. Craftsmen were discontented because of competition from so-called partacze, or artisans settled by the Knights near their castles. Kashubians, Poles, Germans, and Prussians were slowly melting into one nation, and as national differences disappeared, the common goals of all the ethnic and social groups of Prussia became more prominent, and the Prussian estates leaned increasingly towards Poland. In 1397 Prussian knights had founded a secret organisation called the Eidechsenbund (English translation: Lizard Union), more or less against the Teutonic Knights, but that organization had failed as it was not supported by the urban population. After the victory by the Polish and Lithuanian forces at Grunwald during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War (1409–1411), the Prussian estates eagerly pledged allegiance to King Władysław II Jagiełło (Jogaila) of Poland. But they quickly returned to the order's rule after the Poles were unable to conquer Marienburg (Malbork). A clause in the peace treaty stated that it was guaranteed by the Prussian states, which would gain the right to defy the Teutonic Order if it broke the treaty. In the succeeding wars the Prussian estates opposed any conflict, and pushed the Grand Masters of the Teutonic Knights to make peace. On February 21, 1440, a group made up of individuals from the Prussian cities, nobility, and clergy, formed the Prussian Confederation. The main contributors were from the nobility of Culmerland (Chełmno Land), Thorn, Culm (Chełmno), and from the Hanseatic cities of Elbing (Elbląg) and Danzig. Grand Master Paul von Rusdorf was seen to approve the existence of the confederacy, but his successor, Konrad von Erlichshausen, opposed it. His non-compromising policy was followed and intensified by Ludwig von Erlichshausen who took that office in 1449 or 1450. 1452–1454 negotiations In 1452, the Prussian Confederation asked Emperor Frederick III for mediation in their conflict with the Teutonic Order. Disagreeing with the confederacy, Frederick banned it and ordered it to obey the Teutonic Order on 5 December 1453. Faced with that situation the Prussians sent envoys to Poland – although the Prussian Confederation, under the influence of Thorn and the Pomeranian and Culmerland nobility, had already sought contact with the Poles. They received support, especially from Greater Poland and from the party of Queen Sophia of Halshany, mother of King Casimir IV Jagiellon of Poland. The Bishop of Kraków, Zbigniew Oleśnicki, opposed this support and tried to prevent war. In January 1454, the year that Casimir IV was married to Elisabeth of Austria, the Prussian faction asked Casimir IV for protection by the Kingdom of Poland. Casimir asked the Prussian Confederation for a more formal petition. On 4 February 1454, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederation sent a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master. Two days later the confederacy started its rebellion and soon almost all Prussia, except for Marienburg, Stuhm (Sztum), and Konitz (Chojnice), were free from Teutonic rule. Most of the captured Ordensburg castles were immediately destroyed. On 10 February 1454, the confederacy sent an official delegation to Poland, headed by Johannes von Baysen. By 20 February, the delegates were in Kraków and asked Casimir to bring Prussia into the Polish kingdom. After negotiating the exact conditions of incorporation, the king agreed and delegates of the Prussian Confederation pledged allegiance to Casimir on 6 March 1454. Poland sent the Grand Master a declaration of war, predated to 22 February. Both sides expected the war to end quickly. International situation In 1454 Poland was in conflict with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which meant that although Casimir IV was Grand Duke of Lithuania as well as King of Poland, Lithuania sent no aid during the war to Poland and, aside from a few ineffective raids, did not participate during the conflict. There was also the threat of attack by the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Elsewhere, the international situation was quite good for Poland, as no outside states were likely to intervene. The southern border of Poland was more or less secure because of the weakness of the Bohemian lands, which resulted from the Hussite Wars. Although the Hanseatic League sympathized with the Prussian cities, the league backed the Teutonic Knights because the order granted them extra privileges. The Livonian Order had problems with Denmark and was unable to help the Teutonic Knights in Prussia. Because of conflict between Sweden and Denmark, both sides stayed more or less neutral in the upcoming conflict. France and England were too weakened after the Hundred Years' War, and England was also embroiled in civil war, the Wars of the Roses. The Duke of Burgundy, Flanders, and the Netherlands, Philip the Good, was more interested in creating an independent Kingdom of Burgundy. Pope Nicholas V's primary concern was dealing with the Ottoman Turks. Forces of belligerents The main part of the Polish army of that period was conscripted. All noblemen, when called by the king, had to appear accompanied by their village-mayors and village-administrators. Cities gave wagons with horses, food, and service to them (including escorts). Units were divided into choragwie (standards) of two kinds: family, which were made by very large clans, and land which were from nobles from particular territory. Peasants also participated as infantrymen. The highest command belonged to the king. The total army could amount to 30,000 cavalry. From the beginning of the 15th century, the Polish Crown started to hire mercenaries, who usually fought under the flag of St. George (especially Bohemian (Czech) mercenaries). The flag was either a red cross on white, or a white cross on red; the latter was used only when two Bohemian units met on opposite sides of a battlefield and had to be differentiated. The concept of tabor, learned from the Bohemians, was an important tactic. The Poles had artillery, at first primitive cannons such as bombards. Pistols, or handguns, were used but were ineffective. More important were crossbows, which, when properly used, could cause large losses. The army of the Prussian estates consisted of conscripts and small units provided by cities (around 750 people per unit). In total they could provide about 16,000 soldiers, plus a few thousand armed peasant infantry. They also had more artillery than the Polish army. The Prussian cities were also able to raise a small navy, partially from armed trade ships, partially from hired privateers from other cities. The Teutonic Order in 1454 lost most of its arsenals, but later it was able to raise armies from loyal knights (free Prussians) and peasants. However, most of its forces were hired mercenaries, mainly from Germany and Bohemia. Overview First phase The first land operations from February to August 1454 were carried out by Prussian state conscripts, supported by Czech mercenaries from Moravia and soldiers from Lesser Poland. This force, commanded by Scibor von Baysen (Polish: Scibor Bażyński), brother of Johannes von Baysen, tried to besiege the Grand Master Ludwig von Erlichshausen in the city and castle of Marienburg, but without much success due to the professional command of Heinrich Reuß von Plauen the Elder, Komtur of Elbing. In the meantime there was some organised support for the Teutonic Order from the German principalities, mainly in Saxony. The reinforcements entered Prussia in the second half of March 1454, from the direction of the Neumark. They were able to take the highly important strategic city of Konitz, which was situated on the important route from Poland to the mouth of the Vistula. Johannes von Baysen moved conscript and mercenary forces there, and they were soon followed by Mikołaj Szarlejski of the Clan of Ostoja, who was the representative of the Polish kingdom and received the title of "Supreme Commander of Forces in Prussia". In 1454 and 1455, the Teutonic Knights first pawned, then sold the Neumark back to the Margraviate of Brandenburg in the Treaties of Cölln and Mewe. At the end of April 1454, the Prussian army started the siege of Konitz; the defence of the city was commanded by Heinrich Reuß von Plauen from Greitz. However, Szarlejski lacked any significant commanding skill, his army had not enough artillery, and the Prussian estates were unable to pay their mercenaries, so Konitz was not seriously endangered. After the arrival of Casimir IV, when he received the official oath of allegiance from his new subjects in Elbing and Thorn, he directed to Konitz a pospolite ruszenie (levée en masse) of Polish nobles from Kuyavia, which replaced the unpaid mercenaries. Cavalry forces such as the nobles, however, were ill-suited to the taking of castles, so the situation in Konitz did not change. The king also sent his own units and a levée en masse to lay siege to Marienburg, but Polish forces were unable to take the castle even with Prussian reinforcements, which were relocated to Malbork after taking Stuhm on August 8, 1454. The Teutonic Knights defended themselves skillfully and were able to defeat forces from Danzig in a sudden attack on September 13. The degrading situation of the Polish crown worsened further when in September 1454 a large army of mercenaries under the command of Rudolf, prince of Sagan (Żagań), and a Moravian nobleman, the talented soldier Bernhard von Zinnenberg (Polish: Bernard Szumborski) arrived in Prussia from the Holy Roman Empire. The army had 9,000 cavalry and 6,000 infantry, plus artillery and many wagons in tabor formations. Rudolf's army slowly moved to Konitz to rescue it from the Polish siege. It forced Casimir to call a levée en masse of Greater Poland, without the traditional approval of the provincial sejmik. Noblemen, angered by the disruption of the harvest and the unconventional form of the call, massed near the village of Duża Cerkwica (Cerekwica, Groß Zirkwitz) and demanded from the king several privileges, which were granted in the privilege of Cerekwica on September 14, 1454. Casimir divided his forces into seven large units and the army marched to Konitz, where it was joined by Prussians. On September 18, 1454 the Teutonic Knights defeated the Polish army in the resulting Battle of Konitz. The defeat was a near disaster. The Polish army quickly withdrew from Marienburg, and Stuhm was recovered by the Teutonic Order. They were also able to take other large towns, such as Mewe (Gniew) and Dirschau (Tczew). Impressed by the crusaders' victory, some Prussian lands also capitulated. This was a great victory for the Teutonic Knights, although they lacked enough money to pay the victorious mercenaries. On October 9, the Grand Master promised them that if he could not pay them by February 19, 1455, they would receive all cities, castles, and lands of Prussia, with the rights to sell them. Mercenaries later captured two other cities, Marienwerder (Kwidzyn) and Lessen (Łasin), near Marienburg. None of the largest and most important cities of Prussia, such as Königsberg, surrendered, and they were determined to continue the war. As a result, the Teutonic Order was totally dependent on help from the Holy Roman Empire. To save the situation for Poland, Casimir started hiring more Bohemian and Silesian soldiers and sending them to the cities of Pomerania, Pomesania, and Culmerland. He also decided to call for another levée en masse from the whole Polish kingdom. The levée en masse in Opoka, this time dominated by nobility from Lesser Poland, demanded privileges similar to those given in Cerekwica; the king quickly approved them. Later on from November 11 to November 16, 1454, while under the influence of the aristocracy from Lesser Poland, Casimir changed some of the promises given earlier both in Opoka and Cerekwica through privileges for the whole country given in Nieszawa (the privilege of Nieszawa). This time the Polish army counted almost 3,000 cavalry, plus 3,000 mercenaries. The mercenaries had a few capable commanders, such as Jan Kolda from Zampach and Jan Skalski from the northern Bohemian city of Malá Skála (literally, "little rock") and a member of the family of Valdsztejn, Waldstein, or Wallenstein. This time the Grand Master avoided battle as too risky. The army started the siege of Lessen, whose defense was commanded by the Austrian mercenary Fritz Raweneck. However, the army was unprepared for taking castles, and the large preparations ended with another fiasco. 1455 to 1460 The first negotiations between the two sides, conducted from January 9 to January 10, 1455, were unsuccessful. The situation became difficult for Casimir. To pay his mercenaries he had to borrow from the clergy. He decided to give two cities as a fief to Eric II of Pomerania from Stolp (Słupsk), hoping it would secure northern Pomerania. To calm opposition, Casimir later went to Lithuania, where he was forced to stay until the summer of 1455. In that situation the Teutonic Knights were able to recover the eastern part of Prussia, including the Königsberg towns of Altstadt and Löbenicht on April 17, 1455. They were aided by rebellions in the cities, caused by new large war taxes. The last East Prussian town loyal to the Polish king, Kneiphof, was taken on June 14, 1455 after a long siege by the Teutonic Knights commanded by Heinrich Reuss von Plauen the Elder. The Poles suffered defeat after defeat, and they later also lost Warmia (Ermeland). However, the Grand Master was unable to pay his mercenaries and they took Marienburg, Dirschau, and Eylau (Iława) in May 1455. Mercenaries under the Bohemian Ulrich Czerwonka (or Oldrzych) immediately started negotiations with Poland to discuss selling the castles. The international situation also became significantly worse. On March 25, Emperor Frederick III banned the Prussian Confederation, forbidding trade with its members. On September 24, 1455, Pope Callixtus III warned that he would excommunicate the Prussian Confederation and all its allies unless they made peace with the Order. In June 1455 the Teutonic Knights gained a new ally, King Christian I of Denmark, who declared war against Poland and the Prussian Confederation. This meant nothing more than a disturbance in trade, however, since Denmark was still busy fighting with Sweden. Shocked by the loss of Kneiphof, Casimir, in debt and unable to hire new mercenaries, called another levée en masse. The Polish army moved slowly to Thorn, but military actions were halted briefly when the king finally agreed to mediation by Frederick II, Margrave of Brandenburg; all earlier propositions of mediation from different sides had been rejected. The elector, however, failed to negotiate a peace, because the Teutonic Knights, after recent successes, were unwilling to compromise. The Poles suggested that the Teutonic Order should leave Prussia and go elsewhere to fight with pagans; a location suggested earlier by Polish envoys to the Holy Roman Empire was Podolia, near the Tatars. Negotiations ended unsuccessfully on September 26, and the war continued. The new Polish army was larger than before, including soldiers from Red Ruthenia, small auxiliary forces of Lithuanian Tatars, and a few mercenaries from Silesia. It laid siege to Lessen, but Raweneck was able to defend the city. Additionally, when Casimir IV ordered a further march to Graudenz (Grudziądz), the nobility refused and instead decided to pay a new tax, which would allow the king to hire more mercenaries. After that, the situation did not change much. The Teutonic Knights were able to recover another city, Memel (Klaipėda), but their offensives in other directions were stopped by the burghers of Thorn and of Culmerland, and the leadership of Andrzej Tęczynski. In autumn 1455 the peasants of eastern Masuria, tired of the war, revolted against the Teutonic Knights but were defeated at Rhein (Ryn) on January 1, 1456. Land-based military actions were limited to raids and local skirmishes. In the maritime arena, Casimir urged Danzig to build a fleet that would be able to break sea connections between the Teutonic Order and its allies. In May 1456 privateers hired by Danzig captured Dutch ships, which caused conflict with Amsterdam and the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good. In two weeks in August 1457, three ships from Danzig defeated a combined Danish–Livonian fleet of 16 ships near Bornholm. Earlier, in 1454, Jan Janski de Turze (pl:Jan z Jani) of the Clan of Ostoja had become the first Polish Voivode of Gdańsk and Pomerania. The Clan had been fighting the Teutonic side since the days of Stibor of Stiboricz, the Duke of Transylvania and one of the most loyal Lords of King Sigismund von Luksemburg. The strategy of the Clan of Ostoja was in the beginning of 15th century not only use of military forces but also to use diplomacy in order to make the Teutonic side weaker economically, so they could not pay the mercenaries they depended on. By the time Jan Janski de Turze become voivode of Pomerania, Szarlejski of Ostoja was Voivode of Kujawy and used the help of his Clan brother to raise funds to hire mercenaries fighting on Polish side. Stibor de Poniec of Ostoja, the Lord General of Greater Poland, joined the cause in 1457. Together with his Clan brothers Jan Janski and Szarlejski, Stibor de Poniec raised new funds to hire more mercenaries to fight on the Polish side. However, Stibor decided to use those funds to pay mercenaries that defended the main stronghold of Teutonic Knights, Malbork (Marieburg), and in return asked them to leave the stronghold. In this way, the Polish side succeeded to overtake Malbork without force, in 1457. Later, in 1466 Stibor de Poniec sealed the Second Peace of Thorn, which also finally broke the power of the Teutonic Knights. After long negotiations, Teutonic mercenaries agreed to sell three castles in Prussia, including Marienburg, to Poland. Heavy new taxes caused rebellions in Danzig and Thorn that were bloodily suppressed by the cities with help from the king's army. The Polish and Prussian estates were able to gather 190,000 Hungarian gold pieces, most of which had been borrowed from Danzig. On June 6, 1457, the castles of Marienburg, Dirschau, and Eylau were transferred to the Polish army. Two days later Casimir entered the castle of Marienburg, and its burghers paid homage to him. Ulrich Czerwonka became the first Polish sheriff of the castle, and also received three other counties. The king again granted broad privileges to the Prussian cities. It was generally expected that now, with the fall of the Teutonic Order's capital, the war would end quickly. Optimism faded, however, when the Polish army commanded by Prandota Lubieszowski was unable to take Mewe, which was again defended by Raweneck. Casimir had to return to Poland to seek money to pay his debts and mercenaries. The mood worsened when the grand master organised a new offensive. The Teutonic Knights received significant aid from the burghers of Königsberg, free Prussian knights, and others. Although they were unable to take Wehlau (Znamensk) and Schippenbeil (Sępopol), the two Polish-controlled castles that were the initial target of the offensive, they again defeated the Polish army in September 1457. With the assistance of the town's burghers, Teutonic forces under the command of Bernard von Zinnenberg, who had been released from service with the Poles, took Marienburg by surprise on September 28, 1457; only the castle commanded by Czerwonka remained in Polish control. Lubieszowski was able to stop some further advances of the Teutonic army. However, they recaptured Eylau, which again pledged allegiance to the Teutonic Order, Culm, and Preußisch Stargard (Starogard Gdański). The situation was saved for the Poles by a new army sent from Greater Poland. The international situation became increasingly complicated. The new Prince-Bishop of Ermeland was Cardinal Eneas Silvio Piccolomini, known for his pro-Teutonic sympathies. In 1458, Piccolomini was elected Pope Pius II. Another complication was the death of Ladislaus the Posthumous and the election of George of Poděbrady as the new (Hussite) king of Bohemia, and Matthias Corvinus as king of Hungary. In spring 1458 Casimir IV again called for a levée en masse, which included the Masovians. Ignoring the mediation of John Giskra (Jan Jiskra), a Czech mercenary who hoped for an end to war with Prussia and the start of a new conflict with Hungary, the Polish army slowly marched into Prussia, crossing the Vistula via a pontoon bridge near Thorn in June. Again the army was supported by Tatar auxiliary forces from Lithuania and by the king's own army. The army was commanded by Piotr of Szamotuly, the castellan of Poznań. The Polish army marched directly to Marienburg, reaching the city on August 10. This time it was well equipped with artillery sent by Danzig and Elbing. The siege, however, was another fiasco, due partly to lengthy negotiations, and partly to Piotr's lack of aggression on the battlefield. His inept leadership allowed Fritz Raweneck to take yet another castle. The nobles demanded the storming of the castle, and when this did not happen, they started deserting and returning to Poland. In Lower Prussia, there was a peasant rebellion against Polish rule. The peasants captured a few castles and gave them to the Teutonic Knights, declaring that they were ready to fight on the Teutonic Order's side against Poland. In the meantime the king, using John Giskra as mediator, negotiated with the Teutonic Knights. The Poles again proposed that the Teutonic Order should leave Prussia for Podolia. The crusaders agreed on a mission to Podolia, but refused to leave Prussia. Danzigers proposed a compromise that would leave part of Prussia for the Teutonic Order. At one point there was a signed cease fire lasting nine months – there was even a signed treaty, and John Giskra as the mediator was to keep Marienburg – and peace appeared certain, but the Prussian estates decided to persuade the king to break off negotiations. One positive sign was peace with Denmark. King Christian I of Denmark finally conquered Sweden, but the Swedish king Charles VIII escaped to Poland and started supporting the Polish cause financially. Danzig and Charles VIII began hiring more privateers, which seriously damaged Baltic trade, and finally Christian I decided to sign a ceasefire in July 1458, which was extended to four years in May 1459, and then to 20 years. In 1459, Johannes von Baysen died, and his brother, Scibor, became the new governor of Prussia. The Teutonic Knights raided Polish lands and achieved a few successes, notably Komtur Kaspar Nostitz of Konitz's capture of a Polish city in northern Greater Poland for a few months. There were other attempts at mediation, such as by dukes of Bavaria and Austria, as well as by bishops from Livonia, but they were all refused by Poland. More serious mediation was undertaken by Pope Pius II, who was trying to mount a coalition against the Ottoman Turks. He suspended the ban over the Prussian Confederation and explicitly stated that the forementioned ban was also against Poland. That statement outraged Casimir, who rejected the arrival of the papal legate, Hieronymus Landus. On June 3, 1460, the pope reactivated the ban against Prussia, Poland, and the Polish king. At the same time the Bohemian king George of Poděbrady banned and jailed Ulrich Czerwonka and his comrades, and agreed to hire Teutonic soldiers in the territory of his kingdom. On 21 March 1460, the Polish army, supported by Danzigers and peasants, began a siege of the town of Marienburg; the town's Malbork Castle was already in Polish control. This time the army had a more capable commander, Lubieszowski, and enough artillery. Lubieszowski died during the siege and was replaced by Jan Koscielecki with Johann Meydeburg of Danzig as his advisor. The town of Marienburg finally capitulated on 5 July. Marienburg's mayor, Burgomaster Blume, was hanged as a traitor, since he had pledged allegiance to the Polish king but later opened the gates of Marienburg to the Teutonic Knights. This Polish success was quickly countered by the Teutonic Knights, who regained other cities in western Prussia. They defeated the army of Danzig near Praust (Pruszcz Gdański) in July 1460, and burnt the suburbs of Danzig; the Hanseatic city then asked Casimir for help. The Teutonic Order also conquered Lauenburg (Lębork) and Bütow (Bytów), which had been in the possession of Eric II of Pomerania, Leba (Łeba), and Putzig (Puck); the latter was garrisoned by mercenaries hired by the former Swedish king Charles VIII. Bernard von Zinnenberg also captured the castle of Schwetz (Świecie). Thorn immediately sent soldiers there, who, helped by the king's army, started a siege. In the Bishopric of Warmia, the administration of Paul von Legensdorf commenced. He was appointed by the pope, and promised neutrality between the Teutonic Knights and the Polish king. The neutrality of Legendorf made him popular amongst the burghers and peasants, who were tired of war. The situation of Poland became desperate. One by one, the castles and cities in Prussia were recovered by the Teutonic army. The internal situation was pessimistic because of the conflict between the pope and the king over nominating the new bishop of Kraków, since both king and pope were convinced that the other lacked the right to choose the new bishop. The Polish king again called for a levée en masse, but most of the nobility refused to participate after Tęczynski was killed in Kraków by burghers in a dispute over payment for his armor. Commanders, amongst them Piotr of Szamotuly, were disorganized, and, after raids to Eric II's Duchy of Pomerania, the army returned home after a few weeks. The failure of the latest levée en masse and the Teutonic recovery of Warmia, capturing the last Polish points of resistance, convinced Casimir that the war should be left to professionals. The nobility agreed to pay new taxes for the hiring and maintaining of a more regular army. The new commander was Piotr Dunin, an innovative leader from Prawkowice. Second phase In 1461, Poland achieved a major success with the capture of the castle of Schwetz. Polish privateers hired by Danzig were also successful, even though they were fighting not only Teutonic ships and privateers, but also ships from Lübeck. The first group of Polish army regulars – initially around 2,000 soldiers – came to Prussia around October 1461, under Dunin. Almost immediately Dunin achieved two successes, capturing the castles of Lessen and Stuhm. The Teutonic Knights at the same time captured a few cities and castles, such as the town of Strasburg (Brodnica), although the castle stayed in Polish hands, and Stargard. The Sejm in Nowe Miasto Korczyn in Lesser Poland decided to raise new taxes for increasing the Polish regular army. It was only in the summer of 1462 when Dunin finally, after losing the castle of Strasburg, could start any more serious action. His first success was the conquest of the castle of Frauenburg (Frombork) and burning Fischhausen. Casimir was unable to profit from the Polish successes because of troubles in Lithuania. The Lithuanians rejected the idea of moving the Teutonic Order to Podolia, even if Lithuania would acquire territories in Prussia. This forced the king to open new negotiations with the Teutonic Order, with the Hanseatic League as mediators. On July 3, 1462, negotiations started in Thorn. The Polish negotiators included Jan Długosz and the rector of the Kraków Academy, Jan of Dąbrówka. The Prussian representatives included Gabriel von Baysen and Scibor von Baysen, as well as envoys from larger cities. The Poles and Prussians argued that "Pomerania from time immemorial belonged to Poland, pointing out Slavic names in Pomerania, the Slavic language of inhabitants", the "tax of St. Peter" paid by Pomerania, and that Pomerania belonged to the Polish Diocese of Włocławek. They also strongly emphasized that Prussians of their own will asked for the incorporation of Prussia into Poland. They also tried to prove that even eastern Prussia was, in times past, tied in some way to Poland. The Teutonic Knights questioned all the arguments and past papal judgments. Instead, they strongly underlined that Poland had officially resigned all claims to Pomerania and Culmerland, and also pointed to the emperor's statement of 1453 when he forbade all opposition in Prussia. Hanseatic mediators proposed a ceasefire for 20 years, but this was refused. The Poles again proposed moving the Teutonic Order to Podolia, which was also rejected. Unofficially, the Poles unsuccessfully proposed leaving the Teutonic Order in Sambia as Polish vassals. Finally, the Poles demanded at least Pomerelia, Culmerland, Marienburg, and Elbing, and when this was rejected too, negotiations broke down. The Battle of Świecino (Schwetz), where the excellent Teutonic commander Fritz Raweneck was killed, changed the course of the war. After that battle the Poles, supported by Ulrich Czerwonka, released from Bohemian imprisonment, were able to take the offensive. On July 27, 1463, Dunin began the siege of Mewe. Because of the great strategic importance of the city and castle, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order sent reinforcements. The Teutonic army, under commanders von Plauen, von Zinnenberg, and the grand master, gathered in Stargard. On September 15, 1463, 44 ships of the Teutonic navy were destroyed by 30 ships from Danzig and Elbing in the Battle of Zatoka Świeża. Soon after the battle, von Zinnenberg, with approval of the Teutonic Order, made a treaty with Poland, withdrawing from the war but retaining in his possession a few castles in Culmerland. Mewe capitulated on January 1, 1464. The Teutonic Knights began to have serious financial problems. Every year they received less money from the Holy Roman Empire. Their mercenaries, the core of the Teutonic army, were not paid and refused to make any serious offensives. At the same time the armies of Poland and the Prussian Confederation (mainly Danzig) were continuing their offensive. Dunin continued on the offensive, capturing more and more castles. Masovians, enraged by Teutonic raids, organised a levée en masse and captured the castle of Soldau (Działdowo), but again the king had to leave Poland for Lithuania, and financial problems stopped further advances. This caused another round of negotiations in 1465, which were again unsuccessful. In 1466 the Prince-Bishop of Warmia, Paul von Legensdorf, decided to join the Polish forces and declare war on the Teutonic Knights. Polish forces under Dunin were finally also able to capture Konitz on September 28, 1466. The Polish successes caused the exhausted Teutonic Order to seek new negotiations, which were well documented by the chronicler Jan Długosz. The new mediator was Pope Paul II. With help from the papal legate, Rudolf of Rüdesheim, the Second Peace of Thorn was signed on October 10, 1466. Western Prussia became an autonomous Polish province, later known as Royal Prussia; the Bishopric of Warmia also came under the crown of Poland. Eastern Prussia remained under the control of the Teutonic Knights, although it became a vassal of the Polish king. The Grand Master received the title of Senator of the Polish kingdom. The treaty was signed by the papal legate. "Both sides agreed, that although the Pope's approval was not necessary, they would ask him to confirm the treaty so as to ensure it". The treaty was later disputed by Pope Paul II and Emperor Frederick III. References Sources Biskup, Marian. Wojna trzynastoletnia (The Thirteen Years War). Karin Friedrich: The Other Prussia: Royal Prussia, Poland and Liberty, 1569–1772 Marian Biskup, Wojna trzynastoletnia, Gdańsk 1965 Antoni Czacharowski, Księga żołdu Związku Pruskiego z okresu wojny trzynastoletniej 1454–1466, Toruń 1969. Paweł Jasienica: Polska Jagiellonów External links Photocopy of the request of the Prussian Confederation for Polish protection (in Polish)

Bayeux_Tapestry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry

The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered cloth nearly 70 metres (230 feet) long and 50 centimetres (20 inches) tall that depicts the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, led by William, Duke of Normandy challenging Harold II, King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings. It is thought to date to the 11th century, within a few years of the battle. Now widely accepted to have been made in England, perhaps as a gift for William, it tells the story from the point of view of the conquering Normans and for centuries has been preserved in Normandy. According to Sylvette Lemagnen, conservator of the tapestry, in her 2005 book La Tapisserie de Bayeux: The Bayeux tapestry is one of the supreme achievements of the Norman Romanesque .... Its survival almost intact over nine centuries is little short of miraculous ... Its exceptional length, the harmony and freshness of its colours, its exquisite workmanship, and the genius of its guiding spirit combine to make it endlessly fascinating. The cloth consists of 58 scenes, many with Latin tituli, embroidered on linen with coloured woollen yarns. It is likely that it was commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, William's maternal half-brother, and made for him in England in the 1070s. In 1729, the hanging was rediscovered by scholars at a time when it was being displayed annually in Bayeux Cathedral. The tapestry is now exhibited at the Musée de la Tapisserie de Bayeux in Bayeux, Normandy, France (49.2744°N 0.7003°W / 49.2744; -0.7003). The designs on the Bayeux Tapestry are embroidered rather than in a tapestry weave, so it does not meet narrower definitions of a tapestry. Nevertheless, it has always been referred to as a tapestry until recent years when the name "Bayeux Embroidery" has gained ground among certain art historians. It can be seen as a rare example of secular Romanesque art. Tapestries adorned both churches and wealthy houses in Medieval Western Europe, though at 0.5 by 68.38 m (1 ft 8 in by 224 ft 4 in), the Bayeux Tapestry is exceptionally large. Only the figures and decoration are embroidered, on a background left plain, which shows the subject very clearly and was necessary to cover large areas. History Origins The earliest known written reference to the tapestry is a 1476 inventory of Bayeux Cathedral, but its origins have been the subject of much speculation and controversy. French legend maintained the tapestry was commissioned and created by Queen Matilda, William the Conqueror's wife, and her ladies-in-waiting. Indeed, in France, it is occasionally known as La Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde ("The Tapestry of Queen Matilda"). However, scholarly analysis in the 20th century concluded it was probably commissioned by William's half-brother, Bishop Odo of Bayeux, who, after the Conquest, also became Earl of Kent and, when William was absent in Normandy, regent of England. The reasons for the Odo commission theory include: three of the bishop's followers mentioned in the Domesday Book appear on the tapestry; it was found in Bayeux Cathedral, built by Odo; it may have been commissioned at the same time as the cathedral's construction in the 1070s, possibly completed by 1077 in time for display on the cathedral's dedication. Assuming Odo commissioned the tapestry, it was probably designed and constructed in England by Anglo-Saxon artists (Odo's main power base being by then in Kent); the Latin text contains hints of Anglo-Saxon; other embroideries originate from England at this time; and the vegetable dyes can be found in cloth traditionally woven there. Howard B. Clarke has proposed that the designer of the tapestry (i.e. the individual responsible for its overall narrative and political argument) was Scolland, the abbot of St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury, because of his previous position as head of the scriptorium at Mont Saint-Michel (famed for its illumination), his travels to Trajan's Column, and his connections to Wadard and Vital, two individuals identified in the tapestry. Alternatively, Christine Grainge has argued that the designer may have been Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury 1070–1089. The actual physical work of stitching was most probably undertaken by female needleworkers. Anglo-Saxon needlework of the more detailed type known as Opus Anglicanum was famous across Europe. It was perhaps commissioned for display in the hall of Odo's palace in Bayeux, and then bequeathed to the cathedral he had built, following the precedent of the documented but lost hanging of the Anglo-Saxon warrior Byrhtnoth, bequeathed by his widow to Ely Abbey. Other theories exist. Carola Hicks has suggested the tapestry could possibly have been commissioned by Edith of Wessex, widow of Edward the Confessor and sister of Harold. Wolfgang Grape has challenged the consensus that the embroidery is Anglo-Saxon, distinguishing between Anglo-Saxon and other Northern European techniques; Medieval material authority Elizabeth Coatsworth contradicted this: "The attempt to distinguish Anglo-Saxon from other Northern European embroideries before 1100 on the grounds of technique cannot be upheld on the basis of present knowledge." George Beech suggests the tapestry was executed at the Abbey of Saint-Florent de Saumur in the Loire Valley and says the detailed depiction of the Breton campaign argues for additional sources in France. Andrew Bridgeford has suggested that the tapestry was actually of English design and encoded with secret messages meant to undermine Norman rule. Recorded history The first reference to the tapestry is from 1476 when it was listed in an inventory of the treasures of Bayeux Cathedral. It survived the sack of Bayeux by the Huguenots in 1562; and the next certain reference is from 1724. Antoine Lancelot sent a report to the Académie Royale des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres concerning a sketch he had received about a work concerning William the Conqueror. He had no idea where or what the original was, although he suggested it could have been a tapestry. Despite further enquiries he discovered no more. The Benedictine scholar Bernard de Montfaucon made more successful investigations and found that the sketch was of a small portion of a tapestry preserved at Bayeux Cathedral. In 1729 and 1730, he published drawings and a detailed description of the complete work in the first two volumes of his Les Monuments de la Monarchie française. The drawings were by Antoine Benoît, one of the ablest draughtsmen of that time. The tapestry was first briefly noted in English in 1746 by William Stukeley, in his Palaeographia Britannica. The first detailed account in English was written by Smart Lethieullier, who was living in Paris in 1732–3, and was acquainted with Lancelot and de Montfaucon: it was not published, however, until 1767, as an appendix to Andrew Ducarel's Anglo-Norman Antiquities. During the French Revolution, in 1792, the tapestry was confiscated as public property to be used for covering military wagons. It was rescued from a wagon by a local lawyer who stored it in his house until the troubles were over, whereupon he sent it to the city administrators for safekeeping. After the Reign of Terror, the Fine Arts Commission, set up to safeguard national treasures in 1803, required it to be removed to Paris for display at the Musée Napoléon. When Napoleon abandoned his planned invasion of Britain the tapestry's propaganda value was lost and it was returned to Bayeux where the council displayed it on a winding apparatus of two cylinders. Despite scholars' concern that the tapestry was becoming damaged the council refused to return it to the cathedral. In 1816, the Society of Antiquaries of London commissioned its historical draughtsman, Charles Stothard, to visit Bayeux to make an accurate hand-coloured facsimile of the tapestry. His drawings were subsequently engraved by James Basire jr. and published by the Society in 1819–23. Stothard's images are still of value as a record of the tapestry as it was before 19th-century restoration. By 1842, the tapestry was displayed in a special-purpose room in the Bibliothèque Publique. It required special storage in 1870, with the threatened invasion of Normandy in the Franco-Prussian War, and again in 1939–1944 as protection from the Ahnenerbe during the German occupation of France and from the Normandy landings. On 27 June 1944 the Gestapo took the tapestry to the Louvre, and on 18 August, three days before the Wehrmacht withdrew from Paris, Himmler sent a message (intercepted by Bletchley Park) ordering it to be taken to "a place of safety", thought to be Berlin. It was only on 22 August that the SS attempted to take possession of the tapestry, by which time the Louvre was again in French hands. After the liberation of Paris, on 25 August, the tapestry was again put on public display in the Louvre, and in 1945 it was returned to Bayeux, where it is exhibited at the Musée de la Tapisserie de Bayeux. Later reputation and history The inventory listing of 1476 shows that the tapestry was being hung annually in Bayeux Cathedral for the week of the Feast of St John the Baptist; this was still the case in 1728, although by that time the purpose was merely to air the hanging, which was otherwise stored in a chest. Clearly, the work was being well cared for. In the eighteenth century, the artistry was regarded as crude or even barbarous—red and yellow multi-coloured horses upset some critics. It was thought to be unfinished because the linen was not covered with embroidery. However, its exhibition in the Louvre in 1797 caused a sensation, with Le Moniteur, which normally dealt with foreign affairs, reporting on it on its first two pages. It inspired a popular musical, La Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde. It was because the tapestry was regarded as an antiquity rather than a work of art that in 1804 it was returned to Bayeux, wherein 1823 one commentator, A. L. Léchaudé d'Anisy, reported that "there is a sort of purity in its primitive forms, especially considering the state of the arts in the eleventh century". The tapestry was becoming a tourist attraction, with Robert Southey complaining of the need to queue to see the work. In the 1843 Hand-book for Travellers in France by John Murray III, a visit was included on "Recommended Route 26 (Caen to Cherbourg via Bayeux)", and this guidebook led John Ruskin to go there; he would describe the tapestry as "the most interesting thing in its way conceivable". Charles Dickens, however, was not impressed: "It is certainly the work of amateurs; very feeble amateurs at the beginning and very heedless some of them too." During the Second World War Heinrich Himmler coveted the work, regarding it as "important for our glorious and cultured Germanic history". In 2018 French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the Bayeux Tapestry would be loaned to Britain for public display. It had been expected to be exhibited at the British Museum in London in 2022, but strong objections were raised on conservation grounds. It would be the first time in 950 years that the tapesty had left France, although evidence suggests that the tapestry was made in Canterbury. As of April 2024, however, a date for the loan had not yet been finalised. Construction, design and technique In common with other embroidered hangings of the early medieval period, this piece is conventionally referred to as a "tapestry", although it is not a "true" tapestry in which the design is woven into the cloth in tapestry weave; it is technically an embroidery, although it meets the traditional broader definition of "tapestry" as: "A textile fabric decorated with designs of ornament or pictorial subjects, painted, embroidered, or woven in colours, used for wall hangings, curtains, covers for seats, ..." The Bayeux tapestry is embroidered in crewel (wool yarn) on a tabby-woven linen ground 68.38 metres long and 0.5 metres wide (224.3 ft × 1.6 ft) and using two methods of stitching: outline or stem stitch for lettering and the outlines of figures, and couching or laid work for filling in figures. Nine linen panels, between fourteen and three metres in length, were sewn together after each was embroidered and the joins were disguised with subsequent embroidery. At the first join (start of scene 14) the borders do not line up properly but the technique was improved so that the later joins are practically invisible. The design involved a broad central zone with narrow decorative borders top and bottom. By inspecting the woollen threads behind the linen it is apparent all these aspects were embroidered together at a session and the awkward placing of the tituli is not due to them being added later. Later generations have patched the hanging in numerous places and some of the embroidery (especially in the final scene) has been reworked. The tapestry may well have maintained much of its original appearance—it now compares closely with a careful drawing made in 1730. The end of the tapestry has been missing from time immemorial and the final titulus "Et fuga verterunt Angli" ("and the English left fleeing") is said to be "entirely spurious", added shortly before 1814 at a time of anti-English sentiment. Musset speculates the hanging was originally about 1.5 metres longer. At the last section still remaining the embroidery has been almost completely restored but this seems to have been done with at least some regard to the original stitching. The stylised tree is quite unlike any other tree in the tapestry. The start of the tapestry has also been restored but to a much lesser extent. Norton has reviewed the various measurements of the length of the tapestry itself and of its nine individual linen panels. He has also attempted to estimate the size and architectural design of the 11th-century Bayeux Cathedral. He considers the tapestry would have fitted well if it had been hung along the south, west, and north arcades of the nave and that the scenes it depicts can be correlated with positions of the arcade bays in a way that would have been dramatically satisfying. He agrees with earlier speculation that a final panel is missing—one that shows William's coronation and which he thinks was some three metres long. Norton concludes that the tapestry was definitely designed to be hung in Bayeux Cathedral specifically; that it was designed to appeal to a Norman audience; and that it was probably designed for Bishop Odo so as to be displayed at the dedication of the cathedral in 1077 in the presence of William, Matilda, their sons, and Odo. The main yarn colours are terracotta or russet, blue-green, dull gold, olive green, and blue, with small amounts of dark blue or black and sage green. Later repairs are worked in light yellow, orange, and light greens. Laid yarns are couched in place with yarn of the same or contrasting colour. The tapestry's central zone contains most of the action, which sometimes overflows into the borders either for dramatic effect or because depictions would otherwise be very cramped (for example at Edward's death scene). Events take place in a long series of scenes which are generally separated by highly stylised trees. However, the trees are not placed consistently and the greatest scene shift, between Harold's audience with Edward after his return to England and Edward's burial scene, is not marked in any way at all. The tituli are normally in the central zone but occasionally use the top border. The borders are otherwise mostly purely decorative and only sometimes does the decoration complement the action in the central zone. The decoration consists of birds, beasts, fish and scenes from fables, agriculture, and hunting. There are frequent oblique bands separating the vignettes. There are nude figures, some of corpses from battle, others of a ribald nature. A harrow, a newly invented implement, is depicted (scene 10) and this is the earliest known depiction. The picture of Halley's Comet, which appears in the upper border (scene 32), is the first known picture of this comet. In 1724, a linen backing cloth was sewn on comparatively crudely and, in around the year 1800, large ink numerals were written on the backing which broadly enumerate each scene and which are still commonly used for reference. Background Background of the events depicted In a series of pictures supported by a written commentary, the tapestry tells the story of the events of 1064–1066 culminating in the Battle of Hastings. The two main protagonists are Harold Godwinson, recently crowned King of England, leading the Anglo-Saxon English, and William, Duke of Normandy, leading a mainly Norman army, sometimes called the companions of William the Conqueror. William was the illegitimate son of Robert the Magnificent, Duke of Normandy, and Herleva (or Arlette), a tanner's daughter. William became Duke of Normandy at the age of seven and was in control of Normandy by the age of nineteen. His half-brother was Bishop Odo of Bayeux. King Edward the Confessor, king of England and about sixty years old at the time the tapestry starts its narration, had no children or any clear successor. Edward's mother, Emma of Normandy, was William's great aunt. At that time succession to the English throne was not by primogeniture but was decided jointly by the king and by an assembly of nobility, the Witenagemot. Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex and the most powerful noble in England, was Edward's brother-in-law. The Norman chronicler William of Poitiers reported that Edward had previously determined that William would succeed him on the throne, and Harold had sworn to honour this, and yet later that Harold had claimed Edward, on his deathbed, had made him heir over William. However, other sources, such as Eadmer dispute this claim. Artistic context Tapestry fragments have been found in Scandinavia dating from the ninth century and it is thought that Norman and Anglo-Saxon embroidery developed from this sort of work. Examples are to be found in the grave goods of the Oseberg ship and the Överhogdal tapestries. A monastic text from Ely, the Liber Eliensis, mentions a woven narrative wall-hanging commemorating the deeds of Byrhtnoth, killed in 991. Wall-hangings were common by the tenth century with English and Norman texts particularly commending the skill of Anglo-Saxon seamstresses. Mural paintings imitating draperies still exist in France and Italy and there are twelfth-century mentions of other wall-hangings in Normandy and France. A poem by Baldric of Dol might even describe the Bayeux Tapestry itself. The Bayeux Tapestry was therefore not unique at the time it was created: rather it is remarkable for being the sole surviving example of medieval narrative needlework. Very few hangings from the 11th century survive, but the Tapestry of Creation, or Girona Tapestry, is a large Romanesque panel of needlework, in the Museum of Girona Cathedral, Catalonia, Spain. The hanging depicts a series of figures from the Book of Genesis, and personifications of the month. The Cloth of Saint Gereon, in Germany, is the largest of a group of fragments from hangings based on decorative Byzantine silks, including animals, that are probably the earliest European survivals. Content Events depicted The tapestry begins with a panel of Edward the Confessor sending Harold to Normandy.(scene 1) Later Norman sources say that the mission was for Harold to pledge loyalty to William but the tapestry does not suggest any specific purpose. By mischance, Harold arrives at the wrong location in France and is taken prisoner by Guy, Count of Ponthieu.(scene 7) After exchanges of messages borne by mounted messengers, Harold is released to William, who then invites Harold to accompany him on a campaign against Conan II, Duke of Brittany. On the way, just outside the monastery of Mont Saint-Michel, the army becomes mired in quicksand and Harold saves two Norman soldiers.(scene 17) William's army chases Conan from Dol de Bretagne to Rennes, and Conan finally surrenders at Dinan.(scene 20) William gives Harold arms and armour (possibly knighting him) and Harold takes an oath on saintly relics.(scene 23) Although the writing on the tapestry explicitly states an oath is taken there is no clue as to what is being promised. Harold leaves for home and meets again with the old king Edward, who appears to be remonstrating with him.(scene 25) Harold is in a somewhat submissive posture and seems to be in disgrace. However, possibly deliberately, the king's intentions are not made clear. The scene then shifts by about one year to when Edward has become mortally ill and the tapestry strongly suggests that, on his deathbed, he bequeaths the crown to Harold. What is probably the coronation ceremony is attended by Stigand, whose position as Archbishop of Canterbury was controversial.(scene 31) Stigand is performing a liturgical function, possibly not the crowning itself. The tapestry labels the celebrant as "Stigant Archieps" (Stigand the archbishop) although by that time he had been excommunicated by the papacy who considered his appointment unlawful. A star with a streaming tail, now known to be Halley's Comet, then appears. At this point, the lower border of the tapestry shows a fleet of ghost-like ships thus hinting at a future invasion.(scene 33) The news of Harold's coronation is taken to Normandy, whereupon we are told that William is ordering a fleet of ships to be built although it is Bishop Odo shown issuing the instructions.(scene 35) The invaders reach England, and land unopposed. William orders his men to find food, and a meal is cooked.(scene 43) A house is burnt by two soldiers, which may indicate some ravaging of the local countryside on the part of the invaders, and underneath, on a smaller scale than the arsonists, a woman holds her boy's hand as she asks for humanity.(scene 47) News is brought to William. The Normans build a motte and bailey at Hastings to defend their position. Messengers are sent between the two armies, and William makes a speech to prepare his army for battle.(scene 51) The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 less than three weeks after the Battle of Stamford Bridge but the tapestry does not provide this context. The English fight on foot behind a shield wall, whilst the Normans are on horses. Two fallen knights are named as Leofwine and Gyrth, Harold's brothers, but both armies are shown fighting bravely. Bishop Odo brandishes his baton or mace and rallies the Norman troops in battle.(scene 54) To reassure his knights that he is still alive and well, William raises his helmet to show his face. The battle becomes very bloody with troops being slaughtered and dismembered corpses littering the ground. King Harold is killed.(scene 57) This scene can be interpreted in different ways, as the name "Harold" appears above a number of knights, making it difficult to identify which character is Harold, since one character appears with an arrow shot in his head under the name "Harold" while another character is slain by a sword underneath the words "was slain" . The final remaining scene shows unarmoured English troops fleeing the battlefield. The last part of the tapestry is missing; however, it is thought that the story contained only one additional scene. People depicted The following is a list of known persons depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry: Latin text Tituli are included in many scenes to point out names of people and places or to explain briefly the event being depicted. The text is in Latin but at times the style of words and spelling shows an English influence. A dark blue wool, almost black, is mostly used but towards the end of the tapestry other colours are used, sometimes for each word and other times for each letter. The complete text and English translation are displayed beside images of each scene at Bayeux Tapestry tituli. Unsettled questions The depiction of events on the tapestry has raised several questions which remain unsettled. The identification of Harold II of England in the vignette depicting his death is disputed. Some recent historians disagree with the traditional view that Harold is the figure struck in the eye with an arrow, and that the arrow is a later 18th/19th century modification following a period of repair. Benoît's engraving of 1729, and Bernard de Montfaucon's engravings of the tapestry as it was in 1730, show a spear or lance in place of the arrow and no arrow fletchings. Further, needle holes in the linen suggest that something has been removed, or shortened, and fletchings added to form an arrow. A figure is slain with a sword in the subsequent plate, and the phrase above the figure refers to Harold's death (interfectus est, "he is slain"). This would appear to be more consistent with the labeling used elsewhere in the work. It was common medieval iconography that a perjurer was to die with a weapon through the eye. Therefore, the tapestry might be said to emphasize William's rightful claim to the throne by depicting Harold as an oath breaker. Whether he actually died in this way remains a mystery and is much debated. There is a panel with what appears to be a clergyman touching or possibly striking a woman's face. No one knows the significance of this scene or the caption above it: ubi unus clericus et Ælfgyva ("where [or in which] a certain cleric and Ælfgyva"), where Ælfgyva is the Latinised spelling of Ælfgifu, a popular Anglo-Saxon woman's name (literally "elf-gift"). The use of the grapheme Æ shows familiarity with English spelling. There are two naked male figures in the border below this figure; the one directly below the figure is in a pose mirroring that of the cleric, squatting and displaying his genitalia (a scene that was frequently censored in historical reproductions). However, similar naked figures appear elsewhere in the lower border where there seems to be no connection at all with the main action. Harold had a younger sister named Ælfgifu (her name is spelt Alveva in the Domesday Book of 1086) who was possibly promised to William by Harold or even betrothed to him, but she died c. 1066, prior to the invasion. Ælfgifu was also the name of the mother of Sweyn Knutsson and Harold Harefoot, past kings of Denmark and England respectively, via Cnut the Great. It has been speculated that this scene, occurring after the meeting of Harold and William, is to remind the contemporary viewers of a scandal that occurred between Ælfgifu of Northampton and Emma of Normandy, Cnut's wives, that eventually led to the crowning of Edward the Confessor, child of Emma and her first husband, Æthelred the Unready. At least two panels of the tapestry are missing, perhaps even another 6.4 m (7.0 yd) in total. This missing area may have depicted William's coronation as King of England. A poem by Baldric of Dol describes a tapestry on the walls of the personal apartments of Adela of Normandy, which is very similar to the Bayeux depiction. He describes the closing scene as the coronation of William in London. Historical accuracy The Bayeux Tapestry was probably commissioned by the House of Normandy and essentially depicts a Norman viewpoint. However, Harold is shown as brave, and his soldiers are not belittled. Throughout, William is described as dux ("duke"), whereas Harold, also called dux up to his coronation, is subsequently called rex ("king"). The fact that the narrative extensively covers Harold's activities in Normandy (in 1064) indicates that the intention was to show a strong relationship between that expedition and the Norman Conquest starting two years later. It is for this reason that the tapestry is generally seen by modern scholars as an apologia for the Norman Conquest. The tapestry's narration seems to place stress on Harold's oath to William, although its rationale is not made clear. Norman sources claim that the English succession was being pledged to William, but English sources give varied accounts. Today it is thought that the Norman sources are to be preferred. Both the tapestry and Norman sources name Stigand, the excommunicated archbishop of Canterbury, as the man who crowned Harold, possibly to discredit Harold's kingship; one English source suggests that he was crowned by Ealdred, archbishop of York, and favoured by the papacy, making Harold's position as legitimate king more secure. Contemporary scholarship has not decided the matter, although it is generally thought that Ealdred performed the coronation. Although political propaganda or personal emphasis may have somewhat distorted the historical accuracy of the story, the Bayeux Tapestry constitutes a visual record of medieval arms, apparel, and other objects unlike any other artifact surviving from this period. There is no attempt at continuity between scenes, either in individuals' appearance or clothing. The knights carry shields, but show no system of hereditary coats of arms—the beginnings of modern heraldic structure were in place, but would not become standard until the middle of the 12th century. It has been noted that the warriors are depicted fighting with bare hands, while other sources indicate the general use of gloves in battle and hunt. The American historian Stephen D. White, in a study of the tapestry, has "cautioned against reading it as an English or Norman story, showing how the animal fables visible in the borders may instead offer a commentary on the dangers of conflict and the futility of pursuing power". Replicas and continuations A number of replicas of the Bayeux Tapestry have been created, in various media. Through the collaboration of William Morris with textile manufacturer Thomas Wardle, Wardle's wife Elizabeth, who was an accomplished seamstress, embarked on creating a reproduction in 1885. She organised some 37 women in her Leek School of Art Embroidery to collaborate working from a full-scale water-colour facsimile drawing provided by the South Kensington Museum. The full-size replica was finished in 1886 and is now exhibited in Reading Museum in Reading, Berkshire, England. The naked figure in the original tapestry (in the border below the Ælfgyva figure) is depicted wearing a brief garment because the drawing which was worked from was similarly bowdlerised. The replica was digitised and made available online in 2020. Ray Dugan of University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, completed a stitched replica in 1996. Since its completion, it has been displayed in various museums and galleries in Canada and the United States. In 2000, a Danish association, Vikingegruppen Lindholm Høje, began making a replica of the Bayeux Tapestry using the original sewing techniques. The replica was completed in June 2014 and went on permanent exhibition at Børglum Abbey in May 2015. Dr. E. D. Wheeler, former judge and former dean at Oglethorpe University, commissioned a hand-painted, full-size replica of the Bayeux Tapestry completed by Margaret ReVille and donated it to the University of West Georgia in Carrollton in 1994. In 2014, the replica was acquired by the University of North Georgia in Dahlonega. An approximately half-scale mosaic version of the Bayeux Tapestry was formerly on display at Geraldine, New Zealand. It was made up of 1.5 million 7 mm2 pieces of spring steel—off-cuts from patterning disks of knitting machines—and was created by Michael Linton over a period of twenty years from 1979. The work was in 32 sections, and included a hypothetical reconstruction of the missing final section leading up to William the Conqueror's coronation at Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1066. Jason Welch, a woodcarver from North Creake, Norfolk, England, created a replica of the tapestry between 2011 and 2014 in carved and painted wooden relief on 25 five-foot planks. He undertook the project to help cope with the grief of losing his 18-year-old son. Mia Hansson, from Skanör, Sweden, living in Wisbech, Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, started a reproduction on 13 July 2016. As of May 2023 she had completed 40 metres, saying that she expected to finish in some 4 years. Hansson takes part of her replica out for talk and display events. In September 2020 she published Mia's Bayeux Tapestry Colouring Book, with hand-drawn images from the tapestry. In January 2024, the Bayeux Museum acquired a Victorian replica of the Bayeux tapestry as part of the late Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts's estate auction, purchased for £16,000. The replica, one of three known surviving Victorian copies, was originally created as a panoramic photograph in the 19th century. Other modern artists have attempted to complete the work by creating panels depicting subsequent events up to William's coronation, though the actual content of the missing panels is unknown. In 1997, the embroidery artist Jan Messent completed a reconstruction showing William accepting the surrender of English nobles at Berkhamsted (Beorcham), Hertfordshire, and his coronation. In early 2013, 416 residents of Alderney in the Channel Islands finished a continuation including William's coronation and the building of the Tower of London. In popular culture Because it resembles a modern comic strip or movie storyboard, is widely recognised, and is so distinctive in its artistic style, the Bayeux Tapestry has frequently been used or reimagined in a variety of different popular culture contexts. George Wingfield Digby wrote in 1957: It was designed to tell a story to a largely illiterate public; it is like a strip cartoon, racy, emphatic, colourful, with a good deal of blood and thunder and some ribaldry. It has been cited by Scott McCloud in Understanding Comics as an example of early sequential-narrative art; and Bryan Talbot, a British comic book artist, has called it "the first known British comic strip". It has inspired many modern political and other cartoons, including: John Hassall's satirical pastiche Ye Berlyn Tapestrie, published in 1915, which tells the story of the German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 Rea Irvin's cover for the New Yorker magazine of 15 July 1944 marking D-Day George Gale's pastiche chronicling the saga leading up to Britain's entry into the European Economic Community, published across six pages in The Times's "Europa" supplement on 1 January 1973 The tapestry has inspired modern embroideries, most notably and directly: The Overlord Embroidery (1974), commemorating Operation Overlord and the Normandy landings of 1944, now at Portsmouth The Prestonpans Tapestry (2010), which chronicles the events surrounding the Battle of Prestonpans in 1745 Other embroideries more loosely inspired by it include the Hastings Embroidery (1966), the New World Tapestry (1980–2000), the Quaker Tapestry (1981–89), the Great Tapestry of Scotland (2013), the Scottish Diaspora Tapestry (2014–15), Magna Carta (An Embroidery) (2014–15), and (in this case a woven tapestry with embroidered details) the Game of Thrones Tapestry (2017–19). A number of films have used sections of the tapestry in their opening credits or closing titles, including Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Anthony Mann's El Cid, Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet, Frank Cassenti's La Chanson de Roland, Kevin Reynolds' Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and Richard Fleischer's The Vikings. The design and embroidery of the tapestry form one of the narrative strands of Marta Morazzoni's 1988 novella The Invention of Truth. The tapestry is referred to in Tony Kushner's play Angels in America. The apocryphal account of Queen Matilda's creation of the tapestry is used, perhaps in order to demonstrate that Louis, one of the main characters, holds himself to mythological standards. In 2022 the French documentary Mysteries of the Bayeux Tapestry was broadcast by BBC Four. It was written by Jonas Rosales, directed by Alexis de Favitski and produced by Antoine Bamas. The documentary covered investigations carried out on the tapestry by the Laboratoire d'Archéologie Moléculaire et Structurale (LAMS) at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, which used a hyperspectral camera, measuring 215 different colours, to analyse the pigments which produced the original colours for the dyes, extracted from madder, weld and indigo. At the behest of series showrunner Ryan Condal, the opening credits of the second season of the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon (2024) were redesigned with an animated sequence in embroidery that was inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry. Notes References Further reading External links Media related to Bayeux Tapestry at Wikimedia Commons Bayeux Tapestry – Bayeux Museum Digital exploration of the tapestry High quality panoramic image of Bayeux Tapestry (Bibliotheca Augustana) A Guide to the Bayeux Tapestry – Latin-English translation The Bayeux Tapestry – collection of videos, articles and bibliography "Bayeux Tapestry, The" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 555–556. With 16 images

Battle_of_Hastings

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hastings

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

Janet_Cumbrae_Stewart

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Cumbrae_Stewart

Janet Agnes Cumbrae Stewart (23 December 1883 – 8 September 1960) was an Australian painter. She spent the 1920s and 1930s painting in Britain, France and Italy. Biography Cumbrae Stewart was born on 23 December 1883 in Brighton, Victoria, Australia. She was born Janet Agnes Stewart, the youngest of ten children born to Francis Edward Stewart (1833–1904) and Agnes Park (1843–1927). Janet's eldest brother, Francis William Sutton Stewart, became convinced of a family connection to the Stuarts of Bute and despite never proving the link, adopted "Cumbrae" to his name, and his siblings followed suit. This addition to the name would later serve a greater purpose for Janet, who quickly abandoned the hyphen and identified herself professionally as simply Cumbrae Stewart, and so avoided, to a certain extent, the limitations and scrutiny attached to her sex. The Stewarts lived a very traditional upper middle class existence, with the boys studying at private school and the three girls receiving their early education at home under the supervision of a governess. As well as her lessons, Cumbrae Stewart also received instruction in several suitable 'past-times' including dancing, piano and drawing; this latter she was instructed by Zena Beatrice Selwyn, who would later marry Cumbrae Stewart's brother Francis in 1906. During her late teens, Cumbrae Stewart joined landscape painter, John Mather, and his students, on outdoor sketching exhibitions. From 1903 though 1908 Cumbrae Stewart studied at the Melbourne National Gallery School, where she was taught by Lindsay Bernard Hall and Frederick McCubbin. During this time she won a slew of awards: first prize for Drawing from Antique in 1904, Still Life Painting in 1905, Second place for Half Nude Painting and Life Drawing in 1906, and third prize for Drawing a Head from Life in 1903 and third place in the coveted Travelling Scholarship prize in 1908 for The Old Gown in 1908 (first and second places were both awarded to Constance Jenkins). Following her art education, Cumbrae Stewart rented premises in Melbourne and commenced exhibiting. She participated in the first Exhibition of Women's Work held in Melbourne in 1907, and exhibited with the Victorian Artists Society from 1908 to 1920. She also exhibited with the Queensland Art Society, the Australian Artists Association and the South Australian Society of Arts, as well as the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors. She held her first solo exhibition at the Coles Book Arcade gallery in Collins Street in 1911, from which Bernard Hall purchased a pastel of a head, and Rupert Bunny purchased a landscape. Other solo exhibitions were regularly held at the Athenaeum Hall in Melbourne, Gayfield Shaw's Salon in Sydney and Preece's Gallery in South Australia, under the management of Gayfield Shaw. In 1922 Cumbrae Stewart travelled to England with her sister, Beatrice Peverill, on board the Aeneas, arriving in Liverpool on 21 July. In an interview with the Brisbane Telegraph, Beatrice reports on a journey during which her sister was kept extremely busy with commissions from fellow passengers, working from a small studio space created by the ship's captain, below the bridge. The journey apparently concluded with a small exhibition of portraits and travel sketches held in the music room. Prior to embarking on the journey, Janet had organised for a ship to carry over a selection of works with which she intended to commence immediate exhibition. Upon its arrival however, she was devastated to find that the vast majority had been destroyed in transit and she had to quickly set about replacing them, and so finding a studio became an immediate priority. She held her first solo exhibition in February 1923 at Walkers Galleries in London. This was a tremendous success financially and socially. Several prominent London society ladies turned out to view the works and Cumbrae Stewart was kept immediately busy thereafter with commissions. Reports also suggest that Queen Mary herself attended her 1924 exhibition and complimented Cumbrae Stewart on her achievement and personally selected a pastel, described by the Royal Collection Trust as "A young woman seated on a bed." This work remains within the Royal Collection today and is inscribed on the reverse in the Queen's own handwriting. Cumbrae Stewart lived and worked in Chelsea until 1928, during which time she had works accepted for exhibition at the Salon des Artistes Francais in Paris, receiving honourable mention for Noonday Rest, 1919, as well as the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, the Royal Academy in London, and the Society of Women Artists, punctuated by several solo exhibitions at the Beaux Arts Gallery in London. She also represented Australia at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924 and the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in Dunedin in 1926. During this time, she continued to regularly hold solo exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and South Australia. The subject of her painting over this period suggests Cumbrae Stewart travelled around the UK and Brittany in 1924 and across to Avignon in 1925, then on through Italy in 1926. Upon her return to Australia, she told The Bulletin that she travelled alone in Europe, avoiding the express trains whenever possible, opting instead for the slower goods trains so she could better enjoy the scenery. Records show that Cumbrae Stewart moved her studio to Italy in around 1929. This decision may have come as result of the Depression which was starting to severely impact England at this time. Although she very likely continued to paint during this period, exhibition activity dwindled, likely also as a result also of the Depression, which was also effecting Australia by this time. Records from 1932 saw her residing in Laigueglia Italy, and a report in the Brisbane Courier mentions an exhibition of her work held during this time at the Casa d'artisti, an art gallery located in Milan. One of her landscapes was purchased by the Museo del Novecento and remains in their collection today. The Argus also reports her having a studio in Alassio near Florence prior to this. In 1934, Cumbrae Stewart moved on to Villeneuve outside Avignon. In an interview published in The Australian, Cumbrae Stewart speaks of an atmosphere of ill-will toward the English after the Abyssinian War and brewing tensions under Mussolini may have underpinned the decision to move. Here she lived in an old mansion, perched high on a hill overlooking Avignon and the Rhône. Cumbrae Stewart's final European exhibition fittingly took place at Walker's Gallery in 1936, the venue for her first London solo exhibition, though celebrations were marred by Hitler's occupation of the Rhine. Cumbrae Stewart reported that all attendees, including herself, wore black in mourning for King George. The fact that she attended the exhibition, suggests that perhaps she had left Avignon for the safety of England, certainly the following year saw her returning to Australia in the company of Miss Argemore ffarrington "Bill" Bellairs, on board the Dutch ship Meliskerk from Antwerp, setting foot on Australian soil for the first time in 14 years on the 5th February 1937. By that time, Cumbrae Stewart was 54 years old and after a short stay with her sister in Brighton, was living with Bellairs and sharing their time between 4 Margaret Street, South Yarra and her property, "Wanna", at Hurstbridge. After returning home, Cumbrae Stewart held only two more solo exhibitions before her death in 1960, both at Velasquez Gallery in Melbourne. The first was held in 1942 and the other in 1947. Reviews of the 1947 exhibition suggest that her subjects included figures, landscapes, and flower studies though those mentioned hailed from her early career, and later reports of the 1942 exhibition state that Cumbrae Stewart was firmly against any form of promotion and so nobody knew it was on. The Brighton Southern Cross writes that Cumbrae Stewart continued working up until her death, painting portraits of well-known people including members of the Baillieu family. Her last painting is believed to be that of her nephew, Ean, which was completed just prior to her death. Cumbrae Stewart died on 8 September 1960 in Melbourne. Legacy Cumbrae Stewart's work is today held in the State collections of Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland, the National Gallery of Australia, and several regional galleries including the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery and the Bendigo Regional Gallery. It is also held in the Royal Collection in London and the Museo del Novecento in Milan. Despite this, and the enormous success and respect she obtained during her lifetime, few are on permanent display, indeed most have not been seen in the public domain for many decades. Interest in her work has been somewhat renewed in recent years as a result of the industry's drive to write female artists back into the Australian art-historic narrative. Most recently, several examples were included in Bayside Gallery's Her Own Path exhibition, held in 2021 in celebration of the early female artists of Bayside, and a pivotal major retrospective of her work was held at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery in 2003 under the curatorship of Rodney James. In 2017–2018 her work was also included in the Australian National Trust show Intrepid Women – Australian women artists in Paris 1900–1950 held in 2017–2018. Although Cumbrae Stewart may not be viewed today as having pushed the boundaries of art, she certainly did push the boundaries of acceptability of women in art. She was one of the first Australian women artists to be considered equal to her male counterpart, and indeed greatly respected by them, which paved the way for future generations of women to be taken seriously in this field, and so rightly deserves to be recognised by history. For her handling of the medium too, she should be acknowledged. Few, if any, artists have come close to her ability with pastels in expressing the subtle modulations of tone and form of the human body, which despite being considered a feminine material, is notoriously difficult to master. External links images of Janet Cumbrae Stewart's work at the National Gallery of Victoria images of Janet Cumbrae Stewart's work at the Queensland Art Gallery/ Gallery of Modern Art images of Janet Cumbrae Stewart's work at the Art Gallery of NSW == Notes and references ==

Melbourne_Society_of_Women_Painters_and_Sculptors

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne_Society_of_Women_Painters_and_Sculptors

The Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors, established in Melbourne, Victoria in 1902, is the oldest surviving women's art group in Australia. History The Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors (MSWPS) began in 1902 as a monthly gathering of eight former students of Frederick McCubbin from the National Gallery School which members called the Students' Art Club. It is known that among these founders were Daisy Stone, Tina Gowdie, Annie Gates, Kate Allan, Ella Thorn, Henrietta Maria Gulliver and a Miss Stock (otherwise unidentified, who died in 1906). In 1905 they added the indigenous word "Woomballano" (meaning either 'everlasting beauty' or 'search for beauty') to identify their Art Club, changing its title to The Women's Art Club in 1913 then to the Melbourne Society of Women Painters in 1930. The present designation was adopted in 1954. Many of its early members were plein air painters and identified with the Heidelberg School, which was regarded widely as a male group but which involved many women. The interest in the decorative arts at the opening of the twentieth century attracted other members who were significant craftspeople. By the 1920s, the Society was assimilating the generation of professional women artists emerging from the Melbourne National Gallery School, with significant women artists, representatives of both the Meldrum tonal school and modernism, being invited to join. The Society was less overtly feminist than its Sydney counterpart The Society of Women Painters (later named Women’s Industrial Arts Society) which was founded in 1910 in reaction to the discrimination of male-dominated juries of art institutions and societies. During the Second World War the MSWPS opened volunteer headquarters at Grosvenor Chambers (9 Collins Street, Melbourne) where they made and sold handcrafts and art to raise money for the war effort. MSWPS has met at heritage-listed Ola Cohn House 41-43 Gipps Street, East Melbourne since the sculptor's death in 1964. She was President of the Society from 1948 to 1964. Notable members Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors members included: Cristina Asquith Baker, painter, print-maker (1868–1960) Alice Marian Ellen Bale (1875–1955), Studied at National Gallery School 1895–1904, from 1917 to 1955 a consistent exhibitor with the Women’s Art Club Margaret Francis Ellen Baskerville sculptor (1861–1930) Clarice Beckett (1887–1935) participated in Women’s Art Club shows until the early 1930s. Lina Bryans (1909–2000), exhibited 1940–1965 and prominent in the 1960s, resigned 1966, rejoined 1991—. A Modernist associated with William Frater Ethel Carrick (1872–1952), exhibited with the society in the 1940s and 1950s Ola Cohn (President of the Society from 1948 to her death in 1964) Amalie Sara Colquhoun painter (1894–1974) Valeria Helen Correll, sculptor, ceramicist (1886–1973) Sybil Craig (a foundation member) Peggie Crombie Janet Cumbrae Stewart Maude Edith Victoria Fleay (1869–1965), Women’s Art Club member from 1929, exhibited with it regularly and was elected a life member in 1964. Frances Margot Freeman (1895–1977) exhibited with the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors in 1923–26, then again in 1938, and regularly showed work in their annual exhibitions until 1971 May Butler George (1881–1973), painter and sculptor, joined the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors 1913 and exhibited with it in 1923 Gwendolyn Muriel Grant (1877–1968) Margaret Gurney Polly Hurry Marguerite Henriette Mahood, ceramicist (1901–1989) Maidie McGowan (1906–1998) Leopoldine Mimovich OAM (1920–2019) Anne Montgomery Hilda Rix Nicholas Helen Elizabeth Ogilvie (1902–1992) Esther Paterson (1892–1971) President 1966 Margaret Pestell (1894–1984) Ada May Plante (1875–1950) Elma Roach (1897-1942) Florence Aline Rodway (1881–1971), showed occasionally with the MSWPS, but was more closely associated with the Society of Women Painters in Sydney, before she moved to Hobart, she was a foundation member of the SWP in 1910 and a member of the exhibition committee in 1910–12 [1] Dora Serle (1875–1968) president of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters in 1933–34 and represented them on the National Council of Women [2]. Clara Southern (1860–1940) Eveline Winifred Syme (1888–1961) Stephanie Taylor (1899–1974) Violet Teague (1872–1951) Jessie Constance Alicia Traill (1881–1967) Isabel May Tweddle (1875–1945) joined the Women's Art Club in 1926, president 1930–31 and 1941–45. Janie Wilkinson Whyte (1869–1953) Dora Wilson (1883–1946) Marjorie Woolcock (1898–1965) Selected artworks == References ==

Dora_Wilson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dora_Wilson

Dora Lynnell Wilson (31 August 1883 – 21 November 1946) was a British-born Australian artist, best known in her adopted country of Australia for her etchings and street scenes. Early life Dora Lynnell Wilson was born on 31 August 1883 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Her parents were James Wilson, agent, and Annie Maria, née Green. The family emigrated to the state of Victoria in Australia in 1884, when Dora was a year old. Education Wilson was educated at Somerset School and Methodist Ladies' College in Melbourne. From 1901–1906 she studied at the National Gallery under Bernard Hall and Frederick McCubbin, forming friendships with fellow artists Ruth Hollick, Gwendolyn Grant, Norah Gurdon, and her partner Pegg Clarke. She also took lessons from John Mather with Jessie Traill and Janie Wilkinson Whyte. Artistic career Wilson was best known for her etchings, pastels and oils of still lifes and nudes. Her work was praised for her 'strong sense of colour' but also critiqued for demonstrating a 'chocolate box prettiness'. Her work was included in a number of notable exhibitions, including the five week Australian Exhibition of Women's Work in Melbourne, a Royal Academy exhibition of Australian art in London. In 1923 her work, 'Reve d'Or', was reproduced on the cover of Women's World and exhibited at the Société des Artistes Français in Paris. Her studio at Collins Street West was the meeting place of ex–Gallery School students who exhibited in 1913–14 as 'The Twelve Melbourne Painters.' This group included Jessie Traill, Janet Cumbrae Stewart, Norah Gurdon, Penleigh Boyd, and Lindsay Bernard Hall. Wilson was also a member of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors. From the 1920s onwards she concentrated largely on street scenes, and in 1923 she was commissioned by Sir Baldwin Spencer to undertake a series of paintings of European landmarks, which saw her travelling around Europe for over two years, accompanied by the photographer Pegg Clarke. In 1928 these works were exhibited at the Beaux Arts Gallery, London, and the following year at Australia House. In the early 1930s she focused on historical scenes from Melbourne's history, with an exhibition entitled 'Milestones of Melbourne' held at the Fine Art Society Gallery in March 1935. Her work was received favorably by Arthur Streeton for being "fresh in colour and treatment and free from the depressing appearance of black paint." In 1937 she joined and exhibited with Robert Menzies' Australian Academy of Art. Dora L Wilson, Pictures Collection, State Library Victoria Death Wilson died of cancer on 21 November 1946 and was cremated at Springvale Cemetery, Melbourne. She made a bequest to the National Gallery trustees in the amount of £1100 as it was her wish to help Australian artists to travel abroad. Exhibitions 1943, from 1 December; Inclusion in a group show of ninety-one paintings and etchings with Arnold Shore, Max Meldrum, John Rowell, Jas. Quinn, John Farmer, Mary Hurry, Dora Serle, Margaret Pestell, Allan Jordan, Isabel Tweddle, Aileen Dent, Murray Griffin, Geo. Colville, and Victor Cog. Hawthorn Library. Further reading Notebooks of Dora L Wilson (ca. 1900–1960) [manuscript], State Library Victoria Dora L. Wilson [Australian art and artists file], State Library Victoria McCaul, Dermot. Chance encounters with Australian art (State Library Victoria) == References ==

Edge_of_Seventeen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_of_Seventeen

"Edge of Seventeen" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks from her debut solo studio album Bella Donna (1981), released as the third single from the album on February 4, 1982. The lyrics were written by Nicks to express the grief resulting from the death of her uncle Jonathan and the murder of John Lennon during the same week of December 1980. The song features a distinctive, chugging 16th-note guitar riff, drum beat and a simple chord structure typical of Nicks' songs. The song's title for the single release was "Edge of Seventeen (Just Like the White Winged Dove)". In the United States, "Edge of Seventeen" just missed out on the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 11. Despite this, it became one of Nicks' most enduring and recognizable songs and has been covered by several artists. In 2021, it was ranked No. 217 on Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Background and inspiration According to Nicks, the title came from a conversation she had with Tom Petty's first wife, Jane, about the couple's first meeting. Jane said they met "at the age of seventeen", but Jane's strong Southern accent made it sound like "edge of seventeen" to Nicks. She liked the sound of the phrase so much that she told Jane she would write a song for it and give her credit for the inspiration. Although Nicks had originally planned to use the title for a song about Tom and Jane Petty, the death of her uncle Jonathan and the murder of John Lennon during the same week of December 1980 inspired a new song for which Nicks used the title. Nicks' producer and lover Jimmy Iovine was a close friend of Lennon, and Nicks felt helpless to comfort him. Soon after, Nicks flew home to Phoenix, Arizona, to be with her uncle Jonathan, who was dying of cancer. She remained with her uncle and his family until his death. Nicks had never actually heard a dove's call before, as she revealed in 2020 when she had only just heard it recently. The opening lyrics were inspired by a menu she was reading at a Phoenix restaurant in 1980, which said, "The white wing dove sings a song that sounds like she’s singing ooh, ooh, ooh. She makes her home here in the great Saguaro cactus that provides shelter and protection for her…". Composition and lyrics Throughout the song, a distinctive 16th note guitar riff is played by Waddy Wachtel, progressing through C, D, and E-minor chords. During the bridge, the chords alternate twice between E-minor and C. Nicks's backing band recommended that they emulate The Police's "Bring On the Night" for the guitar riff, although Wachtel was unfamiliar with the song."I had never heard "Bring On the Night," and at that session they told me they were going to do this song based on this feel. I had heard something about the Police, but I didn't know what they were talking about. Then about two years ago, I had the radio on, and on comes what sounds like "Edge of Seventeen" – and all of a sudden, there's Sting's voice! I thought, 'We ripped them off completely!' I called Stevie that night and said, 'Listen to me, don't ever do that again!'" As is typical of Nicks' songs, the lyrics are highly symbolic. Nicks has said that the white-winged dove represents the spirit leaving the body on death, and some of the verses capture her experience of the days leading up to her uncle Jonathan's death. Reception Record World praised the song for its "powerful lyrics, a percolating rhythm section and Stevie's throaty vocal." Author Zoe Howe has described the song as being about "transforming and elevating the feelings of grief and soaring above them with strength" and being "a perfect combination of tough rock 'n' roll grit, raw emotion and full-beam, strut-about-in-platform-boots rock queen glamour." The song is a favourite among Nicks' fanbase. Chart performance "Edge of Seventeen" peaked at No. 11 on the US Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in April 1982. The live version on the B-side reached No. 26 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart. The original album version of the song had previously made the top five of Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart in 1981, peaking at No. 4. "Edge of Seventeen" also peaked at No. 11 on the RPM Top 100 Singles chart in Canada. The song was also covered on season 9 of The Voice by Amanda Ayala and Shelby Brown. Their cover entered the top 100 of the iTunes rock chart. The song entered the UK chart in 2021 following its use in a John Lewis commercial. Track listing and formats US 7" vinyl single "Edge of Seventeen (Just Like the White Winged Dove)" – 4:28 "Edge of Seventeen" (Previously unreleased live version) – 5:57 Personnel Musicians Stevie Nicks – lead vocals, writer Waddy Wachtel – guitar Bob Glaub – bass guitar Russ Kunkel – drums Bobbye Hall – percussion Benmont Tench – organ Roy Bittan – piano Lori Perry – backing vocals Sharon Celani – backing vocals Production Jimmy Iovine – producer Charts Weekly charts Year-end charts Certifications Covers The distinctive riff from the song was sampled by the American girl group Destiny's Child in their 2001 hit single "Bootylicious", with Nicks making a cameo appearance in the accompanying music video. Lindsay Lohan released a version of "Edge of Seventeen" on her second studio album A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005). In 2020, Miley Cyrus interpolated the song for her single "Midnight Sky", which was later remixed as a mashup featuring Nicks titled "Edge of Midnight". In 2022, American DJ and record producer Wuki released a remixed version of the track. This version was certified gold in Australia in 2024. Use in soundtracks The song was used in The Crown (TV series). The song was used in the 2003 movie School of Rock soundtrack starring Jack Black References External links Stevie Nicks on "Edge of Seventeen" — Quotes by Nicks about the song, gathered from interviews throughout the years.

Stevie_Nicks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevie_Nicks

Stephanie Lynn Nicks (born May 26, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter known for her work with the band Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist. After starting her career as a duo with her then-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham, releasing the album Buckingham Nicks to little success, Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975, helping the band to become one of the best-selling music acts of all time with over 120 million records sold worldwide. Rumours, the band's second album with Nicks, became one of the best-selling albums worldwide, being certified 20× platinum in the US. In 1981, while remaining a member of Fleetwood Mac, Nicks began her solo career, releasing the studio album Bella Donna, which topped the Billboard 200 and has reached multiplatinum status. She has released eight studio solo albums and seven studio albums with Fleetwood Mac, selling a certified total of 65 million copies in the U.S. alone. After the release of her first solo album, Rolling Stone named her the "Reigning Queen of Rock and Roll". Nicks was named one of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time and one of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time by Rolling Stone. Her Fleetwood Mac songs "Landslide", "Rhiannon", and "Dreams", with the last being the band's only number one hit in the U.S., together with her solo hit "Edge of Seventeen", have all been included in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. She is the first woman to have been inducted twice into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: first as a member of Fleetwood Mac in 1998 and then as a solo artist in 2019. Nicks has garnered eight Grammy Award nominations and two American Music Award nominations as a solo artist. She has won numerous awards with Fleetwood Mac, including a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1978 for Rumours. The albums Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, and Bella Donna have been included in the "Greatest of All Time Billboard 200 Albums" chart by Billboard. Rumours was also rated the seventh-greatest album of all time in Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", as well as the fourth-greatest album by female acts. Life and career 1948–1971: Early life and career beginnings Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks was born at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona to Jess and Barbara Nicks. Nicks is of German, English, Welsh, and Irish ancestry. Nicks's grandfather, Aaron Jess "A.J." Nicks Sr., taught Nicks to sing duets with him by the time she was four years old. Nicks's mother was protective, keeping her at home "more than most people" and fostered in her daughter a love of fairy tales. As a toddler, Stephanie could pronounce her own name only as "tee-dee", which led to her nickname of "Stevie". I listened to lots of Top 40 R&B radio. I loved The Shirelles and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas; stuff like 'Remember (Walking in the Sand)' by The Shangri-Las… [My grandfather] bought me a truckload of records when I was in the fifth grade. There must have been 150 singles: country, rockabilly, some Everly Brothers, a song called 'Party Doll' that went, 'Come along and be my party doll/And I'll make love to you.' Her father's frequent relocation as a vice president of Greyhound had the family living in Phoenix, Albuquerque, El Paso, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. With the Goya guitar that she received for her 16th birthday, Nicks wrote her first song, titled "I've Loved and I've Lost, and I'm Sad but Not Blue". She spent her adolescence playing records constantly and lived in her "own little musical world". While attending Arcadia High School in Arcadia, California, she joined her first band, the Changing Times, a folk rock band focused on vocal harmonies. Nicks met her future musical and romantic partner, Lindsey Buckingham, during her senior year at Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, California. When she saw Buckingham playing "California Dreamin'" at the Young Life club, she joined him in harmony. She recalled, "I thought he was a darling." Buckingham was in psychedelic rock band Fritz, but two of its musicians were leaving for college. He asked Nicks, in mid-1967, to replace the lead singer. Fritz later opened for Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin from 1968 until 1970. Nicks credits both acts as inspiring her stage intensity and performance. Nicks and Buckingham attended San José State University, where Nicks majored in speech communication and planned to become an English teacher. With her father's blessing, she dropped out of college to pursue a musical career with Buckingham. 1972–1978: Buckingham Nicks and Fleetwood Mac After Fritz disbanded in 1972, Nicks and Buckingham continued to write as a duo, recording demo tapes at night in Daly City, California, on a one-inch, four-track Ampex tape machine Buckingham kept at the coffee-roasting plant belonging to his father. They secured a deal with Polydor Records, and the eponymous Buckingham Nicks was released in 1973. The album was not a commercial success and Polydor dropped the pair. With no money coming in from their album, and Buckingham contracting mononucleosis shortly thereafter, Nicks began working multiple jobs. She waited tables and cleaned producer Keith Olsen's house, where Nicks and Buckingham lived for a time before moving in with Richard Dashut. She soon started using cocaine. "We were told that it was recreational and that it was not dangerous," Nicks told Chris Isaak in 2009. While living with Dashut, Buckingham landed a guitar role with the Everly Brothers 1972 tour. Nicks stayed behind working on songwriting herself. During this time, Nicks wrote "Rhiannon" after seeing the name in the novel Triad by Mary Leader. (Five years later, a fan sent her the Mabinogion novels of Evangeline Walton that featured the legendary character Rhiannon, and Nicks later bought the film rights to Walton's work in the hopes of bringing the epic to the screen.) She also wrote "Landslide", inspired by the scenery of Aspen and her slowly deteriorating relationship with Buckingham. In late 1974, Keith Olsen played the Buckingham Nicks track "Frozen Love" for drummer Mick Fleetwood, who had come to Sound City in California in search of a recording studio. Fleetwood remembered Buckingham's guitar work when guitarist Bob Welch departed to pursue a solo career. On December 31, 1974, Fleetwood called Buckingham, inviting him to join the band. Buckingham refused, insisting that Nicks and he were "a package deal" and he would not join without her. The group decided that incorporating the pair would improve Fleetwood Mac, making the British band into an Anglo-American one. The first rehearsals confirmed this feeling, with the harmonies of the newcomers adding a pop accessibility to the band's former style of blues-based rock. In 1975, Fleetwood Mac achieved worldwide success with the album Fleetwood Mac. Nicks's "Rhiannon" was voted one of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time by Rolling Stone. Her live performances of the song throughout the decade began to take on a theatrical intensity which differs from how the song plays on the album. The song built to a climax in which Nicks's vocals were so impassioned that Mick Fleetwood declared, "her 'Rhiannon' in those days was like an exorcism." "Landslide" became another hit from the album, with three million airplays. Becoming aware of her image as a performer, Nicks worked with clothing designer Margi Kent to develop a unique onstage look. Her costumes had a bohemian style that featured flowing skirts, shawls, and platform boots. While Nicks and Buckingham achieved professional success with Fleetwood Mac, their personal relationship was eroding. Nicks ended the relationship. Fleetwood Mac began recording their follow-up album, Rumours, in early 1976 and continued until late in the year. Also, Nicks and Buckingham sang back-up on Warren Zevon's eponymous second album. Among Nicks's contributions to Rumours was "Dreams", which became the band's only Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit single. Nicks had also written and recorded the song "Silver Springs", but it was not included on the album because the early versions of the song ran too long, and the band didn't want too many slow songs on the album. Studio engineer and co-producer Ken Caillat said that Nicks was very unhappy to find that the band had decided against her song "Silver Springs", which he said was beautifully crafted, and carried some of the band's best guitar work. "Silver Springs", written about her tumultuous relationship with Buckingham, was released as a B-side of the "Go Your Own Way" single—Buckingham's equally critical song about Nicks. Copies of the single eventually became collectors' items among fans of Fleetwood Mac. "Silver Springs" was included on the four-disc Fleetwood Mac retrospective 25 Years – The Chain in 1992. Rumours, Fleetwood Mac's second album after the incorporation of Nicks and Buckingham, was the best-selling album of 1977 and as of 2017 had sold over 45 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. The album remained at number one on the American albums chart for 31 weeks and reached number one in other countries. The album won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1978. It produced four U.S. Billboard Hot 100 top-ten singles, including Nicks's "Dreams". In November 1977, after a New Zealand concert on the Rumours tour, Nicks and Fleetwood secretly began an affair. Fleetwood was married to Jenny Boyd. "Never in a million years could you have told me that would happen," Nicks has stated. "Everybody was angry because Mick was married to a wonderful girl and had two wonderful children. I was horrified. I loved these people. I loved his family. So, it couldn't possibly work out. And it didn't. I just couldn't." Nicks ended the affair soon after it began. She has stated that had the affair progressed, it "would have been the end of Fleetwood Mac". By October 1978, Mick Fleetwood left Boyd for Nicks's friend Sara Recor. 1979–1982: Tusk and Mirage After the success of the Rumours album and tour in 1977 to 1978, Fleetwood Mac began recording their third album with Nicks and Buckingham, Tusk, in the spring of 1978. By this time, Nicks had amassed a large backlog of songs that she had been unable to record with Fleetwood Mac because of the constraint of having to accommodate three songwriters on each album. Tusk was released on October 19, 1979. Mirage was recorded in late 1981 and early 1982. Backup vocals and duets While working on Tusk, Nicks sang backup on virtually every track of Not Shy, recorded by musician Walter Egan, a friend of both Nicks and Buckingham. "Magnet and Steel", inspired by Nicks, prominently featured her backup vocals and became a hit single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the summer of 1978. Lindsey Buckingham also produced the album, playing guitar and providing backing vocals on some of the tracks. Nicks recorded the hit duets "Whenever I Call You Friend" with Kenny Loggins in 1978, and "Gold" with John Stewart in 1979. During 1981, Nicks made occasional guest appearances with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on their Hard Promises tour. Solo career Nicks wrote and recorded demos for a solo project during Tusk sessions in 1979 and the Tusk world tour of 1979–80. Nicks, Danny Goldberg, and Paul Fishkin founded Modern Records to record and release Nicks's material. Nicks's first solo album, Bella Donna, was released on July 27, 1981, to critical and commercial acclaim, reaching number one on the Billboard 200 chart, with four singles making the Billboard Hot 100, and Rolling Stone deeming her "the Reigning Queen of Rock and Roll". The day that Bella Donna reached number one on the Billboard 200, Nicks was told that her friend Robin Anderson had leukemia. Anderson was pregnant at the time and given only three months to live. She gave birth to a son, appointing Nicks as the child's godmother. "I never got to enjoy Bella Donna at all because my friend was dying. Something went out that day; something left." Following Robin's death in 1982, Nicks married Robin's widower, Kim Anderson, believing that Robin would want her to care for the baby. "We were all in such insane grief, just completely deranged," she told the Telegraph in 2007. They divorced three months later. Bella Donna introduced Nicks's permanent back-up singers, Sharon Celani and Lori Perry (now Nicks after marrying Stevie's brother Christopher), who have contributed vocals to all of Nicks's solo albums since then. In November 1981, Nicks embarked on her White Winged Dove tour, which she had to cut short to record Mirage. Nicks released her second solo album, The Wild Heart, on June 10, 1983. The album went double platinum, reached number five on the Billboard 200 albums chart, and featured three hit singles. It also introduced songwriter and performer Sandy Stewart as co-writer and vocalist. Nicks performed at the second US Festival at Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino, California, and later toured the U.S. from June 1983 to November 1983. Nicks appeared on Saturday Night Live in December 1983, performing "Stand Back" and "Nightbird". Following the tour for The Wild Heart, Nicks commenced work on her third solo album. Originally titled Mirror Mirror, Nicks recorded songs for the album during 1984. However, Nicks was unhappy with the album, and opted to record a new batch of songs in 1985. Rock a Little, as it was retitled, was released November 18, 1985, to commercial success, supported by three successful singles. Nicks toured for Rock a Little until October 1986, and performed with Bob Dylan and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers during their tour in Australia. The tour marked a turning point in Nicks's life. The January before the tour was to begin, a plastic surgeon warned her of severe health problems if she did not stop using cocaine. "I said, 'What do you think about my nose?'", she recalled on The Chris Isaak Hour in 2009. "And he said, 'Well, I think the next time you do a hit of cocaine, you could drop dead.'" At the end of the Australian tour, Nicks checked herself into the Betty Ford Center for 30 days to overcome her cocaine addiction. Recalling the strong influence of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix on her music and life, she told a UK interviewer, "I saw how they went down, and a part of me wanted to go down with them ... but then another part of me thought, I would be very sad if some 25-year-old lady rock and roll singer ten years from now said, 'I wish Stevie Nicks would have thought about it a little more.' That's kind of what stopped me and made me really look at the world through clear eyes." Later that year, on the advice of friends concerned that she might relapse, she visited a psychiatrist who prescribed the sedative Klonopin to help her remain free from cocaine. 1987–1990: Tango in the Night, The Other Side of the Mirror, and Behind the Mask In late 1985, Fleetwood Mac began work on Tango in the Night, but due to her promotional schedule for the Rock a Little album and subsequent tour, Nicks was mostly unavailable to work on the album with the band except for a few weeks following her stay at the Betty Ford Center in 1986 (which was the inspiration for the song "Welcome to the Room...Sara"). She sent the band demos of her songs to work on in her absence. The album was released in April 1987 and became the band's second-highest selling album ever, behind Rumours. Creative differences and unresolved personal issues within the band led Buckingham to quit the group right before their world tour. According to bassist John McVie, a "physically ugly" confrontation between Nicks and Buckingham ensued when Nicks angrily challenged Buckingham's decision to leave the band. The band embarked on the Shake the Cage tour in September 1987, with Buckingham replaced by Rick Vito and Billy Burnette. The tour was suspended while Nicks suffered from myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and developed an addiction to Klonopin, though it resumed in 1988. Tango in the Night met with commercial success and was followed by Fleetwood Mac's Greatest Hits album in November 1988. Also in 1988, Nicks began work on a fourth solo album with English record producer Rupert Hine. The Other Side of the Mirror was released on May 11, 1989, to commercial success. Nicks became romantically involved with Hine. Nicks toured the U.S. and Europe from August to November 1989. She later said she had "no memory of this tour" because of her increasing dependency on Klonopin, prescribed in ever increasing amounts by a psychiatrist between 1987 and 1994, in an attempt to keep Nicks from regressing to her former abuse of cocaine. In 1989, Nicks set to work with Fleetwood Mac on Behind the Mask, released in 1990 to moderate commercial success in the U.S. In the UK, however, the album entered the chart at number one and was certified platinum. The band went on a world tour to promote the album, on the last night of which Buckingham and Nicks reunited on stage to perform "Landslide". After the tour concluded, Nicks left the group over a dispute with Mick Fleetwood, who would not allow her to release the 1977 track "Silver Springs" on her album Timespace: The Best of Stevie Nicks, because of his plans to save it for release on a forthcoming Fleetwood Mac box set. Fleetwood knew that the song would be valuable as a selling point for the box set, since over the years, it had gained interest among the band's fans. 1991–1996: Timespace and Street Angel On the 10th anniversary of her solo career debut, Nicks released Timespace: The Best of Stevie Nicks on September 3, 1991. The following year, Fleetwood Mac also released a four-disc box set, 25 Years – The Chain, which included "Silver Springs". During the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign, Bill Clinton used the Fleetwood Mac hit "Don't Stop" as his campaign theme song, and Nicks rejoined the classic Rumours lineup of the band (including Buckingham) to perform the song at Clinton's 1993 inaugural gala. No plans for an official reunion were made at that time. Nicks was criticized for her weight gain. Nicks, who is 5 feet 1 inch (1.55 m), had gained weight, peaking at 175 lbs (79.4 kg). "Klonopin was worse than the cocaine," she has said. "I lost those 8 years of my life. I didn't write, and I had gained so much weight." In late 1993, while Nicks held a baby shower at her house, she tripped over a box, passed out, and cut her forehead near a fireplace. "I'm one of those people who doesn't injure themselves. I was horrified to see that blood. I hadn't had enough wine. I knew it was the Klonopin," she said. Realizing that she needed help, Nicks endured a painful 47-day detox in a hospital. Following her successful detox, Nicks released her fifth solo album, Street Angel, recorded during 1992 and 1993 using material written mostly in previous years. Released on May 23, 1994, Street Angel was poorly received, reaching number 45 on the Billboard Top 200. Nicks has since expressed major disappointment with the album, claiming that a lot of its production work took place during her second stint in rehab, meaning she had little or no say over the final product. Despite a three-month tour in support of the album, Nicks was crushed by the focus on her weight and the poor reception of the album. Disgusted by the criticism she received during the tour for being overweight, she vowed to never set foot on a stage again unless she slimmed down. In 1996, Nicks reunited with Lindsey Buckingham and contributed the duet "Twisted" to the Twister movie soundtrack, while in 1996, the Sheryl Crow-penned "Somebody Stand by Me" featured on the Boys on the Side soundtrack, and Nicks also remade Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'" for Fox's TV hit Party of Five. 1997–2001: The Dance, Enchanted, and Trouble in Shangri-La In 1996, Lindsey Buckingham, working on a planned solo album, enlisted the help of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, which eventually led to a reunion of the entire band. A newly invigorated Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac for The Dance, a highly successful 1997 tour that coincided with the 20th anniversary of the release of Rumours. Prior to the tour, Nicks started work with a voice coach, to lend her voice more control and protect it from the stress of lengthy touring schedules. She also went on a diet and started jogging to lose weight. The band's live CD The Dance was released to commercial and critical acclaim. The Dance earned the group several Grammy nominations, including a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for their live performance of "Silver Springs". In 1998, Nicks joined the group for its induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That same year, Fleetwood Mac was awarded the Outstanding Contribution at the BRIT Awards. Nicks put work on a new solo album on hold when she was approached by Warner Music to release a solo career-spanning box set, to finish her contract with Atlantic Records in the U.S. After the culmination of the Fleetwood Mac reunion tour, Nicks settled down in Los Angeles and Phoenix with close friends and colleagues to devise a track list for this three-disc collection. The box set Enchanted was released to acclaim on April 28, 1998, with liner notes from Nicks, as well as exclusive rare photographs, and pages from her journals. Nicks supported the box set with a successful U.S. tour. In 1998, Nicks contributed to the Practical Magic soundtrack and performed in Don Henley's benefit concert for the Walden Woods Project. Nicks had begun writing actively for Trouble in Shangri-La in 1994 and 1995 as she came out of her Klonopin dependency. According to her, friend and former musical partner Tom Petty was responsible for convincing her to write music again when he rebuffed her request that he write a song with her. She resumed recording songs for the Trouble in Shangri-La album with Sheryl Crow, who produced and performed on several tracks. When a scheduling conflict forced Crow to drop out of the project, Nicks first approached R&B producer Dallas Austin, but these sessions have never surfaced. Nicks finally called on John Shanks to produce the remainder of the album, with additional contributions from David Kahne, Rick Nowels, Pierre Marchand, and Jeff Trott. Artists Natalie Maines, Sarah McLachlan, and Macy Gray contributed to some of the tracks. Released May 1, 2001, Trouble in Shangri-La restored Nicks's solo career to critical and commercial success. "Planets of the Universe" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and Nicks was named VH1's "Artist of the Month" for May 2001. Nicks was named one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People, was featured in a well-received Behind the Music episode, and performed an episode of the VH1 Storytellers Concert Program. Nicks made several television appearances in support of the album and performed at the 2001 Radio Music Awards. Nicks supported the album with a successful tour, although some shows were canceled or postponed because of her bout with acute bronchitis. Shows were also canceled because of the September 11 attacks in the U.S. 2002–2009: Say You Will, Crystal Visions, and Soundstage Sessions In 2001, Fleetwood Mac began work on a new studio album, though this time without Christine McVie, leaving Nicks as the sole woman in the band for the first time. After the end of her solo tour, Nicks convened with the other members of the band for recording a new album, Say You Will, which was released in April 2003 and met with commercial success but mixed reviews. Nicks joined the group to support the album with a world tour lasting until September 2004. She has subsequently stated in several interviews that she was not happy with the album or the successful world tour that followed, citing production disputes with Buckingham as a core factor, as well as the absence of fellow female band member Christine McVie. A documentary of the making of the album, Destiny Rules, was released on DVD in 2004 and chronicles the sometimes-turbulent relationships between band members, especially Buckingham and Nicks, during that time in the studio. After a few months' respite from the Say You Will tour, Nicks did a four-night stint in May 2005 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and then did 10 shows with Don Henley dubbed the Two Voices tour. During the summer of 2005, Nicks continued doing solo shows (Gold Dust tour) with pop singer Vanessa Carlton as the opening act, playing over 20 dates nationwide. On March 27, 2007, Reprise Records released Crystal Visions – The Very Best of Stevie Nicks in the U.S. The album debuted at number 21 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The compilation includes her hit singles, a dance remix, and one new track, a live version of Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll". Two versions of this album were made, one with just the audio CD and a deluxe version which includes a DVD featuring all of Nicks's music videos with audio commentary from Nicks herself, as well as rare footage from the Bella Donna recording sessions. A tour with Chris Isaak, opening in Concord, California on May 17, 2007, supported the release. Reprise Records initially released two radio-only promos, the live version of "Landslide" with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and "Rock and Roll". Both tracks failed to garner much airplay and made no impact on the charts. Reprise Records released "Stand Back" (issued with club mixes) on May 29, 2007. "Stand Back", which peaked at number five on the pop singles chart in 1983, reached number two on the Billboard Club chart. Nicks previously reached number one on this chart, with "Planets of the Universe" (from Trouble in Shangri-La) in 2001. The remix single of "Stand Back" debuted on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart on September 15, 2007, at number 10, peaking at number four the following week. It also debuted on the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales chart at number three, later peaking at number one. On March 31, 2009, Nicks released the album, The Soundstage Sessions, via Reprise Records. The album debuted at number 47 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The first single from the album, "Crash into Me", was released as a digital download, along with "Landslide" (orchestra version) as a B-side, on March 17, 2009. In late 2008, Fleetwood Mac announced that the band would tour in 2009, beginning in March. As per the 2003–2004 tour, Christine McVie would not be featured in the lineup. The tour was branded as a 'greatest hits' show titled "Unleashed", although they played album tracks such as "Storms" and "I Know I'm Not Wrong". 2010–2013: In Your Dreams and Extended Play Tour After completing the Unleashed tour with Fleetwood Mac, Nicks began work on her first solo album in a decade with David A. Stewart, a musician and record producer best known for being one half of the duo Eurythmics. Nicks performed in a series of shows in August 2010 ("it's not really a tour", she said). They did not contain any of her new music, because she did not want it to end up on YouTube. The Santa Barbara show benefited a young girl she had met through the Make-a-Wish Foundation in Los Angeles with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer. On January 13, 2011, Reprise announced Nicks's upcoming album In Your Dreams would be released on May 3, and the lead single, "Secret Love", would be released on February 8. Reprise provided a free download of the single to fans who ordered the album via certain websites. Nicks originally wrote "Secret Love" in 1976 and recorded a demo of it for Fleetwood Mac's 1977 album, Rumours. It did not make the final cut for the album. The demo version had been circulating among fans for many years prior to its inclusion on In Your Dreams. Nicks promoted the song with a video directed by Dave Stewart. Nicks's goddaughter Kelly appears in the video wearing a vintage dress that Nicks wore on stage in 1976. According to Nicks, Kelly portrays the young Nicks blending with the soul of Nicks's 62-year-old self. On the U.S. Billboard charts, "Secret Love" was a modest hit on the Adult Contemporary Singles chart, peaking at number 20, and at number 25 on the Triple-A Singles chart. Another song on the album, "For What It's Worth", features Nicks's niece in the video. The song reached number 25 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in September 2011. A documentary film was made for the album, directed by Stewart. The documentary was critically acclaimed, and Nicks appeared at many film festivals to support the documentary. Nicks promoted the album with appearances on various television shows, including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The X Factor, The Talk, Good Morning America, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show. and Dancing with the Stars. In Your Dreams was well received by music critics. Rolling Stone commented, "It's not just her first album in 10 years, it's her finest collection of songs since the Eighties". The album debuted at number six on the Billboard 200, giving Nicks her fifth top-10 album on that chart, with 52,000 copies sold in the first week. Elsewhere, the album has made numerous top-50 debuts, including number 24 on the Australian ARIA chart, number 22 in Canada, and number 14 in the UK. The same day that Nicks's new album was released, Fox Network broadcast the Glee episode (Season 2, Episode 19) "Rumours" that featured six songs from Fleetwood Mac's 1977 album, including Nicks's song "Dreams" (the band's only number-one song on the U.S. charts). The show sparked renewed interest in the band and its most commercially successful album, and Rumours re-entered the Billboard 200 chart at number 11, the same week that In Your Dreams debuted at number six. Nicks was quoted by Billboard saying that her new album was "my own little Rumours". Nicks contributed a cover of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" for the tribute album Listen to Me: Buddy Holly, released in September 2011. On March 29, 2012, Nicks made a guest appearance as herself on the NBC sitcom Up All Night. The show featured an excerpt of the 1981 track "Sleeping Angel", as well as new duets with both Maya Rudolph and Christina Applegate of "Whenever I Call You Friend" and "Edge of Seventeen". On December 14, 2012, it was announced that Nicks would be featured on an original track done in collaboration with Dave Grohl for his Sound City soundtrack, alongside other artists. In 2013, Fleetwood Mac toured again as a four-piece band throughout North America and Europe. On April 30, the band released their first new studio material since 2003's Say You Will via digital download on iTunes with the four-track EP, Extended Play containing three new songs and one new song from the Buckingham Nicks sessions ("Without You"). On December 3, 2013, Nicks released the In Your Dreams documentary film on DVD. The DVD debuted at number seven on the Billboard Top Music Video sales chart and number 29 on the UK Music Video Top 40 chart. Since 2014: 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault and future endeavors In 2014, Nicks appeared on the third season of television series American Horror Story, Coven, in a role she reprised in the eighth season, American Horror Story: Apocalypse. She played a fictional version of herself, portraying a "white witch" with supernatural powers in three episodes. On the show, she performed the songs "Rhiannon", "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?", "Seven Wonders", and "Gypsy". "I said 'That's perfect,'" she told Us magazine in response to the show's music request. "Because that's exactly how I like to affect people. I want people to put my songs on because they are unhappy and need a boost to dance around their apartment a little and feel good. That's why I write. 'Of course, you can use my music. Take it!'" In May 2014, Nicks was honored with a BMI Icon Award. In July 2014, it was announced that Nicks would join The Voice as the adviser for Adam Levine's team. In September 2014, Nicks released her eighth studio album, 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault, which reached number seven on the Billboard 200. She also began a North American tour with Fleetwood Mac, now reunited with Christine McVie, the On with the Show tour. The tour began in September 2014 and concluded in November 2015. In May 2015, Nicks reissued Crystal Visions – The Very Best of Stevie Nicks on "crystal clear" transparent double vinyl. The vinyl came with a vinyl messenger bag and a limited-edition lithograph. Throughout 2016 and 2017, Nicks toured with The Pretenders on the 24 Karat Gold Tour. On April 26, 2017, Pitchfork revealed that Nicks would be featured on a track from American singer Lana Del Rey's fifth studio album, Lust for Life, which was released on July 21, 2017. The song is titled "Beautiful People Beautiful Problems". On July 9, 2017, Nicks performed at the British Summer Time festival in Hyde Park in London, supporting Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. She later performed "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" with Petty as part of the Heartbreakers' set, in what would turn out to be their final performance of the song together before Tom Petty's death in October 2017. In April 2018, Lindsey Buckingham was fired from Fleetwood Mac, following disagreements with Nicks and Mick Fleetwood. Nicks helped recruit his replacements, Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Neil Finn of Crowded House. This reworked lineup embarked on a world tour entitled An Evening with Fleetwood Mac in 2018–2019. In April 2019, Nicks was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She became the first woman to be inducted twice, once as a member of Fleetwood Mac and as a solo artist. In September 2020, Nicks released a live album and concert film, with recordings from the 24 Karat Gold Tour (2016–2017), directed by Joe Thomas. On October 9, 2020, Nicks released her first new music in six years. The official video accompanying the track "Show Them the Way" was directed by Cameron Crowe. In December 2020, music publishing company Primary Wave bought an 80% stake of Nicks' song catalog. The Wall Street Journal valued the deal at US$100 million. On May 27, 2021, Stevie Nicks was one of the headliners of the 2021 Shaky Knees Music Festival in Atlanta, Georgia. In August 2021 Nicks canceled her five planned 2021 solo appearances due to concern about catching COVID-19. Nicks appeared on the track "Oil" on the 2023 Gorillaz album Cracker Island. On September 27, 2024, Nicks released a new song called "The Lighthouse". Nicks wrote the song with Magnus Birgersson and Vincent Villuis to promote women's rights. Artistry Standing at 5 feet 1 inch (1.55 m), Nicks has stated she felt "a little ridiculous" standing next to Mick Fleetwood, who is 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m). For this reason, she developed a penchant for 6-inch (15 cm) platform boots. "Even when platforms went completely out of style, I kept wearing them because I didn't want to go back to being 5 feet 3 inches (1.60 m) in heels", she told Allure in 1995. Over the years, Nicks has developed a style which she calls her "uniform", consisting of flowing diaphanous clothing, boots and shawls. Nicks has said that her vocal style and performance antics evolved from female singers like Grace Slick and Janis Joplin. She admitted inspiration when she saw Joplin perform live (and opened for her with her first band Fritz) shortly before Joplin's death. Nicks owns a strand of Joplin's stage beads. She also commented that she once saw a woman in her audience dressed in dripping chiffon with a Gibson Girl hairstyle and big boots, and Nicks knew she wanted something similar. She took the look and made it her own. Nicks possesses a contralto vocal range and her voice has been described as "gruff" and "feathery". Over the years, she has decorated her microphone stand with roses, ribbons, chiffon, crystal beads, scarves, and small stuffed toys. Philanthropy Nicks has started a charity foundation titled "Stevie Nicks's Band of Soldiers" which is used for the benefit of wounded military personnel. In late 2004, Nicks began visiting Army and Navy medical centers in Washington, D.C. While visiting wounded service men and women, she became determined to find an object she could leave with the soldiers that would raise their spirits, motivate, and give them something to look forward to each day. She eventually decided to purchase hundreds of iPod Nanos, load them with music, artists, and playlists which she would hand select, and autograph them: I call it a soldier's iPod. It has all the crazy stuff that I listen to, and my collections I've been making since the 1970s for going on the road, when I'm sick ... or the couple of times in my life that I have really been down, music is what always dances me out of bed. She now regularly delivers these tokens of her appreciation, bringing her closest friends, such as Mick Fleetwood, along to share the experience: So, as Mick [Fleetwood] and I went from room to room delivering their tiny iPod, they told us their stories. Mick became his tall, loving, father figure, English self, taking in every word they said, remaining calm (at least on the outside) inspiring them. We floated from room to room down through the halls of the two hospitals over a three-day period. We gave out all our iPods. Right before I left for DC, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry dug into their pockets and came up with $10,000 for me. In my eyes they went from the coolest rock stars to generous great men; as my press agent Liz Rosenberg said, every returning wounded soldier should be given an iPod. It will be an integral part of their recovery. Style Nicks's style has remained the same throughout her years in the spotlight and even "at 60 she is still working the gossamer tunics and shawls that have influenced two generations of Stevie acolytes and given her performances the feel of a Wiccan ritual," writes New York Times reporter Ruth La Ferla. In the late '70s, Nicks began receiving threatening mail accusing her of witchcraft. Nicks told the Los Angeles Times in 2013, "In the beginning of my career, the whole idea that some wacky, creepy people were writing, 'You're a witch, you're a witch!' was so arresting. And there I am like, 'No, I'm not! I just wear black because it makes me look thinner, you idiots.'" The witch rumors frightened Nicks so much that she gave up black for a period of time (approximately 1978 to 1982), instead opting to wear colors such as apricot and sea foam green. Nicks later stated that she felt ugly in the new colors, ultimately gave up, and went back to black in 1983. That same year, when asked what she thought about people who still believed the rumor, Nicks said, "I don't like it all and I wish people would stop thinking about that, because I spent thousands of dollars on beautiful black clothes and had to stop wearing them for a long time, because a lot of people scared me." Nicks sings about the store where her iconic style all started in the song "Gypsy" on Fleetwood Mac's 13th studio album Mirage, released in 1982. In the song, Nicks sings of a store called the Velvet Underground, a boutique in San Francisco, California, where famous rockers like Janis Joplin and Grace Slick were known to shop. Legacy Many artists have cited Nicks as a source of influence and musical inspiration. These include Beyoncé and Destiny's Child, Courtney Love, Michelle Branch, Belinda Carlisle, The Chicks (formerly known as Dixie Chicks), Mary J. Blige, Sheryl Crow, Nadia Ali, Florence Welch, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Vanessa Carlton, Delta Goodrem, and Lorde. Australian singer Darren Hayes cited Nicks as one his favorite musicians during his teenage years, while Eminem's mother Debbie Nelson mentioned in her book My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem that her son loved the song "Rhiannon". The Dixie Chicks covered "Landslide", which became a top-10 hit (number one on the Adult Contemporary chart) and a number one hit on the Country chart. This cover also earned her a BMI Songwriters Award in 2003 when it won Song of the Year (the award is given to the songwriter of the track, regardless of the performer). According to BMI, "Landslide" also earned Nicks the 35th Robert J. Burton Award as "Most Performed Country Song of the Year". This distinction is given to the song tallying the most feature U.S. broadcast performances during the eligibility period. Included on the Dixie Chicks' platinum Monument album Home, "Landslide" was a Country, Adult Top 40, Hot 100 and AC Billboard charts smash. Alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins made an acoustic cover of the song that was featured on their 1994 B-side collection Pisces Iscariot. Other successful covers have included the Corrs' "Dreams" and Courtney Love's band Hole with "Gold Dust Woman". "Edge of Seventeen" was sampled on Destiny's Child's 2001 number one single "Bootylicious". Nicks appeared in the video for "Bootylicious" and in an episode of MTV's Making the Video that featured it, in which she expressed her admiration for both the song and the group. Also, American actress and singer Lindsay Lohan covered "Edge of Seventeen" on her second studio album A Little More Personal (Raw) (2005). Deep Dish fulfilled their "Dreams" of working with Nicks in 2005 when Nicks offered to re-record vocals on a remix of her number-one penned song, "Dreams". The Deep Dish version went on to reach number two on the Billboard Hot Dance Airplay chart, as well as providing Nicks with her third UK top-40 hit. Nicks provided additional vocals on Vanessa Carlton's 2007 album, Heroes and Thieves. On January 31, 2010, Nicks performed with Taylor Swift at the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards. Swift, who describes Nicks as one of her childhood heroes, introduced her to the audience by saying, "It's a fairy tale and an honor to share the stage with Stevie Nicks." In October 2018, Nicks was one of fifteen artists to be nominated for induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On December 13, 2018, she was announced as one of seven inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class of 2019, making her the first woman to be inducted twice to the hall. On April 19, 2024, singer-songwriter Taylor Swift referenced Nicks in the song "Clara Bow" off of her eleventh studio album The Tortured Poets Department (2024). In the song, she wrote "You look like Stevie Nicks / In '75, the hair and lips". Nicks also wrote a poem in the liner notes. Personal life Relationships and family Nicks was romantically linked to Lindsey Buckingham from 1972 to 1976. She was linked to Mick Fleetwood in 1978, Eagles drummer/vocalist Don Henley during the late 1970s, and briefly to Eagles songwriter JD Souther. In 1979, Nicks had an abortion after becoming pregnant by Henley. It was not her only abortion; In a 1992 interview with Vox (magazine) she referenced having had four abortions which, she said in the interview, "breaks my heart", but then added that they were necessary in order for her to have the career that she did. She was involved with Jimmy Iovine, who produced Bella Donna, during 1980–81, and with Eagles and James Gang guitarist Joe Walsh during 1983–1986, to whom she referred in 2007 as one of her greatest loves, but the couple could not sustain the relationship because of mutual drug abuse. Nicks toured with Walsh in 1984 and wrote "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?" about Walsh's deceased daughter. Nicks's only marriage was to Kim Anderson, the widower of her best friend Robin Anderson. They married in 1983 soon after Robin Anderson died of leukemia and while the Bella Donna album was on the top of the charts. Nicks later explained of the marriage, "I was determined to take care of [Robin's] baby, so I said to Kim, 'I don't know, I guess we should just get married.'" Nicks and Anderson divorced after only three months: "And so we got married three months after she died, and it was a terrible, terrible mistake. We didn't get married because we were in love, we got married because we were grieving and it was the only way that we could feel like we were doing anything." Years after the divorce, she reunited with her stepson when he was a teenager, putting him through college, and has maintained contact with him ever since. In 2020, Nicks said in an interview for The Guardian that his daughter, named Robin after his late mother, calls Nicks "Grandma Stevie". Nicks has said that she consciously chose not to have children of her own, due to her demanding career and desire to follow her art wherever it should take her: "My mission maybe wasn't to be a mom and a wife; maybe my particular mission was to write songs to make moms and wives feel better." Of her niece, godchildren, former stepson, and extended family she says: "I have lots of kids. It's much more fun to be the crazy auntie than it is to be the mom, anyway." Nicks has maintained a journal nearly every day since her tenure in Fleetwood Mac began. She has said, "I like to tell all my fairy goddaughters and my niece that when I'm gone they can sit on the floor and go through all these journals, and they can walk through my life, and they can smell the gardenia perfume on the pages. They can have it in their hands, who I was." Regarding a book based on her life, she has said, "I wouldn't write a book unless I could really tell the truth, and say all the people are in it are represented right ... If I'm gonna talk about all the people in my life, I need to be old enough and so do they, that nobody's gonna care ... I would never write a book about the bad parts. I would mostly revel in the fantastic parts, of which there were so many." Residences Until July 2007, Nicks lived in Paradise Valley, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, in a home she had built in 1981 and shared with her brother, Christopher Nicks, his wife, Lori Perry-Nicks, and their daughter, Jessica, her niece. She announced in mid-2007 that her Paradise Valley home would be put up for sale, citing her aspirations to "downsize" and focus more on her charity work, and that in the previous year she had only "spent about two weeks there". The house was put on the market for a reported $3.8 million and later sold for $3 million. She owns an oceanside home in Santa Monica, California. Religion Nicks became an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church and officiated at the wedding of Deer Tick singer John McCauley and singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton on December 27, 2013. Discography Studio albums Bella Donna (1981) The Wild Heart (1983) Rock a Little (1985) The Other Side of the Mirror (1989) Street Angel (1994) Trouble in Shangri-La (2001) In Your Dreams (2011) 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault (2014) With Buckingham Nicks Buckingham Nicks (1973) With Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac (1975) Rumours (1977) Tusk (1979) Mirage (1982) Tango in the Night (1987) Behind the Mask (1990) The Dance (1997) Say You Will (2003) Filmography Tours Solo tours White Winged Dove (Bella Donna) Tour: 1981 The Wild Heart Tour: 1983 Rock a Little Tour: 1986 The Other Side of the Mirror Tour: 1989 Whole Lotta Trouble (Timespace) Tour: 1991 Street Angel Tour: 1994 Enchanted Tour: 1998 Holiday Millennium Tour: 1999–2000 Trouble in Shangri-La Tour: 2001 Two Voices Tour (with Don Henley): 2005 Gold Dust Tour (on select dates with Vanessa Carlton or John Farnham): 2005–06 Highway Companion Tour (with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers): 2006 Crystal Visions Tour: 2007–08 Soundstage Sessions Tour: 2008 Heart & Soul Tour (with Rod Stewart): 2011–12 In Your Dreams Tour: 2011–12 24 Karat Gold Tour: 2016–17 Live in Concert Tour: 2023-24 In October 2005, Nicks attended the Melbourne Cup Week in Australia, and one of the horse-racing stakes was named after her: The Stevie Nicks Plate. She used this opportunity to launch her promotion of an Australian/New Zealand extension to her Gold Dust tour in February and March 2006. Nicks toured in Australia and New Zealand with popular Australian performer John Farnham. She also appeared in concert with Tom Petty in June near Manassas, Virginia, and at the Bonnaroo Music Festival that same month. In 2006, Nicks performed with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for the first leg of their tour in the summer, and later in the year returned as a guest performer for a number of songs on the tour celebrating Petty's 30th anniversary since his debut album. Tom Petty's Homecoming Concert in Gainesville, FL, which contained performances with Stevie Nicks, was filmed for PBS Soundstage as well as DVD release for March 2007. Nicks was also the featured performer for Bette Midler's benefit function, Hulaween, in October 2006. In 2008, Nicks embarked on the Soundstage Sessions tour in the U.S. A video recording of one concert date was released in 2009: Live in Chicago. Vanessa Carlton performed as a guest artist. Rod Stewart and Nicks co-headlined the Heart & Soul Tour. Launched March 20, 2011, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the tour united the two singers for a series of arena concerts throughout North America – with performances in New York, Toronto, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Tampa, Montreal, and more. A solo tour for In Your Dreams began on August 9, 2011, in Denver, Colorado. Nicks announced on her July 27 appearance on America's Got Talent that Michael Grimm would be going on tour with her. She then continued on an Australian and New Zealand leg of the tour accompanied by Dave Stewart until December 2011. Nicks joined Rod Stewart in the summer of 2012 for another leg of the Heart & Soul Tour, and resumed the In Your Dreams tour in June 2012. In 2023, she and Billy Joel performed a series of concerts across the United States, beginning with SoFi Stadium outside Los Angeles on March 10. This was in conjunction with a solo tour. In early 2024, she announced a European leg to the tour, starting in Dublin, Ireland on July 3. Touring band 2012 Sharon Celani – backing vocals (1981–present) Waddy Wachtel – lead guitar, musical direction (1981–86, 2001–present) Lori Nicks – backing vocals (1981–89, 1996, 2007–present) Carlos Rios – rhythm guitar (1989–present) Al Ortiz – bass (2001–present) Jimmy Paxson – drums (2005–present) Darrell Smith – keyboards (2005–present) Brett Tuggle – keyboards, rhythm guitar (1998–2006, 2012) Awards and nominations Grammy Awards Solo Nicks has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards as a solo artist, holding the record for most nominations for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance without a win. With Fleetwood Mac Nicks has been nominated for six Grammy Awards as a member of Fleetwood Mac, winning the 1978 Grammy Award for Album of the Year for Rumours, and received the 2003 Grammy Hall of Fame Award. See also List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. dance chart List of number-one dance hits (United States) References External links Official website Stevie Nicks at IMDb Stevie Nicks discography at Discogs Stevie Nicks at AllMusic Five audio interview segments with Stevie Nicks discussing her album Bella Donna Biography - Stevie Nicks: Visions, Dreams & Rumors (book at Goodreads)

Reprise_Records

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reprise_Records

Reprise Records is an American record label founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Records, one of its flagship labels. Artists currently signed to Reprise Records include Green Day, Enya, Michael Bublé, Eric Clapton, Stevie Nicks, Neil Young, Deftones, Mastodon, Lindsey Buckingham, Josh Groban, Disturbed, Idina Menzel, My Chemical Romance, Gerard Way, Dwight Yoakam, Never Shout Never, and Billy Strings. Company history Beginnings Reprise Records was formed in 1960 by Frank Sinatra in order to allow more artistic freedom for his own recordings. Soon thereafter, he garnered the nickname "The Chairman of the Board". Because of dissatisfaction with Capitol Records, and after trying to buy Norman Granz's Verve Records, the first album Sinatra released on Reprise was Ring-a-Ding-Ding! As CEO of Reprise, Sinatra recruited several artists for the fledgling label, such as fellow Rat Pack members Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. The original roster from 1961 to 1963 included Bing Crosby, Jo Stafford, Rosemary Clooney, Duke Ellington, Nancy Sinatra, Esquivel and stand-up comedian Redd Foxx. The original Reprise LP label had four different logos, depending on the genre: a riverboat for Pop records (pictured), a cherub for Jazz records, an owl for Spoken Word/Comedy records, and a picture of Sinatra for his records. One of the label's founding principles under Sinatra's leadership was that each artist would have full creative freedom, and at some point complete ownership of their work, including publishing rights. This is the reason why recordings of early Reprise artists (Dean Martin, Jimi Hendrix, the Kinks, etc.) are (in most cases) currently distributed through other labels. In Martin's case, his Reprise recordings were out of print for nearly 20 years before a deal was struck with Capitol Records. Reprise continued to reissue the Sinatra catalog until 2013 when it was sold to Capitol. Sale to Warner Bros. In August 1963, as part of a film deal, Warner Bros. purchased Reprise (which had been losing money) from Frank Sinatra, who nonetheless retained a 1/3 interest in the label. Many of the older artists on the label were dropped by Warner Bros. Records. Reprise president Mo Ostin was retained as the head of the label and he went on to play a very significant role in the history of the Warner group of labels over the next four decades. Warner-Reprise executives began targeting younger acts, beginning by securing the American distribution rights to the Pye Records recordings by the Kinks in 1964. Reprise soon added teen-oriented pop acts like Dino, Desi & Billy to the roster. As well, Sinatra's own daughter Nancy (who began recording for the label in 1961) was retained by Ostin, becoming a major pop star from late 1965. The label moved almost exclusively to rock-oriented music in the late 1960s, although Frank Sinatra continued to record for the label until the 1980s. Through direct signings or distribution deals, by the 1970s the Reprise roster grew to include Lee Hazlewood, Jill Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, the early Joni Mitchell recordings, Neil Young, the Electric Prunes, Donna Loren, Arlo Guthrie, Norman Greenbaum, Tom Lehrer, Kenny Rogers and The First Edition, Tiny Tim, Ry Cooder, Captain Beefheart, John Sebastian, Family, the early 1970s recordings by Frank Zappa and the Mothers, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Nico's Desertshore, the Fugs, Jethro Tull, Pentangle, T. Rex, the Meters, John Cale, Gordon Lightfoot, Michael Franks, Richard Pryor, Al Jarreau, Fleetwood Mac, Fanny, and the Beach Boys. Dormancy In 1976, the Reprise label was deactivated by Warner Bros. and all of its roster (except Frank Sinatra and Neil Young) was moved to the main Warner Bros. label. Although older catalog albums continued to be manufactured with the Reprise logo, and albums by the Beach Boys on Brother Records were issued in the Reprise catalog numbering sequence, aside from Sinatra and Young (and the Sylvia Syms album Syms by Sinatra, which Sinatra conducted and co-produced) there were no new releases on Reprise for several years. Revival and Reprise today (1985–present) In late 1985, some copies of the Dream Academy's hit single "Life in a Northern Town" were pressed on the Warner Bros. label bearing the Reprise logo. 1986 saw releases bearing Reprise labels from the Dream Academy as well as Dwight Yoakam. In summer 1987, Warner Bros. Records chairman Mo Ostin and label president Lenny Waronker officially announced the reactivation of Reprise, including its own separate promotions department, and former Warner Bros. Vice President of Promotion Rich Fitzgerald was appointed as label vice president. In the time since, Warner Bros. has often elevated the stature of Reprise to the rank of secondary parent label, as many of its subsidiary labels (such as Straight and Kinetic) have had their records released in conjunction with Reprise. As of 2017, it is home to such artists as Enya, Michael Bublé, Eric Clapton, Green Day, Stevie Nicks, Neil Young, Deftones, Josh Groban, Disturbed, Idina Menzel, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Gerard Way and Never Shout Never. It was formerly home to Jimi Hendrix and the Barenaked Ladies' catalogs in the U.S. When the Bee Gees back catalog was remastered by Rhino Records in the 2000s, their CDs were issued under the Reprise label (they appeared on sister labels Atco and Warner Bros. in the past). Neil Young stated in a documentary about his life that Charles Manson was turned down by Reprise. In 2010, Reprise opened a country music division, operating as part of Warner Music Group Nashville, featuring Blake Shelton, the JaneDear Girls, Michelle Branch and Frankie Ballard as part of its roster. In September 2011, several layoffs took place at Reprise Records and other Warner labels. In 2017, Reprise released Enya's albums on vinyl. Some of them were pressed on this format for the first time. Reprise Records artists Labels 143 Records (1999–2001) Bizarre Records (1968–1972) Big Brother Records (2008–present) BME Recordings (2004–present) Brother Records (1970–1977) Chrysalis Records (1969–1972) Cold Chillin' Records (1988–1993; select releases) DiscReet Records (1973–1979) Elementree Records (1995–2000) Giant Records (1990–2001; select releases) Grand Jury Records (1990–1993) In Bloom Records (1998–2000) Kinetic Records (1992–2000) Straight Records (1968–1972) Sire Records (1977–2000: select releases) Vapor Records (1995–present; currently active) Parent organizations (1960–1968) Independent (1968–1969) Warner Bros.-Seven Arts (1969–1972) Kinney National Company (1972–1990) Warner Communications (1990–2001) Time Warner (2001–2003) AOL Time Warner (2004–2011) Warner Music Group (2011–present) Access Industries See also List of record labels Warner Records Explanatory notes References External links Official website A discography of American Reprise singles from 1961 to 1970

Atlantic_Records

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Records

Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recordings in January 1948, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most important American labels, specializing in jazz, R&B, and soul by Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, Ruth Brown and Otis Redding. Its position was greatly improved by its distribution deal with Stax. In 1967, Atlantic became a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, now the Warner Music Group, and expanded into rock and pop music with releases by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Led Zeppelin, and Yes. In 2004, Atlantic and its sister label Elektra were merged into the Atlantic Records Group. Craig Kallman is the chairman of Atlantic. Ahmet Ertegun served as founding chairman until his death on December 14, 2006, at age 83. History Founding and early history In 1944, brothers Nesuhi and Ahmet Ertegun remained in the United States when their mother and sister returned to Turkey after the death of their father Munir Ertegun, Turkey's first ambassador to the U.S. The brothers were fans of jazz and rhythm & blues, amassing a collection of over 15,000 78 RPM records. Ahmet ostensibly stayed in Washington to undertake post-graduate music studies at Georgetown University but immersed himself in the Washington music scene and entered the record business, which was enjoying a resurgence after wartime restrictions on the shellac used in manufacture. He convinced the family dentist, Vahdi Sabit, to invest $10,000 and hired Herb Abramson, a dentistry student. Abramson had worked as a part-time A&R manager/producer for Al Green at the jazz label National Records, signing Big Joe Turner and Billy Eckstine. He founded Jubilee in 1946 but had no interest in its most successful musicians. In September 1947, he sold his share in Jubilee to his partner, Jerry Blaine, and invested $2,500 in Atlantic. Atlantic was incorporated in October 1947 and was run by Abramson (president) and Ertegun (vice-president in charge of A&R, production, and promotion). Abramson's wife Miriam ran the label's publishing company, Progressive Music, and did most office duties until 1949 when Atlantic hired its first employee, bookkeeper Francine Wakschal, who remained with the label for the next 49 years. Miriam gained a reputation for toughness. Staff engineer Tom Dowd recalled, "Tokyo Rose was the kindest name some people had for her" and Doc Pomus described her as "an extraordinarily vitriolic woman". When interviewed in 2009, she attributed her reputation to the company's chronic cash-flow shortage: "... most of the problems we had with artists were that they wanted advances, and that was very difficult for us ... we were undercapitalized for a long time." The label's office in the Ritz Hotel in Manhattan proved too expensive, so they moved to a room in the Hotel Jefferson. In the early fifties, Atlantic moved from the Hotel Jefferson to offices at 301 West 54th St and then to 356 West 56th St. Atlantic's first recordings were issued in late January 1948 and included "That Old Black Magic" by Tiny Grimes and "The Spider" by Joe Morris. In its early years, Atlantic concentrated on modern jazz although it released some country and western and spoken word recordings. Abramson also produced "Magic Records", children's records with four grooves on each side, each groove containing a different story, so the story played would be determined by the groove in which the stylus happened to land. In late 1947, James Petrillo, head of the American Federation of Musicians, announced an indefinite ban on all recording activities by union musicians, and this came into effect on January 1, 1948. The union action forced Atlantic to use almost all its capital to cut and stockpile enough recordings to last through the ban, which was expected to continue for at least a year. Ertegun and Abramson spent much of the late 1940s and early 1950s scouring nightclubs in search of talent. Ertegun composed songs under the alias "A. Nugetre", including Big Joe Turner's hit "Chains of Love", recording them in booths in Times Square, then giving them to an arranger or session musician. Early releases included music by Sidney Bechet, Barney Bigard, The Cardinals, The Clovers, Frank Culley, The Delta Rhythm Boys, Erroll Garner, Dizzy Gillespie, Tiny Grimes, Al Hibbler, Earl Hines, Johnny Hodges, Jackie & Roy, Lead Belly, Meade Lux Lewis, Professor Longhair, Shelly Manne, Howard McGhee, Mabel Mercer, James Moody, Joe Morris, Art Pepper, Django Reinhardt, Pete Rugolo, Pee Wee Russell, Bobby Short, Sylvia Syms, Billy Taylor, Sonny Terry, Big Joe Turner, Jimmy Yancey, Sarah Vaughan, Mal Waldron, and Mary Lou Williams. First hits In early 1949, a New Orleans distributor phoned Ertegun to obtain Stick McGhee's "Drinking Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee", which was unavailable due to the closing of McGhee's previous label, Harlem Records. Ertegun knew Stick's younger brother Brownie McGhee, with whom Stick happened to be staying, so he contacted the McGhee brothers and re-recorded the song. When released in February 1949, it became Atlantic's first hit, selling 400,000 copies, and reached No. 2 after spending almost six months on the Billboard R&B chart – although McGhee himself earned just $10 for the session. Atlantic's fortunes rose rapidly: 187 songs were recorded in 1949, more than three times the amount from the previous two years, and received overtures for a manufacturing and distribution deal with Columbia, which would pay Atlantic a 3% royalty on every copy sold. Ertegun asked about artists' royalties, which he paid, and this surprised Columbia executives, who did not, and the deal was scuttled. On the recommendation of broadcaster Willis Conover, Ertegun and Abramson visited Ruth Brown at the Crystal Caverns club in Washington and invited her to audition for Atlantic. She was injured in a car accident en route to New York City, but Atlantic supported her for nine months and then signed her. "So Long", her first record for the label, was recorded with Eddie Condon's band on May 25, 1949. The song reached No. 6 on the R&B chart. Brown recorded more than eighty songs for Atlantic, becoming its bestselling, most prolific musician of the period. So significant was Brown's success to Atlantic that the label became known colloquially as "The House That Ruth Built". Joe Morris, one of the label's earliest signings, scored a hit with his October 1950 song "Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere", the first Atlantic record issued in 45rpm format, which the company began pressing in January 1951. The Clovers' "Don't You Know I Love You" (composed by Ertegun) became the label's first R&B No. 1 in September 1951. A few weeks later, Brown's "Teardrops from My Eyes" became its first million-selling record. She hit No. 1 again in March–April 1952 with "5-10-15 Hours". "Daddy Daddy" reached No. 3 in September 1952, and "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean" with Connie Kay on drums reached No. 1 in February and March 1953. After Brown left the label in 1961, her career declined, and she worked as a cleaner and bus driver to support her children. In the 1980s she sued Atlantic for unpaid royalties; although Atlantic, which prided itself on treating artists fairly, had stopped paying royalties to some musicians. Ertegun denied this was intentional. Brown received a voluntary payment of $20,000 and founded the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1988 with a donation of $1.5 million from Ertegun. In 1952 Atlantic signed Ray Charles, whose hits included "I Got a Woman", "What'd I Say", and "Hallelujah I Love Her So". Later that year The Clovers' "One Mint Julep" reached No. 2. In 1953, after learning that singer Clyde McPhatter had been fired from Billy Ward and His Dominoes and was forming The Drifters, Ertegun signed the group. Their single "Money Honey" became the biggest R&B hit of the year. Their records created some controversy: the suggestive "Such A Night" was banned by radio station WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan, and "Honey Love" was banned in Memphis, Tennessee but both reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart. Tom Dowd Recording engineer and producer Tom Dowd played a crucial role in Atlantic's success. He initially worked for Atlantic on a freelance basis, but within a few years he had been hired as the label's full-time staff engineer. His recordings for Atlantic and Stax influenced pop music. He had more hits than George Martin and Phil Spector combined. Atlantic was one of the first independent labels to make recordings in stereo: Dowd used a portable stereo recorder which ran simultaneously with the studio's existing mono recorder. In 1953 (according to Billboard) Atlantic was the first label to issue commercial LPs recorded in the experimental stereo system called binaural recording. In this system, recordings were made using two microphones, spaced at approximately the distance between the human ears, and the left and right channels were recorded as two separate, parallel grooves. Playing them back required a turntable with a special tone-arm fitted with dual needles; it was not until around 1958 that the single stylus microgroove system (in which the two stereo channels were cut into either side of a single groove) became the industry standard. By the late 1950s stereo LPs and turntables were being introduced. Atlantic's early stereo recordings included "Lover's Question" by Clyde McPhatter, "What Am I Living For" by Chuck Willis, "I Cried a Tear" by LaVern Baker, "Splish Splash" by Bobby Darin, "Yakety Yak" by the Coasters and "What'd I Say" by Ray Charles. Although these were primarily 45rpm mono singles for much of the 1950s Dowd stockpiled his "parallel" stereo takes for future release. In 1968 the label issued History of Rhythm and Blues, Volume 4 in stereo. Stereo versions of Ray Charles "What'd I Say" and "Night Time is the Right Time" were included on the Atlantic anthology The Birth of Soul: The Complete Atlantic Rhythm & Blues Recordings, 1952–1959. Atlantic's New York studio was the first in America to install multitrack recording machines, developed by the Ampex company. Bobby Darin's "Splish, Splash" was the first song to be recorded on an 8-track recorder. It was not until the mid-1960s that multitrack recorders became the norm in English studios and EMI's Abbey Road Studios did not install 8-track facilities until 1968. Atlantic entered the LP market early: its first was This Is My Beloved (March 1949), a 10" album of poetry by Walter Benton that was narrated by John Dall with music by Vernon Duke. In 1951, Atlantic was one of the first independent labels to press records in the 45rpm single format. By 1956 the 45 had surpassed the 78 in sales for singles. In April of that year, Miriam (Abramson) Bienstock reported to Billboard that Atlantic was selling 75% of its singles as 45s. During the previous year, 78s had outsold 45s by a ratio of two to one. Jerry Wexler In February 1953, Herb Abramson was drafted into the U.S. Army. He moved to Germany, where he served in the Army Dental Corps, although he retained his post as president of Atlantic on full pay. Ertegun hired Billboard reporter Jerry Wexler in June 1953. Wexler is credited with coining the term "rhythm & blues" to replace "race music". He was appointed vice-president and purchased 13% of the company's stock. Wexler and Ertegun formed a close partnership which, in collaboration with Tom Dowd, produced thirty R&B hits. Wexler's success for Atlantic was the result of going outside jazz to sign acts who combined jazz, blues, and rhythm and blues, such as Ray Charles, Joe Turner, and Aretha Franklin. Ertegun and Wexler realized many R&B recordings by black musicians were being covered by white performers, often with greater chart success. LaVern Baker had a No. 4 R&B hit with "Tweedlee Dee", but a rival version by Georgia Gibbs went to No. 2 on the pop chart. Big Joe Turner's April 1954 song "Shake, Rattle and Roll" was a No. 1 R&B hit, but it only reached No. 22 on the pop chart. Bill Haley & His Comets's version reached No. 7, selling over one million copies and becoming the bestselling song of the year for Decca. In July 1954, Wexler and Ertegun wrote a prescient article for Cash Box devoted to what they called "cat music"; the same month, Atlantic had its first major "crossover" hit on the Billboard pop chart when the "Sh-Boom" by The Chords reached No. 5 (although The Crew-Cuts' version went to No. 1). Atlantic missed an important signing in 1955 when Sun owner Sam Phillips sold Elvis Presley's recording contract in a bidding war between labels. Atlantic offered $25,000 which, Ertegun later noted, "was all the money we had then." But they were outbid by RCA's offer of $45,000. In 1990 Ertegun remarked, "The president of RCA at the time had been extensively quoted in Variety damning R&B music as immoral. He soon stopped when RCA signed Elvis Presley." Nesuhi Ertegun Ahmet's older brother Nesuhi was hired in January 1955. He had been living in Los Angeles for several years and had intermittent contact with his younger brother. But when Ahmet learned that Nesuhi had been offered a partnership in Atlantic's rival Imperial Records, he and Wexler convinced Nesuhi to join Atlantic instead. Nesuhi became head of artists and repertoire (A&R), led the label's jazz division, and built a roster that included Shorty Rogers, Jimmy Giuffre, Herbie Mann, Les McCann, Charles Mingus, and John Coltrane. By 1958 Atlantic was America's second-largest independent jazz label. Nesuhi was also in charge of LP production. He was credited with improving the production, packaging, and originality of Atlantic's LPs. He deleted the old '100' and '400' series of 10" albums and the earlier 12" albums in Atlantic's catalog, starting the '1200' series, which sold for $4.98, with Shorty Rogers' The Swingin' Mr Rogers. In 1956 he started the '8000' popular series (selling for $3.98) for the label's few R&B albums, reserving the 1200 series for jazz. Joel Dorn became Nesuhi's assistant after his successful production of Hubert Laws' album The Laws of Jazz. Herb Abramson departs When Abramson returned from military service in 1955, he realized that he had been replaced by Wexler as Ahmet's partner. Abramson did not get along with either Wexler or Nesuhi Ertegun, and he had returned from military service with a German girlfriend, which precipitated his divorce from Miriam, a minor stockholder and Atlantic's business and publishing manager. By 1958, relations between Abramson and his partners had broken down; in December 1958 a $300,000 buy-out was arranged; his stock was split between Nesuhi Ertegun and Abramson's ex-wife Miriam, who had in the meantime remarried to music publisher Freddy Bienstock (later the owner of the Carlin Music / Chappell Music publishing empire). Abramson's departure opened the way for Ahmet Ertegun to take over as president of the label. The roles of the other executives with Abramson's departure were Wexler as executive vice-president and general manager, Nesuhi Ertegun as executive vice-president in charge of the LP department and Miriam Bienstock as vice-president and also president of Atlantic's music publishing arm Progressive Music with Wexler as executive vice-president and the Ertegun brothers vice-president of Progressive. Expansion Atlantic played a major role in popularizing the genre that Jerry Wexler dubbed rhythm & blues, and it profited handsomely. The market for these records exploded during late 1953 and early 1954 as R&B hits crossed over to the mainstream (i.e. white) audience. In its tenth anniversary feature on Atlantic, Billboard noted, "... a very big R&B record might achieve 250,000 sales, but from this point on (1953–54), the industry began to see million sellers, one after the other, in the R&B field". Billboard said Atlantic's "fresh sound" and the quality of its recordings, arrangements, and musicians was a great advance from standard R&B records. For five years Atlantic "dominated the rhythm and blues chart with its roster of powerhouse artists". Beginning in 1954, Atlantic created or acquired several subsidiary labels, the first being Cat Records. By the mid-1950s Atlantic had an informal agreement with the French label Barclay, and the two companies regularly exchanged titles, usually jazz recordings. Atlantic also began to get recordings distributed in the United Kingdom, first through EMI on a 'one-off' basis. But in September 1955 Miriam Abramson traveled to the UK and signed a distribution deal with Decca. Miriam recalled, "I would deal with people there who were not really comfortable with women in business, so...we would do business very quickly and get it over with." A subsidiary label, Atco, was established in 1955 to keep Abramson involved. After a slow start, Atco had considerable success with Bobby Darin. His early releases were unsuccessful, and Abramson planned to drop him. But when Ertegun offered him another chance, the result was "Splish Splash", which Darin had written in 12 minutes. The song sold 100,000 copies in the first month and became a million-seller. "Queen of the Hop" made the Top 10 on both the US pop and R&B charts and charted in the UK. "Dream Lover" reached No. 2 in the US and No. 1 in the UK and became a multi-million seller. "Mack the Knife" (1959) went to No. 1 in both the US and the UK, sold over 2 million copies, and won the 1960 Grammy Award for Record of the Year. "Beyond the Sea" became Darin's fourth consecutive Top 10 hit in the US and UK. He signed with Capitol and moved for Hollywood to attempt a movie career, but hits such as "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" and "Things" continued to benefit Atco through 1962. Darin returned to Atlantic in 1965. In 1965, Atlantic formed a budget label called Clarion Records. 21 albums were released simultaneously in 1965, all of them shown on the back cover of their releases. No further albums were issued as the label lasted less than a year. Leiber and Stoller Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller wrote "Smokey Joe's Cafe", which became a hit for The Robins. Their label Spark was bought by Atlantic, and they were hired as America's first independent record producers, free to produce for other labels. Two members of The Robins formed The Coasters and recorded hits for Atlantic, such as "Down in Mexico" and "Young Blood". "Yakety Yak" became Atlantic's first No. 1 pop hit. Leiber and Stoller also wrote the hit "Ruby Baby" for The Drifters. Record producer Phil Spector moved to New York to work with Leiber and Stoller. He learned his trade at Trey Records, a label in California owned by Lester Sill and Lee Hazlewood and distributed by Atlantic. Sill recommended Spector to Leiber and Stoller, who assigned him to produce "Corrine, Corrina" by Ray Peterson and "Pretty Little Angel Eyes" by Curtis Lee. Both became hits, and Atlantic hired him as a staff producer. Ahmet Ertegun liked him, but Leiber said, "He wasn't likable. He was funny, he was amusing—but he wasn't nice." Wexler disliked him. Miriam Bienstock called him "a pain in the neck". When Spector criticized Bobby Darin's songwriting, Darin had him thrown out of the house. Atlantic tolerated Spector but with diminishing returns. He produced "Twist and Shout" for The Top Notes, and it flopped. Songwriter Bert Berns hated Spector's arrangement and thought it ruined the song, so Berns re-recorded it with The Isley Brothers and it became a hit. During his short time at Atlantic, Spector produced music for LaVern Baker, Ruth Brown, Jean DuShon, and Billy Storm. In 1961, he left the label, returned to Los Angeles, and founded Philles Records with Lester Sill. Spector became one of the most successful record producers of the 1960s. Although Leiber and Stoller wrote many popular songs for Atlantic, their relationship with the label was deteriorating in 1962. The breaking point came when they asked for a producer's royalty. It was granted informally, but their accountant insisted on a written contract and an audit of Atlantic's accounts. The audit revealed Leiber and Stoller had been underpaid by $18,000. Although Leiber considered dropping the matter, Stoller pressed Atlantic for payment. Wexler exploded and replied the payment would mean the end of their relationship with the label. Leiber and Stoller backed down, but the relationship ended anyway. Their assignment to work on The Drifter's next recording was given to Phil Spector. Leiber and Stoller worked briefly for United Artists, then started Red Bird with George Goldner. They had hits with "Chapel of Love" by The Dixie Cups and "Leader of the Pack" by The Shangri-Las, but Red Bird's finances were precarious. In 1964 they approached Jerry Wexler and proposed a merger with Atlantic. When interviewed in 1990 for Ertegun's biography, Wexler declined to discuss the matter, but Ertegun claimed these negotiations were a plan to buy him out. In September 1964, the Ertegun brothers and Wexler were in the process of buying out the company's other two shareholders, Sabit and Bienstock, and it was proposed that Leiber and Stoller buy Sabit's shares. Leiber, Stoller, Goldner, and Wexler suggested their plan to Ertegun at a lunch meeting at the Plaza Hotel in New York. Leiber and Stoller told Ertegun they had no intention of buying him out, but Ertegun was aggravated by Goldner's attitude and was convinced Wexler was conspiring with them. Wexler told Ertegun if he refused, the deal would be done without him. But the Ertegun brothers held the majority of stock while Wexler controlled about 20 percent. Ertegun started lifelong grudges against Leiber and Stoller, and his relationship with Wexler was damaged. Stax Atlantic was doing so well in early 1959 that some scheduled releases were held back, and the company enjoyed two successive months of gross sales of over $1 million that summer, thanks to hits by The Coasters, The Drifters, LaVern Baker, Ray Charles, Bobby Darin, and Clyde McPhatter. Months later the company was reeling from the successive loss of its two biggest artists, Bobby Darin and Ray Charles, who together accounted for one-third of sales. Darin moved to Los Angeles and signed with Capitol. Charles signed a contract with ABC-Paramount that included higher royalties, a production deal, profit-sharing, and eventual ownership of his master tapes. "I thought we were going to die", Wexler recalled. In 1990 he and Ertegun disputed the content of Charles's contract, which caused a rift. Ertegun remained friendly with Bobby Darin, who returned to Atlantic in 1966. Ray Charles returned to Atlantic in 1977. In 1960, Atlantic's Memphis distributor Buster Williams contacted Wexler and told him he was pressing large quantities of "Cause I Love You", a duet between Carla Thomas and her father Rufus which was released by the small label Satellite. Wexler contacted the co-owner of Satellite, Jim Stewart, who agreed to lease the record to Atlantic for $1000 plus a small royalty—the first money the label had ever made. The deal included a $5000 payment against a five-year option on all other records. Satellite was renamed Stax after the owners, Stewart and Axton. The deal marked the start of a successful eight-year association between the two labels, giving Stax access to Atlantic's promotions and distribution. Wexler recalled, "We didn't pay for the masters...Jim paid for the masters and then he would send us a finished tape and we would put it out. Our costs began at the production level—the pressing, and distribution, and promotion, and advertising." The deal to distribute Satellite's "Last Night" by The Mar-Keys on the Satellite label marked the first time Atlantic began marketing outside tracks on a non-Atlantic label. Atlantic began pressing and distributing Stax records. Wexler sent Tom Dowd to upgrade Stax's recording equipment and facilities. Wexler was impressed by the cooperative atmosphere at the Stax studios and by its racially integrated house band, which he called "an unthinkably great band". He brought Atlantic musicians to Memphis to record. Stewart and Wexler hired Al Bell, a disk jockey at a radio station in Washington D.C., to take over promotion of Stax releases. Bell was the first African-American partner in the label. An after-hours jam by members of the Stax house band resulted in "Green Onions". The single was issued in August 1962 and became the biggest instrumental hit of the year, reaching No. 1 on the R&B chart and No. 3 on the pop chart, selling over one million copies. Over the next five years Stax and its subsidiary Volt provided Atlantic with many hits, such as "Respect" by Otis Redding, "Knock on Wood" by Eddie Floyd, "Hold On, I'm Comin'" by Sam and Dave, and "Mustang Sally" by Wilson Pickett. Soul years Aretha Franklin signed with Atlantic in 1966 after her contract with Columbia expired. Columbia tried to market her as a jazz singer. Jerry Wexler said, "we're gonna put her back in church." She rose to fame quickly and was called the Queen of Soul. Wexler oversaw production himself at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The result was seven consecutive singles that made both the US Pop and Soul Top 10: "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)" (Soul No. 1, Pop No. 9), "Respect" (Soul and Pop No. 1), "Baby, I Love You" (Soul No. 1, Pop No. 4), "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" (Soul No. 2, Pop No. 8), "Chain of Fools" (Soul No. 1, Pop No. 2), "Since You've Been Gone" (Soul No. 1, Pop No. 5), and "Think" (Soul No. 1, Pop No. 7). In late 1961, singer Solomon Burke arrived at Jerry Wexler's office unannounced. Wexler was a fan of Burke's and had long wanted to sign him so when Burke told Wexler his contract with his former label had expired Wexler replied: "You're home. I'm signing you today". The first song Wexler produced with Burke was "Just Out of Reach", which became a big hit in September 1961. The soul/country & western crossover predated Ray Charles' similar venture by more than 6 months. Burke became a consistent big seller through the mid-1960s and scored hits on Atlantic into 1968. In 1962 folk music was booming and the label came very close to signing Peter, Paul & Mary; although Wexler and Ertegun pursued them vigorously the deal fell through at the last minute and they later discovered music publisher Artie Mogull had introduced their manager Albert Grossman to Warner Bros. executive Herman Starr, who had made the trio an irresistible offer that gave them complete creative control over the recording and packaging of their music. The mid-1960s British Invasion led Atlantic to change its British distributor. Decca had refused access to its British acts, who usually appeared in the US on the London subsidiary. In 1966, Atlantic signed a licensing deal with Polydor which included the band Cream, whose debut album was released by Atco in 1966. In 1967, the group traveled to Atlantic's studio in New York City to record Disraeli Gears with Tom Dowd; it became a Top 5 LP in both the US and the UK, with the single "Sunshine of Your Love" reaching No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Wexler dismissed developments in pop music, dubbing the musicians "the rockoids". However, Atlantic profited from moving into rock music in the 1970s when it signed Bad Company, Led Zeppelin, and Yes. Acquisition by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Despite the huge success Atlantic was enjoying with its own artists and through its deal with Stax, by 1967, Jerry Wexler was seriously concerned about the disintegration of the old order of independent record companies; fearing for the label's future, he began agitating for it to be sold to a larger company. Label President Ahmet Ertegun still had no desire to sell, but the balance of power had changed since the abortive takeover attempt of 1962; Atlantic's original investor Dr Vahdi Sabit and minority stockholder Miriam Bienstock had both been bought out in September 1964 and the other remaining partner, Nesuhi Ertegun, was eventually convinced to side with Wexler. Since they jointly held more stock, Ahmet was obliged to agree to the sale. In October 1967, Atlantic was sold to Warner Bros.-Seven Arts for US$17.5 million, although all the partners later agreed that it was a poor deal that greatly undervalued Atlantic's true worth. Initially, Atlantic and Atco operated entirely separately from the group's other labels, Warner Bros. Records and Reprise Records, and management did not interfere with the music division, since the ailing movie division was losing money, while the Warner recording division was booming – by mid-1968 Warner's recording and publishing interests were generating 74% of the group's total profits. The sale of Atlantic Records activated a clause in the distribution agreement with Stax Records calling for renegotiation of the distribution deal and at this point, the Stax partners discovered that the deal gave Atlantic ownership of all the Stax recordings Atlantic distributed. The new Warner owners refused to relinquish ownership of the Stax masters, so the distribution deal ended in May 1968. Atlantic continues to hold the rights to Stax recordings it distributed in the 1960s. In the wake of the takeover, Jerry Wexler's influence in the company rapidly diminished; by his own admission, he and Ertegun had run Atlantic as "utmost despots" but in the new corporate structure, he found himself unwilling to accept the delegation of responsibility that his executive role dictated. He was also alienated from the "rockoid" white acts that were quickly becoming the label's most profitable commodities and dispirited by the rapidly waning fortunes of the black acts he had championed, such as Ben E. King and Solomon Burke. Wexler ultimately decided to leave New York and move to Florida. Following his departure, Ertegun—who had previously taken little interest in Atlantic's business affairs—took decisive control of the label and quickly became a major force in the expanding Warner music group. During 1968, Atlantic established a new subsidiary label, Cotillion Records. The label was originally formed as an outlet for blues and deep Southern soul; its first single, Otis Clay's version of "She's About A Mover", was an R&B hit. Cotillion's catalog quickly expanded to include progressive rock, folk-rock, gospel, jazz and comedy. In 1976, the label started focusing on disco and R&B. Among its acts were the post-Curtis Mayfield Impressions, Slave, Brook Benton, Jean Knight, Mass Production, Sister Sledge, The Velvet Underground, Stacy Lattisaw, Lou Donaldson, Mylon LeFevre, Stevie Woods, Johnny Gill, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Garland Green, The Dynamics, The Fabulous Counts, and The Fatback Band. Cotillion was also responsible for launching the career of Luther Vandross, who recorded for the label as part of the trio Luther. Cotillion also released the triple-albums soundtrack of the Woodstock festival film in 1970. From 1970 it also distributed Embryo Records, founded by jazz flautist Herbie Mann after his earlier Atlantic contract had expired. In addition to establishing Cotillion, Atlantic began expanding its own roster to include rock, soul/rock, progressive rock, British bands and singer songwriters. Two female artists were personally signed by Wexler, with album releases in 1969, Dusty Springfield (Dusty in Memphis) and Lotti Golden (Motor-Cycle), although Golden also had a close working relationship with Ertegun, who was instrumental in her signing with the label. By 1969, the Atlantic 8000 series (1968–72) consisted of R&B, rock, soul/rock and psychedelic acts. Other releases that year include albums by Aretha Franklin (Soul '69), Led Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin), Don Covay (House of Blue Lights), Boz Scaggs (Boz Scaggs), Roberta Flack (First Take), Wilson Pickett (Hey Jude), Mott the Hoople (Mott the Hoople), and Black Pearl (Black Pearl). In 1969, Warner Bros.-Seven Arts was taken over by the Kinney National Company, and in the early 1970s the group was rebadged as Warner Communications. After buying Elektra Records and its sister label Nonesuch Records in 1970, Kinney combined the operations of all of its record labels under a new holding company, WEA, and also known as Warner Music Group. WEA was also used as a label for distributing the company's artists outside North America. In January 1970, Ahmet Ertegun was successful in his executive battle against Warner Bros. Records President Mike Maitland to keep Atlantic Records autonomous and as a result, Maitland was fired by Kinney president Steve Ross. Ertegun recommended Mo Ostin to succeed Maitland as Warner Bros. Records president. With Ertegun's power at Warners now secure, Atlantic was able to maintain autonomy through the parent company reorganizations and continue to do their own marketing, while WEA handled distribution. Rock era Some acts on the Atlantic roster in this period were British (including Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Yes, Bad Company and Phil Collins) and this was largely due to Ertegun. According to Greenberg, Ertegun had long seen the UK as a source of untapped talent. At his urging, Greenberg visited the UK six or seven times every year in search of acts to sign to the label. For much of its early history, Jerry Wexler had been managers of the label, while Ertegun had concentrated on A&R and had less interest in the business side. But that changed after the sale to Warner. Although Ertegun had been forced into accepting the sale, he turned the situation to his advantage. He gained executive control of the label and influenced the Warner group. By contrast, Wexler was disenchanted by Atlantic's move into rock; he left in 1975. Wexler's protégé Jerry L. Greenberg replaced him and played a role in Atlantic's success during the 1970s. In seven years, Greenberg went from personal assistant to president of the label. Wexler had hired Greenberg and acted as his mentor, teaching him the daily operations of the record business. From Ertegun he learned how to treat musicians. Signing Led Zeppelin and CSN In 1968, by Peter Grant flew to New York with tapes of the debut album by British rock band Led Zeppelin. Ertegun and Wexler knew of the group's leader, Jimmy Page, through The Yardbirds, and their favorable opinion was reinforced by Dusty Springfield, who recommended Atlantic sign the band. Atlantic signed the band to an exclusive five-year contract, one of the "most substantial" in the label's history Zeppelin recorded for Atlantic from 1968 to 1973. After the contract expired, they founded their label Swan Song and signed a distribution deal with Atlantic after being turned down by other labels. In 1969, Stephen Stills was still signed to Atlantic under the contract dating from his time with Buffalo Springfield. His agent David Geffen went to Wexler to ask for Stills to be released from his Atlantic contract because Geffen wanted Stills' new group to sign with Columbia. Wexler lost his temper and threw Geffen out of his office, but Geffen called Ahmet Ertegun the next day, and Ertegun persuaded Geffen to convince Clive Davis at Columbia to let Atlantic sign Crosby, Stills & Nash. The trio was formed following a chance meeting between members of three leading 1960s pop groups – Stephen Stills, David Crosby of The Byrds and Graham Nash of The Hollies. Stills and Crosby had been friends since the early 1960s; Nash had first met Crosby in the mid-1960s when The Byrds toured the UK, and he renewed the friendship when The Hollies toured the US in mid-1968. By this time creative tensions within The Hollies were coming to a head, and Nash had already decided to leave the group. Fate intervened during the Hollies US tour, when Nash reunited with Crosby and met Stephen Stills (ex-Buffalo Springfield) at a party at the Los Angeles home of Cass Elliott in July 1968. After Crosby and Stills sang Stills' new composition "You Don't Have To Cry" that evening, Nash asked them to repeat it, and chimed in with an impromptu third harmony part. The trio's unique vocal chemistry was instantly apparent, so when Nash quit the Hollies in August 1968 and relocated to Los Angeles, the three immediately formed a trio, Crosby, Stills & Nash. After surprisingly failing their audition for Apple Records, thanks to Ertegun's intervention and intense negotiations with David Geffen, who represented Crosby and Nash, as well as Stills, they ultimately signed with Atlantic, who gave them virtually complete freedom to record their first album. The signing was complicated by the fact that Nash was still under contract to Epic Records (The Hollies' US distributor), but Ertegun used his diplomatic prowess to overcome this by arranging a 'swap' – he released former Buffalo Springfield member Richie Furay from his Atlantic contract, allowing Furay's new group Poco to sign to Epic, and in exchange Columbia Records (the parent company of Epic) allowed Nash to sign to Atlantic. In the event, Ertegun and Atlantic were the clear winners. Poco achieved moderate success for Epic, but Crosby, Stills & Nash's self-titled debut album (released in May 1969) became a huge and enduring hit, reaching #6 on the Billboard album chart, spawning two US Top 40 singles, becoming a multi-platinum seller and eventually earning a place in the Rolling Stone list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Hot on the heels of the huge success of CSNY and Led Zeppelin, British band Yes rapidly established themselves as one of the leading groups in the burgeoning progressive rock genre, and their success also played a significant part in establishing the primacy of the long-playing album as the major sales format for rock music in the 1970s. After several lineup changes during 1969–70, the band settled into its "classic" incarnation, with guitarist Steve Howe and keyboard player Rick Wakeman, who both joined during 1971. Although the extended length of much of their material made it somewhat difficult to promote the band with single releases, their live prowess gained them an avid following and their albums were hugely successful – their third LP The Yes Album (1971), which featured the debut of new guitarist Steve Howe, became their first big hit, reaching #4 in the UK and just scraping onto the chart in the US at #40. From this point, and notwithstanding the impact of the punk/new wave movement in the late 1970s, the band enjoyed an extraordinary run of success—beginning with their fourth album Fragile, each of the eleven albums they released between 1971 and 1991 (including the lavishly packaged live triple-album Yessongs) made the Top 20 in the US and the UK, and the double-LP Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973) and Going For The One (1977) both reached #1 in the UK. Much of Atlantic's renewed success as a rock label in the late 1970s can be attributed to the efforts of renowned A&R manager John Kalodner. In 1974, the former photographer, record store manager and music critic joined Atlantic's New York publicity department. In 1975, Kalodner moved to the A&R department, rose rapidly through the ranks, and in 1976 he was promoted to become Atlantic's first West Coast director of A&R. Over the next four years he was instrumental in signing a string of major acts including Foreigner, AC/DC, Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins. Kalodner built his reputation by signing acts that other labels had turned down, and perhaps the most significant example of his achievements in this area was his championing of the Anglo-American band Foreigner. The group was the brainchild of expatriate British musicians Mick Jones (ex Spooky Tooth) and Ian McDonald, one of the founding members of King Crimson. The demo tapes of the songs that eventually became their debut album (including the song "Feels Like The First Time") were famously rejected by almost every major label, including Atlantic – although their tenacious manager Bud Prager later revealed that, in retaliation for a previous bad deal, he deliberately did not approach CBS ("They had screwed me out of a lot of money, so I figured I would screw them out of Foreigner. The band was never even offered to them.") Prager persisted with Atlantic, even though their A&R department and label President Jerry Greenberg repeatedly rejected Foreigner; it was Kalodner's dogged belief in the group (and a live audition) that finally convinced Greenberg to allow Kalodner to sign them and take them on as his personal project. Even then, Kalodner was turned down by twenty-six producers before he found someone willing to take on the project. Despite all the resistance, Kalodner's belief in Foreigner was totally vindicated by the group's massive success – their 1976 debut single "Feels Like The First Time" reached #4 on the Billboard singles chart, their self-titled debut album sold more than 4 million copies, and the subsequent singles from the album kept the group in the US charts continuously for more than a year. In the years that followed, Foreigner became one of Atlantic's biggest successes, and one of the biggest-selling groups in history, scoring a string of international hits and selling more than 80 million albums worldwide, including 37.5 million albums in the US alone. In 1978, Atlantic finally broke the leading UK progressive group Genesis as a major act in the US. Ahmet Ertegun had first seen them perform in the Midwest on one of their early American tours, and it was on this occasion that he also became an ardent fan of their drummer/vocalist, Phil Collins. Jerry Greenberg signed the group to Atlantic in the US in 1973 on Ertegun's advice, but although they were very successful in Europe, Genesis remained at best a "cult" act in America for most of the Seventies. In the meantime, original lead singer Peter Gabriel had left the group in 1975, followed in 1977 by lead guitarist Steve Hackett, reducing the group to a three-piece. Ertegun was directly involved in the recording of the band's 1978 album ...And Then There Were Three..., personally remixing the album's projected first single "Follow You, Follow Me". Although the group did not use this version, it guided them in their subsequent production. Collins later commented, "We didn't use his version, but we knew what he was getting at. He saw something more in there that wasn't coming out before." The released version of "Follow You, Follow Me" gave Genesis their first hit single in the US, the album became their first American gold record, and the experience resulted in Ertegun and Collins becoming close friends. By 1979, Genesis drummer and singer Phil Collins was considering branching out into a solo career. Reacting to the acrimonious breakup of his first marriage, he had begun writing and recording new songs at home, which were considerably different from the material he had been recording with Genesis. Although many in the industry reportedly discouraged him from going solo, Collins was strongly supported by Ertegun, who encouraged him to record an album after hearing the R&B-flavoured demo tapes Collins had recorded in his garage. Ertegun also insisted on changes to the song that became Collins' debut single. After hearing the song's sparsely-arranged opening section, Ertegun said: "Where's the backbeat, man? The kids won't know where it is – you've got to put extra drums on it." Collins replied "The drums come later," to which Ertegun retorted "By that time the kids will have switched over to another radio station." Acceding to Ertegun's demand, Collins took the unusual step of overdubbing extra drums on the finished master tape, and he later commented, "He (Ertegun) was quite right." Although his close friendship with Ertegun helped Collins launch his solo career, the fact that he eventually signed to Atlantic in the US was apparently as much by luck as by design. By early 1980, when Collins was recording his solo album, the record industry was suffering greatly from the impact of the worldwide economic recession, and many labels were beginning to cull their rosters and drop acts that were not providing major returns. At this same time, Genesis' contract with Atlantic was up for renewal, and Collins was yet to sign as a solo artist. As part of the negotiations, Collins and his bandmates wanted their own 'vanity' label, Duke Records, but according to Kalodner, and despite Ertegun's personal interest, the group's demands, and their relatively modest performance in the US made Atlantic executives ambivalent about the deal. Kalodner was overseeing the recording of Collins' solo album while Atlantic were vacillating about signing the band and Collins, but it was at this point that Kalodner was abruptly dismissed from Atlantic, although he was almost immediately recruited to head the A&R division at the newly formed Geffen Records. Angered by his unceremonious ejection from Atlantic, he alerted Geffen to Collins' availability, but to his chagrin, neither Geffen nor any other US label showed interest. He then alerted Virgin Records boss Richard Branson, who immediately contacted Collins' manager Tony Stratton Smith and signed Collins to Virgin in the UK as a solo act. Although Ertegun subsequently disputed Kalodner's account of the Genesis/Collins contract saga, he agreed that the loss of Gabriel was a big mistake, and his regret about his handling of the matter was only compounded by Gabriel's subsequent success with Geffen. Much of this was due to Kalodner, who later admitted that, as soon as Gabriel was dropped from Atlantic, he realized he had made a mistake. In order to make amends to Gabriel, he alerted both CBS and Geffen to the fact that Gabriel was available, and after a bidding war, Gabriel signed with Geffen. They released his fourth solo album (a.k.a. "Security") in 1982 to wide acclaim, and Gabriel scored a minor US hit with the single "Shock The Monkey". Atlantic's regret was undoubtedly heightened when Gabriel achieved huge international success with his fifth album So (1986), which reached #1 in the UK and #2 in the US and sold more than 5 million copies in the US. The irony was further compounded by the fact that Gabriel scored a US #1 hit with the R&B-influenced single "Sledgehammer", which featured the legendary Memphis Horns, and which Gabriel later described as "my chance to sing like Otis Redding." Long Branch warehouse fire Atlantic suffered a catastrophic loss in the early morning of February 8, 1978, when a fire destroyed most of its tape archive, which had been stored in a non-air-conditioned warehouse in Long Branch, New Jersey. The four-story warehouse, located at 199 Broadway, was the former location of Vogel's Department Store, before it closed down in March 1975. The building was purchased less than a week earlier and had been scheduled to reopen as a Nadler's Furniture Center, in an effort to revitalize the downtown area. The building was owned by the family of Sheldon Vogel, the chief financial officer of Atlantic at the time. He had recommended moving the company's multitracks and unreleased recordings to the building after Ertegun had complained about the aforementioned tapes taking up too much space in the company's Manhattan offices in New York. Although master tapes of the material in Atlantic's released back catalog survived due to being stored in New York, the fire destroyed or damaged an estimated 5,000–6,000 reels of tape, including virtually all of the company's unreleased master tapes, alternative takes, rehearsal tapes and session multi-tracks recorded between 1948 and 1969. Atlantic was one of the first labels to record in stereo; many of the tapes that were lost were stereo 'alternates' recorded in the late 1940s and 1950s (which Atlantic routinely taped simultaneously with the mono versions until the 1960s) as well as almost all of the 8-track multitrack masters recorded by Tom Dowd in the 1950s and 1960s. According to Billboard journalist Bill Holland, news of the fire was kept quiet, and one Atlantic staffer who spoke to Holland reported that he did not find out about it until a year later. Reissue producers and archivists subsequently located some tapes that were at first presumed 'lost', but which had survived because they had evidently been removed from the New Jersey archive years earlier and not returned. During the compilation of the Rhino-Atlantic John Coltrane boxed set, producer Joel Dorn located supposedly destroyed outtakes from Coltrane's seminal 1959 album Giant Steps, plus other tapes including Bobby Darin's original Atco demo of "Dream Lover" (with Fred Neil playing guitar). Atlantic archivists have since rediscovered other 'lost' material including unreleased masters, alternative takes and rehearsal tapes by Ray Charles, Vann "Piano Man" Walls, Ornette Coleman, Lennie Tristano and Lee Konitz. 40th Anniversary concert In May 1988, the label held a 40th Anniversary concert, broadcast on HBO. This concert, which was almost 13 hours in length, featured performances by a large number of their artists and included reunions of some rock legends like Led Zeppelin and Crosby, Stills, and Nash (being David Crosby's first full band performance since being released from prison). 2000s A country music division, which was founded in the 1980s, was closed in 2001. Time Warner sold Warner Music Group to a group of investors for $2.6 billion in late 2003. The deal closed in early 2004, consolidating Elektra Records and Atlantic into one label operated in the eastern United States. In 2006, the label denied "Weird Al" Yankovic permission to release "You're Pitiful", a parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful", despite Blunt's approval. Atlantic said it was too early in Blunt's career, and it did not want him to be a one-hit wonder. Although Yankovic could have made the parody anyway, claiming fair use, his record label, Volcano Entertainment, thought it best not to "go to war" with Atlantic. The parody was released online for free on June 7. He later recorded two more parodies, "White & Nerdy", and "Do I Creep You Out", both released September 26 to replace it. He wore T-shirts reading "Atlantic Records sucks" while performing live and, in the music video for "White & Nerdy", he defaces Atlantic's article on Wikipedia, replacing the page with "YOU SUCK!" in large type. In 2007, the label celebrated its 60th anniversary with the May 2 PBS broadcast of the American Masters documentary Atlantic Records: The House that Ahmet Built and the simultaneous Starbucks CD release of Atlantic 60th Anniversary: R&B Classics Chosen By Ahmet Ertegun. That year also saw Atlantic reach a milestone for major record labels. According to the International Herald Tribune, "More than half of its music sales in the United States are now from digital products like downloads on iTunes and ring tones for cellphones", doing so "without seeing as steep of a decline in compact disc sales as the rest of the industry." 2020s In the early 2020s, Atlantic Records adopted new strategies to adapt to the changing media landscape. With new avenues for talent discovery, such as platforms like TikTok, the record company expanded its consideration for new talents to newly emerging artists on social media. Musical acts such as Flyana Boss, Efflo and Flawed Mangoes have subsequently been signed by the music industry giant as a result. Notable sublabels See also Atlantic Records discography Atlantic Records Group List of Atlantic Records artists List of record labels: 0-9 References Additional sources Broven, John (2009). Record Makers and Breakers: Voices of the Independent Rock 'n' Roll Pioneers. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-03290-5. Kramer, Gary (January 13, 1958). "Atlantic and R&B Trend Developed Side by Side". Billboard. Wade, Dorothy; Picardie, Justine (1990). Music Man: Ahmet Ertegun, Atlantic Records, and the Triumph of Rock'N'Roll. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. ISBN 0-393-02635-3. External links Official website Atlantic Records: The House that Ahmet Built Archived October 8, 2008, at the Wayback Machine television documentary in PBS American Masters series Atlantic Records' channel on YouTube Atlantic US/UK A&R team contact list Atlantic Records at Discogs

Modern_Records_(1980)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Records_(1980)

Modern Records was a record label founded in 1980 by Stevie Nicks, Danny Goldberg, and Paul Fishkin. Its logo clearly stated the founding year to avoid confusion with the earlier Modern Records. The label had a distribution deal with Atlantic Records in the United States (also had international distribution with WEA and EMI) and Nicks was the biggest artist on the label, with other artists such as Joey Wilson, Jah Malla, Sandy Stewart, Poe, and Natalie Cole also having records released on the label. Modern Records folded in 1999. The record label was born out of necessity due to Warner Brothers refusing to sign Nicks as a solo act. Notable signed artists Stevie Nicks Rick Vito Sandy Stewart Joey Wilson Jah Malla Poe Natalie Cole References External links Modern Records album discography from BSN Pubs.

Warner_Music_Group

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Music_Group

Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the "big three" recording companies and the third-largest in the global music industry, after Universal Music Group (UMG) and Sony Music Entertainment (SME). Formerly part of Time Warner (then WarnerMedia, now Warner Bros. Discovery), WMG was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange from 2005 until 2011, when it announced its privatization and sale to Access Industries. It later had its second IPO on Nasdaq in 2020, once again becoming a public company. With a multibillion-dollar annual turnover, WMG employs more than 4,500 people and has operations in more than 50 countries throughout the world. The company owns and operates some of the largest and most successful labels in the world, including Elektra Records, Reprise Records, Warner Records, Parlophone Records (previously owned by EMI), and Atlantic Records. WMG also owns Warner Chappell Music, one of the world's largest music publishers. Since August 2, 2018, WMG has expanded its business to digital media operations through its acquisition of Uproxx. History 1950s and 1960s The film studio Warner Bros. had no record label division at the time one of its contracted actors, Tab Hunter, scored a No. 1 hit song in 1957 for Dot Records, a division of rival Paramount Pictures. In order to prevent any repetition of its actors recording for rival companies, and to also capitalize on the music business, Warner Bros. Records was created in 1958; its original office was located above the film studio's machine shop on 3701 Warner Boulevard in Burbank, California. In 1963, Warner purchased Reprise Records, which had been founded by Frank Sinatra three years earlier so that he could have more creative control over his recordings. With the Reprise acquisition, Warner gained the services of Mo Ostin, who was mainly responsible for the success of Warner/Reprise. After Warner Bros. was sold to Seven Arts Productions in 1967 (forming Warner Bros.-Seven Arts), it purchased Atlantic Records, founded in 1947 and WMG's oldest label (until WMG completed its acquisition of Parlophone in 2013), as well as its subsidiary Atco Records. This acquisition brought Neil Young into the company fold, initially as a member of Buffalo Springfield. Young became one of Warner's longest-established artists, recording both as a solo artist and with groups under the Warner-owned Atlantic, Atco, and Reprise labels. Young also recorded five albums for Geffen Records during that label's period of Warner distribution. The Geffen catalogue, now owned by Universal Music Group, represents Young's only major recordings not under WMG ownership. Atlantic, its subsidiary Atco Records, and its affiliate Stax Records paved the way for Warner's rise to industry prominence. The purchase brought in Atlantic's lucrative back catalogue, which included classic recordings by Ray Charles, the Drifters, the Coasters, and many more. In the mid-1960s, Atlantic/Stax released a string of landmark soul music recordings by artists including Booker T & the MGs, Sam & Dave, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Ben E. King, and Aretha Franklin. Ultimately, the sale led to Stax leaving Atlantic because Seven Arts Productions insisted on keeping the rights to Stax recordings. Atlantic moved decisively into rock and pop in the late 1960s and 1970s, signing major British and American acts including Led Zeppelin, Cream, Crosby Stills & Nash, Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Genesis, Average White Band, Dr. John, King Crimson, Bette Midler, Roxy Music, and Foreigner. In 1969, two years after being purchased by Seven Arts, the Warner Bros.-Seven Arts company was sold to the Kinney National Company. In mid-1972, Kinney Music of Canada, Ltd. was renamed WEA Music of Canada, Ltd. (French: WEA Musique du Canada, Ltée) as the Canadian branch of the WEA (Warner, Elektra, Atlantic) company – a division of Warner Communications Inc. Founder and president Ken Middleton ran the Canadian company until his retirement in 1982. The name remained until 1989, when in 1990, it became Warner Music Canada Ltd – a subsidiary of the US-based Warner Music International. Warner Communications CEO Steve Ross led the group through its most successful period until his death in 1992. An earlier attempt by Warner Bros. Records to create an in-house distribution arm in 1958 did not materialize. So in 1969, Elektra Records boss Jac Holzman approached Atlantic's Jerry Wexler with the idea of setting up a joint distribution network for Warner, Elektra, and Atlantic. An experimental branch was established in Southern California as a possible prototype for an expanded operation. Atlantic exerts autonomy It was soon apparent in 1969 that Atlantic/Atco president Ahmet Ertegun viewed Warner/Reprise president Mike Maitland as a rival. Maitland believed that, as vice-president in charge of the Warner Bros.-Seven Arts music division, he should have final say over all recording operations, and he further angered Ertegun by proposing that most of Atlantic's back-office functions (such as marketing and distribution) be combined with the existing departments at Warner/Reprise. In retrospect Ertegun clearly feared that Maitland would ultimately have more power than him, and so he moved rapidly to secure his own position and remove Maitland. Maitland had put off renegotiating the contracts of Joe Smith and Mo Ostin, the presidents of the Warner Bros. and Reprise labels, and this provided Ertegun with an effective means of undermining Maitland. When Wexler—now a major shareholder—found out about the contract issue he and Ertegun began pressuring Eliot Hyman to get Smith and Ostin under contract, ostensibly because they were worried that the two executives might move to rival labels—and in fact Ostin had received overtures from both the MGM and ABC labels. In 1969, the wisdom of Hyman's investments was proved when Kinney National Company purchased Warner Bros.-Seven Arts for $400 million, more than eight times what Hyman had paid for Warner/Reprise and Atlantic combined. From the base of his family's funeral parlour business, Kinney president Steve Ross had rapidly built the Kinney company into a profitable conglomerate with interests that included comic publishing, the Ashley-Famous talent agency, parking lots and cleaning services. Following the takeover, Warners' music group briefly adopted the 'umbrella' name Kinney Music, because U.S. anti-trust laws at the time prevented the three labels from trading as one. Ross was primarily focused on rebuilding the company's ailing movie division and was happy to defer to the advice of the managers of the company's record labels, since he knew that they were generating most of the group's profits. Ertegun's campaign against Maitland began in earnest that summer. Atlantic had agreed to help Warner Bros. in its efforts to establish its labels overseas, beginning with its soon-to-be-established Warner Bros. subsidiary in Australia, but when Warner executive Phil Rose arrived in Australia, he discovered that just one week earlier Atlantic had signed a new four-year distribution deal with a rival local label, Festival Records (owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Limited). Mike Maitland complained bitterly to Kinney executive Ted Ashley, but to no avail – by this time Ertegun was poised to make his move against Maitland. As he had with Hyman, Ertegun urged Steve Ross to extend Mo Ostin and Joe Smith's contracts, a recommendation Ross was happy to accept. Ostin however had received overtures from other companies including MGM Records and ABC Records and when he met with Ertegun in January 1970 and was offered Maitland's job, he was unwilling to re-sign immediately. In response, Ertegun broadly hinted that Maitland's days were numbered and that he, Ertegun, was about to take over the recording division. Unlike the Warner/Reprise executives, Atlantic's execs the Ertegun brothers (Ahmet and Neshui) and Wexler owned stock in Kinney. Ostin was understandably concerned that, if he accepted the position, the Warner Bros. staff would feel that he had stabbed Maitland in the back, but his attorney convinced him that Maitland's departure was inevitable, regardless of whether or not he accepted the post (succinctly advising him, "Don't be a schmuck"). On Sunday January 25, Ted Ashley went to Maitland's house to tell him he had been dismissed, and Maitland declined the offer of a job at the movie studio. One week later, Mo Ostin was named as the new President of Warner Bros. Records, with Joe Smith as his executive vice-president. Ertegun nominally remained the head of Atlantic, but since both Ostin and Smith owed their new positions to him, Ertegun was now the de facto head of the Warner music division. Ertegun was given the formal title of executive vice-president-Music Group. Maitland moved to MCA Records later that year and successfully consolidated MCA's labels, which he couldn't do at Warner. 1970s During the 1970s, the Kinney group built up a commanding position in the music industry. In 1970, Kinney bought Elektra Records and its sister label Nonesuch Records (founded by Jac Holzman in 1950) for $10 million, bringing in leading rock acts, including the Doors, Tim Buckley, and Love, and its historically significant folk archive, along with the successful budget Western classical-music label Nonesuch Records. The purchase of Elektra-Nonesuch brought a rich back catalogue of folk music as well as the renowned Nonesuch catalogue of classical and world music. Elektra founder Jac Holzman ran the label under Warners for two years, but by that time, he was by his own admission "burnt out" after twenty years in the business. Kinney president Steve Ross subsequently appointed Holzman as part of a seven-person "brain trust" tasked with investigating opportunities presented by new technologies, a role Holzman was eager to accept. The same year, the group established its first overseas offices in Canada and Australia. By that time the "Seven Arts" moniker was dropped from the Warner Bros. name. Warner Bros. also founded the Casablanca Records subsidiary, headed by Neil Bogart; but several years later Casablanca became independent from Warner Bros. Warner-Elektra-Atlantic and worldwide distribution With the Elektra acquisition, the next step was forming an in-house distribution arm for the co-owned labels. By this time, Warner-Reprise's frustrations with its current distributors had reached breaking point; Joe Smith (then executive vice-president of Warner Bros.) recalled that the Grateful Dead were becoming a major act but the distributor was constantly out of stock of their albums. These circumstances facilitated the full establishment of the group's in-house distribution arm, initially called . By late 1972, US anti-trust laws had changed and the company was renamed Warner-Elektra-Atlantic, WEA for short, which was renamed Warner Music in 1991 (the word "group" was added after the formation of AOL Time Warner in 2001). WEA was an early champion of heavy metal rock music. Several such bands, including three major British pioneers Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple, were all signed to WEA's labels, at least in the United States. Among the earliest American metal acts to be signed to WEA were Alice Cooper, Montrose, and Van Halen. Up to this point the Kinney-owned record companies had relied on licensing deals with overseas record labels to manufacture, distribute and promote its products in other countries; concurrent with the establishment of its new distribution arm, the company now began establishing subsidiaries in the other major markets, beginning with the creation of Warner Bros. Records Australia in 1970, soon followed by branch offices in the UK, Europe and Japan. In July 1971, the new in-house distribution company was incorporated as Warner-Elektra-Atlantic Distributing Corp. (WEA) and branch offices were established in eight major US cities; Joel Friedman a one-time Billboard writer who had been the head of Warner's advertising/merchandising division in its early years, was appointed to head WEA's US domestic division, and Ahmet Ertegun's brother Nesuhi was appointed to oversee its international operations. Neshui Ertegun, originally a Turkish native like his brother, displayed a global perspective and independence from its U.S. counterpart by successfully promoting international acts in their target markets worldwide. Ertegun headed WEA International until his retirement in 1987. A de facto committee of three senior marketing executives—Dave Glew from Atlantic, Ed Rosenblatt from Warner Bros. and Mel Posner from Elektra—oversaw the integration of each label's marketing and distribution through the new division, but each label continued to operate totally independently in A&R matters and also applied their own expertise in marketing and advertising. On July 1, 1971, following the pattern set by similar joint ventures in Canada and Australia, the Warner labels entered into a partnership with the British arm of CBS Records to press and distribute Warner-Reprise product in the United Kingdom, although this was undertaken as a cooperative venture rather than a formally incorporated business partnership. The Billboard article that reported the new arrangement also noted that, despite their intense competition in the US market, CBS continued to press Warner-Reprise recordings in the US. However the new UK arrangement was a major blow to Warner's previous British manufacturer Pye Records, for whom Warner-Reprise had been their largest account. With the scheduled addition of the UK rights to the Atlantic catalogue, which would revert to Kinney in early 1972, Billboard predicted that the Warner-CBS partnership would have a 25–30% share of the UK music market. In April 1971, thanks mainly to the influence of Ahmet Ertegun, the Kinney group announced a major coup with its acquisition of the worldwide rights to the Rolling Stones' new label Rolling Stones Records, following the expiration of the band's contract with British Decca (then separate from the American label) and the acrimonious end to their business relationship with their former manager Allen Klein. Under the terms of the deal, Atlantic subsidiary Atco would distribute the Stones' recordings in the US, with other territories mainly handled by Warner Bros. international divisions. One of Kinney's wisest investments was Fleetwood Mac. The band signed with Reprise in the early 1970s after relocating to the US, and the label supported the group through numerous lineup changes and several lean years during which the band's records sold relatively poorly, although they remained a popular concert attraction. Ironically, after the group's transfer to Warner Bros. in 1975 and the recruitment of new members Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, the group scored a major international hit with the single "Rhiannon" and consolidated with the best selling albums Fleetwood Mac, Rumours and Tusk. Warner Communications (1972–1990) Due to a financial scandal involving price fixing in its parking operations, Kinney National spun off its non-entertainment assets in 1972 (as National Kinney Corporation) and changed its name to Warner Communications Inc. In 1972, the Warner group acquired another rich prize, David Geffen's Asylum Records. The $7 million purchase brought in several acts that proved crucial to WEA's subsequent success, including Linda Ronstadt, the Eagles, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, and later Warren Zevon. On the downside, however, it was rumored that Warner was soon concerned about its possible liability under the California State Labor Code because of Geffen's questionable status as both the manager of most of the Asylum acts and the head of the record label to which they were signed. The sale included the Asylum Records label and its recordings, as well as Geffen's lucrative music publishing assets and the interests in the royalties of some of the artists managed by Geffen and partner Elliot Roberts. Geffen accepted a five-year contract with WCI and turned over his 75% share in the Geffen-Roberts management company to Roberts and Warner paid Geffen and Roberts 121,952 common shares worth $4,750,000 at the time of the sale, plus $400,000 in cash and a further $1.6 million in promissory notes convertible to common stock. Although it seemed a lucrative deal at the time, Geffen soon had reason to regret it. Uncharacteristically, he had greatly underestimated the value of his assets—within Asylum's first year as a Warner subsidiary, albums by Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles alone had earned more than the entire value of the Asylum sale. Geffen's discomfort was compounded by the fact that, within six months of the sale, the value of his volatile Warner shares had plummeted from $4.5 million to just $800,000. He appealed to Steve Ross to intervene, and as part of a make-good deal, Ross agreed to pay him the difference in the share value over five years. Acting on Jac Holzman's suggestion that Kinney should take Asylum from Atlantic and merge it with Elektra, Ross then appointed Geffen to run the new combined label. In 1976, Warner gained a brief early lead in digital media when it purchased the Atari computer company, and in 1981 it bought The Franklin Mint company. WCI also blazed the trail in visual music with MTV, which it created and co-owned in partnership with American Express. In 1984–85, Warner rapidly divested many of these recent acquisitions, including Atari, Franklin Mint, Panavision, MTV Networks and a cosmetics business. In 1977, Warner Bros. Music, led by president Ed Silvers, formed Pacific Records for their composers and distributed (appropriately) by Atlantic Records. Alan O'Day was the first artist signed to the label, and the first release was "Undercover Angel". The song, which he described as a "nocturnal novelette", was released in February 1977. Within a few months it had become No. 1 in the country, and has sold approximately two million copies. It was also a hit in Australia, reaching No. 9 on the Australian Singles Chart. "Undercover Angel" also landed O'Day in an exclusive club as one of only a handful of writers/performers to pen a No. 1 hit for themselves and a No. 1 for another artist. New signings in the late 1970s placed WEA in a strong position for the 1980s. A deal with Seymour Stein's Sire Records label (which Warner Bros. Records later took over) brought in several major punk rock and new wave acts including the Pretenders, the Ramones and Talking Heads and, most importantly, rising star Madonna; Elektra signed the Cars and Warner Bros. signed Prince, giving WEA several of the biggest-selling acts of the decade. WEA's labels also distributed a number of otherwise independent labels. For example, Warner Bros. distributed Straight Records, DiscReet Records, Bizarre Records, Bearsville Records, and Geffen Records (the latter was sold to MCA in 1990). Atlantic Records distributed Swan Song Records. In 1975, WEA scored a major coup by signing a distribution agreement with Island Records, which only covered the United States and select other countries. For the next 14 years (initially with Warner Bros. until 1982, then with Atlantic afterward), WEA would distribute such artists as Bob Marley, U2, Robert Palmer, Anthrax, and Tom Waits. This relationship ended when Island was sold to PolyGram in 1989. 1980s A name-only unit appearing exclusively in the copyright, WEA International Inc., was created in early 1982, to handle distribution of all Warner Bros., Elektra, and Atlantic (all these namings accounting for the initials in the title "WEA") releases for international countries. A proposed 1983 international merger between PolyGram and WEA was forbidden by both the US Federal Trade Commission and West Germany's cartel office, so PolyGram's half-owner Philips then purchased a further 40% of the company from its partner Siemens, and bought the remaining shares in 1987. The same year, PolyGram divested its film and publishing operations, closed PolyGram Pictures and sold Chappell Music to Warner for US$275 million. WEA formed WEA Manufacturing in 1986. In 1988 WEA took over the German classical label Teldec and the British Magnet label. In 1989, it was announced that Warner Communications was to merge with Time Inc. to form Time Warner, a transaction that was completed in 1990. Following the merger, WEA continued acquiring independent labels, buying CGD Records (Italy) and MMG Records (Japan) in 1989. 1990s Through the 1990s, Time Warner was the largest media company in the world, with assets in excess of US$20 billion and annual revenues in the billions of dollars; by 1991, Warner's music labels were generating sales valued at more than US$3 billion, with operating profits of $550 million, and by 1995, its music division dominated the US music industry with a 22% share of the domestic market. Acquisitions and corporate changes within the Warner group of labels continued after the Time Warner merger—in 1990, WEA purchased French label Carrere Records, in 1992 it bought the leading French classical label Erato, and in 1993, it bought the Spanish DRO Records, Hungary's Magneoton label, the Swedish Telegram Records, Brazil's Continental Records and Finnish label Fazer Musiikki. WEA was renamed Warner Music in 1991. Atlantic launched two new subsidiary labels in the early 1990s: East West Records and Interscope Records. In 1995, East West absorbed Atco Records and was eventually folded into Elektra Records. In 1996, after causing much controversy, Interscope was purchased by MCA Music Entertainment. During 1992, Warner Music faced one of the most serious public-relations crises in its history when a major controversy erupted over the provocative Warner Bros. recording "Cop Killer" from the self-titled album by Body Count, a heavy metal/rap fusion band led by Ice-T. Unfortunately for Warner, the song (which mentioned the Rodney King case) was issued just before the controversial acquittal of the police charged with King's beating, which sparked the 1992 Los Angeles Riots and the confluence of events put the song under the national spotlight. Complaints escalated over the summer—conservative police associations called for a boycott of Time Warner products, politicians including President George H. W. Bush denounced the label for releasing the song, Warner executives received death threats, Time Warner stockholders threatened to pull out of the company and the New Zealand police commissioner unsuccessfully tried to have the record banned there. Although Ice-T later voluntarily reissued Body Count without "Cop Killer", the furor seriously rattled Warner Music and in January 1993 the label made an undisclosed deal releasing Ice-T from his contract and returning the Body Count master tapes to him. Also in 1992, the Rhino Records label signed a distribution agreement with Atlantic Records and Time Warner Entertainment bought a 50% stake in the Rhino Records label. The distribution agreement allowed Rhino to begin reissuing recordings from Atlantic's back catalogue. In 1994, Canadian beverage giant Seagram bought a 14.5% stake in Time Warner, and the Warner publishing division — now called Warner/Chappell Music – acquired CPP/Belwin, becoming the world's largest owner of song copyrights and the world's largest publisher of printed music. In 1996, Time Warner Entertainment made another dramatic expansion of its media holdings, taking over the Turner Broadcasting System, which by then included the Turner cable TV network, CNN and the screen production houses Castle Rock Entertainment and New Line Cinema, acquisitions that brought huge profits into the Warner Group thanks to content assets like Seinfeld and the highly successful The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. By the early 1990s, senior Warner staff like Ostin and Waronker had remained in their positions for several decades—a highly unusual situation in the American music industry—but the death of Steve Ross destabilized the Time Warner hierarchy, and over the next few years the music group was increasingly disrupted by internal power struggles, leading to a string of major executive upheavals in 1994–95, which The New York Times described as "a virtual civil war". The central conflict was between Mo Ostin and Warner Music Group chairman Robert Morgado, who had joined the Warner group in the late 1980s. Because of his political background (he had been the chief-of-staff to former New York governor Hugh L. Carey) and his lack of music industry experience — especially compared to the widely revered Ostin—Morgado was viewed as an outsider at Warner. Nevertheless, he gained favour with Ross and Levin and was promoted in 1985 to oversee the Warner international music division after helping the company slash costs in its computer game sector. Since his appointment as head of WBR, Ostin had always reported directly to Steve Ross and his successor Gerald Levin, but in late 1993, when Ostin's contract came up for renewal, Morgado asserted his authority, insisting that Ostin should now report directly to him. The tensions between them reached boiling point in July 1994 when Morgado appointed former Atlantic chief Doug Morris to head the Warner Music Group in the US, a decision that many saw as a deliberate move to hasten the departure of Ostin and Elektra head Robert Krasnow. Morgado's new structure was announced in August 1994 and Bob Krasnow resigned from Elektra the next day. Within days, after more than 30 years with the Warner music group and more than 20 years as president and chairman of Warner Bros. Records, Ostin announced he would not renew his current contract and would leave Warners when it expired on December 31, 1994. There was more negative publicity the following month, when leading Elektra act Metallica launched a lawsuit against the label, seeking a release from their contract and ownership of their master tapes, and claiming that Morgado had refused to honor a deal they had worked out with Krasnow before he quit. Ostin's departure marked a seismic shift in the corporate culture at WBR and the news was greeted with dismay by industry insiders and the many artists whose careers he had helped to nurture. Lenny Waronker had agreed to take over as WBR chairman and CEO but in October 1994 he announced that he would not be taking up the position; he initially said that he would remain as President of WBR, but by this time there was already widespread speculation that he would leave, and he did so soon afterwards. The following year he re-joined Ostin and son Michael as joint head of the newly launched DreamWorks label. Beginning in August 1994, Morgado alienated Morris by his clumsy handling of Warner's relationship with Interscope Records, the successful label founded by Ted Field and Jimmy Iovine and part-owned by Warner. Morgado had resisted making a decision about increasing the Warner stake in Interscope, which encouraged other companies to make overtures to the label; in response, Morgado threatened to send cease-and-desist notices to executives at several record companies, demanding that they stop approaching Interscope with buyout offers, a move that reportedly infuriated Iovine. By late 1994, Morris was gaining the upper hand over his rival and media reports claimed that Morris had moved to settle with Metallica, offering a deal that was reportedly even more generous than the one they had worked out with Krasnow. Morgado now faced a showdown with Morris, who felt he was not being allowed to run WMG as he saw fit. In October 1994, Morris and 11 other Warner executives "staged an unprecedented insurrection that nearly paralyzed the world's largest record company". This led to a climactic meeting between Morris and Gerald Levin in late October, at which Morris reportedly threatened to quit if he had to continue to report to Morgado. Morgado gave in to the demand that Morris be granted autonomy to run the North American operations and he was forced to upgrade Morris's position from chief operating officer to Chief Executive of Warner Music Group (US); Morris promptly named Danny Goldberg, former president of Atlantic Records, to run WBR in defiance of Morgado, who had a different candidate in mind and Levin also reduced Morgado's power to oversee Warner's mail-order record club division and its international operations. Morris then brought in Sylvia Rhone and Seymour Stein to stabilize Elektra, settled the Metallica lawsuit and persuaded Levin to purchase an additional 25% of Interscope, although this initiative proved short-lived. The power struggle between Morgado and Morris reached a dramatic climax in May 1995 when Morgado was asked to resign by Gerald Levin, following a welter of complaints from executives at the three major Warner Music labels, who said that Morgado was undermining Morris's authority and damaging Warner's reputation among performers. Morgado was immediately replaced by HBO chairman Michael J. Fuchs but the corporate upheavals did not end there; in late June 1995 Fuchs abruptly dismissed Doug Morris, saying that Morris had been "leading a campaign to destabilize Warner Music in an effort to seize control of the company". As Morris's strongest ally, Danny Goldberg was also under threat; he was initially told that he could stay on as President of WBR as long as he refrained from office politics and concentrate on the day-to-day management of the label, but he resigned as President of Warner Bros. Records soon after to pursue "other interests", and was replaced by WBR vice-chairman Russ Thyret. Despite early success with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, and Morris's decision to increase Warner's stake to 50%, by the mid-1990s Interscope Records was being seen as a liability for the Warner group. Time Warner's board and investors had already been bruised by the damaging 1992 "Cop Killer" controversy and now they were faced with renewed criticism about the gangsta rap genre, in which Interscope's associate imprint Death Row Records was a key label. In mid-1995, Time Warner refused to distribute the Interscope album Dogg Food by Tha Dogg Pound, forcing the label to seek outside distribution, and late in the year TW sold its stake in Death Row back to co-owners Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field and soon after it sold off its share in Interscope to MCA Music Entertainment. The upheaval at Warner was beneficial to its rivals, who picked up valuable executives who had left Warner. Goldberg moved over to Mercury Records; Morris joined MCA Music Entertainment Group and led its reorganization into Universal Music Group, now the world's largest record company. In November 1995, Fuchs was himself sacked by Levin, leaving the company with a reported US$60 million "golden parachute", and Time Warner co-chairmen Robert A. Daly and Terry Semel took over the running of the music division. In 1998, Seagram boss Edgar Bronfman Jr. held talks aimed at merging Seagram's Universal Music, headed by Morris, with the venerable British recording company EMI, but the discussions came to nothing; Bronfman then oversaw Universal's takeover by Vivendi. WEA meanwhile continued to expand its publishing empire, buying a 90% stake in the Italian recording and music publishing group Nuova Fonit Cetra. Also in 1998, Time Warner Entertainment bought the remaining 50% of the Rhino Records label they did not own. The Rhino Records retail store in Los Angeles was not included. Rhino then began reissuing the back catalogues of the Warner/Reprise and Elektra/Asylum labels. In 1999, Rhino launched Rhino Handmade, which released limited-edition reissues of lesser-known but still-significant recordings from the WEA labels. 2000s In 2000, Time Warner Entertainment merged with leading American internet service provider AOL to create AOL Time Warner. The new conglomerate again tried (and failed) to acquire EMI, and subsequent discussions about the takeover of BMG stalled, with Bertelsmann eventually offloading BMG into a joint venture with Sony. In 2002, AOLTW further consolidated its hold over the publishing industry, buying 50% of music publisher Deston Songs from Edel AG. By the early 2000s, however, the effects of the dot-com crash had eroded AOL's profits and stock value, and in 2003 the Time Warner board sidelined its under-performing partner by dropping AOL from its business name. As a result of the CD price fixing issue, a settlement was reached in 2002 involving the music publishers and distributors Sony Music, WMG, Bertelsmann Music Group, EMI Music, and Universal Music. In restitution for price fixing they agreed to pay a $67.4 million fine and distribute $75.7 million in CDs to public and non-profit groups but admitted no wrongdoing. Looking to reduce its debt load, Time Warner — the corporate successor to Warner Communications — sold Warner Music Group in 2004 to a group of investors led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. for US$2.6 billion. This spinoff was completed on February 27, 2004. In the 2004 transition to independent ownership, WMG hired record industry heavyweight Lyor Cohen from Universal Music Group (the result of the merger between the PolyGram and MCA label families) to attempt to reduce cost and increase performance. Time Warner (now Warner Bros. Discovery) no longer retains any ownership in WMG, though it had the option to reacquire up to 20% of WMG for three years following the closing of the transaction. WMG did, however, have a royalty-free license to use the Warner Bros. shield for 15 years, as well as the old Warner Communications logo as WMG's main logo. With the expiration of the royalty-free license in May 2019, Warner Bros. Records (which became separate from the eponymous film studio after the spinoff) was renamed Warner Records and a new logo was introduced to replace the WB shield. Once free of Time Warner, WMG began cutting costs by offloading loss-making or low-earning divisions. Like its rival EMI, Warner reacted to the growth of the digital music market by making a historic change, moving out of record production by closing or selling off disc-pressing plants, particularly in territories such as the US and the Netherlands, where production costs are high. The US manufacturing operations were sold to Cinram in 2003, before the purchase from Time Warner. In 2005, the Miami-based Warner Bros. Publications, which printed and distributed a broad selection of sheet music, books, educational material, orchestrations, arrangements and tutorials, was sold to Alfred Music Publishing, although the sale excluded the print music business of WMG's Word Music (church hymnals, choral music and associated instrumental music). On May 3, 2006, WMG apparently rejected a buyout offer from EMI. Then WMG offered to buy EMI and it also rejected the offer. In August 2007, EMI was purchased by Terra Firma Capital Partners. Talk of a possible WMG acquisition of EMI was fanned once again in 2009 after WMG executed a bond offering for $1.1 billion, which brought to light WMG's relatively strong financial position, which was contrasted with the weakened and debt-laden state of EMI. The same year WMG acquired Rykodisc and Roadrunner Records. In September 2006, after pulling its content from the service earlier in the year, WMG entered into a new licensing deal with the video streaming service YouTube. Under the deal, WMG would be able to handle advertising sales for its artists' music videos on the service (as well as monetize user-created videos that include WMG-owned recordings) and partake in revenue sharing with YouTube, and also collaborate with YouTube on building a "premium" user experience for its content and associated channels. On December 27, 2007, Warner announced that it would sell digital music without digital rights management through AmazonMP3, making it the third major label to do so. In 2008, The New York Times reported that WMG's Atlantic Records became the first major record label to generate more than half of its music sales in the U.S. from digital products. In 2010, Fast Company magazine detailed the company's transformation efforts in its recorded music division, where it has redefined the relationships it has with artists and diversified its revenue streams through its expansion into growing areas of the music business. In 2008, WMG and several other major labels made investments in the new music streaming service Spotify. Due to licensing deal negotiations between Google and WMG in 2008, music video content licensed by WMG was removed from YouTube. In 2009, it was announced that the companies had reached a deal, and videos would be re-added to YouTube. As of 2017, WMG had extended its deal with YouTube. In 2009, Warner Music took over its South-East Asian and Korean distribution of EMI audio and video products, including newer domestic releases, which was announced in September 2008. The two companies already enjoyed a successful partnership in India, the Middle East and North Africa, where EMI marketed and distributed Warner Music's physical product from 2005. 2010s WMG formed a partnership with MTV Networks in June 2010 that allowed MTVN to exclusively sell ads on WMG's premium content; in turn, views of WMG videos would be counted as views for MTVN. In May 2011, WMG announced its sale to Access Industries, a conglomerate controlled by Soviet-born billionaire Len Blavatnik, for US$3.3 billion in cash. The price represented $8.25 a share; a 34% premium over the six-month-before average price, and a 4% premium over the day-before price. Overall, this was a drop of over 70% since 2007. According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal ended a three-month sale process in which as many as 10 bidders, including Los Angeles-based brothers Tom and Alec Gores, and Sony Corp. vied for the company. Blavatnik was a shareholder and former board member of WMG at the time of the purchase announcement. The purchase was completed on July 20, 2011, and the company became private. In August 2011, Stephen Cooper became CEO of Warner Music Group replacing Edgar Bronfman Jr., who became chairman of the company. Bronfman Jr. stepped down as chairman of the company on January 31, 2012. EMI label purchase and divestment In 2013, Warner acquired longtime EMI division Parlophone, along with EMI Classics and some regional EMI operations, from UMG for £487 million (around $764.54 million US). This news came after reports that WMG was in talks to acquire EMI's recorded music business, which was eventually bought by Universal. The European Commission approved the sale in May 2013, and Warner closed the acquisition on July 1. The EMI Classics roster was absorbed into Warner Classics and the Virgin Classics roster was absorbed into the revived Erato Records. In November 2013, WMG paid Universal an additional €30 million for Parlophone, following an arbitration process in respect to the original sale price. In order to accommodate a deal made with IMPALA and the Merlin Network when it acquired Parlophone, WMG agreed to offload over $200 million worth in catalogues to various independent labels. The labels had until February 28, 2014, to inform Warner Music of which artist catalogues they were interested in acquiring, and said artists had to approve of the divestments. By March 2015, over 140 independent labels had placed bids on over 11,000 Warner Music artists valuing $6 billion, far higher than expectations. In March 2016, Curb Records acquired Warner Music's 80% share of Word Entertainment, though WMG would continue to distribute the label. In April 2016, the first confirmed sale of a Warner Music artist was the back catalogue of English band Radiohead to XL Recordings. As of the end of May 2016, WMG had sold the catalogue of Chrysalis Records to Blue Raincoat Music, as well as the catalogues of ten other artists, including Everything But the Girl, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, and Lucinda Williams. In September 2016, Nettwerk acquired the rights to albums by Guster and Airbourne from Warner Music. In April 2017, Warner Music agreed to sell the independent distributor Zebralution back to its founders. On June 1, 2017, WMG divested additional artists, including the catalogues of Hot Chip and Buzzcocks to Domino Recording Company; Tom Waits to Anti-; and Howard Jones, Dinosaur Jr., and Kim Wilde to Cherry Red Records. Cosmos Music Group acquired the rights to Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson, while Neil Finn's catalogue moved to his Lester Records label. On July 6, 2017, Because Music acquired 10 French artists, most of London Records' back catalogue, and The Beta Band, while Concord Music acquired albums by Jewel, Sérgio Mendes, R.E.M., the Traveling Wilburys, and several rock, blues, and jazz artists. In August 2017, The Lemonheads and The Groundhogs were transferred to Fire Records. In October 2017, Strut Records acquired albums by Patrice Rushen and Miriam Makeba. In November 2017, T.I.'s catalogue was sold to Cinq Music Group. Woah Dad! (and later Round Hill Music) acquired over 20 catalogues, including those of Ziggy Marley, Estelle, and several Swedish artists. while Believe Digital acquired the rights to EMF and several French artists. In April 2018, RT Industries acquired seven catalogues from WMG, including Sugar Ray and Fat Joe. In May 2018, New State Music acquired the catalogues of Paul Oakenfold and Dirty Vegas. Other winning bidders included The Echo Label (Thomas Dolby, Sigue Sigue Sputnik and Supergrass), Nature Sounds (Roy Ayers), The state51 Conspiracy (Donovan), PIAS Recordings (Failure), Evolution Music Group (Mr. Big), Playground Music Scandinavia (Olle Adolphson), Metal Blade Records (King Diamond), Snapper Music (Mansun) and its sublabel Kscope (Porcupine Tree), Phoenix Music International (Lulu), Kobalt Label Services (HIM), and Tommy Boy Music (which reclaimed its pre-2002 catalogue and the rights to Brand Nubian, Handsome Boy Modeling School's White People, Grand Puba, and Club Nouveau). All the labels had to complete their deals by September 30, 2017; though a few announcements came after that date. Expansion In October 2012, WMG became one of the last major labels to sign with Google's music service. It was also one of the last labels to reach an agreement with Spotify. In June 2013, WMG expanded into Russia by acquiring Gala Records, best known as the longtime distributor of EMI. Later that year, Warner Music Russia agreed to locally distribute releases by Disney Music Group and Sony Music. Later that year, WMG closed a deal with Clear Channel Media that saw its artists paid for terrestrial radio play for the first time. Clear Channel would get preferential rates for streaming songs through its iHeartRadio service and other online platforms. It was believed that the agreement would put pressure on other big labels, including Sony and Universal, to reach similar deals. In 2017, WMG formed a TV and film division, Warner Music Entertainment, led by former MGM executive Charlie Cohen. In March 2020, it hired Kate Shepherd, the former head of entertainment at Ridley Scott Creative Group. This division paired with Imagine Entertainment on a Nat Geo limited series Genius: Aretha, which led to a co-producing and co-financing agreement for a music slate in July 2020. In February 2022, Warner announced acquisition of controlling interest in a South India based distribution label Divo Music. International labels On November 14, 2013, it was determined that Warner Music's releases in the Middle East would be distributed by Universal Music as a result of the integration of EMI's branch in said region. Sony Music India would assume distribution of WMG in India, Sri Lanka, and rest of SAARC countries except Bangladesh. In December 2013, Warner Music began operating the wholly owned South African subsidiary after acquiring the Gallo's stakes that it did not own. In April 2014, WMG announced that it had acquired Chinese record label Gold Typhoon. In April 2016, WMG agreed to distribute most of BMG Rights Management's catalogue worldwide through Warner's ADA division, though a few frontline releases would remain distributed by other labels. Around the end of May 2016, WMG acquired the Indonesian label PT Indo Semar Sakti. Warner Music UK launched The Firepit in May 2016, a creative content division, innovation centre and recording studio located at their United Kingdom headquarters in London. On June 2, 2016, Warner Music acquired Swedish compilation label X5 Music Group. In September 2017, one week after acquiring American rock label Artery Recordings, WMG acquired the Dutch EDM label Spinnin' Records. In February 2018, Warner Music launched a division in the Middle East, based in Beirut, Lebanon. Warner Music Middle East will cover 17 markets across North Africa and the Middle East. In January 2019, WMG signed a Turkish distribution deal with Doğan Media Group, which will represent the record company for physical and digital releases. In May 2019, Warner Music Finland acquired the hip-hop label Monsp Records. In July 2019, Warner Music Slovakia acquired Forza Music, which owned the former state-owned label Opus Records. In February 2021, WMG purchased a minority stake in the Saudi Arabian record label Rotana Records. Elektra Music Group and further investments In July 2017, Warner Music acquired the concert discovery website Songkick. In May, news media reported that Warner Music led an investment round in Hooch, a popular subscription-lifestyle application including blockchain-based payment technology. Announced on June 18, 2018, but effective on October 1, 2018, Warner Music Group launched Elektra Music Group as a stand-alone staffed music company with the labels Elektra Records, Fueled By Ramen, Low Country Sound, Black Cement, and Roadrunner Records. A handful of major artists would transfer from Atlantic. This returned the group back to the Warner-Elektra-Atlantic (WEA) triad that had marked the original company organization for decades. On August 2, 2018, Warner Music announced that it acquired Uproxx Media Group and its properties (except for BroBible, which will continue to publish independently) for an undisclosed sum, although Uproxx has raised around $43m (£33m) from previous investment, which provides some sense of the firm's valuation. In September 2018, WMG acquired German merchandise retailer EMP Merchandising from Sycamore Partners for $180 million. In October 2018, Warner Music Group announced the launch of the WMG Boost seed venture fund. Several labels of Warner Music moved into the Los Angeles Arts District in 2019 where the company had purchased a former Ford Motor Company assembly plant. 2020s On March 9, 2020, WMG expanded to India, creating the Warner Music India unit based in Mumbai and handling business in other countries for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. Jay Mehta (former executive of Sony Music India) would take change of the unit as the managing director in April. Before the division's foundation, Warner's releases were distributed in the country by EMI/Virgin Records (India) Pvt., and by Sony Music India since EMI's breakup. In August 2020, Warner Music acquired Tel Aviv- and New York-based IMGN Media in a deal worth approximately $100 million. In September 2020, WMG acquired the online hip-hop magazine HipHopDX. In 2021, WMG invested an eight figure sum into global multiplayer gaming platform Roblox. This followed WMG artist Ava Max's live performance on the platform the previous year. Warner Music Group had planned an IPO of current investors' stock in March 2020, but withdrew its IPO just before the March 2 kick off due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On June 3, 2020, it completed its IPO on Nasdaq, raising almost $2 billion with a valuation of $12.75 billion, making WMG once again a publicly traded company after previously going private in 2011. On June 12, 2020, Tencent announced that it had purchased 10.4% of Warner Music's Class A shares, or 1.6% of the company. Tencent already owns 10% of shares of WMG's largest competitor, Universal Music Group, which it acquired from Vivendi in March. Also, this makes Sony Music the only major music company not directly owned in any percentage by a Chinese company (it is wholly owned by the Japanese conglomerate Sony). In December 2020, WMG signed a partnership deal with TikTok to provide music to their platform for users to use for their content. The deal is expected to help their revenue grow. In January 2023, Stephen Cooper was succeeded by Robert Kyncl as CEO of WMG. In July 2023, Warner Music Group formed a partnership with Canva, the graphic design platform, to add commercial music to Canva's asset library and enable its customers to insert music clips to their designs. Also in July 2023, WMG made a music-licensing deal with TikTok which included licensing the Warner Recorded Music and Warner Chappell Music to TikTok, TikTok Music and TikTok's Commercial Music Library. In September 2023, WMG opened a new creative hub in Berlin. Later in October 2023, Warner Music Group launched a new creative hub in Amsterdam to house Benelux units and Spinnin' Records. Arts Music On June 6, 2017, Warner Music Group launched a new division, Arts Music, Inc., which transcends the pop mainstream and consists of labels for classical, jazz, children's music, and music scores from films/movies and musical theaters. The division was placed under president Kevin Gore, who reported to Eliah Seton, President of ADA Worldwide, WMG's independent distribution and services arm. At the same time, Warner Classics, including the Erato label, while remaining based in Paris and continuing under president Alain Lanceron, were transferred into the new division. Also, a joint venture with Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records, the theatrical music company, was formed, with founder/president Kurt Deutsch being named as senior vice president of theatrical and catalog development for Warner/Chappell Music. In November 2018, Arts Music signed a multi-year deal with Sesame Workshop to revive the Sesame Street Records label starting early 2019. In June 2019, WMG purchased First Night Record, a musical-theater cast recording company, and placed the company within Arts Music. On June 24, 2019, the division launched the licensed Cloudco Entertainment label with the release of the current Holly Hobbie theme song as a part of a multi-season deal. Build-A-Bear Workshop teamed up with Arts Music and Warner Chappell Music in July 2019 to partner on the Build-A-Bear label, with Patrick Hughes and Harvey Russell. On May 1, 2020, toy manufacturer and entertainment company, Mattel, struck an agreement with Arts Music to become the exclusive distributor of its music catalogue. The agreement at the time was to make available hundreds of "never-before-released" and newly-released albums and singles for existing Mattel properties/brands for digital distribution, beginning with the launch of Thomas & Friends' birthday album a week later on May 8. As a result, the soundtrack album to Monster High: Boo York, Boo York and other Mattel albums previously released under Universal Music Group through its film distribution agreement with Universal Pictures would be re-released under the pseudonym label: Mattel–Arts Music by ADA Worldwide. Music publishing Warner Chappell Music dates back to 1811 and the creation of Chappell & Company, a sheet music and instrument merchant in London. In 1929, Jack L. Warner, president of Warner Bros. Pictures Inc., founded Music Publishers Holding Company (MPHC) to acquire music copyrights as a means of providing inexpensive music for films and, in 1987, Warner Bros.' corporate parent, Warner Communications, acquired Chappell & Company from PolyGram. Its printed music operation, Warner Bros. Publications, was sold to Alfred Music on June 1, 2005. Among the historic compositions of which the publishing rights are controlled by WMG are the works of Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. In the 1930s and 1940s, Chappell Music also ran a profitable orchestration division for Broadway musicals, with house arrangers of the caliber of Robert Russell Bennett, Don Walker, Ted Royal and Hans Spialek. Between them they had orchestrated about 90% of the productions seen up to late 1941. Notes See also List of record labels List of Warner Music Group artists List of Warner Music Group labels References Bibliography Fred Goodman (1997). The Mansion on the Hill: Dylan, Young, Geffen, Springsteen and the Head-on Collision of Rock and Commerce. Jonathan Cape/Random House. ISBN 978-0679743774. External links Official website Business data for Warner Music Group Corp.:

Warner_Records

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Records

Warner Records Inc. (formerly known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the American film studio Warner Bros. Artists who have recorded for Warner Records include Madonna, Prince, Linkin Park, Zach Bryan, Van Halen, Kylie Minogue, ZZ Top, Gorillaz, Bette Midler, Grateful Dead, Jane's Addiction, Duran Duran, Fleetwood Mac, Rod Stewart, Funkadelic, James Taylor, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mac Miller, R.E.M., Bob James, David Sanborn, and the Sex Pistols. History Founding At the end of the silent movie period, Warner Bros. Pictures decided to expand into publishing and recording so that it could access low-cost music content for its films. In 1928, the studio acquired several smaller music publishing firms which included M. Witmark & Sons, Harms Inc., and a partial interest in New World Music Corp., and merged them to form the Music Publishers Holding Company. This new group controlled valuable copyrights on standards by George and Ira Gershwin and Jerome Kern, and the new division was soon earning solid profits of up to US$2 million every year. In 1930, Music Publishers Holding Company (MPHC) paid US$28 million to acquire Brunswick Records (which included Vocalion), whose roster included Duke Ellington, Red Nichols, Nick Lucas, Al Jolson, Earl Burtnett, Ethel Waters, Abe Lyman, Leroy Carr, Tampa Red and Memphis Minnie, and soon after the sale to Warner Bros., the label signed rising radio and recording stars Bing Crosby, Mills Brothers, and Boswell Sisters. Unfortunately for Warner Bros., the dual impact of the Great Depression and the introduction of broadcast radio greatly harmed the recording industry—sales crashed, dropping by around 90% from more than 100 million records in 1927 to fewer than 10 million by 1932 and major companies were forced to halve the price of records from 75 to 35 cents. In December 1931, Warner Bros. offloaded Brunswick to the American Record Corporation (ARC) for a fraction of its former value, in a lease arrangement which did not include Brunswick's pressing plants. Technically, Warner maintained actual ownership of Brunswick, which with the sale of ARC to CBS in 1939 and their decision to discontinue Brunswick in favor of reviving the Columbia label, reverted to Warner Bros. Warner Bros. sold Brunswick a second time (along with Brunswick's back catalog up to 1931), this time along with the old Brunswick pressing plants Warner owned, to Decca Records (which formed its American operations in 1934) in exchange for a financial interest in Decca. The heavy loss it incurred in the Brunswick deal kept the studio out of the record business for more than 25 years, and during this period it licensed its film music to other companies for release as soundtrack albums. 1958–1963: formation and early years Warner Bros. returned to the record business on March 19, 1958, with the establishment of its own recording division, Warner Bros. Records. By this time, the established Hollywood studios were reeling from multiple challenges to their former dominance—the most notable being the introduction of television in the late 1940s. Legal changes also had a major impact on their business—lawsuits brought by major stars had effectively overthrown the old studio contract system by the late 1940s and, beginning in 1949, anti-trust suits brought by the U.S. government forced the five major studios to divest their cinema chains. In 1956, Harry Warner and Albert Warner sold their interest in the studio and the board was joined by new members who favored a renewed expansion into the music business—Charles Allen of the investment bank Charles Allen & Company, Serge Semenenko of the First National Bank of Boston and investor David Baird. Semenenko in particular had a strong professional interest in the entertainment business and he began to push Jack Warner on the issue of setting up an 'in-house' record label. With the record business booming – sales had topped US$500 million by 1958 – Semnenko argued that it was foolish for Warner Bros. to make deals with other companies to release its soundtracks when, for less than the cost of one motion picture, they could establish their own label, creating a new income stream that could continue indefinitely and provide an additional means of exploiting and promoting its contract actors. Another impetus for the label's creation was the music career of Warner Bros. actor Tab Hunter. Although Hunter was signed to an exclusive acting contract with the studio, it did not prevent him from signing a recording contract, which he did with Dot Records, owned at the time by Paramount Pictures. Hunter scored several hits for Dot, including the US No. 1 single, "Young Love" (1957) and, to Warner Bros.' chagrin, reporters were primarily asking about the hit record, rather than Hunter's latest Warner movie. In 1958, the studio signed Hunter as its first artist to its newly formed record division, although his subsequent recordings for the label failed to duplicate his success with Dot. Warner Bros. agreed to buy Imperial Records in 1956 and, although the deal fell apart, it marked the breaking of a psychological barrier: "If the company was willing to buy another label, why not start its own?" To establish the label, the company hired former Columbia Records president James B. Conkling; its founding directors of A&R were Harris Ashburn, George Avakian, and Bob Prince. Conkling was an able administrator with extensive experience in the industry—he had been instrumental in launching the LP format at Columbia and had played a key role in establishing the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences the previous year. However, Conkling had decidedly middle-of-the-road musical tastes (he was married to Donna King of vocal trio the King Sisters), and was thus rather out of step with emerging trends in the industry, especially the fast-growing market for rock'n'roll music. Warner Bros. Records opened for business on March 19, 1958. Its early album releases (1958–1960) were aimed at the upscale end of the mainstream audience, and Warner Bros. took an early (though largely unsuccessful) lead in recording stereo LPs that targeted the new "hi-fi" market. The catalogue in this period included: vocal/spoken word albums by Warner contract players such as Tab Hunter, Edd Byrnes, Connie Stevens, Jack Webb and William Holden novelty/comedy albums by artists such as Spike Jones and Bob Newhart film soundtracks and collections of film and TV themes 'middle of the road' instrumental albums by artists including Matty Matlock, Buddy Cole, Henry Mancini, George Greeley, Warren Barker and "Ira Ironstrings" (a pseudonym for guitarist Alvino Rey, Conkling's brother-in-law, who was in fact under contract to Capitol Records at the time). Some albums featured jokey or self-deprecating titles such as: Music for People with $3.98 (Plus Tax If Any), Terribly Sophisticated Songs: A Collection of Unpopular Songs for Popular People, Songs the Kids Brought Home from Camp, Please Don't Put Your Empties on the Piano, and But You've Never Heard Gershwin with Bongos. Almost all were commercial failures; and the only charting album in Warner Bros.' first two years was Warren Barker's 'soundtrack' album for the studio's hit series 77 Sunset Strip, which reached No. 3 in 1959. Tab Hunter's "Jealous Heart" (WB 5008), which reached No. 62, was Warner Bros.' only charting single during its first year. Early Warner Bros. singles had distinctive pink labels, with the WB logo at the top center and "WARNER" in white Hellenic font to the left of the WB shield and "BROS." in the same color and style font to the right. Below the shield in white Rockwell font, it read "VITAPHONIC HIGH FIDELITY;" this 45 label was used for two years, 1958 – 1960. This initial 45 label was soon replaced by a new, all-red label with the WB shield logo at 9 o'clock and a number of different-colored arrows (blue, chartreuse, and yellow) surrounding and pointing away from the center hole. The first hit was the novelty record "Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)", with words and music by Irving Taylor, which reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was nominally performed by Warner contract actor Edd Byrnes, who played the wisecracking hipster character Gerald Lloyd "Kookie" Kookson III on Warner's TV detective series 77 Sunset Strip. The story behind the recording illustrates the sharp practices often employed by major recording companies. Actress and singer Connie Stevens (who appeared in the Warner TV series Hawaiian Eye) spoke on the song's chorus, but although her record contract entitled her to a five-percent royalty rate, the label arbitrarily defined her contribution to be a favor to Byrnes, and assigned her just 1% royalty on the song, despite the fact that, as she soon discovered, her name was being prominently displayed on the single's label. Warner Bros. also charged her for a share of the recording costs, which was to be recouped from her drastically reduced royalty. When Stevens scored her own hit single with "Sixteen Reasons" in 1960, Warner Bros. refused to allow her to perform it on Hawaiian Eye because it was not published by MPHC, and they also prevented her from singing it on The Ed Sullivan Show, thereby robbing her of nationwide promotion (and a $5000 appearance fee). With only two hits to its credit in two years, the label was in serious financial trouble by 1960, having lost at least US$3 million and music historian Frederic Dannen reports that the only reason it was not closed down was because the Warner board was reluctant to write off the additional $2 million the label was owed in outstanding receivables and inventory. After a restructure, Conkling was obliged to report to Herman Starr; he rejected a buyout offer by Conkling and a group of other record company employees but agreed to keep the label running in exchange for heavy cost-cutting—the staff was reduced from 100 to 30 and Conkling voluntarily cut his own pay from $1000 to $500. Warner Bros. now turned to rock'n'roll acts in hopes of advancing its sales but their first signing, Bill Haley, was by then past his prime and failed to score any hits. The label was more fortunate with its next signing, the Everly Brothers, whom Warner Bros. secured after the end of their previous contract with Cadence Records. Herman Starr effectively gambled the future of the company by approving what was reputed to be the first million-dollar contract in music history, which guaranteed the Everly Brothers $525,000 against an escalating royalty rate of up to 7 percent, well above the industry standard of the day. The duo were fielding offers from all the major labels as their Cadence contract wound up, but Warners eventually won out because the brothers harboured ambitions to branch out into film, and the label's connection to the movie studio provided the perfect opportunity. Luckily, the Everlys' first Warner Bros. single "Cathy's Clown" was a smash hit, climbing to No. 1 in the US and selling more than eight million copies, and their debut Warner Bros. album It's Everly Time reached No. 9 on the album chart. In late 1959, Warner Bros signed a virtually unknown Chicago-based comedian, Bob Newhart, marking the beginning of the label's continuing involvement with comedy. Newhart provided the label's next major commercial breakthrough — in May 1960, three months after the success of "Cathy's Clown", Newhart's debut album The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart unexpectedly shot straight to No. 1 in the US, staying at the top for fourteen weeks, charting for more than two years and selling more than 600,000 copies. Capping this commercial success, Newhart scored historic wins in three major categories at the 1961 Grammy Awards — he won Album of the Year for Button-Down Mind, his quickly released follow-up album, The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back (1960) won the Best Comedy Performance–Spoken Word category, and Newhart himself won Best New Artist, the first time in Grammy history that a comedy album had won Album of the Year, and the only time a comedian has won Best New Artist. Interviewed for the official Warner Bros Records history in 2008, Newhart recalled that at the time he signed with the label he was totally unknown outside Chicago, he was still working full-time as an accountant, and he had done only a few local radio and TV appearances. His break came thanks to a friend, local DJ Dan Sorkin, who knew Warner CEO Jim Conkling. Sorkin arranged for Newhart to make a demo tape of a few of his original sketches, which Conkling heard and liked. Equally remarkably, Newhart revealed that he had never performed in a club prior to recording the album. Warners arranged to record him at a Houston, Texas club called The Tidelands, where he was booked for a two-week residency as the opening act, beginning February 12, 1960, and Newhart freely admitted to being "terrified" on his first night. He quickly realised that he had only enough material for one side of an album, but by the time Warner A&R manager George Avakian arrived for the recording, Newhart had hastily written enough new material to fill both sides of an LP. When Newhart contacted Warners in April to find out when the album would be released, he was amazed to be told that the label was rushing all available copies to Minneapolis, because radio DJs there had broken it, and it had become so popular that a local newspaper was even printing the times that tracks would be played on air. He recalled that the success of the album almost instantly kick-started his career, and that he was soon being deluged with appearance offers, including The Ed Sullivan Show. A few months later, when Newhart met Conkling and Jack Warner at a dinner, he recalled that Warner effusively greeted him as "the man who saved Warner Brothers Records". Despite the turnaround in the label's commercial and critical fortunes at the start of the new decade, Jim Conkling was unexpectedly forced out as CEO during 1961. The ostensible reason for his ousting was that Warner and the studio executives doubted Conkling's commitment to the label, after they discovered that he had sold his shares of Warner Bros stock, netting him around $1 million. However, label biographer Warren Zanes and former WBR executive Stan Cornyn both opined that this was merely a pretext, and that the studio effectively scapegoated Conkling for the label's earlier failures, pointing to the fact that Conkling's successor had been selected well before Conkling was terminated. Conkling resigned in the fall of that year, and was replaced by Mike Maitland, another former Capitol Records executive. Around the same time, Joe Smith was appointed as head of promotions. Warner Bros. made another prescient signing in folk group Peter, Paul & Mary. The trio had been on the verge of signing with Atlantic Records, but before the deal could be completed they were poached by Warner Bros. Artie Mogull (who worked for one of Warner Bros.' publishing companies, Witmark Music) had introduced their manager Albert Grossman to Herman Starr, and as a result the group signed a recording and publishing deal with Warner Bros. Grossman's deal for the group broke new ground for recording artists — it included a substantial advance of $30,000 and, most significantly, it set a new benchmark for recording contracts by stipulating that the trio would have complete creative control over the recording and packaging of their music. Soon after, Grossman and Mogull signed a publishing deal that gave Witmark one of its most lucrative clients, Bob Dylan. Grossman bought out Dylan's previous contract with Leeds Music and signed the then-unknown singer-songwriter to Witmark for an advance of $5000. Two years later in 1963, Peter, Paul & Mary scored two consecutive Top 10 hits with Dylan songs, launching Dylan's career, and this was followed by many more hits by artists covering Dylan's songs, alongside the growing commercial success of Dylan himself. Grossman benefited enormously from both deals, because he took a 25% commission as Dylan's manager, and he structured Dylan's publishing deal so that he received 50% of Witmark's share of Dylan's publishing income—a tactic that was later emulated by other leading artist managers such as David Geffen. Meanwhile, the label enjoyed further major success with comedy recordings. Comedian Allan Sherman (who had been signed on the personal recommendation of George Burns), issued his first Warner LP My Son, the Folk Singer in 1962. The album, which satirized the folk boom, became a major hit, selling over a million copies, and winning a Gold Record award, and is cited as being the fastest-selling LP ever released in the US up to that time. Sherman also scored a hit single in late 1963 with a cut from his third WBR album, My Son, The Nut, when his song "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah" (which satirized the American summer camp tradition) became a surprise novelty hit, peaking at #2. Bill Cosby broke through soon after and he continued the label's dream run with comedy LPs into the late 1960s, releasing a string of highly successful albums on Warner Bros. over the next six years, alongside his groundbreaking career as a TV actor. The label's fortunes had finally turned around by 1962 thanks to the Everly Brothers, Newhart, folk stars Peter, Paul & Mary, jazz and pop crossover hit Joanie Sommers and comedian Allan Sherman, and Warner Bros. Records ended the financial year 1961–62 in the black for the first time since its founding. Warner/Reprise 1963–1967 In August 1963, Warner Bros. made a "rescue takeover" of Frank Sinatra's ailing Reprise Records as part of a deal to acquire Sinatra's services as a recording artist and as an actor for Warner Bros. Pictures. The total deal was valued at around US$10 million, and it gave Sinatra a one-third share in the combined record company and a seat on the Warner/Reprise board; Warner Bros. Records head Mike Maitland became the president of the new combine and Mo Ostin was retained as manager of the Reprise label. Reprise was heavily in debt at the time of the takeover, and the Warner Records management team was reportedly dismayed at their balance sheet being pushed back into the red by the acquisition, but they were given no choice in the matter. Ben Kalmenson, a Warner Bros. company director and close aide to Jack Warner, summoned the label's directors to a meeting in New York and explicitly told them that both he and Warner wanted the deal and that they expected them to vote in favor of it. Despite these misgivings, the purchase ultimately proved very beneficial to the Warner group. Reprise flourished in the late 1960s thanks to Sinatra's famous comeback and the hits by Sinatra and his daughter Nancy, and the label also secured the US distribution rights to the recordings of the Kinks and Jimi Hendrix. Most importantly for the future of the company, the merger brought Reprise manager Mo Ostin into the Warner fold and "his ultimate value to Warner Bros. would dwarf Sinatra's." Ostin's business and musical instincts, and his rapport with artists were to prove crucial to the success of the Warner labels over the next two decades. In 1964, Warner Bros. launched Loma Records, which was meant to focus on R&B acts. The label, run by former King Records promotion man Bob Krasnow, would release over 100 singles and five albums, but saw only limited success and was wound down in 1968. An important addition to the Warner Bros. staff in this period was Ed Thrasher, who moved from Columbia Records in 1964 to become Warner/Reprise's head art director. Among his design credits for the Warner family of labels were The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Are You Experienced, Van Morrison's Astral Weeks, The Grateful Dead's Anthem of the Sun, The Doobie Brothers' Toulouse Street, Tiny Tim's God Bless Tiny Tim, and Joni Mitchell's Clouds, which set off a trend of musicians creating the artwork for their own record sleeves. In 1973, when Frank Sinatra emerged from retirement with his comeback album, Thrasher shot candid photographs for the cover and also devised the album title Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back, which was widely used to promote Sinatra's return to recording and touring. Besides his work on album covers, Thrasher art-directed many of Warner Bros.' ads and posters from 1964 to 1979. In 1964, Warner Bros. successfully negotiated with French label Disques Vogue and Warner Bros.' British distributor Pye Records for the rights to distribute Petula Clark's recordings in the US (said rights previously being held by Laurie Records). Clark soon scored a No. 1 US hit with "Downtown". Warner also released other Pye artists in the US market such as the Kinks. Another significant development in the label's history came in 1966 when Ostin hired young independent producer Lenny Waronker as an A&R manager, beginning a strong and enduring mentor/protegé relationship between the two. Waronker, the son of Liberty Records founder Simon Waronker, had previously worked as an assistant to Liberty producer Snuff Garrett. Later he worked with the small San Francisco label Autumn Records, founded by disc jockeys Tom Donahue, Bobby Mitchell, and Sylvester Stewart (who would soon become famous as a musician under his stage name Sly Stone). Waronker had been hired as a freelance producer for some of Autumn's acts including The Tikis (who later became Harpers Bizarre), The Beau Brummels, and The Mojo Men, and for these recording sessions he brought in several musician friends who were then becoming established on the L.A. music scene: composer/musicians Randy Newman (a childhood friend), Leon Russell, and Van Dyke Parks. Together they became the foundation of the creative salon that centered on Waronker at Warner Bros. and which, with Ostin's continuing support, became the catalyst for Warner Records' subsequent success as a rock music label. Initially, Waronker looked after the acts that Warner Bros. took over when they bought Autumn Records for $10,000, but during the year he also avidly pursued rising Los Angeles band The Buffalo Springfield. Although (much to his and Ostin's chagrin) the band was ultimately signed by Atlantic Records, they eventually became part of the Warner Bros. catalogue after Atlantic was purchased by Warner Bros. Records. In 1967, Warner Bros. took over Valiant Records, which added hit-making harmony pop group The Association to the Warner roster. This acquisition proved to be another huge money-maker for Warner Bros.; The Association scored a string of major hits in the late 1960s, and their 1967 hit "Never My Love" went on to become the second-most-played song on American radio and TV in the 20th century. During the year, the label also took its first tentative step into the burgeoning rock market when they signed leading San Francisco psychedelic rock group The Grateful Dead. Warner Bros. threw the band a release party at Fugazi Hall in San Francisco's North Beach. During the concert, Warner A&R manager Joe Smith took the stage and announced, "I just want to say what an honor it is to be able to introduce the Grateful Dead and its music to the world," which prompted a cynical Jerry Garcia to quip in reply, "I just want to say what an honor it is for the Grateful Dead to introduce Warner Bros. Records to the world." Also in 1967, Warner/Reprise established its Canadian operation Warner Reprise Canada Ltd., replacing its distribution deal with the Compo Company. This was the origin of Warner Music Canada. 1967–1969: Warner Bros.-Seven Arts In November 1966 the entire Warner group was taken over by and merged with Seven Arts Productions, a New York-based company owned by Eliot Hyman. Seven Arts specialized in syndicating old movies and cartoons to TV, and had independently produced a number of significant feature films for other studios, including Stanley Kubrick's Lolita, as well as forging a successful production partnership with noted British studio Hammer Films. Hyman's purchase of Jack L. Warner's controlling share of the Warner group for US$32 million stunned the film world—Warner Records executive Joe Smith later quipped that it was ... as if the Pasadena Star-News bought The New York Times. As ludicrous as that." The newly merged group was renamed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts (often referred to in the trade press by the abbreviation it adopted for its new logo, "W7"). Although Warner Bros. Pictures was faltering, the purchase coincided with a period of tremendous growth in the music industry, and Warner-Reprise was now on its way to becoming a major player in the industry. Hyman's investment banker Alan Hirshfeld, of Charles Allen and Company, urged him to expand the company's record holdings, and arranged a meeting with Jerry Wexler, and Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun, co-owners of leading independent label Atlantic Records, which eventually resulted in the purchase of Atlantic in 1968. In June 1967, Mo Ostin attended the historic Monterey International Pop Festival, where The Association performed the opening set. Ostin had already acquired the US rights to The Jimi Hendrix Experience's recordings, sight unseen, but he was reportedly unimpressed by Hendrix's now-famous performance. During his visit he met Andy Wickham, who had come to Monterey as an assistant to festival promoter Lou Adler. Wickham had worked as a commercial artist in London, followed by a stint with Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate Records before moving to Los Angeles to work for Adler's Dunhill label. Ostin initially hired Wickham as Warner's "house hippie" on a generous retainer of $200 per week. Hanging out around Laurel Canyon, Wickham scouted for new talent and established a rapport with the young musicians Warner Bros. was seeking to sign. Like Lenny Waronker, Wickham's youth, intelligence and hip attitude allowed him to bridge the "generation gap between these young performers and the older Warner 'establishment'". He played a major role in signing Eric Andersen, Jethro Tull, Van Morrison, and Joni Mitchell (who signed to Reprise), whom Wickham successfully recommended to Ostin in his first week with the company. Over the next thirty years, Wickham became one of Warner's most influential A&R managers, signing such notable acts as Emmylou Harris, Buck Owens, and Norwegian pop trio a-ha. During this formative period, Warner Bros. made several other notable new signings including Randy Newman and Van Dyke Parks. Newman would not make his commercial breakthrough until the mid-1970s but he achieved a high profile in the industry thanks to songs he wrote that were covered by other acts like Three Dog Night and Alan Price. Although Warner Bros. spent large sums on albums that sold poorly, and there were some missteps in its promotion strategy, the presence of unorthodox acts like The Grateful Dead and critically acclaimed 'cult' performers like Newman and Parks, combined with the artistic freedom that the label afforded them, proved significant in building Warner Bros.' reputation and credibility. Bob Krasnow, who briefly headed Warner Bros.' short-lived 'black' label Loma Records, later commented that The Grateful Dead "...were really the springboard. People said, 'Wow, if they'll sign The Dead, they must be going in the right direction.'" Although not widely known to the general public at that time, Van Dyke Parks was a figure of high repute on the L.A. music scene thanks to his work as a session musician and songwriter (notably with the Byrds and Harper's Bizarre), and especially because of his renowned collaboration with Brian Wilson on the legendary unreleased Beach Boys album Smile. In 1967, Lenny Waronker produced Parks' Warner debut album Song Cycle, which reportedly cost more than $35,000 to record, making it one of the most expensive 'pop' albums ever made up to that time. It sold very poorly despite rave critical reviews, so publicist Stan Cornyn (who had helped the label to sign The Grateful Dead) wrote an infamous tongue-in-cheek advertisement to promote it. The ad cheekily declared that the label had "lost $35,509 on 'the album of the year' (dammit)," suggested that those who had purchased the album had probably worn their copies out by playing it over and over, and made the offer that listeners could send these supposedly worn-out copies back to Warner Bros., who would exchange it for two new copies, including one "to educate a friend with." Incensed by the tactic, Parks accused Cornyn of trying to kill his career. Cornyn encountered similar problems with Joni Mitchell—he penned an advertisement that was meant to convey the message that Mitchell was yet to achieve significant market penetration, but the tag-line "Joni Mitchell is 90% Virgin" reportedly reduced Mitchell to tears, and Cornyn had to withdraw it from publication. Warner Bros. also struggled with their flagship rock act, The Grateful Dead who, like Peter, Paul and Mary, had negotiated complete artistic control over the recording and packaging of their music. Their debut album had been recorded in just four days, and although it was not a major hit, it cracked the US Top 50 album chart and sold steadily, eventually going gold in 1971. For their second album, The Grateful Dead took a far more experimental approach, embarking on a marathon series of recording sessions lasting seven months, from September 1967 to March 1968. They started the album with David Hassinger, who had produced their first album, but he quit the project in frustration in December 1967 while they were recording in New York City (although he is co-credited with the band on the album). The group and their concert sound engineer Dan Healy then took over production of the album themselves, taking the unusual step of intermixing studio material with multitrack recordings of their concerts. Anthem of the Sun proved to be the least successful of The Grateful Dead's 1960s albums—it sold poorly, the extended sessions put the band more than $100,000 in debt to the label, and Warner Bros. executive Joe Smith later described it as "the most unreasonable project with which we have ever involved ourselves." The Grateful Dead's relationship with Warner Bros. Records was stretched even further by the making of their third album Aoxomoxoa (1969), which also took around seven months to record and cost $180,000, almost twice as much as its predecessor. It sold poorly and took almost thirty years to be accredited with gold-record status. There were further difficulties in 1971 when the band presented Warner Bros. with a planned live double-album that they wanted to call Skull Fuck, but Ostin handled the matter diplomatically. Rather than refusing point-blank to release it, he reminded The Grateful Dead that they were heavily in debt to Warner's and would not see any royalties until this had been repaid; he also pointed out that the provocative title would inevitably hurt sales because major retailers like Sears would refuse to stock it. Realizing that this would reduce their income, the band voluntarily changed the title to Grateful Dead, known generally as Skull and Roses. Some of Warner Bros.' biggest commercial successes during this period were with "Sunshine Pop" acts. Harpers Bizarre scored a No. 13 Billboard hit in April 1967 with their version of Simon & Garfunkel's "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)", and a month later The Association scored a US No. 1 with "Windy", and they reached No. 8 on the album chart with their first Warner Bros. album Insight Out. Their next single "Never My Love" also topped the charts in autumn 1967 (No. 2 Billboard, No. 1 Cashbox), and now ranks as one of the most successful of all Warner Bros. recordings—it became a radio staple and is now accredited by BMI as the second most-played song on US radio in the 20th century, surpassing both "Yesterday" by the Beatles and "Stand by Me" by Ben E. King. The group's 1968 Greatest Hits album was also a major hit, reaching No. 4 on the US album chart. In 1968, Mason Williams' instrumental composition "Classical Gas" reached No. 2 on the Billboard chart, selling more than a million copies, and Williams won three Grammys that year. Another notable Warner release from this period was Astral Weeks, the second solo album by Van Morrison (his first was on Bang), who signed with the label in 1968. Although it sold relatively poorly on its first release (and did not reach gold record status until 2001), it has been widely acclaimed by musicians and critics worldwide, has featured on many "Best Albums of All Time" lists, and has remained in release almost continuously since 1968. During 1968, using the profits from Warner/Reprise, W7 purchased Atlantic Records for $17.5 million, including the label's valuable archive, its growing roster of new artists, and the services of its three renowned executives Jerry Wexler, Nesuhi Ertegun and Ahmet Ertegun. However, the purchase again caused rancor among the Warner/Reprise management, who were upset that their hard-won profits had been co-opted to buy Atlantic, and that Atlantic's executives were made large shareholders in Warner-Seven Arts—the deal gave the Ertegun brothers and Wexler between them 66,000 shares of Warner Bros.' common stock. On June 1, 1968, Billboard announced that Warner Bros. Records' star comedy performer Bill Cosby had turned down a five-year, US$3.5 million contract renewal offer, and would leave the label in August of that year to record for his own Tetragrammaton Records label. Just over one month later (July 13) Billboard reported on a major reorganization of the entire Warner-Seven Arts music division. Mike Maitland was promoted to Executive Vice-president of both the recorded music and publishing operations, and George Lee took over from Victor Blau as operational head of the recording division. The restructure also reversed the reporting arrangement put in place in 1960, and from this point the Warner publishing arm reported to the record division under Maitland. The Billboard article also noted the enormous growth and vital significance of W7's music operations, which were by then providing most of Warner-Seven Arts' revenue—during the first nine months of that fiscal year, the recording and publishing divisions generated 74% of the corporation's total profit, with the publishing division alone accounting for over US$2 million of ASCAP's collections from music users. 1969–1972: Kinney takeover In 1969, Warner Bros.-Seven Arts was taken over by the Kinney National Company, headed by New York businessman Steve J. Ross, who would successfully lead the Warner group of companies until his death in 1992. The US$400 million deal created a new conglomerate that combined the Warner film, television, recording, and music publishing divisions with Kinney's multi-faceted holdings. Ross had founded the company in the late 1950s while working in his family's funeral business—seeing the opportunity to use the company's cars, which were idle at night, he founded a successful car hire operation, which he later merged with the Kinney parking garage company. Ross took the company public in 1962, and from this base it expanded rapidly between 1966 and 1968, merging with National Cleaning Services in 1966 to form the Kinney National Company, and then acquiring a string of companies that would prove of enormous value to the Warner group in the years ahead–National Periodical Publications (which included DC Comics and All American Comics), the Ashley-Famous talent agency, and Panavision. In the summer of 1969, Atlantic Records agreed to assist Warner Bros. Records in establishing overseas divisions, but when Warner executive Phil Rose arrived in Australia to begin setting up a subsidiary there, he discovered that just one week earlier Atlantic had signed a new four-year production and distribution deal with local label Festival Records without informing Warner Bros. During 1969, the rivalry between Mike Maitland and Ahmet Ertegun quickly escalated into an all-out executive battle, but Steve Ross favored Ertegun, and the conflict culminated in Maitland being dismissed from his position on January 25, 1970. He declined an offer of a job with Warner Bros. Pictures and left the company, subsequently becoming president of MCA Records. Mo Ostin was appointed president of Warner Bros. Records with Joe Smith as executive vice-president. In 1970, the 'Seven Arts' name was dropped and the WB shield became the Warner Bros. Records logo again. 1970–1979: The Ostin era Beginning back in 1967 with the signing of the Grateful Dead, Warner Bros. Records and its affiliate labels steadily built up a diverse and prestigious lineup of rock and pop artists through the 1970s, and earning a strong reputation as an "artists first" record company. Under the guidance of Edward West, vice-president of Warner Bros. Records Inc in 1973 and its executives, A&R managers and staff producers, including Mo Ostin, Chason Samuel, David Geffen, Joe Smith, Stan Cornyn, Lenny Waronker, Andy Wickham, Russ Titelman and ex-Warner Bros. recording artist (with Harpers Bizarre) Ted Templeman, sales grew steadily throughout the decade and by the end of the 1970s Warner Bros. and its sister labels had become one of the world's leading recording groups, with a star-studded roster that included Fleetwood Mac, James Taylor, Van Morrison, America, Alice Cooper, Carly Simon, Van Halen, the Doobie Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, Chaka Khan, Ambrosia, and Rickie Lee Jones. This was augmented by the group's valuable back-catalogue, and lucrative licensing deals with American and international labels including Sire, Vertigo and Island Records (1975–1982) that gave WBR the American distribution rights for leading British and European rock acts including Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath, Roxy Music, King Crimson and Kraftwerk. Aided by the growth of FM radio and the album oriented rock format, LPs became the primary vehicle of Warner Bros. sales successes throughout the 1970s, although artists such as the Doobie Brothers and America also scored many major US and international hit singles. One of the first Warner Bros. albums to achieve both critical and commercial success in the early 1970s was Van Morrison's third solo album Moondance (January 1970) which consolidated his distinctive blend of rock, jazz and R&B, earned glowing critical praise and sold well—it made the Top 40 album chart in both the US and the UK, the single "Come Running" was a US Top 40 hit (No. 39, Billboard) and the title track became a radio perennial. British group Black Sabbath were signed to Philips Records' progressive subsidiary Vertigo in their native country. Deep Purple, who recorded for EMI's Parlophone and Harvest labels in England, were originally signed in the US to the independent Tetragrammaton Records, which was distributed by Warner Bros., who acquired the label after it folded in 1970. Black Sabbath's eponymous debut album (recorded in just two days) reached No. 8 on the UK album chart, and No. 23 on the Billboard 200, where it remained for over a year, selling strongly despite some negative reviews. It has since been certified platinum in the US by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and in the UK by British Phonographic Industry (BPI). Sabbath's second album was to have been called War Pigs, but Warner Bros. Records changed the title to Paranoid fearing a backlash by consumers. It was a Top 10 hit on the US album chart in 1971, and went on to sell four million copies in the US alone with virtually no radio airplay. By 1970, "Seven Arts" was dropped from the company name and the WB shield became the Warner Bros. Records logo again. During 1972, a financial scandal in its parking operations forced Kinney National to spin off its non-entertainment assets, and the Warner recording, publishing and film divisions then became part of a new umbrella company, Warner Communications. In July 1970, the Warner recording group acquired another prestige asset with the purchase of Jac Holzman's Elektra Records for US$10 million. Like Atlantic, the new acquisition came with a very valuable back-catalogue, which included the Doors, Love, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Tim Buckley, the Stooges, MC5 and Bread, but Elektra soon began producing more major hits under the Warner umbrella. Recent signing Carly Simon scored two successive Top 20 singles in 1971 with "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" and "Anticipation", and her first two albums both made the Billboard Top 50, but the following year she topped the single and album charts with her international smash hit "You're So Vain" and the album No Secrets, which both went to No. 1 in the US Jac Holzman ran the label until 1972, when he was succeeded by David Geffen and Elektra was merged with Geffen's label Asylum Records. Geffen was forced to step down in 1975 for health reasons and Joe Smith was appointed president in his place, although the label's fortunes subsequently waned considerably, with Elektra-Asylum reportedly losing some $27 million during the last two years of Smith's tenure. With three co-owned record companies, the next step was the formation of the group's in-house distribution arm, initially called Kinney Records Distributing Corporation, to better control distribution of product and make sure records by breaking new acts were available. In 1971, UK-based pop rock trio America were signed to the recently established British division of Warner Bros. Their debut album, released late in the year, at first enjoyed only moderate success, but in early 1972 their single "A Horse with No Name" became a major international hit, reaching No. 1 in the US. Warner hastily reissued the album with the song included and it too became a huge hit, reaching No. 1 on the US album chart and eventually earning a platinum record award. Although criticized for their similarity to Neil Young (indeed, rumors circulated around Hollywood that Young had cut the track anonymously), America scored five more US Top 10 singles over the next three years, including a second US No. 1 with "Sister Golden Hair" in 1975. Their albums performed very strongly in the charts—each of their first seven albums were US Top 40 albums, five of these made the Top 10 and all but one (Hat Trick, 1973) achieved either gold or platinum status. Their 1975 Greatest Hits album became a perennial seller and is now accredited at 4× platinum. In 1972, Dionne Warwick was signed to Warner Bros. Records after leaving Scepter Records in what was the biggest contract at the time for a female recording artist, although her five years at Warner Bros. were relatively unsuccessful in comparison to her spectacular hit-making tenure at Scepter. After a slow start, the Doobie Brothers proved to be one of Warner Bros.' most successful signings. Their debut album made little impact but their second album Toulouse Street (1972) reached No. 21 and spawned two US Top 40 singles, "Listen to the Music" and "Jesus is Just Alright", inaugurating a string of hit albums and singles over the next five years. Their third album The Captain and Me was even more successful, reaching No. 7 in the US and producing two more hit singles, "China Grove" (#15) and "Long Train Runnin'" (#8); it became a consistent seller and is now accredited 2× Platinum by the RIAA. What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits (1974) reached No. 4 and produced two more hits including their first US No. 1 single "Black Water" (1975). Stampede also reached No. 4, and produced another hit single with the Motown cover "Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)" (US #11). Warner Bros. Records' reputation for nurturing new artists was demonstrated by the career of Alice Cooper (originally the name of the band, but later taken over as the stage name / persona of singer and main songwriter Vince Furnier). The Alice Cooper band recorded two unsuccessful albums for Frank Zappa's Warner-distributed label Straight Records before teaming with producer Bob Ezrin, who became a longtime collaborator. Their third LP Love it to Death (originally released on Straight and later reissued on Warner Bros.) reached No. 35 on the Billboard album chart and produced the hit single "I'm Eighteen", which reached No. 21. Following the runaway success of their 1971 European tour Warner Bros. Records offered the band a multi-album contract; their first Warner Bros. album Killer sold well, with the single "Halo of Flies" making the Top 10 in the Netherlands, but it was their next album School's Out (1972) that really put them on the map. The title song was a Top 10 hit in the US, reached No. 1 in the UK and became a radio staple, and the album went to No. 2 in the US and sold more than a million copies. Billion Dollar Babies (1973) became their biggest success, going to No. 1 in both the US and the UK. The follow-up Muscle of Love (1973) was less successful, although the single "Teenage Lament '74 was a Top 20 hit in the UK. Furnier split from the band in 1974 and signed to Warner Bros.' sister label, Atlantic as a solo artist, scoring further success with his solo albums and singles. In 1973, Frank Zappa and manager Herb Cohen closed the Straight and Bizarre labels and established a new imprint, DiscReet Records, retaining their distribution deal with Warner Bros. Zappa's next album Apostrophe (') (1973) became the biggest commercial success of his career, reaching No. 10 on the Billboard album chart, and the single "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" was a minor hit and (at the time) his only single to make the Hot 100 chart. Zappa also enjoyed moderate commercial success with the live double album Roxy and Elsewhere (1974) and his next studio album One Size Fits All (1975), both of which reached the Top 30 on the Billboard album chart. WBR introduced a new label design for its LPs and singles in mid-1973. This design, which WBR would use until mid-1978, featured a multi-colored, idealized watercolor painting of a Burbank street lined by palms and eucalypts, and titled with the slogan "Burbank, Home of Warner Bros. Records". According to the label's official history, the design was copied from a similarly styled "orange crate art" fruit company label illustration created by an unknown commercial artist in the 1920s. After several years as a 'cult' artist, Randy Newman achieved his first significant commercial success as a solo artist with his 1974 album Good Old Boys which made the Top 40. His controversial 1977 single "Short People" was one of the surprise hits of the year, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. On October 12, 1974, WBR and Phil Spector established Warner-Spector Records, but the label was short-lived and folded in 1977; most of its releases were reissues Philles Records recordings from the 1960s and the only new material released was two singles by the disco group Calhoon and a single by Cher. In 1975 David Geffen was obliged to leave the company for health reasons, after being told that he had a terminal illness (although this later proved to be a false diagnosis). In his place, Joe Smith was promoted to become President of the combined Elektra/Asylum label. At this time Warner Bros. began to wind down the Reprise label. In 1976–77 almost all Reprise acts, including Fleetwood Mac, Gordon Lightfoot, Ry Cooder and Michael Franks were transferred to Warner Bros., leaving only Neil Young (who refused to move) and founder Frank Sinatra. Apart from these artists and some reissues, the Reprise label was dormant until it was reactivated in 1986 with the issue of the Dream Academy's single "The Love Parade" on Reprise 28750. By far the most successful of the Reprise acts who moved to Warner Bros. was Fleetwood Mac, whose massive success firmly established Warner Bros. in the front rank of major labels—although few would have predicted it from the band's tumultuous history. Between 1970 and 1975 there were multiple lineup changes (with only two original members remaining by 1974), their album sales declined drastically, and a legal battle over the group's name kept them off the road for over a year. However, just as Fleetwood Mac was switching labels in 1975, the group re-invigorated by the recruitment of new members Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. The 'new' Fleetwood Mac scored a string of US and international hits and their self-titled Reprise debut album was a huge success, reaching No. 1 in the US, charting for more than 30 weeks and selling more than 5 million copies. In 1977, their now-legendary Rumours took both group and Warner Bros. label to even greater heights—it generated a string of international hit singles and became the most successful album in the label's history; it is currently ranked the 11th biggest selling album of all time and as of 2009 was estimated to have sold more than 40 million copies. After a string of albums with the Faces and as a solo artist for Mercury Records in the early 1970s, British singer Rod Stewart signed with Warner Bros. in 1974, applied for American citizenship and moved to the US. Launching a sustained run of success, his Warner debut album Atlantic Crossing (1975) was a major international hit, reaching No. 9 on the Billboard album chart and No. 1 in Australia, with the single "I Don't Want to Talk About It" going to No. 1 in the UK. His second WBR album A Night on the Town (1976) went to No. 2 in the US and No. 1 in Australia and produced three US Top 40 singles, including his first US No. 1 "Tonight's the Night". Foot Loose & Fancy Free (1977) reached No. 2 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart and No. 1 in Australia and again produced three US Top 40 singles, including "You're in My Heart (The Final Acclaim)", which reached No. 4. Blondes Have More Fun (1978) went to No. 1 in the US and Australia, and produced two more Top 40 singles including his second US No. 1, "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy" (although Stewart and co-writer Carmine Appice were later successfully sued for plagiarizing the song's catchy melody hook from "Taj Mahal" by Brazilian songwriter Jorge Ben). Stewart's Greatest Hits collection (1979) went to No. 1 in the UK and Australia, giving the singer a record-breaking five consecutive No. 1 albums in the latter country. Warner Bros. Records also had unexpected success in the mid-1970s with another 'heritage' act, veteran vocal group the Four Seasons. In early 1975, they signed with Curb Records (which was distributed by WBR) just as lead singer Frankie Valli scored a surprise hit with his independently released solo single "My Eyes Adored You". Soon after, Valli and The Four Seasons burst back onto the charts with the disco-styled "Who Loves You", which reached No. 3 in the US and sold more than a million copies, and the album Who Loves You sold more than 1 million copies. Their next single "December 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" topped the charts in both Britain and the US in early 1976, becoming the group's first US No. 1 since 1967. A remixed version was a hit again in 1994 and its total of 54 weeks in charts gives it the longest tenure of any song on the Billboard Hot 100. By the time of The Doobie Brothers 1976 album Takin' It to the Streets, founding member Tom Johnston had effectively left the band and he was replaced by former Steely Dan session man Michael McDonald, whose distinctive voice helped to propel the group to even greater success. The new album sold strongly, reaching No. 8 in the US, and the title track reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming a perennial on radio playlists. Warner Bros. also released the massively successful Best of the Doobies (1976), which has become one of the biggest-selling albums of all time and is currently accredited at 10× Platinum status. 1978's Minute by Minute marked the peak of their career—both the album and its lead single "What A Fool Believes" went to No. 1 in the US and the album's title track also made the US Top 20, although it was their last album with founding drummer John Hartman and long-serving guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. During the late 1970s, Warner Bros.' reputation as an "artists first" label was challenged by a bitter and long-running dispute with Frank Zappa. In 1976, Zappa's relationship with manager Herb Cohen ended in litigation. For Zoot Allures, Zappa took his own copy of the master directly to Warner Bros. Records, who agreed to release the album, therefore bypassing Cohen and DiscReet. However, Warner Bros. changed their position following legal action from Cohen. Zappa was then obligated to deliver four more albums to Warner Bros. for release on DiscReet. Zappa sequenced a double live album and three studio albums, but Warner Bros. objected to some or all of these recordings and refused to reimburse Zappa for production costs, as required by the DiscReet distribution contract. Zappa then re-edited the material into a 4-LP set called Läther (pronounced 'leather'), made a deal with Phonogram, and scheduled the release of Läther for Halloween 1977. However, Warner Bros. threatened legal action, forcing Zappa to shelve the release. Infuriated, Zappa hosted a broadcast on KROQ-FM in Pasadena, California, where he played the entire Läther album in sequence, repeatedly criticizing Warner Bros., and openly encouraging listeners to record the broadcast. Warner Bros. took further legal action against Zappa, which prevented him from issuing any material for over a year. During 1978 and 1979, Warner Bros. issued the disputed material over four albums – Zappa in New York (an edited and censored version of the original 1977 live double album), Studio Tan, Sleep Dirt and Orchestral Favorites. Zappa eventually won the rights to his Straight, Bizarre, DiscReet and Warner Bros. material, but remained trenchantly critical of his treatment by Warner Bros. for the rest of his life. Zappa's recordings were subsequently reissued on CD by Rykodisc (ironically it was later acquired by Warner Music), including Läther, which appeared posthumously in 1996. Ry Cooder was another Reprise act who was transferred to Warner Bros. in 1977. His first Warner release was the 1977 live album Showtime and he remained with the label until his contract expired in the late 1980s. His 1979 album Bop 'Til You Drop is notable as the first major-label rock album to be digitally recorded, and it became the best-selling album of his career. Thanks to its distribution deal with Curb Records, WBR scored the biggest hit single in the company's history in 1977. The ballad "You Light Up My Life" (written and produced by Joe Brooks) was originally recorded by the late Kasey Cisyk for the soundtrack to the film of the same name, in which actress Didi Conn lip-synched to Cisyk's recording. Teenager Debby Boone (daughter of actor-singer Pat Boone) was recruited to record a new version for single release, and this became a massive success, topping the Billboard Hot 100 for a record-setting 10 consecutive weeks, and earning a Platinum certification from the RIAA. It became the most successful single of the 1970s in the United States, setting what was then a new record for longest run at No. 1 in the US and surpassing Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog". Boone's success also earned her Grammy nominations for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance " and "Record of the Year" and won her the 1977 Grammy for "Best New Artist" and the 1977 American Music Award for "Favorite Pop Single". The song also earned Joe Brooks the 1977 "Song of the Year" Grammy (tied with "Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born)") as well as "Best Original Song" at both the 1977 Golden Globe and Academy Awards. Throughout the 1970s, Warner Bros. also benefited from its US/Canada distribution deals with independent labels such as Straight Records, DiscReet Records, UK labels Chrysalis (1972–1976) and Island (1974–1982), Bizarre Records, Bearsville Records (1970–1984) and Geffen Records (which was sold to MCA in 1990). Although primarily associated with mainstream white acts in the Seventies, Warner Bros.' distribution deals with smaller labels also brought it some success in the disco, soul and funk genres in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Among the imprints it distributed that were notable in these fields were Seymour Stein's Sire Records (which Warner Bros. soon purchased), Curtis Mayfield's Curtom, Norman Whitfield's Whitfield Records, Quincy Jones' Qwest, Prince's Paisley Park, RFC Records (formed in December 1978 when Ray Caviano became the executive director of Warner's disco division), and Tom Silverman's Tommy Boy Records (another label Warner Bros. eventually took over). Until the late 1970s, Warner Bros. itself still had very few African American music artists on its roster, but this began to change with the signing of artists such as George Benson and Prince. Benson had risen to prominence in jazz in the 1960s but was still relatively little-known by the general public. However, his move to Warner Bros. in 1976 and the teaming with producer Tommy LiPuma enabled him to straddle genres and made him a popular and highly successful mainstream R&B and pop artist. His first Warner Bros. album Breezin' (1976) became one of the most successful jazz albums of the decade and a major 'crossover' hit—it topped the American Pop, R&B and Jazz album charts and produced two hit singles, the title track (which became a Jazz standard and a radio favorite) and "This Masquerade", which was a Top 10 pop and R&B hit. Benson enjoyed enormous success with his subsequent Warner albums. All of his Warner albums made the Top 20 on the US jazz album chart and beginning with Breezin', he scored seven consecutive US No. 1 jazz albums; the first five of these were also Top 20 hits on both the Pop and R&B charts. His live version of Leiber & Stoller's "On Broadway" (from his 1978 live album Weekend in L.A.) outcharted the original version by the Drifters, reaching No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, and gained further exposure thanks to its memorable use in the famous audition sequence in Bob Fosse's 1979 film All That Jazz. Benson's most successful single "Give Me the Night" (1980) became his first US No. 1 R&B hit, reached No. 4 on the Pop chart and also reached No. 2 on the Hot Disco Singles chart. Prince signed to Warner Bros. in 1977. His first album For You made little impact, although the single "Soft and Wet" reached No. 12 on the Billboard R&B chart. However, his second self-titled album (1979) fared considerably better, reaching No. 3 on the R&B album chart and earning a gold record award; the first single lifted from the album, "I Wanna Be Your Lover" became Prince's first crossover hit, reaching No. 1 on the R&B chart and No. 11 on the main pop chart, while the follow-up single "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" reached No. 13 on the R&B chart. Although he was still little known outside the US at this stage, this early success set the stage for his major commercial breakthrough in the 1980s. Another valuable late 1970s discovery was metal-pop band Van Halen, who were spotted at a Hollywood club by Mo Ostin and Ted Templeman in 1977. Their self-titled debut album was a notable success, reaching No. 19 on the Billboard album chart, and their second album Van Halen II (1979) reached No. 6 and produced their first hit single "Dance the Night Away" (#19). Warner Bros. also began to tentatively embrace the burgeoning new wave movement in the late 1970s, signing cult bands Devo and the B-52s. A crucial acquisition in this field—and one which would soon prove to be of enormous importance to the company—was the New York-based Sire Records, founded in 1966 by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer. Warner Bros. took over Sire's distribution from ABC Records in 1977 and bought the label in 1978, retaining Stein as its president. The addition of the Sire roster gave Warner Bros. an important foothold in this area (indeed, Stein is often credited with naming the genre to replace the term "punk", which he disliked); its American signings included the Ramones, the Dead Boys, and Talking Heads and most importantly of all, Madonna, who soon became the most successful female artist in music history, earning billions for Warner. Sire's distribution deals with British independent labels including Mute, Rough Trade, Korova and Fiction gave WEA the American rights to important UK-based New Wave bands including Depeche Mode, the Smiths, the Beat, Madness, Echo & the Bunnymen, and the Cure. Into the 1990s, the label had continued success with Seal, k.d. lang, Tommy Page, Ice-T, and Ministry. In the late 1970s, Warner Bros. also scored mainstream pop hits with singer/actor Shaun Cassidy—his version of "Da Doo Ron Ron" went to No. 1 in the US in 1977, his next two singles (both penned by Eric Carmen) were US Top 10 hits and Cassidy was nominated for a Grammy award. As the decade drew to a close, there were more breakthroughs with new acts. Rickie Lee Jones' self-titled debut album went to No. 3 in the US, No. 1 in Australia and No. 18 in the UK and produced two hit singles, "Chuck E.'s In Love" (US #4) and "Young Blood" (US #40). Thanks to its American distribution deal with Vertigo, British group Dire Straits provided another sustained run of hit albums and singles in the late 1970s and 1980s. Their eponymous debut album (1978) was a surprise international hit, going to No. 2 in the US and earning a gold record award from the RIAA, while the single "Sultans of Swing" went to No. 4 in the US. Their second album Communiqué (1979) made the Top 20 in many countries and earned another gold record award in the US WBR also enjoyed renewed success with comedy recordings in this period, transferring Richard Pryor from Reprise and signing rising star Steve Martin, whose second Warner album A Wild and Crazy Guy (1978) became one of the label's biggest comedy hits—it reached No. 2 on the pop album chart, won the 1979 Grammy for 'Best Comedy Album', and Martin's novelty single, "King Tut" was a US Top 20 hit. In the 1970s there were different systems for four-channel stereo. Warner Records and the whole WEA group chose JVC's and RCA's discrete system called CD-4 or Quadradisc. That was the system with the highest separation between the four channel, but the system needed a special stylus that could read frequences up to 48 000 Hz. 1980–1988 The 1980s was a period of unprecedented success for Warner Bros. Records. The golden decade began with the success of singer-songwriter Christopher Cross, whose self-titled debut album went to No. 6 in the US and produced four charting singles, including the No. 1 hit "Sailing". He also won five major categories at the 1981 Grammy Awards, becoming the only solo artist to date to win the "Big Four" awards in one year (Record, Song and Album of the Year, and Best New Artist) while his performance of "Arthur's Theme" from the Dudley Moore film Arthur, which also went to No. 1, won both the Oscar and the Golden Globe award for Best Original Song. Warner Bros. scored an apparent coup in 1980 by luring Paul Simon away from Columbia Records. His first Warner album was One Trick Pony (1980), which accompanied the movie of the same name, which Simon wrote and starred in. The single "Late in the Evening" was a major hit (#6) but the album was not a big seller. His next album, Hearts and Bones (1983) was well received by critics but neither it nor the lead single "Allergies" made the chart and Simon's career took a nosedive and it was several more years before the label's patience eventually paid off. After two moderate-selling albums that established them as one of the most original American new wave bands of the period, DEVO broke through to mainstream success in 1980 with their third album Freedom of Choice which reached No. 22 in the US. Thanks to its quirky music video, which was put on high rotation on MTV, the single "Whip It" reached No. 14 on the Billboard pop chart, becoming the group's biggest American hit. Their follow-up EP DEV-O Live (1981) was a surprise hit in Australia, topping the singles chart there for three weeks, but their subsequent albums and singles suffered from declining sales and the group was eventually dropped by the label after their 1984 album Shout. Prince's 1980 album Dirty Mind was widely praised by critics, earning a gold record award, but his 1982 double-LP 1999 (1982) became his first major hit album, selling over six million copies and spawning three hit singles. The title track reached No. 12 in the US and provided his first international hit (#25 UK) and his next two singles, "Little Red Corvette" and "Delirious", were both US Top 10 hits. Chicago was picked up by Warner Bros. in 1981 after being dropped by its former label Columbia, which believed that the band was no longer commercially viable. After teaming with producer David Foster, the band shot back into the charts in 1982 with the album Chicago 16, which reached No. 9 and produced two hit singles including the US No. 1 hit "Hard To Say I'm Sorry". The group's second Warner album, Chicago 17, became the biggest seller of its career—it reached No. 4 in the US and produced four US Top-20 singles including the Top-5 hits "Hard Habit to Break" (#3) and "You're the Inspiration" (#3) and is currently accredited at 6× Platinum. Lead singer Peter Cetera left the group after this album but had continued success as a solo artist for Warner, scoring a No. 1 hit in 1986 with "Glory of Love" (from the movie The Karate Kid Part II), which was also nominated for a Grammy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award. His second solo album sold more than a million copies and produced another No. 1 hit, "The Next Time I Fall". His third solo album produced the Top 5 hit "One Good Woman" (1988) and "After All" reached No. 6. Lenny Waronker took over as President of WBR in 1982, and his first act was to sign Elvis Costello. Costello's first Warner album Spike featured his biggest American single, the Paul McCartney collaboration "Veronica", which was a US Top 20 hit. He recorded three more critically praised albums for Warner Bros., Mighty Like A Rose, Brutal Youth, and All This Useless Beauty, but he was dropped from the label after the major corporate shakeup in the mid-1990s. After the end of his contract with RSO Records and Polydor, Eric Clapton signed with Warner Bros. in 1982. His first WBR album, Money and Cigarettes (1983), reached No. 16 on the Billboard album chart, and the single "I've Got a Rock 'n' Roll Heart" reached No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100. His next album Behind the Sun also fared well, reaching No. 34 and the hit single "Forever Man" went to No. 26, but he transferred to Reprise for his next release. Another resurgent 1970s act who scored major success with Warner Bros. in this period was ZZ Top, which had previously been signed to London Records. During an extended break in the late 1970s the group gained ownership of its London recordings and signed with Warner Bros., which also re-issued the band's back-catalogue. The group's first two Warner albums Deguello (1979) and El Loco (1981) were moderately successful, but Eliminator (1983) became a major hit thanks to strong support for its music videos on MTV. The band scored three US hit singles including "Legs" (US #8), while the album reached No. 9 on the Billboard 200 and sold in huge numbers, earning a Diamond record award in 1996. Afterburner (ZZ Top album) (1985) went to No. 4 and produced five hit singles, including "Sleeping Bag" (#8). Sire artist Madonna shot to international prominence with her 1983 self-titled debut album and her first mainstream hit single "Holiday", which reached No. 16 in the US and became a hit in many other countries, including Australia and the UK, where it was Top 5. The album made the Top 20 in more than a dozen countries including the US, where it has been certified at 5× Platinum status. It was quickly followed by Like a Virgin, which became her first US No. 1 album and has sold more than 21 million copies worldwide. The title track was also a huge international hit, going to No. 1 in Australia, Canada, Japan and the US. Boosted by her well-received role in the film Desperately Seeking Susan, "Crazy For You" (1985) became her second US No. 1 hit, and the follow-up "Material Girl" reached No. 2 in the US and was Top 5 in many other countries. Prince's hugely successful 1984 film and album Purple Rain cemented his stardom, selling more than thirteen million copies in the US (25 million worldwide) and spending twenty-four consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, while the Purple Rain film won the Academy Award for "Best Original Song Score" and grossed more than $80 million in the US. Singles from the album became hits on pop charts around the world; "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy" both reached No. 1 and the title track reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, the sexually explicit album track "Darling Nikki" generated a major controversy that had lasting effects—when politician's wife Tipper Gore heard her 12-year-old daughter listening to the song and investigated the lyrics, her outrage led to the formation of the conservative lobby group Parents Music Resource Center. Their stance was vehemently opposed by former Warner Bros. artist Frank Zappa and others, but the PMRC's political clout eventually forced the US recording industry to adopt the compulsory practice of placing a "Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics" sticker on records deemed to contain "offensive" content. 1984 also saw Van Halen break into the big league with the single "Jump" (their only US No. 1 hit) and the album 1984; it was a huge seller (earning Diamond album status in 1999) and reached No. 2 in the US, producing two more Top 20 hits. However, escalating friction between guitarist Eddie Van Halen and lead singer David Lee Roth reached breaking point soon after the album's release and Roth left the band, to be replaced by Sammy Hagar, who recorded for WB as part of Montrose; 1984 was also the last time they worked with Ted Templeman, who had produced all their albums up to this point. In 1985, Dire Straits' single "Money for Nothing" gained massive exposure on MTV thanks to its innovative computer-animated music video, propelling the single to No. 1 in the US. They scored two more US Top 20 hits with "Walk of Life" and "So Far Away" and the album Brothers in Arms was a phenomenal success—it went to No. 1 in the US, Australia and most European countries and sold in colossal numbers—by 1996 it had been certified at 9× platinum in the US and it is currently ranked at No. 25 in the list of best-selling albums of all time, with sales of more than 30 million copies worldwide. The new incarnation of Van Halen bounced back in 1986, releasing the enormously successful 5150 album which went to No. 1 and produced two hit singles, "Why Can't This Be Love" (US #3) and "Dreams" (#22). Their three subsequent studio albums (OU812, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, and Balance) all reached No. 1 and the band scored 17 US Top 20 singles, including 1988's "When It's Love" (US #5), but their overall sales gradually declined, with each album selling less than its predecessor. The same was true of Prince; he scored numerous hit albums and singles through the latter half of the 1980s, but his record sales declined and Warner Bros. executives became increasingly concerned that he was producing far more material than they could release. His image was also tarnished by the failure of his later film ventures, his embarrassing refusal to participate in the recording of "We Are The World" and his sacking of guitarist Wendy Melvoin and long-serving keyboard player Lisa Coleman. The 1985 album Around the World in a Day held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 for three weeks and peaked at No. 5 in the UK, selling seven million copies despite minimal promotion. Parade (1986) served as the soundtrack for Prince's second film Under the Cherry Moon; although the movie was a critical and commercial failure, the album peaked at No. 3 in Billboard and No. 2 on the R&B album charts and his classic single "Kiss" was another big international hit, going to No. 1 in the US and becoming a radio staple. Prince's next project had a long and complex evolution, beginning as a proposed concept double-album called Dream Factory; Prince then proposed a solo album which he intended to issue under the pseudonym Camille, but he eventually combined elements from both to create the ambitious three-album set Crystal Ball. However, because of the relatively lower sales of his previous albums, Prince's manager Steve Fargnoli and Warner Bros. president Mo Ostin both doubted the commercial viability of releasing a 3-LP set, and after previewing Crystal Ball, Ostin insisted that Prince pare it down to two records. Prince at first refused and a battle of wills ensued for several weeks, but he eventually backed down and removed seven tracks; the resulting double-album was released in March 1987 as Sign o' the Times. Despite Prince's bitterness over its forced reduction, it was very successful, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and selling 5 million copies, while the title single "Sign o' the Times" reached No. 3 on the Hot 100. The follow-up single "If I Was Your Girlfriend" flopped (although it went to No. 12 on R&B chart) but he scored big hits with the next two singles, "U Got the Look" (#2 Hot 100, #11 R&B) and "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man" (#10 Hot 100, #14 R&B). In 1985, the company collaborated with View-Master to start out a children's video series Kidsongs, which were produced by Together Again Productions, and Warner Music Video handling distribution of the video product, designed for the educational market. 1986–87 took Warner Bros. to even greater heights. Madonna's 1986 album True Blue produced three US number one hits and two top five singles, and the album topped the charts in more than 28 countries (a feat that earned her a place in the Guinness Book of Records); the album has sold over 25 million copies to date. After several years of career stagnation, Paul Simon burst back onto the music scene in late 1986 with Graceland. Warner Bros. were initially anxious about the commercial appeal of Simon's innovative fusion of rock with African styles but the album was a resounding success, topping the charts in many countries, reaching No. 3 in the US and producing two US Top 20 singles. It became the best-selling American album of 1987 and the most successful of Simon's solo career, selling more than 5 million copies, and winning the 1986 Grammy for 'Album of the Year'; the title track also won 'Song of the Year' in 1987. In jazz, Warner Bros. scored another artistic coup by signing jazz legend Miles Davis after his break with longtime label Columbia. His comeback album Tutu (1986) was a major crossover hit, gaining rave reviews and winning a Grammy in 1987. In the summer of 1986, Warner Bros. announced the reactivation of Reprise Records with its own separate promotions department, and former Warner Bros. Vice President of Promotion Richard Fitzgerald was appointed as label Vice President. During 1987, Prince recorded a pared-down funk album, The Black Album, but he withdrew it in December just before it was to be released (even though 500,000 copies had been printed). Its hastily recorded replacement Lovesexy (1988) was a moderate success, reaching No. 11 on the Billboard album chart although it reached No. 1 in the UK. However, he rebounded in 1989 with the soundtrack for the hugely successful Batman film, which sold more than eleven million copies, reached No. 1 on the Billboard album chart and produced four hit singles including "Batdance", which topped both the Hot 100 and R&B charts. Like fellow Athens, Georgia natives the B-52s, R.E.M. was a 'cult' band that gradually built up a strong following in the US and internationally during the 1980s (thanks in part to their innovative music videos). For most of the 1980s they were signed to the independent label IRS Records and in 1987, they broke out to mainstream success with the album Document, their first to sell more than one million copies. However, they were frustrated by IRS's poor international distribution and when their IRS contract expired in 1988 they signed with Warner Bros. Their Warner debut Green established them as a major force, earning a platinum album and selling more than 4 million copies worldwide, and "Stand" became their first US hit single. In 1989, after an extended period of inactivity following the death of guitarist and main writer Ricky Wilson, the B-52s shot back to prominence with the album Cosmic Thing. It was a Top 5 hit in the US (#4) and the UK (#2) and went to No. 1 in Australia, where the group had enjoyed a strong following since their debut single "Rock Lobster"; they also scored three consecutive hit singles with "Love Shack" (#3 US, #1 Australia), "Roam" (US #3) and "Deadbeat Club" (US #30). In early 1989, Madonna signed an endorsement deal with Pepsi, and debuted her new single "Like a Prayer" in a commercial titled "Make a Wish"—the first time a pop single had debuted in an advertisement and the first time such a commercial was given a worldwide satellite premiere. The actual music video for "Like a Prayer" premiered on MTV the following day; it generated heated criticism due to its provocative use of religious imagery and was condemned by the Vatican. As a result, Pepsi withdrew the advertisement and canceled the endorsement deal, although Madonna was allowed to retain her US$5 million advance. The controversy also introduced heightened interest in the single and the album (also titled Like a Prayer). The single became Madonna's seventh US number one hit, as well as topping the chart in more than 30 other countries, and the album has sold fifteen million copies worldwide. 1989–2004: The Time Warner era In 1989 Time Inc. acquired Warner Communications and merged the two enterprises to create Time Warner in a deal valued at US$14 billion. After a long period of relative stability that was notable in the cutthroat American music industry, the death of Steve Ross in late 1992 marked the start of a period of major upheaval at Warner Bros. Records. R.E.M.'s second Warner album Out of Time (1991) consolidated their success, topping the charts in both the US and the UK and producing two major hit singles: "Losing My Religion" became their biggest American single (#4 on Billboard Hot 100) and a hit in numerous other countries, and "Shiny Happy People", a Top 10 hit in both the US and the UK; the group also won three categories at that year's Grammy Awards. Prince's fortunes in the Nineties were mixed; he scored more hits and renewed his contract in 1992, but his relationship with Warner Bros. Records soon soured, climaxing in a highly publicized legal battle and his eventual departure from the label. Although his fourth film, Graffiti Bridge was panned by critics and bombed at the box office the album of the same name was very successful—it reached No. 6 on both the Billboard Hot 200 and R&B album chart and produced two US Top 20 singles. Diamonds and Pearls (1991) became one of the biggest albums of his career, selling 9 million records, reaching No. 3 in the US, No. 2 in the UK and No. 1 in Australia, with five of the six singles lifted from the album becoming hits in the US and other countries, including "Cream", which became his fifth US No. 1. Prince was appointed a vice-president of Warner Bros. Records when he re-signed with them in 1992, but soon regretted his decision. His next album—identified by the cryptic symbol on the cover later defined as "The Love Symbol"—was another solid hit, peaking at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and selling 5 million copies worldwide, but by now tensions were increasing. Warner Bros. wanted to release "7" as his next single, but Prince successfully pushed for "My Name Is Prince" and it was only a minor hit (#36 Hot 100, #23 R&B); the follow-up "Sexy MF" was censored in the US because of the expletive in the chorus and did not even make the US Top 50 although it was a Top 5 hit in the UK and Australia. When eventually released, "7" became the only major US hit lifted from the album, peaking (appropriately) at No. 7. Following the 3-disc compilation The Hits/The B-Sides (1993), Prince stopped using his first name and started using only the "Love Symbol"—a decision that drew considerable ridicule from the media. Because this sign has no verbal equivalent, he was often derisively referred to as "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince". By 1994, relations between The Artist and his record label had reached an impasse—in February WEA cancelled its distribution deal with Paisley Park, effectively putting the label out of business. Although released by an independent distributor, his next single "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" (1994) reached No. 3 in the US and topped the singles charts throughout Europe, becoming the biggest hit single of his career. Prince had meanwhile prepared two new albums, Come and The Gold Experience; an early version of Come was rejected but Warner Bros. eventually accepted both albums, although they refused to issue them simultaneously. By this time Prince had launched a legal action to terminate his contract and gain ownership of his master recordings, and he publicized his views by appearing in public with the word "SLAVE" written across his right cheek. Come (1994) was moderately successful in the US (#15, gold record) and the single "Letitgo" reached No. 10 on the R&B chart, although the album was a major hit in the UK, debuting at No. 1. In November Warner released a limited edition of The Black Album, but it was already widely bootlegged, sold poorly and was soon deleted. The Gold Experience (1995) was hailed by some reviewers as Prince's best effort since Sign o' the Times; it included "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" and produced two other charting singles, "I Hate U" (US #11 and "Gold" UK #10). Prince's remarkable career with Warner Bros. ended with Chaos and Disorder (1996), compiled expressly to end his contract. It was one of his least successful releases but still managed to reach No. 26 in the US and No. 14 in the UK and produced one minor hit, "Dinner With Delores" (#36 UK). Prince subsequently released recordings on his own NPG label (via EMI) before eventually signing with Universal Music in 2005. R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People (1992) cemented their status as one of the top bands of the period and was the most successful album of their career, reaching No. 1 in the UK and No. 2 in the US, selling more than 10 million copies worldwide and generating three US hit singles, "Drive", "Man on the Moon", and "Everybody Hurts". During 1992 WBR faced one of the most serious controversies in its history over the provocative recording "Cop Killer" from the self titled album by Body Count, a rap metal band led by Ice-T. Unfortunately for Warner Bros., the song (which mentions the Rodney King case) came out just before the controversial acquittal of the police charged with King's beating, which sparked the 1992 Los Angeles Riots and the confluence of events put the song under the national spotlight. Complaints escalated over the summer—conservative police associations called for a boycott of Time Warner products, politicians including President George H. W. Bush denounced the label for releasing the song, Warner executives received death threats, Time Warner stockholders threatened to pull out of the company and the New Zealand police commissioner unsuccessfully tried to have the record banned there. Although Ice-T later voluntarily reissued Body Count without "Cop Killer", the furore seriously rattled Warner Music and in January 1993 WBR made an undisclosed deal releasing Ice-T from his contract and returning the Body Count master tapes to him. In the wake of the "Cop Killer" affair, Warner Bros. distanced itself from gangsta rap and in late 1995, it sold its 50% stake in Interscope Records and its controversial subsidiary Death Row Records (Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg) back to co-owners Jimmy Iovine and Ted Field. Iovine and Field quickly aligned Interscope with the Universal Music Group; the label, now known as Interscope-Geffen-A&M following the merger of several Universal imprints, is still run by Iovine today. Some relief came later that year when comedian Jeff Foxworthy revived Warner Bros.' success with comedy recordings; his debut album You Might Be a Redneck If... was a major hit in the US and Canada, and both it and his follow-up album sold more than three million copies each. End of an era: Ostin and Waronker depart During 1994–1995, Warner Bros.'s successes and problems with its artists were overshadowed by a protracted period of highly publicized internecine strife, centering on Warner Music Group chairman Robert J. Morgado and his successor Michael J. Fuchs. In September 1993, Ostin began negotiations to renew his contract and it was at this point that Morgado unveiled his plan for a major corporate shakeup of the Warner group. This triggered a series of damaging corporate conflicts and in particular created a fatal rift between Morgado and Ostin. The first major casualty was Elektra chairman Bob Krasnow, who resigned abruptly in July 1994. For many years Ostin had reported directly to Time Warner chairman Steve Ross (and then to Ross's successor Gerald Levin) but Morgado now insisted that Ostin should report to him, and he established a new division, Warner Music US, headed by Doug Morris, to oversee the three main record labels. Fearing the loss of autonomy and worried that he would be obliged to implement Morgado's "slash-and-burn" policy to streamline the label's staff and artist roster, he refused to carry out Morgado's orders and decided not to renew his contract. Ostin officially stepped down from Warner Bros. when his contract expired on December 31, 1994, although he stayed on as a senior consultant to Time Warner's chairman until August 1995. He later commented: This business is about freedom and creative control. An executive has to be able to make risky decisions with minimal corporate interference. But Warner is a different company now than the company I was brought up in. And in the end, I found it impossible to operate in that kind of environment. Ostin's departure sent shockwaves through the company and the industry, and elicited glowing tributes from colleagues and competitors like Joe Smith and Clive Davis, and musicians like Paul Simon and R.E.M. It also triggered an exodus of Warner executives who had joined the company primarily because of Ostin. Next to go was Lenny Waronker—he was initially designated to succeed Ostin as chairman but he ultimately declined the job and left WBR soon after. Following a period of uncertainty and speculation, the two joined forces to establish a new label, DreamWorks Records. Waronker was replaced by ex–Atlantic Records president Danny Goldberg, but his tenure proved short. Long-serving WBR executive Russ Thyret, who had joined the label in 1971 and worked closely with Mo Ostin for many years, was promoted to vice-chairman in January 1995. Gerald Levin forced Morgado to resign in May 1995 and he was replaced by HBO chairman Michael J. Fuchs. Fuchs sacked Morris a month later (sparking a US$50m breach of contract suit) and Warner Music US was dissolved. Morris' removal led to speculation that Ostin was being courted to return to WBR, but these reports proved unfounded, since Ostin and Waronker moved to DreamWorks soon after. Morris moved to MCA Records. Despite his close ties to Morris, Danny Goldberg was initially told he could remain as WBR president but he left the company in August 1995 after negotiating a settlement with Time Warner to terminate his five-year, US$20 million contract, which still had four years to run. He was subsequently appointed president of PolyGram subsidiary Mercury Records in October. Following Goldberg's departure Russ Thyret was promoted to chairman, CEO and label president. Fuchs himself was forced out of Time Warner in November 1995. In May 1997, Phil Quartararo took over as president of WBR, only weeks after he had left EMI's Virgin Records following a management shake-up there. The departure of the team led by Ostin and Waronker also meant that many of the Warner artists whose careers they had nurtured and curated over the previous 30 years were now deprived of their patronage. As a result, by 2000 many of the "flagship" Warner acts of the Ostin/Waronker years left the label as their contracts expired. Ry Cooder was dropped in 1995 and Randy Newman followed Ostin and Waronker to DreamWorks, departing with a wry comment on his own status and the recent turmoil at Warner Bros.: "I've sent Warner an amusing letter of resignation, and I haven't heard anything. It's like trying to find a general to surrender to. I think I'm gone, you know? And I signed with DreamWorks and I haven't heard from them! The people I'm leaving don't give a shit that I'm leaving and the people I'm going to don't give a shit that I'm coming! Although never rising beyond "cult" status in terms of his sales as a solo artist, one of the most notable survivors from the Ostin era was Van Dyke Parks, who continued to release albums on Warner Bros. – Tokyo Rose (1989), the Brian Wilson collaboration Orange Crate Art (1995) and the live album Moonlighting: Live at the Ash Grove (1998). In 2004 Parks reunited with Brian Wilson to complete their long-shelved collaboration, Smile, which was released on the Nonesuch label to universal critical praise, winning a Grammy award, and making the Top 20 in the US and Top 10 in the UK, where it earned a gold record award. In early 2001, there was a major restructure of the Warner Music Group; about 600 positions were eliminated across the three labels, and an executive reshuffle led to the departures of Thyret and Quartararo (as well as Reprise president Howie Klein) and the hiring of then-Interscope president Tom Whalley as head of Warner Bros. Records. In August Whalley appointed Jeff Ayeroff as Creative Director of Warner Bros. Records and Creative Consultant to Warner Music Group. Ayeroff had previously been WBR's Senior Vice-president and Creative Director from 1983 to 1986, overseeing many successful album covers and music videos in that period. In 2002, Linkin Park won the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance for their single Crawling released under Warner Bros. Whereas they were also nominated for Best Rock Album for Hybrid Theory which also turned out to be the best selling album of 2001 worldwide and Best New Artist. In 2004, the band was nominated for their song Session for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. In 2006 the band won Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for the song Numb/Encore released under Warner Bros./Roc-A-Fella/Machine Shop. 2004–2019: Warner Music Group In 2003, amid management disputes, sagging share prices and rising alarm about the impact of digital file sharing, Time Warner decided to unload its music operations. In March 2004, Time Warner's music assets were acquired by a private equity group headed by Thomas H. Lee Partners, Lexa Partners (led by Edgar Bronfman Jr., who put up US$150 million drawn from his family's stake in Vivendi), Bain Capital and Providence Equity Partners. The deal included an option that would allow Time Warner to buy back in if conditions proved favorable. Bronfman, Lee, Bain and Providence had reportedly recouped their investment by May 2006 through dividends, refinancing and a share offer floated in May 2005. The sale was followed by a major restructure over the first half of 2004, which wad aimed at slashing $27 million from the company's budget. The cost-cutting measures included more than 1000 staff layoffs worldwide, the dropping of 80 artists, comprising more than half the Warner roster, and the restructuring of the company's two "boutique" labels. Elektra was folded into Atlantic, and its sub-label Nonesuch was absorbed into the Warner Records label, although Elektra would be revived as an active label five years later. The restructure period was also marked by a short but widely publicised dispute between Warner and Madonna—although, notably, the label made public efforts to distance the dispute from their regular dealings with Madonna, who remained signed to Warner as a solo artist. Following the private buyout of the music group, Madonna began talks with Warner management to dissolve the joint venture partnership in Madonna's Maverick label, to allow the label to work with other companies. Founded in 1992, Maverick had scored a major success in 1995 with Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, and Madonna and her two partners, Guy Oseary and Ronnie Dashed, jointly held a controlling 60% stake. After the talks broke down, the trio sued the company; they alleged mismanagement, improper accounting and profit-taking, claiming that Maverick had earned $100m in profit for the group, and seeking to recover $200 million in alleged lost revenue, but the suit was settled in June that year, with Madonna selling most of her stake in Maverick to Warner for just $10 million. In 2005, following the global restructure, Warner Music Australia scored a major coup when it acquired the assets of the Australian Festival Mushroom Group. That company had originated as Festival Records in Sydney in the 1952, and after its acquisition by Rupert Murdoch in 1961, Festival became one of the leading Australian record companies, recording and/or releasing much of the most significant Australian pop and rock music of the era on its flagship Festival label or via its subsidiary imprints. Festival also signed valuable licensing and distribution deals with major local independent pop labels such as Spin (NSW) and Clarion (WA), and it subsequently took over many of these labels and acquired their masters, greatly increasing its holdings of key Australian pop/rock recordings. In the 1970s Festival signed a distribution deal with the fledgling Melbourne label Mushroom Records, founded by Michael Gudinski. Mushroom scored a key breakthrough in 1974–75 with Melbourne band Skyhooks, whose debut album Living in the Seventies became the highest-selling Australian album ever issued up to that time. Mushroom enjoyed enormous success in Australia from the late 1970s on, and although Gudinski later moved the label's distribution to EMI for some years, the two companies were eventually merged—Festival acquired 49% of Mushroom in 1993 and bought the remainder when Gudinski sold his controlling share in 1998. Finally, in 2005, after multiple management reshuffles and a steady decline in revenue, News Ltd sold the group and its recording archive (said to contain over 20,000 master tapes) to Warner Music Australia for a reported AU$10 million. Following the divestiture, WMG licensed the Warner Bros. trademarks, although this license could have been revoked if WMG came under control of a major motion picture studio. After five years of dormancy, Elektra was revived as an active imprint in June 2009, although some artists who had been signed to prior to the label' shelving in 2004 (including Tracy Chapman) had continued to have their recordings issued as Elektra releases. In mid-2018, Elektra was detached from the Atlantic Records umbrella and reorganized into Elektra Music Group, once again operating as an independently managed frontline label of Warner Music. In 2013, WMG acquired Parlophone Records from EMI as part of its sale to Universal Music Group. Most Parlophone artists (excluding Coldplay and Tinie Tempah, who were placed under Atlantic) were placed under Warner Bros. Records for US distribution. Dan McCarroll was named president. He held the position until July 2017. In October 2017, Aaron Bay-Schuck and Tom Corson were named co-chairmen of Warner Bros. Records, with Bay-Schuck serving as CEO and Corson COO. Corson joined the company in January 2018; Bay-Schuck began in the fall of that year. The Warner Bros. headquarters moved from Burbank to downtown Los Angeles in March 2019. 2019–present: Warner Records On May 28, 2019, the label announced that it had changed its name to Warner Records, and unveiled a new logo—replacing the Warner Bros. shield with a wordmark and black circle (both partially cut off at the bottom). WMG explained that the new logo was meant to resemble the Earth, a record, and the Sun, and had "artful simplicity and impactful typography that are ideally suited to the digital world". The change was necessitated by the upcoming expiration of WMG's license to the Warner Bros. trademarks; after the sale of Warner Music Group in 2004 by Time Warner (now Warner Bros. Discovery since 2022), the company had been granted a 15-year license to use the Warner Bros. name and shield logo. The new logo received mixed reviews, with marketing critics and former WMG employees lamenting the replacement of the historic Warner Bros. emblem (used by the label for 61 years) with a comparatively simplistic mark. However, the record label's ISRC code remains "WB1". On May 31, 2022, a partnership was announced with the South Korean entertainment company SM Entertainment for K-pop girl group Aespa's global promotions. Affiliated labels Current A&E Records (formerly Mushroom Records UK) (2003–present) Helium 3 (2006–present) Defiant Records (2023–present) Beluga Heights (2008–present) Curb Records (1974–1982, 2000–present) Word Records (2002–present) Facultad de Némea (2017–present) Festival Mushroom Records (2005–present) Hotwire Unlimited (2010–present) Machine Shop Recordings (2001–present) Loveway Records (2009–present) Mind of a Genius (2016–present) Arkade Records (2016–present) Nonesuch Records (2004–present) Parlophone (2014–present) Reprise Records (1963–present) REMember Music (2014–present) Sire Records (1978–1995, 2003–present) Artery Recordings (2017–present) The Benton Music Records (2018–present) Clover Music (2018–present) Masked Records (2018–present) Former 1017 Brick Squad Records 143 Records 4AD Records (1992–1998) (US only) Action Theory Records American Recordings (1988–1997 [US], 2005–2007 [worldwide]) Autumn Records (1963–1965) Bearsville Records (1970–1984) BME Recordings Blacksmith Records (2005–2008) Brute/Beaute Records (2004–2007) Capricorn Records (1972–1977), (1990–1995) Chrysalis Records (1972–1976) (US only) Cold Chillin' Records (1987–1994) Dark Horse Records (1976–1992) Doghouse Records ECM Records (?–1984) Extasy International Records (2000–2004) Full Moon Records (1974–1992) F-111 Records (1995–2001) Geffen Records (1980–1990) Giant Records and its subsidiaries the Medicine Label (1993–1995), Paladin, Revolution (1990–2001; catalog is owned by Warner Records today) Ice Age Entertainment Island Records (1977–1982, except for Steve Winwood releases until 1987) Jet Life Recordings Kwanza Records (1973–1974) Loma Records (1964–1968 and one boutique release in 2003) London Records (2000–2017; small part of catalog was secured by WMG after sold to Because Music, including New Order) Luaka Bop Records (1988–2000) Malpaso Records (1995–2000) Maverick Records (1992–2008; dormant) Maybach Music Group (2011–2012) Metal Blade Records (1988–1993) Music for Little People (1990–1995) Opal Records (1987–1993) OVO Sound (2012–2022) Paisley Park Records (1985–1994) Perezcious Music Playmaker Music Premeditated Records (middle 1990s) Public Broadcasting Service Qwest Records (1980–2000) Raybaw Records (2005–2008) RuffNation Records Slash Records (1982–1998; 2003–present) Teleprompt Records Tommy Boy Records (1985–2002; rights to pre-2002 catalog transferred to Atlantic Records and reacquired by a "new" Tommy Boy (Tommy Boy Entertainment) in 2017, being distributed by ADA subsidiary of WMG. The label reacquired its pre-2002 catalog in 2017) Valiant Records (1960–1966) Warner Alliance (1986–1998) Warner Western (198?–200?) Funk Volume (2015–2016) Artists See also List of record labels List of Warner Records artists Reprise Records Notes References Goodman, Fred (1997). The Mansion on the Hill: Dylan, Young, Geffen, Springsteen and the Head-on Collision of Rock and Commerce. London: Jonathon Cape. ISBN 978-0-224-05062-3. External links Official website Video Interview with Bill Bennett – CEO & President of Warner Bros. Records Nashville[usurped] The Warner Bros. Records Story from BSN Pubs. – includes links to comprehensive Warner Bros. album discographies, 1958–1983 Warner Records' channel on YouTube Discography of Loma Records Archived December 25, 2007, at the Wayback Machine

Basibasy_mine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basibasy_mine

The Basibasy mine is one of the largest titanium mines in Madagascar. The mine is located in Basibasy, Atsimo-Andrefana. The mine has reserves amounting to 446 million tonnes of ore grading 5.5% titanium. == References ==

Titanium

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium

Titanium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in sea water, aqua regia, and chlorine. Titanium was discovered in Cornwall, Great Britain, by William Gregor in 1791 and was named by Martin Heinrich Klaproth after the Titans of Greek mythology. The element occurs within a number of minerals, principally rutile and ilmenite, which are widely distributed in the Earth's crust and lithosphere; it is found in almost all living things, as well as bodies of water, rocks, and soils. The metal is extracted from its principal mineral ores by the Kroll and Hunter processes. The most common compound, titanium dioxide, is a popular photocatalyst and is used in the manufacture of white pigments. Other compounds include titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4), a component of smoke screens and catalysts; and titanium trichloride (TiCl3), which is used as a catalyst in the production of polypropylene. Titanium can be alloyed with iron, aluminium, vanadium, and molybdenum, among other elements. The resulting titanium alloys are strong, lightweight, and versatile, with applications including aerospace (jet engines, missiles, and spacecraft), military, industrial processes (chemicals and petrochemicals, desalination plants, pulp, and paper), automotive, agriculture (farming), sporting goods, jewelry, and consumer electronics. Titanium is also considered one of the most biocompatible metals, leading to a range of medical applications including prostheses, orthopedic implants, dental implants, and surgical instruments. The two most useful properties of the metal are corrosion resistance and strength-to-density ratio, the highest of any metallic element. In its unalloyed condition, titanium is as strong as some steels, but less dense. There are two allotropic forms and five naturally occurring isotopes of this element, 46Ti through 50Ti, with 48Ti being the most abundant (73.8%). Characteristics Physical properties As a metal, titanium is recognized for its high strength-to-weight ratio. It is a strong metal with low density that is quite ductile (especially in an oxygen-free environment), lustrous, and metallic-white in color. Due to its relatively high melting point (1,668 °C or 3,034 °F) it has sometimes been described as a refractory metal, but this is not the case. It is paramagnetic and has fairly low electrical and thermal conductivity compared to other metals. Titanium is superconducting when cooled below its critical temperature of 0.49 K. Commercially pure (99.2% pure) grades of titanium have ultimate tensile strength of about 434 MPa (63,000 psi), equal to that of common, low-grade steel alloys, but are less dense. Titanium is 60% denser than aluminium, but more than twice as strong as the most commonly used 6061-T6 aluminium alloy. Certain titanium alloys (e.g., Beta C) achieve tensile strengths of over 1,400 MPa (200,000 psi). However, titanium loses strength when heated above 430 °C (806 °F). Titanium is not as hard as some grades of heat-treated steel; it is non-magnetic and a poor conductor of heat and electricity. Machining requires precautions, because the material can gall unless sharp tools and proper cooling methods are used. Like steel structures, those made from titanium have a fatigue limit that guarantees longevity in some applications. The metal is a dimorphic allotrope of a hexagonal close packed α form that changes into a body-centered cubic (lattice) β form at 882 °C (1,620 °F). The specific heat of the α form increases dramatically as it is heated to this transition temperature but then falls and remains fairly constant for the β form regardless of temperature. Chemical properties Like aluminium and magnesium, the surface of titanium metal and its alloys oxidize immediately upon exposure to air to form a thin non-porous passivation layer that protects the bulk metal from further oxidation or corrosion. When it first forms, this protective layer is only 1–2 nm thick but it continues to grow slowly, reaching a thickness of 25 nm in four years. This layer gives titanium excellent resistance to corrosion against oxidizing acids, but it will dissolve in dilute hydrofluoric acid, hot hydrochloric acid, and hot sulfuric acid. Titanium is capable of withstanding attack by dilute sulfuric and hydrochloric acids at room temperature, chloride solutions, and most organic acids. However, titanium is corroded by concentrated acids. Titanium is a very reactive metal that burns in normal air at lower temperatures than the melting point. Melting is possible only in an inert atmosphere or vacuum. At 550 °C (1,022 °F), it combines with chlorine. It also reacts with the other halogens and absorbs hydrogen. Titanium readily reacts with oxygen at 1,200 °C (2,190 °F) in air, and at 610 °C (1,130 °F) in pure oxygen, forming titanium dioxide. Titanium is one of the few elements that burns in pure nitrogen gas, reacting at 800 °C (1,470 °F) to form titanium nitride, which causes embrittlement. Because of its high reactivity with oxygen, nitrogen, and many other gases, titanium that is evaporated from filaments is the basis for titanium sublimation pumps, in which titanium serves as a scavenger for these gases by chemically binding to them. Such pumps inexpensively produce extremely low pressures in ultra-high vacuum systems. Occurrence Titanium is the ninth-most abundant element in Earth's crust (0.63% by mass) and the seventh-most abundant metal. It is present as oxides in most igneous rocks, in sediments derived from them, in living things, and natural bodies of water. Of the 801 types of igneous rocks analyzed by the United States Geological Survey, 784 contained titanium. Its proportion in soils is approximately 0.5–1.5%. Common titanium-containing minerals are anatase, brookite, ilmenite, perovskite, rutile, and titanite (sphene). Akaogiite is an extremely rare mineral consisting of titanium dioxide. Of these minerals, only rutile and ilmenite have economic importance, yet even they are difficult to find in high concentrations. About 6.0 and 0.7 million tonnes of those minerals were mined in 2011, respectively. Significant titanium-bearing ilmenite deposits exist in Australia, Canada, China, India, Mozambique, New Zealand, Norway, Sierra Leone, South Africa, and Ukraine. About 210,000 tonnes of titanium metal sponge were produced in 2020, mostly in China (110,000 t), Japan (50,000 t), Russia (33,000 t) and Kazakhstan (15,000 t). Total reserves of anatase, ilmenite, and rutile are estimated to exceed 2 billion tonnes. The concentration of titanium is about 4 picomolar in the ocean. At 100 °C, the concentration of titanium in water is estimated to be less than 10−7 M at pH 7. The identity of titanium species in aqueous solution remains unknown because of its low solubility and the lack of sensitive spectroscopic methods, although only the 4+ oxidation state is stable in air. No evidence exists for a biological role, although rare organisms are known to accumulate high concentrations of titanium. Titanium is contained in meteorites, and it has been detected in the Sun and in M-type stars (the coolest type) with a surface temperature of 3,200 °C (5,790 °F). Rocks brought back from the Moon during the Apollo 17 mission are composed of 12.1% TiO2. Native titanium (pure metallic) is very rare. Isotopes Naturally occurring titanium is composed of five stable isotopes: 46Ti, 47Ti, 48Ti, 49Ti, and 50Ti, with 48Ti being the most abundant (73.8% natural abundance). At least 21 radioisotopes have been characterized, the most stable of which are 44Ti with a half-life of 63 years; 45Ti, 184.8 minutes; 51Ti, 5.76 minutes; and 52Ti, 1.7 minutes. All other radioactive isotopes have half-lives less than 33 seconds, with the majority less than half a second. The isotopes of titanium range in atomic weight from 39.002 Da (39Ti) to 63.999 Da (64Ti). The primary decay mode for isotopes lighter than 46Ti is positron emission (with the exception of 44Ti which undergoes electron capture), leading to isotopes of scandium, and the primary mode for isotopes heavier than 50Ti is beta emission, leading to isotopes of vanadium. Titanium becomes radioactive upon bombardment with deuterons, emitting mainly positrons and hard gamma rays. Compounds The +4 oxidation state dominates titanium chemistry, but compounds in the +3 oxidation state are also numerous. Commonly, titanium adopts an octahedral coordination geometry in its complexes, but tetrahedral TiCl4 is a notable exception. Because of its high oxidation state, titanium(IV) compounds exhibit a high degree of covalent bonding. Oxides, sulfides, and alkoxides The most important oxide is TiO2, which exists in three important polymorphs; anatase, brookite, and rutile. All three are white diamagnetic solids, although mineral samples can appear dark (see rutile). They adopt polymeric structures in which Ti is surrounded by six oxide ligands that link to other Ti centers. The term titanates usually refers to titanium(IV) compounds, as represented by barium titanate (BaTiO3). With a perovskite structure, this material exhibits piezoelectric properties and is used as a transducer in the interconversion of sound and electricity. Many minerals are titanates, such as ilmenite (FeTiO3). Star sapphires and rubies get their asterism (star-forming shine) from the presence of titanium dioxide impurities. A variety of reduced oxides (suboxides) of titanium are known, mainly reduced stoichiometries of titanium dioxide obtained by atmospheric plasma spraying. Ti3O5, described as a Ti(IV)-Ti(III) species, is a purple semiconductor produced by reduction of TiO2 with hydrogen at high temperatures, and is used industrially when surfaces need to be vapor-coated with titanium dioxide: it evaporates as pure TiO, whereas TiO2 evaporates as a mixture of oxides and deposits coatings with variable refractive index. Also known is Ti2O3, with the corundum structure, and TiO, with the rock salt structure, although often nonstoichiometric. The alkoxides of titanium(IV), prepared by treating TiCl4 with alcohols, are colorless compounds that convert to the dioxide on reaction with water. They are industrially useful for depositing solid TiO2 via the sol-gel process. Titanium isopropoxide is used in the synthesis of chiral organic compounds via the Sharpless epoxidation. Titanium forms a variety of sulfides, but only TiS2 has attracted significant interest. It adopts a layered structure and was used as a cathode in the development of lithium batteries. Because Ti(IV) is a "hard cation", the sulfides of titanium are unstable and tend to hydrolyze to the oxide with release of hydrogen sulfide. Nitrides and carbides Titanium nitride (TiN) is a refractory solid exhibiting extreme hardness, thermal/electrical conductivity, and a high melting point. TiN has a hardness equivalent to sapphire and carborundum (9.0 on the Mohs scale), and is often used to coat cutting tools, such as drill bits. It is also used as a gold-colored decorative finish and as a barrier layer in semiconductor fabrication. Titanium carbide (TiC), which is also very hard, is found in cutting tools and coatings. Halides Titanium tetrachloride (titanium(IV) chloride, TiCl4) is a colorless volatile liquid (commercial samples are yellowish) that, in air, hydrolyzes with spectacular emission of white clouds. Via the Kroll process, TiCl4 is used in the conversion of titanium ores to titanium metal. Titanium tetrachloride is also used to make titanium dioxide, e.g., for use in white paint. It is widely used in organic chemistry as a Lewis acid, for example in the Mukaiyama aldol condensation. In the van Arkel–de Boer process, titanium tetraiodide (TiI4) is generated in the production of high purity titanium metal. Titanium(III) and titanium(II) also form stable chlorides. A notable example is titanium(III) chloride (TiCl3), which is used as a catalyst for production of polyolefins (see Ziegler–Natta catalyst) and a reducing agent in organic chemistry. Organometallic complexes Owing to the important role of titanium compounds as polymerization catalyst, compounds with Ti-C bonds have been intensively studied. The most common organotitanium complex is titanocene dichloride ((C5H5)2TiCl2). Related compounds include Tebbe's reagent and Petasis reagent. Titanium forms carbonyl complexes, e.g. (C5H5)2Ti(CO)2. Anticancer therapy studies Following the success of platinum-based chemotherapy, titanium(IV) complexes were among the first non-platinum compounds to be tested for cancer treatment. The advantage of titanium compounds lies in their high efficacy and low toxicity in vivo. In biological environments, hydrolysis leads to the safe and inert titanium dioxide. Despite these advantages the first candidate compounds failed clinical trials due to insufficient efficacy to toxicity ratios and formulation complications. Further development resulted in the creation of potentially effective, selective, and stable titanium-based drugs. History Titanium was discovered in 1791 by the clergyman and geologist William Gregor as an inclusion of a mineral in Cornwall, Great Britain. Gregor recognized the presence of a new element in ilmenite when he found black sand by a stream and noticed the sand was attracted by a magnet. Analyzing the sand, he determined the presence of two metal oxides: iron oxide (explaining the attraction to the magnet) and 45.25% of a white metallic oxide he could not identify. Realizing that the unidentified oxide contained a metal that did not match any known element, in 1791 Gregor reported his findings in both German and French science journals: Crell's Annalen and Observations et Mémoires sur la Physique. He named this oxide manaccanite. Around the same time, Franz-Joseph Müller von Reichenstein produced a similar substance, but could not identify it. The oxide was independently rediscovered in 1795 by Prussian chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth in rutile from Boinik (the German name of Bajmócska), a village in Hungary (now Bojničky in Slovakia). Klaproth found that it contained a new element and named it for the Titans of Greek mythology. After hearing about Gregor's earlier discovery, he obtained a sample of manaccanite and confirmed that it contained titanium. The currently known processes for extracting titanium from its various ores are laborious and costly; it is not possible to reduce the ore by heating with carbon (as in iron smelting) because titanium combines with the carbon to produce titanium carbide. Pure metallic titanium (99.9%) was first prepared in 1910 by Matthew A. Hunter at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute by heating TiCl4 with sodium at 700–800 °C (1,292–1,472 °F) under great pressure in a batch process known as the Hunter process. Titanium metal was not used outside the laboratory until 1932 when William Justin Kroll produced it by reducing titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) with calcium. Eight years later he refined this process with magnesium and with sodium in what became known as the Kroll process. Although research continues to seek cheaper and more efficient routes, such as the FFC Cambridge process, the Kroll process is still predominantly used for commercial production. Titanium of very high purity was made in small quantities when Anton Eduard van Arkel and Jan Hendrik de Boer discovered the iodide process in 1925, by reacting with iodine and decomposing the formed vapors over a hot filament to pure metal. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Soviet Union pioneered the use of titanium in military and submarine applications (Alfa class and Mike class) as part of programs related to the Cold War. Starting in the early 1950s, titanium came into use extensively in military aviation, particularly in high-performance jets, starting with aircraft such as the F-100 Super Sabre and Lockheed A-12 and SR-71. Throughout the Cold War period, titanium was considered a strategic material by the U.S. government, and a large stockpile of titanium sponge (a porous form of the pure metal) was maintained by the Defense National Stockpile Center, until the stockpile was dispersed in the 2000s. As of 2021, the four leading producers of titanium sponge were China (52%), Japan (24%), Russia (16%) and Kazakhstan (7%). Production Mineral beneficiation processes The Becher process is an industrial process used to produce synthetic rutile, a form of titanium dioxide, from the ore ilmenite. The Chloride process. The Sulfate process: "relies on sulfuric acid (H2SO4) to leach titanium from ilmenite ore (FeTiO3). The resulting reaction produces titanyl sulfate (TiOSO4). A secondary hydrolysis stage is used to break the titanyl sulfate into hydrated TiO2 and H2SO4. Finally, heat is used to remove the water and create the end product - pure TiO2." Purification processes Hunter process The Hunter process was the first industrial process to produce pure metallic titanium. It was invented in 1910 by Matthew A. Hunter, a chemist born in New Zealand who worked in the United States. The process involves reducing titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) with sodium (Na) in a batch reactor with an inert atmosphere at a temperature of 1,000 °C. Dilute hydrochloric acid is then used to leach the salt from the product. TiCl4(g) + 4 Na(l) → 4 NaCl(l) + Ti(s) Kroll process The processing of titanium metal occurs in four major steps: reduction of titanium ore into "sponge", a porous form; melting of sponge, or sponge plus a master alloy to form an ingot; primary fabrication, where an ingot is converted into general mill products such as billet, bar, plate, sheet, strip, and tube; and secondary fabrication of finished shapes from mill products. Because it cannot be readily produced by reduction of titanium dioxide, titanium metal is obtained by reduction of titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) with magnesium metal in the Kroll process. The complexity of this batch production in the Kroll process explains the relatively high market value of titanium, despite the Kroll process being less expensive than the Hunter process. To produce the TiCl4 required by the Kroll process, the dioxide is subjected to carbothermic reduction in the presence of chlorine. In this process, the chlorine gas is passed over a red-hot mixture of rutile or ilmenite in the presence of carbon. After extensive purification by fractional distillation, the TiCl4 is reduced with 800 °C (1,470 °F) molten magnesium in an argon atmosphere. 2 FeTiO 3 + 7 Cl 2 + 6 C → 900 o C 2 FeCl 3 + 2 TiCl 4 + 6 CO {\displaystyle {\ce {2FeTiO3 + 7Cl2 + 6C ->[900^oC] 2FeCl3 + 2TiCl4 + 6CO}}} TiCl 4 + 2 Mg → 1100 o C Ti + 2 MgCl 2 {\displaystyle {\ce {TiCl4 + 2Mg ->[1100^oC] Ti + 2MgCl2}}} Arkel-Boer process The van Arkel–de Boer process was the first semi-industrial process for pure Titanium. It involves thermal decomposition of titanium tetraiodide. Armstrong process Titanium powder is manufactured using a flow production process known as the Armstrong process that is similar to the batch production Hunter process. A stream of titanium tetrachloride gas is added to a stream of molten sodium; the products (sodium chloride salt and titanium particles) is filtered from the extra sodium. Titanium is then separated from the salt by water washing. Both sodium and chlorine are recycled to produce and process more titanium tetrachloride. Pilot plants Methods for electrolytic production of Ti metal from TiO2 using molten salt electrolytes have been researched and tested at laboratory and small pilot plant scales. The lead author of an impartial review published in 2017 considered his own process "ready for scaling up." A 2023 review "discusses the electrochemical principles involved in the recovery of metals from aqueous solutions and fused salt electrolytes", with particular attention paid to titanium. While some metals such as nickel and copper can be refined by electrowinning at room temperature, titanium must be in the molten state and "there is a strong chance of attack of the refractory lining by molten titanium." Zhang et al concluded their Perspective on Thermochemical and Electrochemical Processes for Titanium Metal Production in 2017 that "Even though there are strong interests in the industry for finding a better method to produce Ti metal, and a large number of new concepts and improvements have been investigated at the laboratory or even at pilot plant scales, there is no new process to date that can replace the Kroll process commercially." The Hydrogen assisted magnesiothermic reduction (HAMR) process uses titanium dihydride. Fabrication All welding of titanium must be done in an inert atmosphere of argon or helium to shield it from contamination with atmospheric gases (oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen). Contamination causes a variety of conditions, such as embrittlement, which reduce the integrity of the assembly welds and lead to joint failure. Titanium is very difficult to solder directly, and hence a solderable metal or alloy such as steel is coated on titanium prior to soldering. Titanium metal can be machined with the same equipment and the same processes as stainless steel. Titanium alloys Common titanium alloys are made by reduction. For example, cuprotitanium (rutile with copper added), ferrocarbon titanium (ilmenite reduced with coke in an electric furnace), and manganotitanium (rutile with manganese or manganese oxides) are reduced. About fifty grades of titanium alloys are designed and currently used, although only a couple of dozen are readily available commercially. The ASTM International recognizes 31 grades of titanium metal and alloys, of which grades one through four are commercially pure (unalloyed). Those four vary in tensile strength as a function of oxygen content, with grade 1 being the most ductile (lowest tensile strength with an oxygen content of 0.18%), and grade 4 the least ductile (highest tensile strength with an oxygen content of 0.40%). The remaining grades are alloys, each designed for specific properties of ductility, strength, hardness, electrical resistivity, creep resistance, specific corrosion resistance, and combinations thereof. In addition to the ASTM specifications, titanium alloys are also produced to meet aerospace and military specifications (SAE-AMS, MIL-T), ISO standards, and country-specific specifications, as well as proprietary end-user specifications for aerospace, military, medical, and industrial applications. Forming and forging Commercially pure flat product (sheet, plate) can be formed readily, but processing must take into account of the tendency of the metal to springback. This is especially true of certain high-strength alloys. Exposure to the oxygen in air at the elevated temperatures used in forging results in formation of a brittle oxygen-rich metallic surface layer called "alpha case" that worsens the fatigue properties, so it must be removed by milling, etching, or electrochemical treatment. The working of titanium is very complicated, and may include Friction welding, cryo-forging, and Vacuum arc remelting. Applications Titanium is used in steel as an alloying element (ferro-titanium) to reduce grain size and as a deoxidizer, and in stainless steel to reduce carbon content. Titanium is often alloyed with aluminium (to refine grain size), vanadium, copper (to harden), iron, manganese, molybdenum, and other metals. Titanium mill products (sheet, plate, bar, wire, forgings, castings) find application in industrial, aerospace, recreational, and emerging markets. Powdered titanium is used in pyrotechnics as a source of bright-burning particles. Pigments, additives, and coatings About 95% of all titanium ore is destined for refinement into titanium dioxide (TiO2), an intensely white permanent pigment used in paints, paper, toothpaste, and plastics. It is also used in cement, in gemstones, and as an optical opacifier in paper. TiO2 pigment is chemically inert, resists fading in sunlight, and is very opaque: it imparts a pure and brilliant white color to the brown or grey chemicals that form the majority of household plastics. In nature, this compound is found in the minerals anatase, brookite, and rutile. Paint made with titanium dioxide does well in severe temperatures and marine environments. Pure titanium dioxide has a very high index of refraction and an optical dispersion higher than diamond. Titanium dioxide is used in sunscreens because it reflects and absorbs UV light. Aerospace and marine Because titanium alloys have high tensile strength to density ratio, high corrosion resistance, fatigue resistance, high crack resistance, and ability to withstand moderately high temperatures without creeping, they are used in aircraft, armor plating, naval ships, spacecraft, and missiles. For these applications, titanium is alloyed with aluminium, zirconium, nickel, vanadium, and other elements to manufacture a variety of components including critical structural parts, landing gear, firewalls, exhaust ducts (helicopters), and hydraulic systems. In fact, about two thirds of all titanium metal produced is used in aircraft engines and frames. The titanium 6AL-4V alloy accounts for almost 50% of all alloys used in aircraft applications. The Lockheed A-12 and the SR-71 "Blackbird" were two of the first aircraft frames where titanium was used, paving the way for much wider use in modern military and commercial aircraft. A large amount of titanium mill products are used in the production of many aircraft, such as (following values are amount of raw mill products used, only a fraction of this ends up in the finished aircraft): 116 metric tons are used in the Boeing 787, 77 in the Airbus A380, 59 in the Boeing 777, 45 in the Boeing 747, 32 in the Airbus A340, 18 in the Boeing 737, 18 in the Airbus A330, and 12 in the Airbus A320. In aero engine applications, titanium is used for rotors, compressor blades, hydraulic system components, and nacelles. An early use in jet engines was for the Orenda Iroquois in the 1950s. Because titanium is resistant to corrosion by sea water, it is used to make propeller shafts, rigging, heat exchangers in desalination plants, heater-chillers for salt water aquariums, fishing line and leader, and divers' knives. Titanium is used in the housings and components of ocean-deployed surveillance and monitoring devices for science and military. The former Soviet Union developed techniques for making submarines with hulls of titanium alloys, forging titanium in huge vacuum tubes. Industrial Welded titanium pipe and process equipment (heat exchangers, tanks, process vessels, valves) are used in the chemical and petrochemical industries primarily for corrosion resistance. Specific alloys are used in oil and gas downhole applications and nickel hydrometallurgy for their high strength (e. g.: titanium beta C alloy), corrosion resistance, or both. The pulp and paper industry uses titanium in process equipment exposed to corrosive media, such as sodium hypochlorite or wet chlorine gas (in the bleachery). Other applications include ultrasonic welding, wave soldering, and sputtering targets. Titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4), a colorless liquid, is important as an intermediate in the process of making TiO2 and is also used to produce the Ziegler–Natta catalyst. Titanium tetrachloride is also used to iridize glass and, because it fumes strongly in moist air, it is used to make smoke screens. Consumer and architectural Titanium metal is used in automotive applications, particularly in automobile and motorcycle racing where low weight and high strength and rigidity are critical.(p 141) The metal is generally too expensive for the general consumer market, though some late model Corvettes have been manufactured with titanium exhausts, and a Corvette Z06's LT4 supercharged engine uses lightweight, solid titanium intake valves for greater strength and resistance to heat. Titanium is used in many sporting goods: tennis rackets, golf clubs, lacrosse stick shafts; cricket, hockey, lacrosse, and football helmet grills, and bicycle frames and components. Although not a mainstream material for bicycle production, titanium bikes have been used by racing teams and adventure cyclists. Titanium alloys are used in spectacle frames that are rather expensive but highly durable, long lasting, light weight, and cause no skin allergies. Titanium is a common material for backpacking cookware and eating utensils. Though more expensive than traditional steel or aluminium alternatives, titanium products can be significantly lighter without compromising strength. Titanium horseshoes are preferred to steel by farriers because they are lighter and more durable. Titanium has occasionally been used in architecture. The 42.5 m (139 ft) Monument to Yuri Gagarin, the first man to travel in space (55°42′29.7″N 37°34′57.2″E), as well as the 110 m (360 ft) Monument to the Conquerors of Space on top of the Cosmonaut Museum in Moscow are made of titanium for the metal's attractive color and association with rocketry. The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the Cerritos Millennium Library were the first buildings in Europe and North America, respectively, to be sheathed in titanium panels. Titanium sheathing was used in the Frederic C. Hamilton Building in Denver, Colorado. Because of titanium's superior strength and light weight relative to other metals (steel, stainless steel, and aluminium), and because of recent advances in metalworking techniques, its use has become more widespread in the manufacture of firearms. Primary uses include pistol frames and revolver cylinders. For the same reasons, it is used in the body of some laptop computers (for example, in Apple's PowerBook G4). In 2023, Apple launched the iPhone 15 Pro, which uses a titanium enclosure. Some upmarket lightweight and corrosion-resistant tools, such as shovels, knife handles and flashlights, are made of titanium or titanium alloys. Jewelry Because of its durability, titanium has become more popular for designer jewelry (particularly, titanium rings). Its inertness makes it a good choice for those with allergies or those who will be wearing the jewelry in environments such as swimming pools. Titanium is also alloyed with gold to produce an alloy that can be marketed as 24-karat gold because the 1% of alloyed Ti is insufficient to require a lesser mark. The resulting alloy is roughly the hardness of 14-karat gold and is more durable than pure 24-karat gold. Titanium's durability, light weight, and dent and corrosion resistance make it useful for watch cases. Some artists work with titanium to produce sculptures, decorative objects and furniture. Titanium may be anodized to vary the thickness of the surface oxide layer, causing optical interference fringes and a variety of bright colors. With this coloration and chemical inertness, titanium is a popular metal for body piercing. Titanium has a minor use in dedicated non-circulating coins and medals. In 1999, Gibraltar released the world's first titanium coin for the millennium celebration. The Gold Coast Titans, an Australian rugby league team, award a medal of pure titanium to their player of the year. Medical Because titanium is biocompatible (non-toxic and not rejected by the body), it has many medical uses, including surgical implements and implants, such as hip balls and sockets (joint replacement) and dental implants that can stay in place for up to 20 years. The titanium is often alloyed with about 4% aluminium or 6% Al and 4% vanadium. Titanium has the inherent ability to osseointegrate, enabling use in dental implants that can last for over 30 years. This property is also useful for orthopedic implant applications. These benefit from titanium's lower modulus of elasticity (Young's modulus) to more closely match that of the bone that such devices are intended to repair. As a result, skeletal loads are more evenly shared between bone and implant, leading to a lower incidence of bone degradation due to stress shielding and periprosthetic bone fractures, which occur at the boundaries of orthopedic implants. However, titanium alloys' stiffness is still more than twice that of bone, so adjacent bone bears a greatly reduced load and may deteriorate. Because titanium is non-ferromagnetic, patients with titanium implants can be safely examined with magnetic resonance imaging (convenient for long-term implants). Preparing titanium for implantation in the body involves subjecting it to a high-temperature plasma arc which removes the surface atoms, exposing fresh titanium that is instantly oxidized. Modern advancements in additive manufacturing techniques have increased potential for titanium use in orthopedic implant applications. Complex implant scaffold designs can be 3D-printed using titanium alloys, which allows for more patient-specific applications and increased implant osseointegration. Titanium is used for the surgical instruments used in image-guided surgery, as well as wheelchairs, crutches, and any other products where high strength and low weight are desirable. Titanium dioxide nanoparticles are widely used in electronics and the delivery of pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Nuclear waste storage Because of its corrosion resistance, containers made of titanium have been studied for the long-term storage of nuclear waste. Containers lasting more than 100,000 years are thought possible with manufacturing conditions that minimize material defects. A titanium "drip shield" could also be installed over containers of other types to enhance their longevity. Precautions Titanium is non-toxic even in large doses and does not play any natural role inside the human body. An estimated quantity of 0.8 milligrams of titanium is ingested by humans each day, but most passes through without being absorbed in the tissues. It does, however, sometimes bio-accumulate in tissues that contain silica. One study indicates a possible connection between titanium and yellow nail syndrome. As a powder or in the form of metal shavings, titanium metal poses a significant fire hazard and, when heated in air, an explosion hazard. Water and carbon dioxide are ineffective for extinguishing a titanium fire; Class D dry powder agents must be used instead. When used in the production or handling of chlorine, titanium should not be exposed to dry chlorine gas because it may result in a titanium–chlorine fire. Titanium can catch fire when a fresh, non-oxidized surface comes in contact with liquid oxygen. Function in plants An unknown mechanism in plants may use titanium to stimulate the production of carbohydrates and encourage growth. This may explain why most plants contain about 1 part per million (ppm) of titanium, food plants have about 2 ppm, and horsetail and nettle contain up to 80 ppm. See also Footnotes References Bibliography External links "Titanium: Our Next Major Metal" in Popular Science (October 1950), one of first general public detailed articles on Titanium Titanium at Periodic Videos (University of Nottingham) Titanium.org: official website of the International Titanium Association, an industry association Metallurgy of Titanium and its Alloys - slide presentations, movies, and other material from Harshad Bhadeshia and other Cambridge University metallurgists

William_Gregor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gregor

William Gregor (25 December 1761 – 11 June 1817) was a British clergyman and mineralogist who discovered the elemental metal Titanium. Early years He was born at the Trewarthenick Estate in Cornwall, the son of Francis Gregor and Mary Copley and the brother of Francis Gregor, MP for Cornwall. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School, where he became interested in chemistry, then after two years with a private tutor entered St John's College, Cambridge, graduating BA in 1784 and MA in 1787. He was ordained in the Church of England. He became vicar of St Mary's Church Diptford near Totnes, Devon. He married Charlotte Anne Gwatkin in 1790 and they had one daughter, Charlotte-Anne Gregor. Discovery of titanium After a brief interval at Bratton Clovelly, in 1793 William and his family moved permanently to the rectory of Creed in Cornwall. Here he continued his remarkably accurate chemical analysis of minerals, most of which came from Cornwall, such as the zeolites found in gabbro on The Lizard. He also analysed wavellite, tourmaline, and the uranium minerals torbernite and autunite, the arsenate scorodite, the lead mineral mimetite and the nickel mineral niccolite, and others. But he is best known for one of his earliest discoveries: in 1791, while analysing the minerals in a black sand he had discovered in the Manaccan valley, he isolated the calx of an unknown metal which he named manaccanite. Later in 1791, Martin Heinrich Klaproth discovered what is now known as the transition metal, titanium in the mineral rutile. Believing this to be a new discovery, Klaproth named it titanium after the Titans of Greek Mythology, but eventually it was clarified that Gregor made the discovery first. Gregor was credited with the discovery, but the element kept the name chosen by Klaproth. Gregor later found titanium in corundum from Tibet, and in a tourmaline from a local tin mine. Death and legacy Gregor was made an honorary member of the Geological Society of London on its inception in 1807, and was a founding member of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall in 1814. His friends and correspondents included John Hawkins, Philip Rashleigh and John Ayrton Paris. Never letting his scientific work interfere with his pastoral duties, he was also a distinguished landscape painter, etcher and musician. He died of tuberculosis on 11 June 1817 and was buried at nearby Cornelly church. References External links Works by or about William Gregor at Wikisource

Christmas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas

Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the liturgical year in Christianity, it follows the season of Advent (which begins four Sundays before) or the Nativity Fast, and initiates the season of Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many countries, is celebrated religiously by a majority of Christians, as well as culturally by many non-Christians, and forms an integral part of the holiday season surrounding it. The traditional Christmas narrative recounted in the New Testament, known as the Nativity of Jesus, says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in accordance with messianic prophecies. When Joseph and Mary arrived in the city, the inn had no room, and so they were offered a stable where the Christ Child was soon born, with angels proclaiming this news to shepherds, who then spread the word. There are different hypotheses regarding the date of Jesus's birth, and in the early fourth century, the church fixed the date as December 25. It is exactly nine months after Annunciation on March 25, also the date of the spring equinox. Most Christians celebrate on December 25 in the Gregorian calendar, which has been adopted almost universally in the civil calendars used in countries throughout the world. However, part of the Eastern Christian Churches celebrate Christmas on December 25 of the older Julian calendar, which currently corresponds to January 7 in the Gregorian calendar. For Christians, believing that God came into the world in the form of man to atone for the sins of humanity rather than knowing Jesus's exact birth date is considered to be the primary purpose of celebrating Christmas. The customs associated with Christmas in various countries have a mix of pre-Christian, Christian, and secular themes and origins. Popular holiday traditions include gift giving; completing an Advent calendar or Advent wreath; Christmas music and caroling; watching Christmas movies; viewing a Nativity play; an exchange of Christmas cards; attending church services; a special meal; and displaying various Christmas decorations, including Christmas trees, Christmas lights, nativity scenes, garlands, wreaths, mistletoe, and holly. Additionally, several related and often interchangeable figures, known as Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, and Christkind, are associated with bringing gifts to children during the Christmas season and have their own body of traditions and lore. Because gift-giving and many other aspects of the Christmas festival involve heightened economic activity, the holiday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. Over the past few centuries, Christmas has had a steadily growing economic effect in many regions of the world. Etymology The English word Christmas is a shortened form of 'Christ's Mass'. The word is recorded as Crīstesmæsse in 1038 and Cristes-messe in 1131. Crīst (genitive Crīstes) is from the Greek Χριστός (Khrīstos, 'Christ'), a translation of the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ‎ (Māšîaḥ, 'Messiah'), meaning 'anointed'; and mæsse is from the Latin missa, the celebration of the Eucharist. The form Christenmas was also used during some periods, but is now considered archaic and dialectal. The term derives from Middle English Cristenmasse, meaning 'Christian mass'. Xmas is an abbreviation of Christmas found particularly in print, based on the initial letter chi (Χ) in the Greek Χριστός, although some style guides discourage its use. This abbreviation has precedent in Middle English Χρ̄es masse (where Χρ̄ is another abbreviation of the Greek word). Other names The holiday has had various other English names throughout its history. The Anglo-Saxons referred to the feast as "midwinter", or, more rarely, as Nātiuiteð (from the Latin nātīvitās below). Nativity, meaning 'birth', is from the Latin nātīvitās. In Old English, Gēola ('Yule') referred to the period corresponding to December and January, which was eventually equated with Christian Christmas. 'Noel' (also 'Nowel' or 'Nowell', as in "The First Nowell") entered English in the late 14th century and is from the Old French noël or naël, itself ultimately from the Latin nātālis (diēs) meaning 'birth (day)'. Koleda is the traditional Slavic name for Christmas and the period from Christmas to Epiphany or, more generally, to Slavic Christmas-related rituals, some dating to pre-Christian times. Nativity The gospels of Luke and Matthew describe Jesus as being born in Bethlehem to the Virgin Mary. In the Gospel of Luke, Joseph and Mary travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem in order to be counted for a census, and Jesus is born there and placed in a manger. Angels proclaim him a savior for all people, and three shepherds come to adore him. In the Gospel of Matthew, by contrast, three magi follow a star to Bethlehem to bring gifts to Jesus, born the king of the Jews. King Herod orders the massacre of all the boys less than two years old in Bethlehem, but the family flees to Egypt and later returns to Nazareth. History Early and medieval era In the 2nd century, the "earliest church records" indicate that "Christians were remembering and celebrating the birth of the Lord", an "observance [that] sprang up organically from the authentic devotion of ordinary believers"; although "they did not agree upon a set date". The earliest evidence of Christ's birth being marked on December 25 is a sentence in the Chronograph of 354. Liturgical historians generally agree that this part of the text was written in Rome in AD 336. Though Christmas did not appear on the lists of festivals given by the early Christian writers Irenaeus and Tertullian, the early Church Fathers John Chrysostom, Augustine of Hippo, and Jerome attested to December 25 as the date of Christmas toward the end of the fourth century. December 25 was the traditional date of the winter solstice in the Roman Empire, where most Christians lived, and the Roman festival Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of Sol Invictus, the 'Invincible Sun') had been held on this date since 274 AD. In the East, the birth of Jesus was celebrated in connection with the Epiphany on January 6. This holiday was not primarily about Christ's birth, but rather his baptism. Christmas was promoted in the East as part of the revival of Orthodox Christianity that followed the death of the pro-Arian Emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. The feast was introduced in Constantinople in 379, in Antioch by John Chrysostom towards the end of the fourth century, probably in 388, and in Alexandria in the following century. The Georgian Iadgari demonstrates that Christmas was celebrated in Jerusalem by the sixth century. In the Early Middle Ages, Christmas Day was overshadowed by Epiphany, which in western Christianity focused on the visit of the magi. However, the medieval calendar was dominated by Christmas-related holidays. The forty days before Christmas became the "forty days of St. Martin" (which began on November 11, the feast of St. Martin of Tours), now known as Advent. In Italy, former Saturnalian traditions were attached to Advent. Around the 12th century, these traditions transferred again to the Twelve Days of Christmas (December 25 – January 5); a time that appears in the liturgical calendars as Christmastide or Twelve Holy Days. In 567, the Council of Tours put in place the season of Christmastide, proclaiming "the twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany as a sacred and festive season, and established the duty of Advent fasting in preparation for the feast." This was done in order to solve the "administrative problem for the Roman Empire as it tried to coordinate the solar Julian calendar with the lunar calendars of its provinces in the east." The prominence of Christmas Day increased gradually after Charlemagne was crowned Emperor on Christmas Day in 800. King Edmund the Martyr was anointed on Christmas in 855 and King William I of England was crowned on Christmas Day 1066. By the High Middle Ages, the holiday had become so prominent that chroniclers routinely noted where various magnates celebrated Christmas. King Richard II of England hosted a Christmas feast in 1377 at which 28 oxen and 300 sheep were eaten. The Yule boar was a common feature of medieval Christmas feasts. Caroling also became popular, and was originally performed by a group of dancers who sang. The group was composed of a lead singer and a ring of dancers that provided the chorus. Various writers of the time condemned caroling as lewd, indicating that the unruly traditions of Saturnalia and Yule may have continued in this form. "Misrule"—drunkenness, promiscuity, gambling—was also an important aspect of the festival. In England, gifts were exchanged on New Year's Day, and there was special Christmas ale. Christmas during the Middle Ages was a public festival that incorporated ivy, holly, and other evergreens. Christmas gift-giving during the Middle Ages was usually between people with legal relationships, such as tenant and landlord. The annual indulgence in eating, dancing, singing, sporting, and card playing escalated in England, and by the 17th century the Christmas season featured lavish dinners, elaborate masques, and pageants. In 1607, King James I insisted that a play be acted on Christmas night and that the court indulge in games. It was during the Reformation in 16th–17th-century Europe that many Protestants changed the gift bringer to the Christ Child or Christkindl, and the date of giving gifts changed from December 6 to Christmas Eve. 17th and 18th centuries Following the Protestant Reformation, many of the new denominations, including the Anglican Church and Lutheran Church, continued to celebrate Christmas. In 1629, the Anglican poet John Milton penned On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, a poem that has since been read by many during Christmastide. Donald Heinz, a professor at California State University, Chico, states that Martin Luther "inaugurated a period in which Germany would produce a unique culture of Christmas, much copied in North America." Among the congregations of the Dutch Reformed Church, Christmas was celebrated as one of the principal evangelical feasts. However, in 17th century England, some groups such as the Puritans strongly condemned the celebration of Christmas, considering it a Catholic invention and the "trappings of popery" or the "rags of the Beast". In contrast, the established Anglican Church "pressed for a more elaborate observance of feasts, penitential seasons, and saints' days. The calendar reform became a major point of tension between the Anglican party and the Puritan party." The Catholic Church also responded, promoting the festival in a more religiously oriented form. King Charles I of England directed his noblemen and gentry to return to their landed estates in midwinter to keep up their old-style Christmas generosity. Following the Parliamentarian victory over Charles I during the English Civil War, England's Puritan rulers banned Christmas in 1647. Protests followed as pro-Christmas rioting broke out in several cities and for weeks Canterbury was controlled by the rioters, who decorated doorways with holly and shouted royalist slogans. Football, among the sports the Puritans banned on a Sunday, was also used as a rebellious force: when Puritans outlawed Christmas in England in December 1647 the crowd brought out footballs as a symbol of festive misrule. The book, The Vindication of Christmas (London, 1652), argued against the Puritans, and makes note of Old English Christmas traditions, dinner, roast apples on the fire, card playing, dances with "plow-boys" and "maidservants", old Father Christmas and carol singing. During the ban, semi-clandestine religious services marking Christ's birth continued to be held, and people sang carols in secret. It was restored as a legal holiday in England with the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660 when Puritan legislation was declared null and void, with Christmas again freely celebrated in England. Many Calvinist clergymen disapproved of Christmas celebration. As such, in Scotland, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland discouraged the observance of Christmas, and though James VI commanded its celebration in 1618, attendance at church was scant. The Parliament of Scotland officially abolished the observance of Christmas in 1640, claiming that the church had been "purged of all superstitious observation of days". Whereas in England, Wales and Ireland Christmas Day is a common law holiday, having been a customary holiday since time immemorial, it was not until 1871 that it was designated a bank holiday in Scotland. Following the Restoration of Charles II, Poor Robin's Almanack contained the lines: "Now thanks to God for Charles return, / Whose absence made old Christmas mourn. / For then we scarcely did it know, / Whether it Christmas were or no." The diary of James Woodforde, from the latter half of the 18th century, details the observance of Christmas and celebrations associated with the season over a number of years. As in England, Puritans in Colonial America staunchly opposed the observation of Christmas. The Pilgrims of New England pointedly spent their first December 25 in the New World working normally. Puritans such as Cotton Mather condemned Christmas both because scripture did not mention its observance and because Christmas celebrations of the day often involved boisterous behavior. Many non-Puritans in New England deplored the loss of the holidays enjoyed by the laboring classes in England. Christmas observance was outlawed in Boston in 1659. The ban on Christmas observance was revoked in 1681 by English governor Edmund Andros, but it was not until the mid-19th century that celebrating Christmas became fashionable in the Boston region. At the same time, Christian residents of Virginia and New York observed the holiday freely. Pennsylvania Dutch settlers, predominantly Moravian settlers of Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Lititz in Pennsylvania and the Wachovia settlements in North Carolina, were enthusiastic celebrators of Christmas. The Moravians in Bethlehem had the first Christmas trees in America as well as the first Nativity Scenes. Christmas fell out of favor in the United States after the American Revolution, when it was considered an English custom. George Washington attacked Hessian (German) mercenaries on the day after Christmas during the Battle of Trenton on December 26, 1776, Christmas being much more popular in Germany than in America at this time. With the atheistic Cult of Reason in power during the era of Revolutionary France, Christian Christmas religious services were banned and the three kings cake was renamed the "equality cake" under anticlerical government policies. 19th century In the early 19th century, Christmas festivities and services became widespread with the rise of the Oxford Movement in the Church of England that emphasized the centrality of Christmas in Christianity and charity to the poor, along with Washington Irving, Charles Dickens, and other authors emphasizing family, children, kind-heartedness, gift-giving, and Santa Claus (for Irving), or Father Christmas (for Dickens). In the early-19th century, writers imagined Tudor-period Christmas as a time of heartfelt celebration. In 1843, Charles Dickens wrote the novel A Christmas Carol, which helped revive the "spirit" of Christmas and seasonal merriment. Its instant popularity played a major role in portraying Christmas as a holiday emphasizing family, goodwill, and compassion. Dickens sought to construct Christmas as a family-centered festival of generosity, linking "worship and feasting, within a context of social reconciliation." Superimposing his humanitarian vision of the holiday, in what has been termed "Carol Philosophy", Dickens influenced many aspects of Christmas that are celebrated today in Western culture, such as family gatherings, seasonal food and drink, dancing, games, and a festive generosity of spirit. A prominent phrase from the tale, "Merry Christmas", was popularized following the appearance of the story. This coincided with the appearance of the Oxford Movement and the growth of Anglo-Catholicism, which led a revival in traditional rituals and religious observances. The term Scrooge became a synonym for miser, with the phrase "Bah! Humbug!" becoming emblematic of a dismissive attitude of the festive spirit. In 1843, the first commercial Christmas card was produced by Sir Henry Cole. The revival of the Christmas Carol began with William Sandys's Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern (1833), with the first appearance in print of "The First Noel", "I Saw Three Ships", "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen", popularized in Dickens's A Christmas Carol. In Britain, the Christmas tree was introduced in the early 19th century by the German-born Queen Charlotte. In 1832, the future Queen Victoria wrote about her delight at having a Christmas tree, hung with lights, ornaments, and presents placed round it. After her marriage to her German cousin Prince Albert, by 1841 the custom became more widespread throughout Britain. An image of the British royal family with their Christmas tree at Windsor Castle created a sensation when it was published in the Illustrated London News in 1848. A modified version of this image was published in Godey's Lady's Book, Philadelphia in 1850. By the 1870s, putting up a Christmas tree had become common in America. In America, interest in Christmas had been revived in the 1820s by several short stories by Washington Irving which appear in his The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. and "Old Christmas". Irving's stories depicted harmonious warm-hearted English Christmas festivities he experienced while staying in Aston Hall, Birmingham, England, that had largely been abandoned, and he used the tract Vindication of Christmas (1652) of Old English Christmas traditions, that he had transcribed into his journal as a format for his stories. In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore wrote the poem A Visit From St. Nicholas (popularly known by its first line: Twas the Night Before Christmas). The poem helped popularize the tradition of exchanging gifts, and seasonal Christmas shopping began to assume economic importance. This also started the cultural conflict between the holiday's spiritual significance and its associated commercialism that some see as corrupting the holiday. In her 1850 book The First Christmas in New England, Harriet Beecher Stowe includes a character who complains that the true meaning of Christmas was lost in a shopping spree. While the celebration of Christmas was not yet customary in some regions in the U.S., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow detected "a transition state about Christmas here in New England" in 1856. "The old puritan feeling prevents it from being a cheerful, hearty holiday; though every year makes it more so." In Reading, Pennsylvania, a newspaper remarked in 1861, "Even our presbyterian friends who have hitherto steadfastly ignored Christmas—threw open their church doors and assembled in force to celebrate the anniversary of the Savior's birth." The First Congregational Church of Rockford, Illinois, "although of genuine Puritan stock", was 'preparing for a grand Christmas jubilee', a news correspondent reported in 1864. By 1860, fourteen states including several from New England had adopted Christmas as a legal holiday. In 1875, Louis Prang introduced the Christmas card to Americans. He has been called the "father of the American Christmas card". On June 28, 1870, Christmas was formally declared a United States federal holiday. 20th and 21st centuries During the First World War and particularly (but not exclusively) in 1914, a series of informal truces took place for Christmas between opposing armies. The truces, which were organised spontaneously by fighting men, ranged from promises not to shoot (shouted at a distance in order to ease the pressure of war for the day) to friendly socializing, gift giving and even sport between enemies. These incidents became a well known and semi-mythologised part of popular memory. They have been described as a symbol of common humanity even in the darkest of situations and used to demonstrate to children the ideals of Christmas. Under the state atheism of the Soviet Union, after its foundation in 1917, Christmas celebrations—along with other Christian holidays—were prohibited in public. During the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the League of Militant Atheists encouraged school pupils to campaign against Christmas traditions, such as the Christmas tree, as well as other Christian holidays, including Easter; the League established an antireligious holiday to be the 31st of each month as a replacement. At the height of this persecution, in 1929, on Christmas Day, children in Moscow were encouraged to spit on crucifixes as a protest against the holiday. Instead, the importance of the holiday and all its trappings, such as the Christmas tree and gift-giving, was transferred to the New Year. It was not until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 that the persecution ended and Orthodox Christmas became a state holiday again for the first time in Russia after seven decades. European History Professor Joseph Perry wrote that likewise, in Nazi Germany, "because Nazi ideologues saw organized religion as an enemy of the totalitarian state, propagandists sought to deemphasize—or eliminate altogether—the Christian aspects of the holiday" and that "Propagandists tirelessly promoted numerous Nazified Christmas songs, which replaced Christian themes with the regime's racial ideologies." As Christmas celebrations began to spread globally even outside traditional Christian cultures, several Muslim-majority countries began to ban the observance of Christmas, claiming it undermined Islam. In 2023, public Christmas celebrations were cancelled in Bethlehem, the city synonymous with the birth of Jesus. Palestinian leaders of various Christian denominations cited the ongoing Israel–Hamas war in their unanimous decision to cancel celebrations. Observance and traditions Christmas Day is celebrated as a major festival and public holiday in countries around the world, including many whose populations are mostly non-Christian. In some non-Christian areas, periods of former colonial rule introduced the celebration (e.g. Hong Kong); in others, Christian minorities or foreign cultural influences have led populations to observe the holiday. Countries such as Japan, where Christmas is popular despite there being only a small number of Christians, have adopted many of the cultural aspects of Christmas, such as gift-giving, decorations, and Christmas trees. A similar example is in Turkey, being Muslim-majority and with a small number of Christians, where Christmas trees and decorations tend to line public streets during the festival. Many popular customs associated with Christmas developed independently of the commemoration of Jesus's birth, with some claiming that certain elements are Christianized and have origins in pre-Christian festivals that were celebrated by pagan populations who were later converted to Christianity; other scholars reject these claims and affirm that Christmas customs largely developed in a Christian context. The prevailing atmosphere of Christmas has also continually evolved since the holiday's inception, ranging from a sometimes raucous, drunken, carnival-like state in the Middle Ages, to a tamer family-oriented and children-centered theme introduced in a 19th-century transformation. The celebration of Christmas was banned on more than one occasion within certain groups, such as the Puritans and Jehovah's Witnesses (who do not celebrate birthdays in general), due to concerns that it was too unbiblical. Prior to and through the early Christian centuries, winter festivals were the most popular of the year in many European pagan cultures. Reasons included the fact that less agricultural work needed to be done during the winter, as well as an expectation of better weather as spring approached. Celtic winter herbs such as mistletoe and ivy, and the custom of kissing under a mistletoe, are common in modern Christmas celebrations in the English-speaking countries. The pre-Christian Germanic peoples—including the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse—celebrated a winter festival called Yule, held in the late December to early January period, yielding modern English yule, today used as a synonym for Christmas. In Germanic language-speaking areas, numerous elements of modern Christmas folk custom and iconography may have originated from Yule, including the Yule log, Yule boar, and the Yule goat. Often leading a ghostly procession through the sky (the Wild Hunt), the long-bearded god Odin is referred to as "the Yule one" and "Yule father" in Old Norse texts, while other gods are referred to as "Yule beings". On the other hand, as there are no reliable existing references to a Christmas log prior to the 16th century, the burning of the Christmas block may have been an early modern invention by Christians unrelated to the pagan practice. Among countries with a strong Christian tradition, a variety of Christmas celebrations have developed that incorporate regional and local cultures. For example, in eastern Europe Christmas celebrations incorporated pre-Christian traditions such as the Koleda, which shares parallels with the Christmas carol. Church attendance Christmas Day (inclusive of its vigil, Christmas Eve), is a Festival in the Lutheran Churches, a solemnity in the Roman Catholic Church, and a Principal Feast of the Anglican Communion. Other Christian denominations do not rank their feast days but nevertheless place importance on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day, as with other Christian feasts like Easter, Ascension Day, and Pentecost. As such, for Christians, attending a Christmas Eve or Christmas Day church service plays an important part in the recognition of the Christmas season. Christmas, along with Easter, is the period of highest annual church attendance. A 2010 survey by LifeWay Christian Resources found that six in ten Americans attend church services during this time. In the United Kingdom, the Church of England reported an estimated attendance of 2.5 million people at Christmas services in 2015. Decorations Nativity scenes are known from 10th-century Rome. They were popularised by Saint Francis of Assisi from 1223, quickly spreading across Europe. Different types of decorations developed across the Christian world, dependent on local tradition and available resources, and can vary from simple representations of the crib to far more elaborate sets – renowned manger scene traditions include the colourful Kraków szopka in Poland, which imitate Kraków's historical buildings as settings, the elaborate Italian presepi (Neapolitan, Genoese and Bolognese), or the Provençal crèches in southern France, using hand-painted terracotta figurines called santons. In certain parts of the world, notably Sicily, living nativity scenes following the tradition of Saint Francis are a popular alternative to static crèches. The first commercially produced decorations appeared in Germany in the 1860s, inspired by paper chains made by children. In countries where a representation of the Nativity scene is very popular, people are encouraged to compete and create the most original or realistic ones. Within some families, the pieces used to make the representation are considered a valuable family heirloom. The traditional colors of Christmas decorations are red, green, and gold. Red symbolizes the blood of Jesus, which was shed in his crucifixion; green symbolizes eternal life, and in particular the evergreen tree, which does not lose its leaves in the winter; and gold is the first color associated with Christmas, as one of the three gifts of the Magi, symbolizing royalty. The Christmas tree was first used by German Lutherans in the 16th century, with records indicating that a Christmas tree was placed in the Cathedral of Strassburg in 1539, under the leadership of the Protestant Reformer, Martin Bucer. In the United States, these "German Lutherans brought the decorated Christmas tree with them; the Moravians put lighted candles on those trees." When decorating the Christmas tree, many individuals place a star at the top of the tree symbolizing the Star of Bethlehem, a fact recorded by The School Journal in 1897. Professor David Albert Jones of Oxford University writes that in the 19th century, it became popular for people to also use an angel to top the Christmas tree in order to symbolize the angels mentioned in the accounts of the Nativity of Jesus. Additionally, in the context of a Christian celebration of Christmas, the Christmas tree, being evergreen in colour, is symbolic of Christ, who offers eternal life; the candles or lights on the tree represent the Light of the World—Jesus—born in Bethlehem. Christian services for family use and public worship have been published for the blessing of a Christmas tree, after it has been erected. The Christmas tree is considered by some as Christianisation of pagan tradition and ritual surrounding the Winter Solstice, which included the use of evergreen boughs, and an adaptation of pagan tree worship; according to eighth-century biographer Æddi Stephanus, Saint Boniface (634–709), who was a missionary in Germany, took an ax to an oak tree dedicated to Thor and pointed out a fir tree, which he stated was a more fitting object of reverence because it pointed to heaven and it had a triangular shape, which he said was symbolic of the Trinity. The English language phrase "Christmas tree" is first recorded in 1835 and represents an importation from the German language. Since the 16th century, the poinsettia, a native plant from Mexico, has been associated with Christmas carrying the Christian symbolism of the Star of Bethlehem; in that country it is known in Spanish as the Flower of the Holy Night. Other popular holiday plants include holly, mistletoe, red amaryllis, and Christmas cactus. Other traditional decorations include bells, candles, candy canes, stockings, wreaths, and angels. Both the displaying of wreaths and candles in each window are a more traditional Christmas display. The concentric assortment of leaves, usually from an evergreen, make up Christmas wreaths and are designed to prepare Christians for the Advent season. Candles in each window are meant to demonstrate the fact that Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the ultimate light of the world. Christmas lights and banners may be hung along streets, music played from speakers, and Christmas trees placed in prominent places. It is common in many parts of the world for town squares and consumer shopping areas to sponsor and display decorations. Rolls of brightly colored paper with secular or religious Christmas motifs are manufactured for the purpose of wrapping gifts. In some countries, Christmas decorations are traditionally taken down on Twelfth Night. Nativity play For the Christian celebration of Christmas, the viewing of the Nativity play is one of the oldest Christmastime traditions, with the first reenactment of the Nativity of Jesus taking place in 1223 AD in the Italian town of Greccio. In that year, Francis of Assisi assembled a Nativity scene outside of his church in Italy and children sung Christmas carols celebrating the birth of Jesus. Each year, this grew larger and people travelled from afar to see Francis's depiction of the Nativity of Jesus that came to feature drama and music. Nativity plays eventually spread throughout all of Europe, where they remain popular. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day church services often came to feature Nativity plays, as did schools and theatres. In France, Germany, Mexico and Spain, Nativity plays are often reenacted outdoors in the streets. Music and carols The earliest extant specifically Christmas hymns appear in fourth-century Rome. Latin hymns such as "Veni redemptor gentium", written by Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, were austere statements of the theological doctrine of the Incarnation in opposition to Arianism. "Corde natus ex Parentis" ("Of the Father's love begotten") by the Spanish poet Prudentius (died 413) is still sung in some churches today. In the 9th and 10th centuries, the Christmas "Sequence" or "Prose" was introduced in North European monasteries, developing under Bernard of Clairvaux into a sequence of rhymed stanzas. In the 12th century the Parisian monk Adam of St. Victor began to derive music from popular songs, introducing something closer to the traditional Christmas carol. Christmas carols in English appear in a 1426 work of John Awdlay who lists twenty five "caroles of Cristemas", probably sung by groups of 'wassailers', who went from house to house. The songs now known specifically as carols were originally communal folk songs sung during celebrations such as "harvest tide" as well as Christmas. It was only later that carols began to be sung in church. Traditionally, carols have often been based on medieval chord patterns, and it is this that gives them their uniquely characteristic musical sound. Some carols like "Personent hodie", "Good King Wenceslas", and "In dulci jubilo" can be traced directly back to the Middle Ages. They are among the oldest musical compositions still regularly sung. "Adeste Fideles" (O Come all ye faithful) appeared in its current form in the mid-18th century. The singing of carols increased in popularity after the Protestant Reformation in the Lutheran areas of Europe, as the Reformer Martin Luther wrote carols and encouraged their use in worship, in addition to spearheading the practice of caroling outside the Mass. The 18th-century English reformer Charles Wesley, a founder of Methodism, understood the importance of music to Christian worship. In addition to setting many psalms to melodies, he wrote texts for at least three Christmas carols. The best known was originally entitled "Hark! How All the Welkin Rings", later renamed "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". Christmas seasonal songs of a secular nature emerged in the late 18th century. The Welsh melody for "Deck the Halls" dates from 1794, with the lyrics added by Scottish musician Thomas Oliphant in 1862, and the American "Jingle Bells" was copyrighted in 1857. Other popular carols include "The First Noel", "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen", "The Holly and the Ivy", "I Saw Three Ships", "In the Bleak Midwinter", "Joy to the World", "Once in Royal David's City" and "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks". In the 19th and 20th centuries, African American spirituals and songs about Christmas, based in their tradition of spirituals, became more widely known. An increasing number of seasonal holiday songs were commercially produced in the 20th century, including jazz and blues variations. In addition, there was a revival of interest in early music, from groups singing folk music, such as The Revels, to performers of early medieval and classical music. One of the most ubiquitous festive songs is "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", which originates from the West Country of England in the 1930s. Radio has covered Christmas music from variety shows from the 1940s and 1950s, as well as modern-day stations that exclusively play Christmas music from late November through December 25. Hollywood movies have featured new Christmas music, such as "White Christmas" in Holiday Inn and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Traditional carols have also been included in Hollywood films, such as "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" in It's a Wonderful Life (1946), and "Silent Night" in A Christmas Story. Traditional cuisine A special Christmas family meal is traditionally an important part of the holiday's celebration, and the food that is served varies greatly from country to country. Some regions have special meals for Christmas Eve, such as Sicily, where twelve kinds of fish are served. In the United Kingdom and countries influenced by its traditions, a standard Christmas meal includes turkey, goose or other large bird, gravy, potatoes, vegetables, sometimes bread and cider. Special desserts are also prepared, such as Christmas pudding, mince pies, Christmas cake, and latterly Panettone and Yule log. A traditional Christmas meal in Central Europe features fried carp or other fish. Cards Christmas cards are illustrated messages of greeting exchanged between friends and family members during the weeks preceding Christmas Day. The traditional greeting reads "wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year", much like that of the first commercial Christmas card, produced by Sir Henry Cole in London in 1843. The custom of sending them has become popular among a wide cross-section of people with the emergence of the modern trend towards exchanging E-cards. Christmas cards are purchased in considerable quantities and feature artwork, commercially designed and relevant to the season. The content of the design might relate directly to the Christmas narrative, with depictions of the Nativity of Jesus, or Christian symbols such as the Star of Bethlehem, or a white dove, which can represent both the Holy Spirit and Peace on Earth. Other Christmas cards are more secular and can depict Christmas traditions, mythical figures such as Santa Claus, objects directly associated with Christmas such as candles, holly, and baubles, or a variety of images associated with the season, such as Christmastide activities, snow scenes, and the wildlife of the northern winter. Some prefer cards with a poem, prayer, or Biblical verse; while others distance themselves from religion with an all-inclusive "Season's greetings". Commemorative stamps A number of nations have issued commemorative stamps at Christmastide. Postal customers will often use these stamps to mail Christmas cards, and they are popular with philatelists. These stamps are regular postage stamps, unlike Christmas seals, and are valid for postage year-round. They usually go on sale sometime between early October and early December and are printed in considerable quantities. Christmas seals Christmas seals were first issued to raise funding to fight and bring awareness to tuberculosis. The first Christmas seal was issued in Denmark in 1904, and since then other countries have issued their own Christmas seals. Gift giving The exchanging of gifts is one of the core aspects of the modern Christmas celebration, making it the most profitable time of year for retailers and businesses throughout the world. On Christmas, people exchange gifts based on the Christian tradition associated with Saint Nicholas, and the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh which were given to the baby Jesus by the Magi. The practice of gift giving in the Roman celebration of Saturnalia may have influenced Christian customs, but on the other hand the Christian "core dogma of the Incarnation, however, solidly established the giving and receiving of gifts as the structural principle of that recurrent yet unique event", because it was the Biblical Magi, "together with all their fellow men, who received the gift of God through man's renewed participation in the divine life." However, Thomas J. Talley holds that the Roman Emperor Aurelian placed the alternate festival on December 25 in order to compete with the growing rate of the Christian Church, which had already been celebrating Christmas on that date first. Gift-bearing figures A number of figures are associated with Christmas and the seasonal giving of gifts. Among these are Father Christmas, also known as Santa Claus (derived from the Dutch for Saint Nicholas), Père Noël, and the Weihnachtsmann; Saint Nicholas or Sinterklaas; the Christkind; Kris Kringle; Joulupukki; tomte/nisse; Babbo Natale; Saint Basil; and Ded Moroz. The Scandinavian tomte (also called nisse) is sometimes depicted as a gnome instead of Santa Claus. The best known of these figures today is red-dressed Santa Claus, of diverse origins. The name 'Santa Claus' can be traced back to the Dutch Sinterklaas ('Saint Nicholas'). Nicholas was a 4th-century Greek bishop of Myra, a city in the Roman province of Lycia, whose ruins are 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from modern Demre in southwest Turkey. Among other saintly attributes, he was noted for the care of children, generosity, and the giving of gifts. His feast day, December 6, came to be celebrated in many countries with the giving of gifts. Saint Nicholas traditionally appeared in bishop's attire, accompanied by helpers, inquiring about the behaviour of children during the past year before deciding whether they deserved a gift or not. By the 13th century, Saint Nicholas was well known in the Netherlands, and the practice of gift-giving in his name spread to other parts of central and southern Europe. At the Reformation in 16th- and 17th-century Europe, many Protestants changed the gift bringer to the Christ Child or Christkindl, corrupted in English to 'Kris Kringle', and the date of giving gifts changed from December 6 to Christmas Eve. The modern popular image of Santa Claus, however, was created in the United States, and in particular in New York. The transformation was accomplished with the aid of notable contributors including Washington Irving and the German-American cartoonist Thomas Nast (1840–1902). Following the American Revolutionary War, some of the inhabitants of New York City sought out symbols of the city's non-English past. New York had originally been established as the Dutch colonial town of New Amsterdam and the Dutch Sinterklaas tradition was reinvented as Saint Nicholas. Current tradition in several Latin American countries (such as Venezuela and Colombia) holds that while Santa makes the toys, he then gives them to the Baby Jesus, who is the one who actually delivers them to the children's homes, a reconciliation between traditional religious beliefs and the iconography of Santa Claus imported from the United States. In Italy's South Tyrol, Austria, the Czech Republic, Southern Germany, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Slovakia, and Switzerland, the Christkind (Ježíšek in Czech, Jézuska in Hungarian and Ježiško in Slovak) brings the presents. Greek children get their presents from Saint Basil on New Year's Eve, the eve of that saint's liturgical feast. The German St. Nikolaus is not identical with the Weihnachtsmann (who is the German version of Santa Claus / Father Christmas). St. Nikolaus wears a bishop's dress and still brings small gifts (usually candies, nuts, and fruits) on December 6 and is accompanied by Knecht Ruprecht. Although many parents around the world routinely teach their children about Santa Claus and other gift bringers, some have come to reject this practice, considering it deceptive. Multiple gift-giver figures exist in Poland, varying between regions and individual families. St Nicholas (Święty Mikołaj) dominates Central and North-East areas, the Starman (Gwiazdor) is most common in Greater Poland, Baby Jesus (Dzieciątko) is unique to Upper Silesia, with the Little Star (Gwiazdka) and the Little Angel (Aniołek) being common in the South and the South-East. Grandfather Frost (Dziadek Mróz) is less commonly accepted in some areas of Eastern Poland. It is worth noting that across all of Poland, St Nicholas is the gift giver on Saint Nicholas Day on December 6. Sport Christmas during the Middle Ages was a public festival with annual indulgences included the sporting. When Puritans outlawed Christmas in England in December 1647 the crowd brought out footballs as a symbol of festive misrule. The Orkney Christmas Day Ba' tradition continues. In the former top tier of English football, home and away Christmas Day and Boxing Day double headers were often played guaranteeing football clubs large crowds by allowing many working people their only chance to watch a game. Champions Preston North End faced Aston Villa on Christmas Day 1889 and the last December 25 fixture was in 1965 in England, Blackpool beating Blackburn Rovers 4–2. One of the most memorable images of the Christmas truce during World War I was the games of football played between the opposing sides on Christmas Day 1914. More recently, in the United States, both NFL and NBA have held fixtures on Christmas Day. Choice of date There are two main theories behind December 25 becoming the traditional date for Christmas, although Theology professor Susan Roll says that "No liturgical historian [...] goes so far as to deny that it has any sort of relation with the sun, the winter solstice and the popularity of solar worship in the later Roman Empire". December 25 was the date of the winter solstice in the Roman calendar. Some early Christian writers noted the solar symbolism in placing Jesus's birthday at the winter solstice and John's birthday at the summer solstice. The 'history of religions' theory suggests the Church chose December 25 as Christ's birthday (dies Natalis Christi) to appropriate the Roman winter solstice festival dies Natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of Sol Invictus, the 'Invincible Sun'), held on this date since 274 AD. The early Church linked Jesus Christ to the Sun and referred to him as the 'Sun of Righteousness' (Sol Justitiae) prophesied by Malachi. Gary Forsythe, Professor of Ancient History, says that the Natalis Solis Invicti followed "the seven-day period of the Saturnalia (December 17–23), Rome's most joyous holiday season since Republican times, characterized by parties, banquets, and exchanges of gifts". Another theory, the 'computation hypothesis' or 'calculation theory', notes that December 25 is nine months after March 25, a date chosen as Jesus's conception (the Annunciation) and the date of the spring equinox on the Roman calendar. Date according to Julian calendar Some jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodox Church, including those of Russia, Georgia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Jerusalem, mark feasts using the older Julian calendar. As of 2024, there is a difference of 13 days between the Julian calendar and the modern Gregorian calendar, which is used internationally for most secular purposes. As a result, December 25 on the Julian calendar currently corresponds to January 7 on the calendar used by most governments and people in everyday life. Therefore, the aforementioned Orthodox Christians mark December 25 (and thus Christmas) on the day that is internationally considered to be January 7. However, following the Council of Constantinople in 1923, other Orthodox Christians, such as those belonging to the jurisdictions of Constantinople, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Antioch, Alexandria, Albania, Cyprus, Finland, and the Orthodox Church in America, among others, began using the Revised Julian calendar, which at present corresponds exactly to the Gregorian calendar. Therefore, these Orthodox Christians mark December 25 (and thus Christmas) on the same day that is internationally considered to be December 25. A further complication is added by the fact that the Armenian Apostolic Church continues the original ancient Eastern Christian practice of celebrating the birth of Christ not as a separate holiday, but on the same day as the celebration of his baptism (Theophany), which is on January 6. This is a public holiday in Armenia, and it is held on the same day that is internationally considered to be January 6, because since 1923 the Armenian Church in Armenia has used the Gregorian calendar. However, there is also a small Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which maintains the traditional Armenian custom of celebrating the birth of Christ on the same day as Theophany (January 6), but uses the Julian calendar for the determination of that date. As a result, this church celebrates "Christmas" (more properly called Theophany) on the day that is considered January 19 on the Gregorian calendar in use by the majority of the world. Following the 2022 invasion of its territory by Russia, Ukraine officially moved its Christmas date from January 7 to December 25, to distance itself from the Russian Orthodox Church that had supported Russia's invasion. This followed the Orthodox Church of Ukraine formally adopting the Revised Julian calendar for fixed feasts and solemnities. Table of dates There are four different dates used by different Christian groups to mark the birth of Christ, given in the table below. Venezuela In September 2024, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro declared Christmas to be brought forward from December 25 to October 1. Economy Christmas is typically a peak selling season for retailers in many nations around the world since sales increase dramatically during this time as people purchase gifts, decorations, and supplies to celebrate. In the United States, the "Christmas shopping season" starts as early as October. In Canada, merchants begin advertising campaigns just before Halloween (October 31), and step up their marketing following Remembrance Day on November 11. In the UK and Ireland, the Christmas shopping season starts from mid-November, around the time when high street Christmas lights are turned on. A concept devised by retail entrepreneur David Lewis, the first Christmas grotto opened in Lewis's department store in Liverpool, England in 1879. In the United States, it has been calculated that a quarter of all personal spending takes place during the Christmas/holiday shopping season. Figures from the US Census Bureau reveal that expenditure in department stores nationwide rose from $20.8 billion in November 2004 to $31.9 billion in December 2004, an increase of 54 percent. In other sectors, the pre-Christmas increase in spending was even greater, there being a November–December buying surge of 100 percent in bookstores and 170 percent in jewelry stores. In the same year employment in American retail stores rose from 1.6 million to 1.8 million in the two months leading up to Christmas. Industries completely dependent on Christmas include Christmas cards, of which 1.9 billion are sent in the United States each year, and live Christmas trees, of which 20.8 million were cut in the US in 2002. For 2019, the average US adult was projected to spend $920 on gifts alone. In the UK in 2010, up to £8 billion was expected to be spent online at Christmas, approximately a quarter of total retail festive sales. In most Western nations, Christmas Day is the least active day of the year for business and commerce; almost all retail, commercial and institutional businesses are closed, and almost all industries cease activity (more than any other day of the year), whether laws require such or not. In England and Wales, the Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004 prevents all large shops from trading on Christmas Day. Similar legislation was approved in Scotland in 2007. Film studios release many high-budget movies during the holiday season, including Christmas films, fantasy movies or high-tone dramas with high production values to hopes of maximizing the chance of nominations for the Academy Awards. One economist's analysis calculates that, despite increased overall spending, Christmas is a deadweight loss under orthodox microeconomic theory, because of the effect of gift-giving. This loss is calculated as the difference between what the gift giver spent on the item and what the gift receiver would have paid for the item. It is estimated that in 2001, Christmas resulted in a $4 billion deadweight loss in the US alone. Because of complicating factors, this analysis is sometimes used to discuss possible flaws in current microeconomic theory. Other deadweight losses include the effects of Christmas on the environment and the fact that material gifts are often perceived as white elephants, imposing cost for upkeep and storage and contributing to clutter. Controversies Christmas has at times been the subject of controversy and attacks from various sources, both Christian and non-Christian. Historically, it was prohibited by Puritans during their ascendency in the Commonwealth of England (1647–1660), and in Colonial New England where the Puritans outlawed the celebration of Christmas in 1659 on the grounds that Christmas was not mentioned in Scripture and therefore violated the Reformed regulative principle of worship. The Parliament of Scotland, which was dominated by Presbyterians, passed a series of acts outlawing the observance of Christmas between 1637 and 1690; Christmas Day did not become a public holiday in Scotland until 1871. Today, some conservative Reformed denominations such as the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America likewise reject the celebration of Christmas based on the regulative principle and what they see as its non-Scriptural origin. Christmas celebrations have also been prohibited by atheist states such as the Soviet Union and more recently majority Muslim states such as Somalia, Tajikistan and Brunei. Some Christians and organizations such as Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice cite alleged attacks on Christmas (dubbing them a "war on Christmas"). Such groups claim that any specific mention of the term "Christmas" or its religious aspects is being increasingly censored, avoided, or discouraged by a number of advertisers, retailers, government (prominently schools), and other public and private organizations. One controversy is the occurrence of Christmas trees being renamed Holiday trees. In the U.S. there has been a tendency to replace the greeting Merry Christmas with Happy Holidays, which is considered inclusive at the time of the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah. In the U.S. and Canada, where the use of the term "Holidays" is most prevalent, opponents have denounced its usage and avoidance of using the term "Christmas" as being politically correct. In 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Lynch v. Donnelly that a Christmas display (which included a Nativity scene) owned and displayed by the city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, did not violate the First Amendment. American Muslim scholar Abdul Malik Mujahid has said that Muslims must treat Christmas with respect, even if they disagree with it. The government of the People's Republic of China officially espouses state atheism, and has conducted antireligious campaigns to this end. In December 2018, officials raided Christian churches prior to Christmastide and coerced them to close; Christmas trees and Santa Clauses were also forcibly removed. See also Apollo 8 Genesis reading from lunar orbit, December 24, 1968 Christmas in July – Second Christmas celebration Christmas Peace – Finnish tradition Christmas Sunday – Sunday after Christmas List of Christmas films List of Christmas novels – Christmas as depicted in literaturePages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets Little Christmas – Alternative title for 6 January Nochebuena – Evening or entire day before Christmas DayPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets Mithraism in comparison with other belief systems#25th of December Christmas by medium – Christmas represented in different media Notes References Further reading External links Christmas collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History Christmas: Its Origin and Associations, by William Francis Dawson, 1902, from Project Gutenberg Christmas: its origin, celebration and significance as related in prose and verse, by Robert Haven Schauffler, 1907

Barbara_Kingsolver

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Kingsolver

Barbara Ellen Kingsolver (born April 8, 1955) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, essayist, and poet. Her widely known works include The Poisonwood Bible, the tale of a missionary family in the Congo, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a nonfiction account of her family's attempts to eat locally. In 2023, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the novel Demon Copperhead. Her work often focuses on topics such as social justice, biodiversity, and the interaction between humans and their communities and environments. Kingsolver has received numerous awards, including the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award 2011 and the National Humanities Medal. After winning for The Lacuna in 2010 and Demon Copperhead in 2023, Kingsolver became the first author to win the Women's Prize for Fiction twice. Since 1993, each one of her book titles have been on the New York Times Best Seller list. Kingsolver was raised in rural Kentucky, lived briefly in the Congo in her early childhood, and she currently lives in Appalachia. Kingsolver earned degrees in biology, ecology, and evolutionary biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona, and worked as a freelance writer before she began writing novels. In 2000, the politically progressive Kingsolver established the Bellwether Prize to support "literature of social change". Biography Kingsolver was born in 1955 in Annapolis, Maryland, the daughter of Wendell Roy Kingsolver and Virginia Lee (née Henry) Kingsolver, but grew up in Carlisle, Kentucky. When Kingsolver was seven, her father, a physician, took the family to Léopoldville, Congo (now Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo). After graduating from high school, Kingsolver attended DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, on a music scholarship, studying classical piano. She changed her major to biology after realizing that "classical pianists compete for six job openings a year, and the rest of [them] get to play 'Blue Moon' in a hotel lobby". Kingsolver was involved in activism on her campus, and took part in protests against the Vietnam War. In 1977, Kingsolver graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Science, and moved to France for a year. In 1980, she enrolled in graduate school at the University of Arizona, where she earned a master's degree in ecology and evolutionary biology. In 1985, Kingsolver married Joseph Hoffmann, and gave birth to their daughter Camille in 1987. During the first First Gulf War, she moved with her daughter to Tenerife in the Canary Islands for a year, mostly due to her frustration over America's military involvement. After returning to the United States in 1992, she separated from her husband. In 1994, Kingsolver was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Letters from her alma mater, DePauw University. That same year, she married Steven Lee Hopp, an ornithologist, and their daughter Lily was born in 1996. In 2004, Kingsolver moved with her family to a farm in Washington County, Virginia. In 2008, she received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Duke University, where she delivered a commencement address entitled "How to Be Hopeful". In the late 1990s, Kingsolver was a founding member of the Rock Bottom Remainders, a rock-and-roll band made up of published writers. Other band members included Amy Tan, Matt Groening, Dave Barry, and Stephen King, and they played for one week during the year. Kingsolver played the keyboard, but is no longer an active member of the band. In a 2010 interview with The Guardian, Kingsolver said, "I never wanted to be famous, and still don't… the universe rewarded me with what I dreaded most". She said she created her own website just to compete with a plethora of fake ones "as a defense to protect my family from misinformation". Kingsolver lives in the Appalachia area of the United States. She said in 2020 that rural America is generally regarded by artistic elites with "a profound antipathy". Writing career Kingsolver began her full-time writing career in the mid-1980s as a science writer for the University of Arizona, which eventually led to freelance feature writing, including many cover stories for the local alternative weekly, the Tucson Weekly. She began her career in fiction writing after winning a short-story contest in a local Phoenix newspaper. Kingsolver's first novel, The Bean Trees, was published in 1988, and told the story of a young woman who leaves Kentucky for Arizona, adopting an abandoned child along the way; she wrote it at night while pregnant with her first child and struggling with insomnia. Her next work of fiction, published in 1990, was Homeland and Other Stories, a collection of short stories on a variety of topics exploring various themes from the evolution of cultural and ancestral lands to the struggles of marriage. The novel Animal Dreams was also published in 1990, followed by Pigs in Heaven, the sequel to The Bean Trees, in 1993. Every book that Kingsolver has written since Pigs in Heaven has been on The New York Times Best Seller list. The Poisonwood Bible, published in 1998, is one of her best-known works; it chronicles the lives of the wife and daughters of a Baptist missionary on a Christian mission in Africa. Although the setting of the novel is somewhat similar to Kingsolver's own childhood in the Democratic Republic of Congo (then "the Democratic Republic of Zaire"), the novel is not autobiographical. The novel was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection.The Poisonwood Bible won the National Book Prize of South Africa and was shortlisted for both the Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award. Her next novel, published in 2000, was Prodigal Summer, set in southern Appalachia. In 2000, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by the U.S. President Bill Clinton. Kingsolver wrote a Los Angeles Times opinion piece following the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 attacks, which received widespread criticism for conflating innocent Afghans with the Taliban regime. She wrote, "I feel like I'm standing on a playground where the little boys are all screaming at each other, 'He started it!' and throwing rocks that keep taking out another eye, another tooth. I keep looking around for somebody's mother to come on the scene saying, 'Boys! Boys! Who started it cannot possibly be the issue here. People are getting hurt.'" By some accounts, she was "denounced as a traitor," but rebounded from these accusations and later wrote about them. Starting in April 2005, Kingsolver and her family spent a year making every effort to eat food produced as locally as possible. Living on their farm in rural Virginia, they grew much of their own food and obtained most of the rest from their neighbors and other local farmers. Kingsolver, her husband, and her elder daughter chronicled their experiences of that year in the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, published in 2007. Although exceptions were made for staple ingredients not available locally, such as coffee and olive oil, the family grew vegetables, raised livestock, made cheese, and preserved much of their harvest. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle won the 2008 James Beard Foundation Award. Kingsolver returned to novel-writing with The Lacuna, published in 2009. Kingsolver received her first Women's Prize for Fiction for the novel in 2010. The Lacuna won the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction. Flight Behavior was published in 2012. It explores environmental themes and highlights the potential effects of global warming on the monarch butterfly. In 2011, Kingsolver was the first ever recipient of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. The newly named award to celebrate the U.S. diplomat who played an instrumental role in negotiating the Dayton Peace Accords in 1995. In 2014, Kingsolver was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Library of Virginia. The award recognizes outstanding and long-lasting contributions to literature by a Virginian. In 2018 the Library of Virginia named her one of the Virginia Women in History. Unsheltered was published in 2018 and follows two families in Vineland, New Jersey with one in the 1800s and the other in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Her latest book, published in 2022, is Demon Copperhead. The novel was inspired by David Copperfield and is set in southern Appalachia, deliong with the effects of the opioid crisis on the region's families. In 2023, Demon Copperhead received the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction alongside Hernan Diaz's Trust, the first time the award was shared in its history. Kingsolver is also a published poet and essayist. Two of her essay collections, High Tide in Tucson (1995) and Small Wonder (2003), have been published, and an anthology of her poetry was published in 1998 under the title Another America. Her essay "Where to Begin" appears in the anthology Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting (2013), published by W. W. Norton & Company. Her prose poetry also accompanied photographs by Annie Griffiths Belt in a 2002 work titled Last Stand: America's Virgin Lands. Her major nonfiction works include her 1990 publication Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983 and 2007's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a description of eating locally. She has also been published as a science journalist in periodicals such as Economic Botany on topics such as desert plants and bioresources. Bellwether Prize In 2000, Kingsolver established the Bellwether Prize for Fiction. Named for the bellwether, the literary prize supports writers whose works support positive social change. The award is given to a U.S. citizen for a previously unpublished work of fiction that addresses issues of social justice. The Bellwether Prize is awarded in even-numbered years and includes guaranteed major publication and a cash prize of US$25,000, fully funded by Kingsolver. She has stated that she wanted to create a literary prize to "encourage writers, publishers, and readers to consider how fiction engages visions of social change and human justice". In May 2011, the PEN American Center announced it would take over administration of the prize, to be known as the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. Literary style and themes Kingsolver has written novels in both the first-person and third-person narrative styles, and she frequently employs overlapping narratives. Kingsolver often writes about places and situations with which she is familiar; many of her stories are based in places she has lived, such as Central Africa, Arizona, and Appalachia. She has stated that her novels are not autobiographical, although there are often commonalities between her life and her work. Her work is often strongly idealistic and has been called a form of activism. Her characters are frequently written around struggles for social equality, such as the hardships faced by undocumented immigrants, the working poor, and single mothers. Other common themes in her work include the balancing of individuality with the desire to live in a community, and the interaction and conflict between humans and the ecosystems in which they live. Kingsolver has been said to use prose and engaging narratives to make historical events, such as the Congo's struggles for independence, more interesting and engaging for the average reader. Awards and honors 1993 Los Angeles Times Book Prize (for Pigs in Heaven) 2000 National Humanities Medal Arizona Civil Liberties Union Award 2008 James Beard Foundation award for Writing on Food (for Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life) 2010 Women's Prize for Fiction (for The Lacuna) 2011 Dayton Literary Peace Prize's Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award by the Library of Virginia. 2018 Virginia Women in History 2021 Inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters for Literature 2022 James Tait Black Prize for Fiction (for Demon Copperhead) 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (for Demon Copperhead) 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction (for Demon Copperhead) and the first to receive it twice 2024 National Book Foundation's 2024 Medal for Distinguished Contributions to American Letters (DCAL) Works Fiction The Bean Trees, 1988, 1st UK edition 1989, Limited edition (200) 1992 Homeland and Other Stories, 1989 Animal Dreams, 1990 Pigs in Heaven, 1993 The Poisonwood Bible, 1998 Prodigal Summer, 2000 The Lacuna, 2009 Flight Behavior, 2012 Unsheltered, 2018 Demon Copperhead, 2022 Essays High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never, 1995, also: Limited edition (150) 1995 Small Wonder: Essays, 2002 Poetry Another America, 1992 How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons), 2020 Nonfiction Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983, 1989, ISBN 9780875461564 Last Stand: America's Virgin Lands, 2002 (with photographer Annie Griffiths Belt) ISBN 9780792269090 Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, 2007 (with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver) ISBN 9780062653055 References External links Official website Author page on HarperCollins Official page of "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle"

The_Poisonwood_Bible

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Poisonwood_Bible

The Poisonwood Bible (1998), by Barbara Kingsolver, is a best-selling novel about a missionary family, the Prices, who in 1959 move from the U.S. state of Georgia to the village of Kilanga in the Belgian Congo, close to the Kwilu River. The novel's title refers to Bible errata. The father of the family creates his own "misprint" of the Bible. He concludes his sermons with the Kikongo expression "Tata Jesus is bängala" with the intent of saying "Jesus is most precious". In his hurried mispronunciation, he actually says "Jesus is poisonwood". Plot Orleanna Price, the mother of the family, narrates the introductory chapter in five of the novel's seven sections. The narrative then alternates among the four daughters, with a slight preference for the voice of the most conflicted one, Leah. The four girls increasingly mature and develop differently as each adapts to African village life and the political turmoil that overtakes the Belgian Congo in the 1960s. The Price family packs up their belongings for their flight to the Congo, where they are going to spend a year as the family of a missionary. However, shortly before leaving, they are informed that they are limited to 44 pounds of luggage per person. The Southern Baptist Mission League suggests they solve this problem by leaving for the airport wearing many layers of clothing, hiding household items among the layers of clothes to lighten their luggage. The Price daughters – Rachel, Leah, Adah and Ruth May – and their mother, Orleanna, and father, Nathan, attend their first church service in the village of Kilanga, and they realize how different their culture is from that of the Congo. For example, 14-year-old Leah helps her father plant a "demonstration garden"; it immediately receives criticism from Mama Tataba, whom the family has engaged as a live-in maid, and the garden does poorly due to the inappropriate climate. Nathan tries to hold an impromptu Easter celebration in hopes of baptizing numerous people, but he is unable to carry this out, as the river along the village, where he plans to hold the baptism, is infested with crocodiles. Leah and her twin Adah begin to spy on Eeben Axelroot, the pilot who conveyed the family to Kilanga, and Nathan tries to convince Congolese men, one by one, to convert to Christianity. Meanwhile, five-year-old Ruth May befriends the village children. She finds out about Axelroot's business with the diamonds after breaking her arm. After Mama Tataba departs, an orphan boy named Nelson becomes the family servant. Nathan and Leah go to Leopoldville (present day Kinshasa) to witness what is going on with the independence in the Congo. Methuselah (a parrot the Prices adopted from the previous missionary) dies, and Adah finds his feathers. Ruth May becomes very sick and lies in bed for the majority of the day. Leah begins to spend a lot of time with Anatole, Kilanga's teacher, discussing topics such as justice and the Congo. Leah wants to participate in the hunt, which upsets the village elders, as it would go against their custom, but she eventually is allowed to participate and even hunts an antelope. The girls all gather together in the morning to check out the chicken coop. Inside they find footprints and a green mamba snake. A scream and gasp is heard from Ruth May, who has been bitten by the snake. The girls watch her turn cold and blue before she dies. Orleanna becomes filled with guilt over Ruth May's death, and takes the other children away, leaving her arrogant husband to fend for himself. With Anatole's help, they eventually reach safety. The remaining Price sisters go through many different life changes: Adah dedicates herself to getting a scientific education back home (she is hemiplegic and wants to learn more about the condition); Leah marries Anatole and they start a family together; Rachel remains perceptive but vain and distrustful of men, goes through a string of marriages, and starts a business; and Nathan dies in his unsuccessful mission: killed by a mob of Kilanga's villagers when they blame him for a crocodile attack on a boat of children. The story ends with a final chapter from Ruth May reflecting on her sisters and mother attempting to visit her grave, but not being able to find it, and a woman telling them a place named Kilanga never existed. She watches her sisters and her mother, and has seen how they have matured; she has matured as well. Through her death, she finally is able to understand the Congolese term muntu, which describes the concept of unity and how all life is connected in some way. She understands that she is muntu, and a part of all that is around her. Ruth May only wants her mother to understand the concept and for her to move on. She asks for her mother to forgive herself and not live with the guilt anymore. Major characters The Prices Orleanna Price – Nathan's wife, and the mother of their four daughters. Born in Mississippi, she is deferential to her husband, but independent-minded. Nathan Price – Orleanna's husband. An evangelical (Southern Baptist) minister and a World War II veteran from Georgia, determined to "save Africa for Jesus". He feels guilt for having survived the war while his comrades died. Rachel Price (15 at start of the novel) – the oldest Price girl; blonde and self-centered, she is obsessed with her looks and American consumer culture. Leah Price (14 at start of the novel) – Adah's tomboyish twin; intelligent, self-confident, competitive, and tenacious. The most outspoken of the women, Leah is prone to dogmatism and concerned with her own salvation. Adah Price (14 at start of the novel) – Leah's twin, hemiplegic from birth. Silent, but witty, she is brilliant in math and languages, but is envious of her twin. She is also skeptical, sarcastic, envious, and prone to self-pity. She likes to think about things backwards as well as forwards, and is fond of palindromes. Ruth May Price (5 at the start of the novel) – the youngest Price girl; she is playful, independent, adventurous, perceptive, and inquisitive. Other characters The Underdowns – Belgian mission chiefs who welcome and send supplies to the Prices. Eeben Axelroot – a corrupt Afrikaner mercenary pilot. Anatole Ngemba – the village teacher; an orphan, his fluency in English allows him to be an interpreter for Nathan's sermons. Brother Fowles – a New Yorker; the Prices' predecessor on the mission. Married to Céline, a local woman. Mama Tataba – a village woman, formerly employed by Fowles, who works for the Prices. Best known and celebrated for her prestigious quote, 'You got to be make hills'. Tata Ndu – the chief of Kilanga. Tata Kuvudundu – the spiritual leader of the village. Nelson – an orphaned village boy; he is Anatole's student who works for the Prices. He is forced to sleep outside in the chicken coop. Methuselah – a parrot left by Brother Fowles; it is excellent at imitating human speech. Reception and awards According to Book Marks, based on mostly American publications, the book received "rave" reviews based on five critic reviews, with three being "rave" and two being "positive". Writing in The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani called the book "powerful", but said the social allegories were at times "heavy-handed". John Mullan, reviewing the book in British newspaper The Guardian, said the book was "remarkable not just for its story, but also for its narrative form". The Poisonwood Bible was selected for Oprah's Book Club in 1999. Additionally that year, the book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. It won the 2000 Boeke Prize. In March 2016, the book was discussed on BBC Radio 4's A Good Read. Adaptations In March 2019, Bond Group Entertainment – a production company launched by actress Amy Adams and her manager Stacy O'Neil – secured a first-look deal with HBO to develop a TV adaptation of Kingsolver's novel. Adams and O’Neil will executive produce the limited series, while Anya Epstein and Kingsolver are writing the screenplay. References External links Barbara Kingsolver talks about The Poisonwood Bible on the BBC's World Book Club See also Congo Crisis Congo River Democratic Republic of the Congo Patrice Lumumba

Belgian_Congo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_Congo

The Belgian Congo (French: Congo belge, pronounced [kɔ̃ɡo bɛlʒ]; Dutch: Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960 and became the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville). The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colonial rule in the Congo began in the late 19th century. King Leopold II of the Belgians attempted to persuade the Belgian government to support colonial expansion around the then-largely unexploited Congo Basin. Their ambivalence resulted in Leopold establishing a colony himself. With support from a number of Western countries, Leopold achieved international recognition of the Congo Free State in 1885. By the turn of the century, the violence used by Free State officials against indigenous Congolese and a ruthless system of economic exploitation led to intense diplomatic pressure on Belgium to take official control of the country, which it did by creating the Belgian Congo in 1908. Belgian rule in the Congo was based on the "colonial trinity" (trinité coloniale) of state, missionary and private-company interests. The privileging of Belgian commercial interests meant that large amounts of capital flowed into the Congo and that individual regions became specialised. On many occasions, the interests of the government and of private enterprise became closely linked, and the state helped companies to break strikes and to remove other barriers raised by the indigenous population. The colony was divided into hierarchically organised administrative subdivisions and run uniformly according to a set "native policy" (politique indigène). This differed from the practice of British and French colonial policy, which generally favoured systems of indirect rule, retaining traditional leaders in positions of authority under colonial oversight. During the 1940s and 1950s, the Belgian Congo experienced extensive urbanisation and the colonial administration began various development programs aimed at making the territory into a "model colony". One result saw the development of a new middle-class of Europeanised African "évolués" in the cities. By the 1950s, the Congo had a wage labour force twice as large as that in any other African colony. In 1960, as the result of a widespread and increasingly radical pro-independence movement, the Belgian Congo achieved independence, becoming the Republic of the Congo under Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and President Joseph Kasa-Vubu. Poor relations between political factions within the Congo, the continued involvement of Belgium in Congolese affairs, and the intervention by major parties (mainly the United States and the Soviet Union) during the Cold War led to a five-year-long period of war and political instability, known as the Congo Crisis, from 1960 to 1965. This ended with the seizure of power by Joseph-Désiré Mobutu in November 1964. Congo Free State Until the later part of the 19th century, few Europeans had ventured into the Congo Basin. The rainforest, swamps and accompanying malaria and other tropical diseases, such as sleeping sickness, made it a difficult environment for European exploration and exploitation. In 1876, King Leopold II of Belgium organized the International African Association with the cooperation of the leading African explorers and the support of several European governments for the promotion of the exploration and colonization of Africa. After Henry Morton Stanley had explored the region in a journey that ended in 1878, Leopold courted the explorer and hired him to help his interests in the region. Leopold II had been keen to acquire a colony for Belgium even before he ascended to the throne in 1865. The Belgian civil government showed little interest in its monarch's dreams of empire-building. Ambitious and stubborn, Leopold decided to pursue the matter on his own account. European rivalry in Central Africa led to diplomatic tensions, in particular with regard to the Congo Basin, which no European power had claimed. In November 1884, Otto von Bismarck convened a 14-nation conference (the Berlin Conference) to find a peaceful resolution to the Congo situation. Though the Berlin Conference did not formally approve the territorial claims of the European powers in Central Africa, it did agree on a set of rules to ensure a conflict-free partitioning of the region. The rules recognised (inter alia) the Congo Basin as a free-trade zone. But Leopold II emerged triumphant from the Berlin Conference and his single shareholder "philanthropic" organization received a large share of territory (2,344,000 km2 (905,000 sq mi)) to be organized as the Congo Free State. The Congo Free State operated as a corporate state, privately controlled by Leopold II through a non-governmental organization, the International African Association. The state included the entire area of the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo, and existed from 1885 until 1908, when the government of Belgium reluctantly annexed the area. Under Leopold II's administration, the Congo Free State became a humanitarian disaster. The lack of accurate records makes it difficult to quantify the number of deaths caused by the ruthless exploitation and the lack of immunity to new diseases introduced by contact with European colonists – like the 1889–1890 influenza pandemic, which caused millions of deaths on the European continent, including Prince Baudouin of Belgium, who died in 1891. William Rubinstein wrote: "More basically, it appears almost certain that the population figures given by Hochschild are inaccurate. There is, of course, no way of ascertaining the population of the Congo before the twentieth century and estimates like 20 million are purely guesses. Most of the interior of the Congo was literally unexplored if not inaccessible." Leopold's Force Publique, a private army that terrorized natives to work as forced labour for resource extraction, disrupted local societies and killed and abused natives indiscriminately. The Force Publique also became involved in the Congo–Arab War against African and Arab slavers like Zanzibari/Swahili strongman Tippu Tip. Following the 1904 Casement Report on misdeeds and conditions, European (British included) and American press exposed the conditions in the Congo Free State to the public in the early 1900s. In 1904 Leopold II was forced to allow an international parliamentary commission of inquiry entry to the Congo Free State. By 1908, public pressure and diplomatic manoeuvres led to the end of Leopold II's personal rule and to the annexation of the Congo as a colony of Belgium, known as the "Belgian Congo". Belgian Congo On 18 October 1908, the Belgian Parliament voted in favour of annexing the Congo as a Belgian colony. A majority of the socialists and the radicals firmly opposed this annexation and reaped electoral benefits from their anti-colonialist campaign, but some believed that the country should annex the Congo and play a humanitarian role to the Congolese population. Eventually, two Catholic MPs and half of the Liberal MPs joined the socialists in rejecting the Colonial Charter (forty-eight votes against) and nearly all the Catholics and the other half of the Liberal MP's approved the charter (ninety votes for and seven abstentions). This way, on 15 November 1908 the Belgian Congo became a colony of the Belgian Kingdom. This was after King Leopold II had given up any hope of excluding a vast region of the Congo from the government's control by attempting to maintain a substantial part of the Congo Free State as a separate crown property. When the Belgian government took over the administration in 1908, the situation in the Congo improved in certain respects. The brutal exploitation and arbitrary use of violence, in which some of the concessionary companies had excelled, were curbed. The crime of "red rubber" was put to a stop. Article 3 of the new Colonial Charter of 18 October 1908 stated that: "Nobody can be forced to work on behalf of and for the profit of companies or privates", but this was not enforced, and the Belgian government continued to impose forced labour on the indigenous people of the area, albeit by less obvious methods. The transition from the Congo Free State to the Belgian Congo was a turning point, but it was also marked by a considerable continuity. The last Governor-General of the Congo Free State, Baron Wahis, remained in office in the Belgian Congo, and the majority of Leopold II's administration with him. While conditions were improved somewhat relative to rule under King Leopold, reports by doctors such as Dr. Raingeard show the low importance the Belgian government placed on healthcare and basic education of the natives. Opening up the Congo and its natural and mineral riches for the Belgian economy remained the motive for colonial expansion. Government The governance of the Belgian Congo was outlined in the 1908 Colonial Charter. Executive power rested with the Belgian Minister of Colonial Affairs, assisted by a Colonial Council (Conseil Colonial). Both resided in Brussels. The Belgian Parliament exercised legislative authority over the Belgian Congo. The highest-ranking representative of the colonial administration residing in the Belgian Congo was the Governor-General. From 1886 until 1926, the Governor-General and his administration were posted in Boma, near the Congo River estuary. From 1923, the colonial capital moved to Léopoldville, some 300 km further upstream in the interior. Initially, the Belgian Congo was administratively divided into four provinces: Congo-Kasaï, Equateur, Orientale, and Katanga, each presided over by a Vice-Governor-General. An administrative reform in 1932 increased the number of provinces to six, while "demoting" the Vice-Governors-General to provincial Governors. The territorial service was the true backbone of the colonial administration. The colony was divided into four provinces (six after the administrative reforms of 1933). Each province was in turn divided into a few districts (24 districts for the whole Congo) and each district into a handful of territories (some 130–150 territories in all; some territories were merged or split over time). A territory was managed by a territorial administrator, assisted by one or more assistants. The territories were further subdivided into numerous "chiefdoms" (chefferies), at the head of which the Belgian administration appointed "traditional chiefs" (chefs coutumiers). The territories administered by one territorial administrator and a handful of assistants were often larger than a few Belgian provinces taken together (the whole Belgian Congo was nearly 80 times larger than the whole of Belgium and was roughly twice the size of Germany and France combined). The territorial administrator was expected to inspect his territory and to file detailed annual reports with the provincial administration. In terms of the legal system, two systems co-existed: a system of European courts and one of indigenous courts (tribunaux indigènes). These indigenous courts were presided over by the traditional chiefs but had only limited powers and remained under the firm control of the colonial administration. In 1936 it was recorded that there were 728 administrators controlling the Congo from Belgium. Belgians living in the Congo had no say in the government and the Congolese did not either. No political activity was permitted in the Congo whatsoever. Public order in the colony was maintained by the Force Publique, a locally recruited army under Belgian command. It was only in the 1950s that metropolitan troops—i.e., units of the regular Belgian army—were posted in the Belgian Congo (for instance in Kamina). The colonial state—and any authority exercised by whites in the Congo—was often referred to by the Congolese as bula matari ("break rocks"), one of the names originally given to Stanley. He had used dynamite to crush rocks when paving his way through the lower-Congo region. The term bula matari came to signify the irresistible and compelling force of the colonial state. International conflicts The Belgian Congo was directly involved in the two world wars. During World War I, an initial stand-off between the Force Publique and the German colonial army in German East Africa (Tanganyika) turned into open warfare with a joint Anglo-Belgian invasion of German colonial territory in 1916 and 1917 during the East African campaign. By 1916, the Belgian commander of the Force Publique, Lieutenant-General Charles Tombeur, had assembled an army of 15,000 men supported by local bearers – Reybrouck indicated that during the war no less than 260,000 native bearers were called upon – and advanced to Kigali (now the capital of Rwanda). Kigali was taken by 6 May 1916, and the army went on to take Tabora (now part of Tanzania) on 19 September after heavy fighting. In 1917, after Mahenge (now in Tanzania) had been conquered, the army of the Belgian Congo, by now 25,000 men, occupied one-third of German East Africa. After World War I, under the Treaty of Versailles, Germany ceded control of the western section of the former German East Africa to Belgium, and Ruanda-Urundi would go on to become a League of Nations mandate territory, under Belgian administration. These areas did not become part of the Belgian Congo. Ruanda-Urundi would later become independent as the nations of Rwanda and Burundi, and the Belgian-controlled portions of German East Africa would join the nation of Tanganyika, followed by Tanzania. During World War II, the Belgian Congo served as a crucial source of income for the Belgian government in exile in London after the occupation of Belgium by the Nazis. Following the occupation of Belgium by the Germans in May 1940, the Belgian Congo declared itself loyal to the Belgian government in exile in London. The Belgian Congo and the rest of the Free Belgian forces supported the war on the Allied side in the Battle of Britain with 28 pilots in the RAF (squadron 349) and in the Royal South African Air Force (350 Squadron) and in Africa. The Force Publique again participated in the Allied campaigns in Africa. Belgian Congolese forces (with Belgian officers) notably fought against the Italian colonial army in Italian East Africa, and were victorious in Asosa, Bortaï and in the Siege of Saïo under Major-general Auguste-Eduard Gilliaert during the second East African campaign of 1940–1941. On 3 July 1941, the Italian forces (under General Pietro Gazzera) surrendered when they were cut off by the Force Publique. A Congolese unit also served in the Far Eastern Theatre with the British army in the Burma campaign. Economic policy The economic exploitation of the Congo was one of the colonizer's top priorities. An important tool was the construction of railways to open up the mineral and agricultural areas. World War I Rubber had long been the main export of the Belgian Congo, but its importance fell in the early 20th century from 77% of exports (by value) to only 15% as British colonies in Southeast Asia like British Malaya began to farm rubber. New resources were exploited, especially copper mining in Katanga province. The Belgian-owned Union Minière du Haut-Katanga, which would come to dominate copper mining, used a direct rail line to the sea at Beira. World War I increased demand for copper, and production soared from 997 tons in 1911 to 27,462 tons in 1917, then fell off to 19,000 tons in 1920. Smelters operated at Lubumbashi. Before the war the copper was sold to Germany; but the British purchased all the wartime output, with the revenues going to the Belgian government in exile. Diamond- and gold-mining also expanded during the war. The British firm of Lever Bros. greatly expanded the palm oil business during the war, and output of cocoa, rice and cotton increased. New rail and steamship lines opened to handle the expanded export traffic. During the First World War (1914–1918), the system of "mandatory cultivation" (cultures obligatoires) was introduced, forcing Congolese peasants to grow certain cash crops (cotton, coffee, groundnuts) destined as commodities for export. Territorial administrators and state agronomists had the task of supervising and, if necessary, sanctioning those peasants who evaded the hated mandatory cultivation. Interbellum Two distinct periods of investment in the Congo's economic infrastructure stand out during the period of Belgian rule: the 1920s and the 1950s. In 1921, the Belgian government provided 300 million francs of loans to the Belgian Congo, to fund public infrastructure projects in support of the boom of the private companies in the colony. The Belgian government also privatised many of the government-owned companies that were active in the colony (the Kilo-Moto mines, La Société Nationale des transport fluviaux,..). After the First World War, priority was given to investments in transport infrastructure (such as the rail lines between Matadi and Léopoldville and Elisabethville and Port Francqui). From 1920 to 1932, 2,450 km of railroads were constructed. The government also invested heavily in harbour infrastructure in the cities of Boma, Matadi, Leopoldville and Coquilhatville. Electricity and waterworks in the main cities were also funded. Airports were built and a telephone line was funded that connected Brussels with Leopoldville. The government accounted for about 50% of the investments in the Belgian Congo; commercial companies accounted for the other 50%. The mining industry—with the Union Minière du Haut Katanga (U.M.H.K.) as a major player—, attracted the majority of private investments (copper and cobalt in Katanga, diamonds in Kasai, gold in Ituri). This allowed, in particular, the Belgian Société Générale to build up an economic empire in the Belgian Congo. Huge profits were generated by the private companies and for a large part siphoned off to European and other international shareholders in the form of dividends. During the economic boom of the 1920s, many young Congolese men left their often impoverished rural villages and were employed by companies located near the cities; the population of Kinshasa nearly doubled from 1920 to 1940, and the population of Elizabethville grew from approximately 16,000 in 1923, to 33,000 in 1929. The necessary work-force was recruited by specialised recruiting firms (Robert Williams & Co, Bourse du Travail Kasaï,..) and was in some cases supported by governmental recruiting offices (Office de Travail-Offitra,..). In Katanga the main labour force were seasonal migrant workers from Tanganyika, Angola, Northern Rhodesia, and after 1926, also from Ruanda-Urundi. In many cases, this huge labour migration affected the economic viability of rural communities: many farmers left their villages, which resulted in labour shortages in these areas. To counter these problems, the colonial government used maximum quotas of "able-bodied workers" that could be recruited from every area in the Belgian Congo. In this way, tens of thousands of workers from densely populated areas were employed in copper mines in the sparsely populated south (Katanga). In agriculture, too, the colonial state forced a drastic rationalisation of production. The state took over so-called "vacant lands" (land not directly used by the local population) and redistributed the territory to European companies, to individual white landowners (colons), or to the missions. In this way, an extensive plantation economy developed. Palm-oil production in the Congo increased from 2,500 tons in 1914 to 9,000 tons in 1921, and to 230,000 tons in 1957. Cotton production increased from 23,000 tons in 1932 to 127,000 in 1939. The mobilization of the African workforce in the capitalist colonial economy played a crucial role in spreading the use of money in the Belgian Congo. The basic idea was that the development of the Congo had to be borne not by the Belgian taxpayers but by the Congolese themselves. The colonial state needed to be able to levy taxes in money on the Congolese, so it was important that they could make money by selling their produce or their labour within the framework of the colonial economy. The economic boom of the 1920s turned the Belgian Congo into one of the leading copper-ore producers worldwide. In 1926 alone, the Union Minière exported more than 80,000 tons of copper ore, a large part of it for processing in Hoboken (Belgium). In 1928 King Albert I visited the Congo to inaugurate the so-called 'voie national' that linked the Katanga mining region via rail (up to Port Francqui) and via river transport (from Port Francqui to Léopoldville) to the Atlantic port of Matadi. Great Depression The Great Depression of the 1930s affected the export-based Belgian Congo economy severely because of the drop in international demand for raw materials and agricultural products (for example, the price of peanuts fell from 1.25 francs to 25 centimes (cents)). In some areas, as in the Katanga mining region, employment declined by 70%. In the country as a whole, the wage labour force decreased by 72,000 and many such labourers returned to their villages. In Leopoldville, the population decreased by 33%, because of this labour migration. In order to improve conditions in the countryside, the colonial government developed the so-called "indigenous peasantry programme", aimed at supporting the development of a stronger internal market that was less dependent of fluctuations in export demand, but also to combat the disastrous effects of erosion and soil exhaustion brought about by the mandatory cultivation scheme. This policy began to be implemented on a large scale throughout the Congo after the Second World War, by the colonial government. The scheme aimed to modernize indigenous agriculture by assigning plots of land to individual families and by providing them with government support in the form of selected seeds, agronomic advice, fertilizers, etc. The National Institute for Agronomic Study of the Belgian Congo, established in 1934, with its large experimental fields and laboratories in Yangambe, played an important role in crop selection and in the popularization of agronomic research and know-how. World War II During World War II, industrial production and agricultural output increased drastically. The Congolese population bore the brunt of the "war effort" – for instance, through a reinforcement of the mandatory cultivation policy. After Malaya fell to the Japanese (January 1942), the Belgian Congo became a strategic supplier of rubber to the Allies. The Belgian Congo became one of the major exporters of uranium to the US during World War II (and the Cold War), particularly from the Shinkolobwe mine. The colony provided the uranium used by the Manhattan Project, including in atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Post World War II After World War II, the colonial state became more active in the economic and social development of the Belgian Congo. An ambitious ten-year plan was launched by the Belgian government in 1949. It put emphasis on house building, energy supply, rural development and health-care infrastructure. The ten-year plan ushered in a decade of strong economic growth, from which, for the first time, the Congolese began to benefit on a substantial scale. At the same time, the economy had expanded and the number of Belgian nationals in the country more than doubled, from 39,000 in 1950 to more than 88,000 by 1960. In 1953, Belgium granted the Congolese the right – for the first time – to buy and sell private property in their own names. In the 1950s a Congolese middle class, modest at first, but steadily growing, emerged in the main cities (Léopoldville, Elisabethville, Stanleyville, and Luluabourg). There was rapid political development, forced by African aspirations, in the last years of the 1950s, culminating in the 1960 Belgian Congo general election. Civilising mission Justifications for colonialism in Africa, taking as a given that tribal wars, cannibalism, human sacrifice, display of human trophies, bigamy, and other "primitive" practices were common place, often invoked as a key argument the civilizing influence of the European culture. The civilizing mission in the Congo went hand-in-hand with the economic and educational development. Conversion to Catholicism, basic Western-style education, and improved health-care were objectives in their own right, but at the same time helped to transform what Europeans regarded as a primitive society into the Western capitalist model, in which workers who were disciplined and healthy, and who had learned to read and write, could be assimilated into labour market. Some of the first notable missions into Africa were conducted by David Livingstone and John M. Springer during the late 19th century into the early 20th century. Education The educational system was dominated by the Catholic Church—as was the case for the rest of Belgium at the time—and, in some rare cases, by Protestant churches. Curricula reflected Christian and Western values. Even in 1948, 99.6% of educational facilities were run by Christian missions. Indigenous schooling was mainly religious and vocational. Children received basic education such as learning how to read, write and some mathematics. The Belgian Congo was one of the few African colonies in which local languages (Kikongo, Lingala, Tshiluba and Swahili) were taught at primary school. Even so, language policies and colonial domination often went hand in hand, as evidenced by the preference given to Lingala—a semi-artificial language spread through its common use in the Force Publique—over more local (but also more ancient) indigenous languages such as Lomongo and others. In 1940 the schooling rates of children between 6 and 14 years old was 12%, reaching 37% in 1954, one of the highest rates in sub-Saharan Africa. Secondary and higher education for the indigenous population were not developed until relatively late in the colonial period. Black children, in small numbers, began to be admitted to European secondary schools from 1950 onward. The first university in the Belgian Congo, the Catholic Jesuit Lovanium University, near Léopoldville, opened its doors to black and white students in 1954. Before the foundation of the Lovanium, the Catholic University of Louvain already operated multiple institutes for higher education in the Belgian Congo. The Fomulac (Fondation médicale de l'université de Louvain au Congo), was founded in 1926, with the goal of forming Congolese medical personnel and researchers specialized in tropical medicine. In 1932 the Catholic University of Louvain founded the Cadulac (Centres agronomiques de l'université de Louvain au Congo) in Kisantu. Cadulac was specialized in agricultural sciences and formed the basis for what was later to become Lovanium University. In 1956 a state university was founded in Elisabethville. Progress was slow though; until the end of the 1950s, no Congolese had been promoted beyond the rank of non-commissioned officer in the Force Publique, nor to a responsible position in the administration (such as head of bureau or territorial administrator). In the late 1950s, 42% of the youth of school-going age was literate, which placed the Belgian Congo far ahead of any other country in Africa at the time. In 1960, 1,773,340 students were enrolled in schools around the Belgian Congo, of which 1,650,117 in primary school, 22,780 in post-primary school, 37,388 in secondary school and 1,445 in university and higher education. Of these 1,773,340 students, the majority (1,359,118) were enrolled in Catholic mission schools, 322,289 in Protestant mission schools and 68,729 in educational institutions organized by the state. Health care Health care, too, was largely supported by the missions, although the colonial state took an increasing interest. In 1906 the Institute of Tropical Medicine was founded in Brussels. The ITM was, and still is, one of the world's leading institutes for training and research in tropical medicine and the organisation of health care in developing countries. Endemic diseases, such as sleeping sickness, were all but eliminated through large-scale and persistent campaigns. In 1925 medical missionary Dr. Arthur Lewis Piper was the first person to use and bring tryparsamide, the Rockefeller Foundation's drug to cure sleeping sickness, to the Congo. The health-care infrastructure expanded steadily throughout the colonial period, with a comparatively high availability of hospital beds relative to the population and with dispensaries set up in the most remote regions. In 1960 the country had a medical infrastructure that far surpassed any other African nation at that time. The Belgian Congo had 3,000 health care facilities, of which 380 were hospitals. There were 5.34 hospital beds for every 1000 inhabitants (1 for every 187 inhabitants). Great progress was also made in the fight against endemic diseases; the numbers of reported cases of sleeping sickness went from 34,000 cases in 1931 to 1,100 cases in 1959, mainly by eradicating the tsetse fly in densely populated areas. All Europeans and Congolese in the Belgian Congo received vaccinations for polio, measles and yellow fever. Vast disease prevention programmes were rolled out, aimed at eradicating polio, leprosy and tuberculosis. In the primary schools, disease prevention campaigns were implemented, and disease prevention classes were part of the curriculum. Social inequality and racial discrimination There was an "implicit apartheid". The colony had curfews for Congolese city-dwellers and similar racial restrictions were commonplace. Léopoldville's system of racist curfews was particularly notable and was used as a blueprint in other European colonies, such as nearby French Equatorial Africa. Though there were no specific laws imposing racial segregation and barring blacks from establishments frequented by whites, de facto segregation operated in most areas. For example, initially, the city centers were reserved to the white population only, while the black population was organized in cités indigènes (indigenous neighbourhoods called 'le belge'). Hospitals, department stores and other facilities were often reserved for either whites or blacks. In the Force Publique, black people could not pass the rank of non-commissioned officer. The black population in the cities could not leave their houses from 9 pm to 4 am. This type of segregation began to disappear gradually only in the 1950s, but even then the Congolese remained or felt treated in many respects as second-rate citizens (for instance in political and legal terms). Because of the close interconnection between economic development and the 'civilizing mission', and because in practice state officials, missionaries and the executives of the private companies always lent each other a helping hand, the image has emerged that the Belgian Congo was governed by a "colonial trinity" of King-Church-Capital, encompassing the colonial state, the Christian missions, and the Société Générale de Belgique. The paternalistic ideology underpinning colonial policy was summed up in a catchphrase used by Governor-General Pierre Ryckmans (1934–46): Dominer pour servir ("Dominate to serve"). The colonial government wanted to convey images of a benevolent and conflict-free administration and of the Belgian Congo as a true model colony. Only in the 1950s did this paternalistic attitude begin to change. In the 1950s the most blatant discriminatory measures directed at the Congolese were gradually withdrawn (among these: corporal punishment by means of the feared chicote—Portuguese word for whip). From 1953, and even more so after the triumphant visit of King Baudouin to the colony in 1955, Governor-General Léon Pétillon (1952–1958) worked to create a "Belgian-Congolese community", in which blacks and whites were to be treated as equals. Regardless, anti-miscegenation laws remained in place, and between 1959 and 1962 thousands of mixed-race Congolese children were forcibly deported from the Congo by the Belgian government and the Catholic Church and taken to Belgium. In 1957, the first municipal elections open to black voters took place in a handful of the largest cities — Léopoldville, Élisabethville, and Jadotville. Abolition of slavery In the Belgian Free State, the Belgians had freed thousands of men, women and children slaves from Swaihili Arab slave owners and slave traders in Eastern Congo in 1886-1892, enlisted them in the militia Force Publique or where given as prisoners to allied local chiefs, who in turn gave them as laborers for the Belgian conscript workers; when Belgian Congo was established, chattel slavery was legally abolished in 1910, but prisoners were nevertheless conscripted as force laborers for both public and private work projects. Resistance Congolese opposition against colonialism was continuous, sustained and took many different forms. It became more likely as modern ideas and education spread. Armed risings occurred sporadically and localized until roughly the end of the Second World War (e.g., revolt of the Pende in 1931, mutiny in Luluabourg 1944). From the end of the Second World War until the late 1950s, the era of what colonial propaganda called a "Pax belgica" prevailed. Until the end of colonial rule in 1960, passive forms of resistance and expressions of an anti-colonial sub-culture were nevertheless manifold and widespread (e.g., Kimbanguism, after the 'prophet' Simon Kimbangu, who was imprisoned by the Belgians). Apart from active and passive resistance among the Congolese, the colonial regime over time also elicited internal criticism and dissent. Already in the 1920s, certain members of the Colonial Council in Brussels (among them Octave Louwers) voiced criticism regarding the often brutal recruitment methods employed by the major companies in the mining districts. The stagnation of population growth in many districts—in spite of spectacular successes in the fight against endemic diseases such as sleeping sickness—was another cause for concern. Low birth rates in the countryside and the depopulation of certain areas were typically attributed to the disruption of traditional community life as a result of forced labour migration and mandatory cultivation. Response was often made that that had been the point of the policies, and pointed to the increase of population in the cities, as well as the improvement in health and lifespan due to modern medicine and living conditions. Many missionaries who were in daily contact with Congolese villagers, took their plight in the transition at heart and sometimes intervened on their behalf with the colonial administration (for instance in land property questions). The missions and certain territorial administrators also played an important role in the study and preservation of Congolese cultural and linguistic traditions and artefacts. One example among many is that of Father Gustaaf Hulstaert (1900–1990), who in 1937 created the periodical Aequatoria devoted to the linguistic, ethnographic and historical study of the Mongo people of the central Congo basin. The colonial state took an interest in the cultural and scientific study of the Congo, particularly after the Second World War, through the creation of the Institut pour la Recherche Scientifique en Afrique Centrale (IRSAC, 1948). Toward independence In the early 1950s, political emancipation of the Congolese elites, let alone of the masses, seemed like a distant event. But it was clear that the Congo could not forever remain immune from the rapid changes that, after the Second World War, profoundly affected colonialism around the world. The independence of the British, French and Dutch colonies in Asia shortly after 1945 had little immediate effect in the Congo, but in the United Nations pressure on Belgium (as on other colonial powers) increased. Belgium had ratified article 73 of the United Nations Charter, which advocated self-determination, and both superpowers put pressure on Belgium to reform its Congo policy; the Belgian government tried to resist what it described as 'interference' with its colonial policy. Colonial authorities discussed ways to ameliorate the situation of the Congolese. Since the 1940s, the colonial government had experimented in a very modest way with granting a limited elite of so-called évolués more civil rights, holding out the eventual prospect of a limited amount of political influence. To this end "deserving" Congolese could apply for a proof of "civil merit", or, one step up, 'immatriculation' (registration), i.e., official evidence of their assimilation with European civilisation. To acquire this status, the applicant had to fulfill strict conditions (monogamous matrimony, evidence of good behaviour, etc.) and submit to stringent controls (including house visits). This policy was a failure. By the mid-1950s, there were at best a few thousand Congolese who had successfully obtained the civil merit diploma or been granted "immatriculation". The supposed benefits attached to it—including equal legal status with the white population—proved often more theory than reality and led to open frustration with the évolués. When Governor-General Pétillon began to speak about granting the native people more civil rights, even suffrage, to create what he termed a "Belgo-Congolese community", his ideas were met with indifference from Brussels and often with open hostility from some of the Belgians in the Congo, who feared for their privileges. It became increasingly evident that the Belgian government lacked a strategic long-term vision in relation to the Congo. 'Colonial affairs' did not generate much interest or political debate in Belgium, so long as the colony seemed to be thriving and calm. A notable exception was the young King Baudouin, who had succeeded his father, King Leopold III, under dramatic circumstances in 1951, when Leopold III was forced to abdicate. Baudouin took a close interest in the Belgian Congo. On his first state visit to the Belgian Congo in 1955, King Baudouin was welcomed enthusiastically by cheering crowds of whites and blacks alike, as captured in André Cauvin's documentary film, Bwana Kitoko. Foreign observers, such as the international correspondent of The Manchester Guardian or a Time journalist, remarked that Belgian paternalism "seemed to work", and contrasted Belgium's seemingly loyal and enthusiastic colonial subjects with the restless French and British colonies. On the occasion of his visit, King Baudouin openly endorsed the Governor-General's vision of a "Belgo-Congolese community"; but, in practice, this idea progressed slowly. At the same time, divisive ideological and linguistic issues in Belgium, which heretofore had been successfully kept out of the colony's affairs, began to affect the Congo as well. These included the rise of unionism among workers, the call for public (state) schools to break the missions' monopoly on education, and the call for equal treatment in the colony of both Belgian national languages: French and Dutch. Until then, French had been promoted as the unique colonial language. The Governor-General feared that such divisive issues would undermine the authority of the colonial government in the eyes of the Congolese, while also diverting attention from the more pressing need for true emancipation. Political organisation Congolese participation in the Second World War and news of changes in other colonies resulted in their organising to gain more power. As a result of the inability of the colonial government to introduce radical and credible changes, the Congolese elites began to organise themselves socially and soon also politically. In the 1950s, two markedly different forms of nationalism arose among the Congolese elites. The nationalist movement—to which the Belgian authorities, to some degree, turned a blind eye—promoted territorial nationalism, wherein the Belgian Congo would become one politically united state after independence. In opposition to this was the ethno-religious and regional nationalism that took hold in the Bakongo territories of the west coast, Kasai and Katanga. The first political organisations were of the latter type. ABAKO, founded in 1950 as the Association culturelle des Bakongo and headed by Joseph Kasa-Vubu, was initially a cultural association that soon turned political. From the mid-1950s, it became a vocal opponent of Belgian colonial rule. Additionally, the organization continued to serve as the major ethno-religious organization for the Bakongo and became closely intertwined with the Kimbanguist Church, which was extremely popular in the lower Congo. In 1955, Belgian professor Antoine van Bilsen published a treatise called Thirty Year Plan for the Political Emancipation of Belgian Africa. The timetable called for the gradual emancipation of the Congo over a 30-year period—the time Van Bilsen expected it would take to create an educated elite who could replace the Belgians in positions of power. The Belgian government and many of the évolués were suspicious of the plan—the former because it meant eventually giving up the Congo, and the latter because Belgium would continue to rule for another three decades. A group of Catholic évolués responded positively to the plan with a moderate manifesto in a Congolese journal called Conscience Africaine; they raised issues as to the extent of Congolese participation. In 1957, by way of experiment, the colonial government organised the first municipal elections in three urban centres (Léopoldville, Elisabethville and Jadotville), in which Congolese people were allowed to stand for office and cast their vote. Events in 1957–58 led to a sudden acceleration in the demands for political emancipation. The independence of Ghana in 1957 and President De Gaulle's August 1958 visit to Brazzaville, the capital of the French Congo, on the other side of the Congo river to Léopoldville, in which he promised France's African colonies the free choice between a continued association with France or full independence, aroused ambitions in the Congo. The World Exhibition organised in Brussels in 1958 (Expo 58) proved another eye-opener for many Congolese leaders, who were allowed to travel to Belgium for the first time. In 1958, the demands for independence radicalised quickly and gained momentum. A key role was played by the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC). First set up in 1956, the MNC was established in October 1958 as a national political party that supported the goal of a unitary and centralised Congolese nation. Its most influential leader was the charismatic Patrice Lumumba. In 1959, an internal split was precipitated by Albert Kalonji and other MNC leaders who favoured a more moderate political stance (the splinter group was deemed Mouvement National Congolais-Kalonji). Despite the organisational divergence of the party, Lumumba's leftist faction (now the Mouvement National Congolais-Lumumba) and the MNC collectively had established themselves as by far the most important and influential party in the Belgian Congo. Belgium vehemently opposed Lumumba's leftist views and had grave concerns about the status of their financial interests should Lumumba's MNC gain power. Independence While the Belgian government was debating a programme to gradually extend the political emancipation of the Congolese population, it was overtaken by events. On 4 January 1959, a prohibited political demonstration organised in Léopoldville by ABAKO got out of hand. At once, the colonial capital was in the grip of extensive rioting. It took the authorities several days to restore order and, by the most conservative count, several hundred died. The eruption of violence sent a shockwave through the Congo and Belgium alike. On 13 January, King Baudouin addressed the nation by radio and declared that Belgium would work towards the full independence of the Congo "without delay, but also without irresponsible rashness". Without committing to a specific date for independence, the government of prime minister Gaston Eyskens had a multi-year transition period in mind. They thought provincial elections would take place in December 1959, national elections in 1960 or 1961, after which administrative and political responsibilities would be gradually transferred to the Congolese, in a process presumably to be completed towards the mid-1960s. On the ground, circumstances were changing much more rapidly. Increasingly, the colonial administration saw varied forms of resistance, such as refusal to pay taxes. In some regions anarchy threatened. At the same time many Belgians resident in the Congo opposed independence, feeling betrayed by Brussels. Faced with a radicalisation of Congolese demands, the government saw the chances of a gradual and carefully planned transition dwindling rapidly. In 1959, King Baudouin made another visit to the Belgian Congo, finding a great contrast with his visit of four years before. Upon his arrival in Léopoldville, he was pelted with rocks by black Belgo-Congolese citizens who were angry with the imprisonment of Lumumba, convicted because of incitement against the colonial government. Though Baudouin's reception in other cities was considerably better, the shouts of "Vive le roi!" were often followed by "Indépendance immédiate!" The Belgian government wanted to avoid being drawn into a futile and potentially very bloody colonial war, as had happened to France in Indochina and Algeria, or to the Netherlands in Indonesia. For that reason, it was inclined to give in to the demands for immediate independence voiced by the Congolese leaders. Despite lack of preparation and an insufficient number of educated elite (there were only a handful of Congolese holding a university degree at that time), the Belgian leaders hoped that they could handle what they said they wanted, and decided to let them have it. This became known as "Le Pari Congolais"—the Congolese bet. In January 1960, Congolese political leaders were invited to Brussels to participate in a round-table conference to discuss independence. Patrice Lumumba was discharged from prison for the occasion. The conference agreed surprisingly quickly to grant the Congolese practically all of their demands: a general election to be held in May 1960 and full independence—"Dipenda"—on 30 June 1960. This was in response to the strong united front put up by the Congolese delegation. Political maneuvering ahead of the elections resulted in the emergence of three political alliances: a coalition of the federalistic nationalists consisting of six separatist parties or organizations, two of which were ABAKO and the MNC—Kalonji; the centralist MNC—Lumumba; and that of Moïse Tshombe, the strong-man of Katanga, who wanted to preserve the economic vitality of its area and the business interests of the Union Minière (as Kalonji did with respect to the diamond exploitations in Kasaï). The parliamentary elections resulted in a divided political landscape, with both the regionalist factions—chief among them ABAKO—and the nationalist parties such as the MNC, doing well. A compromise arrangement was forced through, with Kasa-vubu becoming the first president of the Republic of the Congo, and Lumumba its first head of government. As planned scarcely five months earlier, the hand-over ceremony by the Belgians took place on time on 30 June 1960 at the new residence of the Governor-General of the Belgian Congo in Léopoldville. One week later, a rebellion broke out within the Force Publique against its officers, who were still predominantly Belgian. This was a catalyst for disturbances arising all over the Congo, mainly instigated by dissatisfied soldiers and radicalized youngsters. In many areas, their violence specifically targeted European victims. Within weeks, the Belgian military and later a United Nations intervention force evacuated the largest part of the more than 80,000 Belgians who were still working and living in the Congo. Congo Crisis and aftermath The rebellion that had started in Thyssville in the Bas-Congo in July 1960 quickly spread to the rest of the Congo. In September 1960, the leaders split, with President Kasa-Vubu declaring prime minister Lumumba deposed from his functions, and vice versa. The stalemate was ended with the government's arrest of Lumumba. In January 1961, he was flown to the rich mining province of Katanga, which by that time had declared a secession from Léopoldville under the leadership of Moïse Tshombe (with active Belgian support). Lumumba was handed over to Katangan authorities, who executed him. In 2002 Belgium officially apologised for its role in the assassination of Lumumba; the CIA has long been speculated of complicity, as they had seen Lumumba's politics were too far left. The Soviet Union during the Cold War years was active in expanding its influence in Africa against European powers, giving 'anti-colonialism' as a rationale for the increase of its power in the region. A series of rebellions and separatist movements seemed to shatter the dream of a unitary Congolese state at its birth. Although the nation was independent, Belgian paratroopers intervened in the Congo on various occasions to protect and evacuate Belgian and international citizens. The United Nations maintained a large peace-keeping operation in the Congo from late 1960 onward. The situation did not stabilise until 1964–65. Katanga province was re-absorbed and the so-called Simba Rebellion ended in Stanleyville (province Orientale). Shortly after that army colonel Joseph Désiré Mobutu ended the political impasse by seizing power in a coup d'état. Mobutu had some support in the West, and in particular in the United States, because of his strong anti-communist stance. Initially his rule favored consolidation and economic development (e.g., by building the Inga dam that had been planned in the 1950s). In order to distance himself from the previous regime, he launched a campaign of Congolese "authenticity". The government abandoned the use of colonial place names in 1966: Léopoldville was renamed as Kinshasa, Elisabethville as Lubumbashi, Stanleyville as Kisangani. During this period, the Congo generally maintained close economic and political ties with Belgium. Certain financial issues had remained unresolved after independence (the so-called "contentieux"), for instance, the transfer of shares in the big mining companies that had been held directly by the colonial state. In 1970, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of independence, King Baudouin paid an official state visit to the Congo. Mobutu's régime became more radical during the 1970s. The Mouvement populaire de la Révolution (MPR), of which Mobutu was the président-fondateur, firmly established one-party rule. Political repression increased considerably. Mobutu renamed the Congo as the republic of Zaïre. The so-called "Zaïrisation" of the country in the mid-1970s led to an exodus of foreign workers and economic disaster. In the 1980s the Mobutu regime became a byword for mismanagement and corruption. Relations with Belgium, the former colonial power, went through a series of ups and downs, reflecting a steady decline in the underlying economic, financial and political interests. As there was no danger of the country falling into Soviet hands, the Western powers maintained a neutral stance. After the fall of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War in the late 1980s, Mobutu lost support in the West. As a result, in 1990, he decided to end the one-party system and dramatically announced a return to democracy. But he dragged his feet and played out his opponents against one another to gain time. A bloody intervention of the Zaïrian Army against students on the Lubumbashi University Campus in May 1990 precipitated a break in diplomatic relations between Belgium and Zaïre. Pointedly, Mobutu was not invited to attend the funeral of King Baudouin in 1993, which he considered a grave personal affront. In 1997 Mobutu was forced from power by a rebel force headed by Laurent-Désiré Kabila, who declared himself president and renamed Zaïre as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Assassinated in 2001, Kabila was succeeded by his son Joseph Kabila. In 2006 Joseph Kabila was confirmed as president through the first nationwide free elections in the Congo since 1960. On 30 June – 2 July 2010, King Albert II and Yves Leterme, the Belgian Prime Minister, visited Kinshasa to attend the festivities marking the 50th anniversary of Congolese independence. Certain practices and traditions from the colonial period have survived into the independent Congolese state. It maintains a strong centralising and bureaucratic tendency, and has kept the organizational structure of the education system and the judiciary. The influence of the Congo on Belgium has been manifested mainly in economic terms: through the activities of the Union Minière (now Umicore), the development of a nonferrous metal industry, and the development of the Port of Antwerp and diamond industry. To this day, Brussels Airlines (successor of the former Sabena) has maintained a strong presence in the DRC. It was estimated that in 2010, more than 4,000 Belgian nationals were resident in the DRC, and the Congolese community in Belgium was at least 16,000 strong. The "Matongé" quarter in Brussels is the traditional focal point of the Congolese community in Belgium. Culture Music In popular music, Latin music such as rumba was introduced from Cuba in the 1930s and 1940s during the colonial era, and Latin music was played extensively in the Belgian Congo. In the 1950s, American jazz was also widely accepted as African jazz. In 1956, Franco formed OK Jazz (later renamed TPOK Jazz). Joseph Kabasele, also known as Le Grand Kallé (The Great Kallé), formed African Jazz. House bands became popular, and rumba congolaise were formed. Marlo Mashi is a musician of the same era. Congo's popular music evolved from continental rhythm, church music, Ghana's high life, and traditional Congo music. See also Archives Africaines (Belgium), which keeps material related to Belgian Congo Les Belges dans l'Afrique Centrale Districts of the Belgian Congo Belgian Congo in World War II Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Tintin in the Congo Citations References Bibliography Arnot, Frederick Stanley (1914). Missionary travels in central Africa. Bath : Office of Echoes of Service. Cunningham, Richard (1973). The place where the world ends; a modern story of cannibalism and human courage. New York: Sheed and Ward. ISBN 978-0-83620-5435. Hogg, Gary (1983). Cannibalism & Human Sacrifice. Coles publishing. pp. 18–24, 81. Freund, Bill (1998). The Making of Contemporary Africa: The Development of African Society since 1800 (2nd ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-69872-3. Pakenham, Thomas (1992). The Scramble for Africa: the White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912 (13th ed.). London: Abacus. ISBN 978-0-349-10449-2. Renders, Luc (2020). The Congo in Flemish Literature: An Anthology of Flemish Prose on the Congo, 1870s - 1990s. Leuven: Leuven University Press. ISBN 978-9462702172. Turner, Thomas (2007). The Congo Wars: Conflict, Myth and Reality (2nd ed.). London: Zed Books. ISBN 978-1-84277-688-9. Vansina, Jan (2010). Being Colonized: The Kuba Experience in Rural Congo, 1880-1960. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0299236441. Vanthemsche, Guy (2012). Belgium and the Congo, 1885–1980. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-19421-1. Africa Missionaries : an honor roll of the missionaries of the Methodist Church in [Africa]. New York, NY: Board of Missions and Church Extension, the Methodist Church. 1945. "Bishop John McKendree Springer". United Methodist Communications. 2024. Retrieved 2 March 2024. Historiography Stanard, Matthew G. "Belgium, the Congo, and Imperial Immobility: A Singular Empire and the Historiography of the Single Analytic Field,"French Colonial History (2014) vol 15 -109. Vanthemsche, Guy. 'The historiography of Belgian colonialism in the Congo" in C Levai ed., Europe and the World in European Historiography (Pisa University Press, 2006), pp. 89–119. online In French or Dutch Bulletin Officiel du Congo belge (in French and Dutch), Brussels, 1908–1959 – via Académie royale des sciences d'outre-mer{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Biographie Belge d'Outre-Mer (in French and Dutch), Brussels: Académie Royale des Sciences d'Outre-mer 1948–2015; 11 volumes online Victor Prévot (1961). "L'œuvre belge au Congo". L'Information géographique (in French). 25 (3): 93–100. doi:10.3406/ingeo.1961.2068 – via Persee.fr. Ndaywel è Nziem, Isidore (1998). Histoire générale du Congo. Paris and Brussels: De Boeck & Larcier. Stengers, Jean (2005). Congo, Mythes et réalités. Brussels: Editions Racines. Van Reybrouck, David (2010). Congo, Een geschiedenis. Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij. External links Cana, Frank Richardson (1911). "Congo Free State" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 917–928. Cana, Frank Richardson (1922). "Belgian Congo" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 30 (12th ed.). pp. 428–429.

2010–11_La_Liga

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010–11_La_Liga

The 2010–11 La Liga (known as the Liga BBVA for sponsorship reasons) was the 80th season of La Liga since its establishment. The campaign began on 28 August 2010, and concluded on 21 May 2011. A total of 20 teams contested the league, 17 of which already partook in the 2009–10 season, and three of which were promoted from the Segunda División. In addition, a new match ball – the Nike Total 90 Tracer – served as the official ball for all matches. Defending champions Barcelona secured a third consecutive and overall 21st La Liga title following a 1–1 draw with Levante on 11 May 2011. The result gave Barcelona a six-point lead with two matches remaining which, combined with their superior head-to-head record against Real Madrid, ensured that they would finish top of the table. Barcelona led the table since defeating Real Madrid 5–0 on 23 November 2010. From that point onwards, they lost only one match en route to winning the title. Barcelona's Lionel Messi won La Liga's Award for Best Player for a third straight year. The season was again dominated by Barcelona and Real Madrid, with second-place Madrid 21 points ahead of third-place Valencia. Having also faced off in the Champions League semi-finals and the Copa del Rey final, the top two rivals met four times over seventeen days, for a total of five meetings this season. Teams Real Valladolid, CD Tenerife and Xerez CD were relegated to the Segunda División after finishing the 2009–10 season in the bottom three places. Tenerife and Xerez made their immediate return to the second level after just one year in the Spanish top flight, while Valladolid ended a three-year tenure in La Liga. The relegated teams were replaced by 2009–10 Segunda División champions Real Sociedad from San Sebastián, runners-up Hércules CF from Alicante and Levante UD from Valencia. Hércules returned to the highest Spanish football league for the first time after 13 years, while Real Sociedad and Levante terminated their second-level status after three and two years, respectively. Stadia and locations Personnel and sponsorship ^ Barcelona makes a donation to UNICEF in order to display the charity's logo on the club's kit. Managerial changes League table Results Awards La Liga Awards La Liga's governing body, the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional, honoured the competition's best players and coach with Awards. Top goalscorers Top assists Source: ESPN Soccernet Archived 26 October 2010 at the Wayback Machine Zamora Trophy The Ricardo Zamora Trophy is awarded by newspaper Marca to the goalkeeper with the lowest ratio of goals conceded to matches played. A goalkeeper had to play at least 28 matches of 60 or more minutes to be eligible for the trophy. Source: futbol.sportec Fair Play award This award was given annually since 1999 to the team with the best fair play during the season. This ranking took into account aspects such as cards, suspension of matches, audience behaviour and other penalties. This section not only aims to know this aspect, but also serves to break the tie in teams that are tied in all the other rules: points, head-to-head, goal difference and goals scored. Source: 2010–11 Fair Play Rankings Season. Sources of cards and penalties: Referee's reports, Competition Committee's Sanctions, Appeal Committee Resolutions and RFEF's Directory about Fair Play Rankings Legend: Pedro Zaballa award Real Madrid Overall Most wins - Barcelona (30) Fewest wins - Almería (6) Most draws - Sporting Gijón (14) Fewest draws - Real Sociedad (3) Most losses - Real Sociedad and Hércules (21) Fewest losses - Barcelona (2) Most goals scored - Real Madrid (102) Fewest goals scored - Deportivo La Coruña (31) Most goals conceded - Almería (70) Fewest goals conceded - Barcelona (21) Season statistics Scoring First goal of the season: Fernando Llorente for Athletic Bilbao against Hércules (28 August 2010). Last goal of the season: Kennedy Bakircioglu for Racing Santander against Athletic Bilbao (21 May 2011). Hat-tricks 4 Player scored four goals (H) – Home; (A) – Away Discipline First yellow card of the season: Noé Pamarot for Hércules against Athletic Bilbao (28 August 2010) First red card of the season: Matías Fritzler for Hércules against Athletic Bilbao (28 August 2010) See also List of Spanish football transfers summer 2010 List of Spanish football transfers winter 2010–11 2010–11 Segunda División 2010–11 Copa del Rey References External links Media related to La Liga season 2010-2011 at Wikimedia Commons

Mesut_Özil

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesut_Özil

Mesut Özil (German pronunciation: [ˈmeːzut ˈøːzil], Turkish: [meˈsut œˈzil]; born 15 October 1988) is a German former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Known for his technical skills, creativity, passing skills, and vision, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest midfielders and playmakers of his generation. He could also play as a wide midfielder. Born and raised in Gelsenkirchen, Özil began his senior club career playing for hometown club Schalke 04, before signing with Werder Bremen in 2008, aged 19. After winning the DFB-Pokal in his first season, his individual performances led to a move to Real Madrid in 2010. There, he helped the club win a La Liga title, and ranked first in league assists for three straight seasons. In 2013, Özil signed for Arsenal in a transfer worth up to £42.5 million (€50 million), becoming the most expensive German player ever at the time. It was also a club-record transfer fee for Arsenal until 2017. In England, he won four FA Cups and helped end Arsenal's nine-year trophy drought, while recording the second most assists ever (19) in a Premier League season. In 2021, Özil joined Fenerbahçe on a free transfer; after his contract with the club was terminated in 2022, he signed with İstanbul Başakşehir, before retiring in 2023. A German international for over nine years, Özil holds the record for the most German National Team Player of the Year awards (5). He made his senior debut for the Germany national team in 2009 at age 20, and appeared in five major tournaments. He was the top assist provider at the 2010 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2012, where he helped Germany twice reach the semi-final. Özil helped Germany win the 2014 FIFA World Cup, but retired from international competition in 2018, alleging discrimination and disrespect by the German Football Association (DFB) and the German media. Early life Özil was born on 15 October 1988 in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, as a son of Turkish immigrants. His grandfather moved as a Gastarbeiter from Zonguldak, Turkey to West Germany. He played, at youth level, for various clubs in Gelsenkirchen during 1995–2000, before a five-year stint for Rot-Weiss Essen. Club career Schalke 04 In 2005, Özil moved to the youth system of Schalke 04. He was deployed a midfielder and wore 17 as his squad number, after starting as a playmaker and central attacking midfielder in the place of the suspended Lincoln in DFL-Ligapokal matches against Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich. Upon making the first team at Schalke, he was described as "the next big thing". However, soon after declining an offer from Schalke 04, claiming that a yearly salary of €1.5 million would not be enough, he eventually fell out with club management and moved on to Werder Bremen in January 2008. This led to Mirko Slomka, the then-Schalke manager, claiming that Özil would not play another match for Schalke. Werder Bremen On 31 January 2008, Özil moved to Werder Bremen for a reported fee of €5 million, signing a contract with the German club until 30 June 2011. Other than Werder Bremen, Hannover 96 and VfB Stuttgart were reportedly interested as well in binding Özil to their respective clubs, however did not want to pay such a high transfer fee. After transferring to Werder Bremen, Özil got the jersey number 11. On 26 April 2008 (30th match day) Özil scored the go-ahead goal in the 33rd minute against Karlsruher SC, to put his team up 2–1. This was Özil's first Bundesliga goal. He played in twelve games throughout the second half of the season, six times playing in the starting formation, becoming second with Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga at the end of the 2007–08 season. Although Bremen failed to get going in their 2008–09 Bundesliga season, eventually finishing a disappointing tenth, Özil managed to make a significant impact in most games and came away with a respectable three goals and 15 assists that highlighted his attacking credentials. He helped lead the North German club to the 2009 DFB-Pokal with the winning goal in a 1–0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen in Berlin. He also excelled in Europe where he led Werder Bremen to the final of the last ever UEFA Cup, losing out to Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine. In the 2009–10 season, Özil became the key playmaker of Werder Bremen, stepping into the shoes of Brazilian Diego who had left for Juventus, was named the best player of the first leg of the 2009 Bundesliga season. On 1 May 2010, the 33rd match day, Özil played his 100th Bundesliga game, scoring the 1–0 lead in a 2–0 win against his former club Schalke. Özil went on and led Werder Bremen to become third in the league and again to the DFB-Pokal final, however this time it was lost against Bayern Munich by 0–4. In his second season, Bremen finished a respectable third, with Özil contributing 9 goals and 17 assists in 31 league fixture appearances. During the 2009–10 season, Özil was also declared as the "best player of the first half of the season". Real Madrid 2010–11: Debut season, European assist leader Due to his performances in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Özil ensured his place among Europe's top young talents. He was sought by teams like Barcelona, Arsenal and Real Madrid. English striker Wayne Rooney was one of the many admirers Özil had garnered with his performances in the World Cup, and had even asked Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson to sign the German playmaker. There were reports claiming that a deal was struck for a transfer to Barcelona, but Werder Bremen denied the reports and on 17 August 2010, the team announced that they had reached an agreement with Real Madrid for Özil's transfer. The transfer fee is believed to have been in the region of €15 million. Upon signing, Özil said, "When the offer came in to join Real Madrid, there is no decision to make. Let's be honest – you don't refuse this club. I was in no rush to leave Werder Bremen, but this is one club you say yes to. They are an institution, a club with a fantastic history, stadium and squad full of world-class players. The prospect of performing at the Bernabéu is so awesome you jump straight in." Özil made his debut on 22 August in a friendly match against Hércules, which Real Madrid won 3–1. His jersey numbers were changed often before the season started. He was given the number 26 in the pre-season and 19 for his debut. But following the transfer of Rafael van der Vaart to Tottenham Hotspur, he was given the vacant 23. Özil was brought in to back up teammate Kaká, but due to the latter's surgery, Özil obtained a starting role. He then made his La Liga debut for Real Madrid as a substitute for Ángel Di María in the 62nd minute against Mallorca, which Real Madrid drew 0–0. He made his season debut in the Champions League on 15 September. He got his first assist with Real Madrid in the 74th minute against Ajax after he crossed for a Gonzalo Higuaín goal. He walked off the pitch as a second-half substitute to standing ovations in his first two games as a starter at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. His first goal came in a league match against Deportivo de La Coruña on 3 October 2010, in a 6–1 victory. Özil's first Champions League goal with Real came in the 14th minute against Milan on 19 October 2010. On 22 December, he made his debut in the Copa del Rey, scoring once in an 8–0 victory over Levante. He finished the season with 25 assists, the highest for any player in any major European competition that season. Özil's performances for Real Madrid during his first season were praised by media, fans and players. 2011–12: La Liga win Özil began wearing the number 10 shirt for Real Madrid in 2011–12, signalling manager José Mourinho's intent to use the German international as his main playmaker. On 14 August 2011, Özil scored his first goal against Barcelona in El Clásico in the first leg of the 2011 Supercopa de España. On 17 August 2011, he was sent off in the last minute of the second leg of the 2011 Supercopa after an altercation with Barça forward David Villa. Özil expressed his desire to end his football days at the club in an interview with German magazine kicker, saying, "I'd like to end my career at Real Madrid. I know it will be difficult because I have many more years ahead of me and many younger and good players will also be out there, but I want to be part of that future. I know what I'm capable of, and I'm convinced, I'll stay at Real Madrid many years." Özil was on the short-list of the FIFA Ballon d'Or award. He finished atop the La Liga assists chart, with 17 assists. On 2 May 2012, he helped Real Madrid to clinch a record 32nd La Liga title as he assisted Real's first goal and scored the second goal against Bilbao, which Real Madrid later won by 3–0. Eleven days later, Özil scored two goals in the final game of the regular season against Mallorca, once again consolidating his excellent performance with the club. The win made Real the first club in the Spanish top flight to ever reach 100 points in a single season. His fine form with Real Madrid and German national team saw him earn nomination for UEFA Best Player in Europe Award, in which he finished tenth, being the youngest player to feature in the Top 10. 2012–13: Third straight La Liga assist leader With arrival of Luka Modrić before the start of the season, some in the media claimed Özil was unhappy at Real Madrid, but he later rejected such talk and claimed he was happy at the club and looking forward to competing for his place. After the start of the season, he added the Supercopa de España title to his honours. In league play, he provided an important assist to Cristiano Ronaldo who equalised in a 2–2 draw against Barcelona at Camp Nou. On 6 November, Özil scored a crucial 89th-minute free-kick to rescue a draw for Real Madrid and secure a point against Borussia Dortmund. He continued his fine form in the league as he scored another brace against Real Valladolid to rescue Real Madrid in a 3–2 win. He then went on to finish the season with 29 assists, although Real Madrid did not win any silverware except for the Supercopa de España, Özil's performance was praised. At the end of the season, Özil had 26 assists, more than any other player in the leagues. Arsenal On 2 September 2013, Özil agreed to join English side Arsenal. Both the fee paid for Özil as well as the contract duration were undisclosed, but they are believed to be around £42.5 million (€50 million) for a five-year deal. The transfer makes him the most expensive German football player of all time. Özil was assigned the number 11 shirt and the centre-attacking midfield role by the team. Contract leaks in January 2016, however, have revealed that the record fee was actually broken down to £37.4 million (€44 million) with a further £5.1 million (€6 million) split evenly over six years from July 2014, subject to Champions League qualification. A buy-back option also allows Real Madrid a 48-hour first option on Özil should Arsenal agree a sale for the playmaker to another Spanish club. Özil said of the transfer, "At the weekend, I was certain I would stay at Real Madrid but afterwards I realised I did not have the faith from the coach or the bosses. I am a player who needs this faith and that is what I have felt from Arsenal, which is why I have joined." In Özil's first press conference, he said: "I would have come here for free, that wouldn't have been a problem." Özil additionally stated that Arsène Wenger played an important role in his decision: "When I spoke to Arsène Wenger on the phone, he was full of respect, and as a player, I need that." Several Real Madrid players were dissatisfied with Özil leaving the club, including Cristiano Ronaldo, who said, "He was the player who best knew my moves in front of goal ... I'm angry about Özil leaving." 2013–14: Ending the trophy drought Özil made his debut for Arsenal in their league game away to Sunderland on 14 September 2013. He assisted Olivier Giroud's goal in the 11th minute of the match as they went on to win 3–1. Three days after that, he made his Champions League debut for Arsenal against Marseille. Just over three weeks after making his debut for Arsenal, he made his home debut against Stoke City in a 3–1 victory. He was involved in all three goals, with two assists and a free kick which was saved but fell into Aaron Ramsey's path. He scored his first goal for Arsenal, a brilliantly controlled finish from a Ramsey cross, in a 2–0 win against Napoli in the Champions League. On 19 October, he scored his first two Premier League goals during the 4–1 home win against Norwich City. Özil played in all six of Arsenal's games in November. The German playmaker provided the cross for Jack Wilshere's second goal against Marseille and gave further assists for Aaron Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini in the 3–0 win over Cardiff City. Özil missed the chance to score his fourth Arsenal goal when he saw his penalty in the win over Marseille saved by Steve Mandanda. In October, Özil was again short-listed for the FIFA Ballon d'Or award, along with former teammate Cristiano Ronaldo. Özil was also featured on the UEFA Team of the Year. Özil began December with two goals in as many games against Hull City and Everton. A minor shoulder injury forced him out of the final game of December in a win against Newcastle United. After the 6–3 defeat at Manchester City in which he made another assist, Özil was involved in an altercation with teammate Per Mertesacker, who was angry with Özil's failure to thank the travelling supporters, an omission for which he subsequently apologised via Facebook. Özil started four of Arsenal's six games in January. The playmaker missed Arsenal's victory over Cardiff City on New Year's Day with a shoulder injury before returning to make a late appearance from the bench against Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup. The 25-year-old produced a slide-rule pass for Lukas Podolski to score his first goal against Coventry City and provided the ball for Santi Cazorla's goal against Southampton at the end of the month to take his assist tally to 10. February was a difficult month for Özil, as he struggled to reach the heights he showed in his first few months at the club. The German playmaker pulled off a brilliant piece of skill to win a penalty against Bayern Munich in the Champions League knockout phase, but his spot-kick was saved by Manuel Neuer. Speaking before the draw with Manchester United, Arsène Wenger spoke about Özil, saying, "He has done well, he is adapting as well to the Premier League – we have seen it before [that it takes time]. I wouldn't like to put too much pressure on him because he has been a top-class player until now. He didn't have the best of games [at Liverpool] (a 5–1 loss, where Özil was the centre of attention due to a bad performance) but that can happen. He works very hard to adapt to the physical level of the Premier League and for me he is an exceptional player." On 8 March, Özil scored his first goal of 2014 in a 4–1 FA Cup quarter-final win over Everton. Özil was showing signs of old form and started in Arsenal's second leg Champions League last 16 clash with Bayern Munich. He was substituted at half-time, and the reasoning behind it was that Özil had suffered a hamstring injury and will face a month out, missing key fixtures against Chelsea and Manchester City. On 20 April, Özil made an instant impact with a lively display against Hull when he returned to the Arsenal team in a 3–0 win. He then returned to goalscoring form with Arsenal's second in their 3–0 win over Newcastle United, and then assisted Olivier Giroud's header. Manager Wenger praised Özil's impact upon his return, saying, "Mesut Özil is very important for the team. He's been missed while he's been injured. We've missed some very important players in an important period of the season. We're really pleased to have people like him back in the team and performing at the top level because that's what we need." Özil played all three of Arsenal's remaining fixtures during the last month of his debut season in England. The German playmaker came off at half-time in extra-time of Arsenal's 2014 FA Cup Final victory over Hull at Wembley Stadium. Speaking before the FA Cup final, Per Mertesacker praised his compatriot's impact on the side during his first season in England. "You could see from the start that he is one of the best players in Europe", said Mertesacker. "His contributions and assists are vital for any club so we are happy to have him back." Özil completed his maiden season at Arsenal with 13 assists and seven goals in all competitions spanning a course of 40 games. 2014–15: Second FA Cup victory Özil returned to club training in the middle of August after participating in Germany's 2014 FIFA World Cup win in Brazil. On 23 August, Özil made his first appearance of the season in a 2–2 draw with Everton at Goodison Park. On 27 August, he played a part in Alexis Sánchez's winning goal in the second leg of the Champions League qualification play-off against Beşiktaş, playing a one-two with Jack Wilshere in the build-up to the goal. On 20 September, Özil opened the scoring and assisted Danny Welbeck in a 3–0 victory against Aston Villa at Villa Park. Özil featured in the three following games and started in Arsenal's Champions League group stage victory against Galatasaray, providing an assist for Alexis Sánchez in a 4–1 win. On 8 October, the DFB declared that Özil would be sidelined for between 10 and 12 weeks with a left knee injury obtained during a 2–0 defeat at Chelsea three days prior to the international break. The prognosis would rule him out of the remainder of Arsenal's Champions League group matches, as well as four international fixtures. On 11 January 2015, Özil made his first appearance in three months as a 73rd-minute substitute in a 3–0 win against Stoke City. He scored on his return to the starting line-up in Arsenal's 3–2 win at Brighton & Hove Albion in the fourth round of the FA Cup on 25 January, latching onto a pass from Tomáš Rosický before scoring Arsenal's second goal. In his first Premier League start of the year, Özil scored once and provided an assist for Olivier Giroud as Arsenal beat Aston Villa 5–0 at home on 1 February. The following week, Özil scored the opening goal in the Gunners' 2–1 North London derby defeat to Tottenham at White Hart Lane. He continued his good form by creating both goals in a 2–1 victory over Leicester City on 10 February. He also grabbed a pair of assists two weeks later, in a 2–0 victory against Everton. On 4 April, he scored the second goal for his team in a 4–1 win over Liverpool, which would be his final goal of the season. After a 3–1 win over Hull, manager Arsène Wenger praised him by saying, "Overall his influence was very strong." Özil followed up this goal with two assists for Alexis Sánchez in a 2–1 win against Reading in the 2014–15 FA Cup semi-final on 18 April. Özil started in the 2015 FA Cup Final as Arsenal beat Aston Villa in a commanding 4–0 victory on 30 May, concluding his second season at Arsenal with 5 goals and 9 assists, in 33 appearances across all competitions, and back-to-back FA Cups. 2015–16: Premier League assist leader After scoring during a pre-season game against Lyon, Özil received praise from his manager, with Wenger calling for him to have his best season yet in Arsenal colours. On 2 August 2015, Özil started for Arsenal in the 2015 FA Community Shield, where the Gunners beat league champions Chelsea 1–0 at Wembley Stadium. A week later, he made his first appearance of the Premier League season in Arsenal's 2–0 opening day defeat to West Ham United. Özil scored his first goal of the 2015–16 season in a 3–0 home victory over Manchester United on 4 October. He had earlier assisted Alexis Sánchez to give the Gunners the lead in the sixth minute of the match. Özil was named man of the match in a 3–0 win at Watford's Vicarage Road on 17 October, supplying assists for Sánchez and Olivier Giroud. On 20 October, Özil scored his first Champions League goal of the season in Arsenal's 2–0 group stage home win over Bayern Munich. He set a new Premier League record being the first player to assist in six consecutive matches when setting up Kieran Gibbs' for 1–1 in the derby versus Tottenham on 8 November 2015. He then extended that run to seven straight games with an assist against West Bromwich Albion, before scoring his second Champions League goal of the season in a three-goal victory at home to Dinamo Zagreb. He then scored for the second game in a row when he clipped in the opener in a 1–1 draw at Norwich. Özil continued his run of good form by providing four assists in the next three games, against Aston Villa, Manchester City and Sunderland, helping his team win all three matches. On 28 December 2015, Özil assisted the first goal and scored the second in a 2–0 win against AFC Bournemouth, creating nine scoring chances in total – the most in a single Premier League game by any player during the season. On 24 January 2016, Özil played his 100th game for the Gunners in a 1–0 home defeat against Chelsea in the Premier League. The next Premier League game against Southampton at home on 2 February saw Özil creating 10 chances – beating the previous record, 9 created and held by him during the season. This proved in vain, however, as the match ended 0–0 with the Gunners slumping into fourth as they failed to score in three consecutive Premier League games. He then ended the Gunners' barren goal-scoring run in the Premier League with the opener against Bournemouth in a 2–0 away win on 7 February. Özil delivered his 17th assist in the Premier League from a free kick for Danny Welbeck to head in the winner deep into stoppage time as Arsenal came from behind to beat league leaders Leicester City 2–1 on 14 February. After a 2–0 home defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League, Özil scored and assisted in a 3–2 defeat at Old Trafford to Manchester United as the Gunners lost further ground in the title race. Özil started in the 2–1 Watford in the FA Cup, where he set up Danny Welbeck for Arsenal's consolation goal with a backheel assist, and three days later in a 3–1 defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League as Arsenal crashed out in successive cup competitions in March. Özil assisted Olivier Giroud's second goal in Arsenal's last Premier League match of the season against Aston Villa in a 4–0 home victory as the Gunners finished second ahead of fierce rivals, Tottenham Hotspur. That was Özil's 19th assist of the season in the league, a record only beaten by Thierry Henry with 20 in 2002–03 in Premier League history. Özil ended his third season at Arsenal with 8 goals and 20 assists in all club competitions, which won him the Arsenal Player of the Season award. 2016–17: Third FA Cup win Özil missed Arsenal's opening day defeat to Liverpool, after his excursions at UEFA Euro 2016 meant he was not match-fit. However, he started his first game of the new season for his club in a 1–3 away win at Watford on 28 August, in which he scored his first goal of the campaign, heading in an Alexis Sánchez cross to score Arsenal's third of the afternoon. His second arrived just under a month later, netting a controlled volley in a 3–0 home win against Chelsea. On 15 October, Özil again scored a volley at home, as he recorded the decider in a tense 3–2 win against Swansea. Four days later, in a Champions League home game against Ludogorets Razgrad, Özil assisted Theo Walcott's goal, and scored his first professional career hat-trick, which was concluded after again volleying as Arsenal went on to win 6–0. On 29 October, he registered his first league assist of the season, after Giroud latched onto a corner to score the club's third in a 1–4 win against Sunderland. For his performances, he was awarded the club's Player of the Month award for the month of October. Özil began November by recording his third assist, which came in the North London derby, and was given after his free kick was turned into the net by opposing defender Kevin Wimmer. Özil would then record Arsenal's Goal of the Season on 19 October, as he scored a remarkable solo winner in a nervy 2–3 away win against Ludogorets, which capped a resilient comeback after Arsenal were down by two goals in the opening 15 minutes. He scored the opener in a 1–5 away win against West Ham United on 3 December, and assisted the fourth goal. He repeated his set-up exploits three days later in a Champions League win against Basel, feeding Iwobi from the left for the fourth. He then scored a header in a win against Stoke City a week later, before rounding out the year, Özil assisted the only goal in a home victory against West Brom on 26 December. He registered his first assist of 2017 after placing his corner directly in the path of teammate Mustafi, who headed past Tom Heaton in a 2–1 win against Burnley. Despite an impressive first half to the campaign, Özil would then struggle with muscular problems, and was absent for a number of Arsenal's games. He returned to fitness to star in a 2–2 draw against Manchester City on 2 April, where he assisted the equaliser. He would also break his four-month cold goalless spell after placing a controlled finish in a 3–0 win against West Ham United three days later, while he also assisted the second. He then scored another volley just under two weeks later, in a win against Middlesbrough. He then recorded his ninth assist on 10 May, where he set up Sánchez's opener. In the last three league gameweeks, he scored his final goal of the season against Stoke City, while his final two assists arrived in the following two weeks, against both Sunderland and Everton. Despite the club missing out on the league and Champions League qualification, Özil concluded his fourth season at the club with 12 goals and 13 assists in 44 appearances across all competitions, and featured heavily as he won the 2017 FA Cup. 2017–19: Contract extension, UEFA Europa League runner-up Özil entered the 2017–18 season in the final year of his contract, and struggled initially, featuring sparsely with knee inflammation. He recorded a goal and an assist in a 5–2 victory over Everton on 22 October, and recorded another assist a week later, against Swansea City. His performance in the North London Derby on 18 November was heavily praised, after creating the first goal. He then scored and assisted twice in a 5–0 victory over Huddersfield to close out November, and scored in back-to-back weeks to close out December, first in a victory against West Ham, and then a scintillating scooped finish in a 3–3 draw against Liverpool. After entering January with six months remaining on his contract, which would allow him to engage in pre-contract negotiations with any club, Özil assisted in a win over Crystal Palace, and also assisted in a loss in the reverse fixture against Swansea City on 30 January. A day later, he re-signed with the club on a three-year extension, keeping him contracted until 2021. It was also reported his salary more than doubled to £350,000 per week, making him the highest-paid player in Arsenal's history. On 15 February, Özil scored in the first knockout round of the Europa League, netting calmly against Östersund. He then gained a brace of assists in the next round, against Milan. On 11 March, he recorded his 50th Premier League assist in a 3–0 win over Watford. In doing so, he became the fastest player to reach 50 assists in the competition, in his 141st appearance, breaking the record previously held by Eric Cantona. He continued his exploits in the Europa League by recording a hat-trick of assists in a victory against CSKA Moscow on 5 April. Persistent injuries limited his involvement in the club's final games of the season, however, Özil ended his fifth season at Arsenal with 5 goals and 13 assists in 35 appearances, and featured heavily in the club's later run and appearance in the 2018 EFL Cup Final. Following the departure of Jack Wilshere, Özil returned to wearing the number 10, for the 2018–19 season. He was also named one of Arsenal's vice-captains. Özil scored his first goal of the season in Arsenal's 2–1 away win over Newcastle on 15 September, and netted again a week later in a 4–2 victory in the UEFA Europa League over Vorskla Poltava. He scored his third goal of the season in a victory over Watford on 28 September. On 22 October, he captained Arsenal for the first time in a 3–1 comeback win over Leicester City. Özil was involved in all three goals, scoring the first, and adding two assists in a man-of-the-match performance. His involvement in the first-team began to falter due to a mix of injuries and a dip in form, but he returned to assist the only goal in a victory in the Europa League against Qarabag on 12 December. Özil was also publicly left out of the first team squad on a few occasions, leading to speculation he could depart Arsenal in the January transfer window. However, no move materialised, and his form continued to suffer, with rumours also circulating of Özil having a fractured relationship with head coach Unai Emery, who publicly questioned the player's motivation. He returned to goalscoring form in a 5–1 home victory against Bournemouth, where he also registered an assist, on 27 February, while his last statistical contribution came in the form of a goal in a loss against Crystal Palace in April. As a result, he registered one of his worst statistical campaigns as an Arsenal player, netting six goals and providing four assists. Despite this, Özil featured in the 2019 UEFA Europa League Final, where, after Arsenal's defeat, Özil reportedly vocalised his frustration with Emery in front of his teammates, and continued to be linked with a move away from north London. 2019–21: Limited gametime, squad exclusion Özil was given additional time off to start the 2019–20 season, after being the victim of an attempted robbery. He made his season debut on 15 September, in a 2–2 draw against Watford. He was controversially left out of the following Premier League games against Aston Villa and Manchester United, and registered his second appearance of the season in an EFL Cup tie against Nottingham Forest, where he again failed to complete 90 minutes. Özil made his third appearance of the season in an EFL Cup tie defeat against Liverpool in October. He registered his first assist against Liverpool in the same competition at the end of October, and subsequently returning to the league starting lineup for November; he registered his first league assist in a 2–1 home defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion in December. Özil only completed 90 minutes once more in the league for the remainder of the campaign, scoring his first goal of the season in a 4–0 victory over Newcastle United on 16 February 2020. He registered his second league assist against West Ham United on 7 March, but did not feature for the club again following the resumption of competitive football after its suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, Özil registered his worst statistical season, as well making the lowest number of appearances in a campaign since the 2007–08 season. It was also reported Özil refused a voluntary 12.5% paycut amid the pandemic, doing so as the club "[lacked] information and [left] many questions unanswered" over their use of these wages. Özil was left out of the match-day squads for the first matches of the 2020–21 season and was not included in the club's squad for the Europa League group stage. It was also later confirmed that Özil was omitted from Arsenal's 25-man Premier League squad, leaving him eligible only to play for Arsenal's U-23 squad. Özil released a statement on Twitter in which he said that he was "deeply disappointed" but would "continue fighting for [his] chance". Some had suggested Özil's omission from the squad was related to his criticism of the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in China, from which Arsenal publicly distanced themselves. Fenerbahçe On 27 January 2021, Özil moved to Turkish club Fenerbahçe. He joined as a free agent after his contract with Arsenal was terminated six months prematurely, with the player reportedly forgoing part of the £7 million (€7.9 million) owed to him by Arsenal. Although financial terms were undisclosed, Özil signed a three-and-a-half-year deal with Fenerbahçe worth a reported £4.5 million (€5 million) a season, and received a £2.6 million (€3 million) signing-on bonus. Özil said he was "very excited" to be joining the club and would "wear the shirt with pride". Fenerbahçe had wanted to sign Özil for years, and chairman Ali Koç also commended the deal, noting they were unable to sign the player in 2019 due to financial concerns. Özil had stated a desire to represent Fenerbahçe, the team he supported as a child during his career, as well as play in Major League Soccer (MLS), with Özil also engaging in negotiations with D.C. United prior to signing for Fenerbahçe. In his first season, Özil was assigned the number 67 jersey, in reference to the license plate of his ancestral town, Zonguldak, as his recognizable number 10, as well as his previous number 11, were occupied by Mbwana Samatta and Diego Perotti, respectively. On 2 February, he made his Süper Lig debut for Fenerbahçe as a substitute for Mame Thiam in the 77th minute against Hatayspor, which Fenerbahçe won 2–1. Özil missed eight games in his first season, from 4 March until 29 April, after rupturing ankle ligaments and contracting COVID-19. He recorded his first assist for the club on 11 May in a 2–1 loss against Sivasspor, as Fenerbahçe eventually finished third. In his second season, Özil was assigned the number 10 jersey, his recognizable number. On 15 August, he scored his first goal for the club in a 1–0 away victory against Adana Demirspor, also captaining the team for the first time. On 16 September, he scored his first European goal for Fenerbahçe in a UEFA Europa League game against Eintracht Frankfurt. On 21 November, he scored an equaliser in the 31st minute, sprinting from the halfway line to the penalty area, against Galatasaray in the Intercontinental Derby, which Fenerbahçe won 2–1 at Nef Stadium. On 24 March 2022, Fenerbahçe announced that he was excluded from squad, along with his teammate Ozan Tufan. Özil completed his second season at Fenerbahçe with 9 goals and 2 assists in 26 games in all competitions. On 13 July, his contract with Fenerbahçe was mutually terminated. İstanbul Başakşehir and retirement On 14 July 2022, Özil signed a one-year contract with an option for an additional year with İstanbul Başakşehir. On 21 August 2022, he made his debut for İstanbul Başakşehir in a Süper Lig game against Kayserispor, as a substitute for Berkay Özcan in the 80th minute, which İstanbul Başakşehir won 2–0. Özil left the club and announced his retirement from professional football on 22 March 2023, citing recurrent injuries. Özil made 427 top-flight appearances in his club career. International career Eligible to play for either Germany or Turkey, after long consideration, Özil chose to play for his country of birth, Germany. In September 2006, he was called up for the Germany under-17 team. He was a member of the German under-21 team from 2007. On 29 June 2009, Özil was selected the man of the match in a 4–0 win over England during the U-21 European Championship final. He made his debut for the senior side during a friendly match against Norway on 11 February 2009. He scored his first goal for the senior team in his third appearance, another friendly, against South Africa on 5 September in Leverkusen at the BayArena. 2010 FIFA World Cup Özil was selected for Germany's squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, starting in all of the team's matches. He provided an assist for Cacau's goal to the 4–0 final score against Australia in Germany's first group game. He scored a left-footed half-volley from the edge of the penalty area against Ghana in the final group game, ensuring Germany progressed to the second round as group winners. On 27 June 2010, Özil played in Germany's win over England in the last 16 match, setting up the fourth goal with a cross to Thomas Müller as Germany triumphed 4–1. During the quarter-final match against Argentina, he assisted the second goal for Miroslav Klose with a cross to ensure the 4–0 final score for the Germans. FIFA announced that he was among the ten tournament players nominated for the Golden Ball. UEFA Euro 2012 Özil was one of the leading forces in Germany's qualification for UEFA Euro 2012, scoring five times during the campaign as Germany won all ten of its games to top their group. Özil also confirmed his reputation as a decisive passer, as he provided seven assists, more than any European international during Euro 2012 qualification. When asked about his country's chances at Euro 2012, Özil simply replied, "We have the potential to beat anyone and we have what it takes to win the title." On 29 February 2012, Özil was recognised as Germany's best international of the year for 2011 prior to kick-off at a friendly against France in Bremen. Özil's Germany were drawn with the Netherlands, Denmark and Portugal into Group B at Euro 2012, widely touted as the "Group of Death". Özil registered two assists, created nine chances, and claimed the Man of the Match award in Germany's 4–2 quarter-final win over Greece. He then scored Germany's only goal (a penalty) in their 2–1 loss to Italy in the semi-finals. His performance at Euro 2012 earned him two Carlsberg Man of the Match Awards. He finished the tournament as the joint-highest assist provider (3) and was named in the Team of the Tournament. 2014 FIFA World Cup Özil ended the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign as Germany's top scorer with eight goals. Following an injury to Marco Reus in a warm-up game, Özil was moved from his customary number 10 role into the left-winger position for the majority of the tournament. He started all seven of Germany's 2014 FIFA World Cup games, and helped Germany make history by becoming the first European team to win the World Cup in South America. Özil scored the decisive goal in the 119th minute of Germany's 2–1 round of 16 victory over Algeria, a match widely praised as one of the most entertaining of the tournament. Özil then provided an assist for Sami Khedira in Germany's 7–1 semi-final win over Brazil. The goal Özil assisted, with a clever pass, made the score 5–0 to Germany after just 29 minutes. The shocking nature of the 5-goal flurry generated worldwide astonishment. In the final, Özil played 120 minutes before being replaced by Arsenal teammate Per Mertesacker. Germany were crowned World Champions with a 1–0 win. After the trophy was presented to the Germany team, UEFA President Michel Platini asked Özil for his match shirt as a souvenir, and Özil obliged. He concluded the tournament as the leader in passes completed in the final-third (171), was ranked joint-second in chances created (17), behind only Lionel Messi (23), and ranked second overall in possessions won in the final-third (6). UEFA Euro 2016 On 12 June 2016, Özil completed the full 90 minutes of Germany's opening Euro 2016 match against Ukraine which Germany won 2–0. He assisted Bastian Schweinsteiger's goal in the 92nd minute. On 21 June 2016, Özil completed 99% of his passes, created six chances and claimed the Man of the Match award in Germany's win over Northern Ireland. Five days later, Özil started in Germany's 3–0 round of 16 win over Slovakia. In the 13th minute of the match, he had a penalty effort saved by goalkeeper Matúš Kozáčik. On 2 July 2016, Özil scored the leading goal against Italy in the quarter-finals to give Germany a 1–0 advantage, before Italy later equalised through Leonardo Bonucci's penalty. Germany, however, emerged as the victorious side after winning the penalty shoot-out 6–5, despite Özil failing to convert his penalty kick after hitting the goal post. 2018 FIFA World Cup Özil was selected by manager Joachim Löw in Germany's final 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Despite the national team heavily under-performing as defending champions by being eliminated in the group stages, Özil featured in two of the country's three games, and averaged more chances created per 90 minutes (5.5) than any other player in the competition. Retirement In May 2018, Özil, alongside fellow German international İlkay Gündoğan, both of Turkish descent, met with and posed for photographs with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in the lead up to the Turkish general election. The photograph was interpreted as a form of political support for Erdoğan and his policies, and caused tensions in Germany, and even prompted accusations that the players lacked loyalty to the German nation. The German Football Association (DFB) publicly distanced themselves from public criticism, opting to end the debate, and focus on the upcoming World Cup campaign, in which both Özil and Gündoğan participated. After the nation's World Cup campaign, losing out at the group stage, Özil posted a series of messages on social media on 22 July, in order to clarify the photograph and address the criticisms he had faced. In a lengthy post, he described the photograph as simply "respecting the highest office of my family's country", while also adding his conversations with Erdoğan revolved solely around their mutual interest in football. Özil also commented on several media outlets that were using the photograph, where he asserted that the media outlets have selectively criticised him for his Turkish background, noting the relative lack of uproar from the media after Lothar Matthäus met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. He later detailed his core issue with the national team stemmed from his interactions with Reinhard Grindel, the DFB president, accusing him of displaying both racism and disrespect on multiple occasions, while also noting similar incidents with other high-profile German nationals, namely Bernd Holzhauer and Werner Steer. He then retired from the team as a form of protest against members within the Federation in which he perceived had "racially discriminative backgrounds". Following the announcement of his retirement, Özil drew support and criticism from the public, former players, and managers; former teammate Per Mertesacker came out in support. Toni Kroos was critical of Özil's statement and responded by saying that "racism within the national team and the DFB does not exist". In a 2018 interview with Germany's biggest newspaper Bild am Sonntag, former DFB president Reinhard Grindel said he wished he had stood by Özil in the face of racial abuse. In the years following his retirement, some media outlets continued to highlight how Özil was a victim of the deep rooted racism present in German society. During the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the German national team covered their mouths prior to kickoff in protest of FIFAs decision to ban the OneLove armband; with the DFB explaining that the protest was meant to uphold values of diversity and mutual respect. They were subsequently criticized and labelled by some as moral hypocrites for previously ignoring and/or failing to uphold values of diversity and mutual respect when Özil was subjected to racial abuse in Germany. Player profile Style of play A quick, agile, creative and technical player, with good dribbling skills, Özil was a versatile midfielder, who excelled in an advanced playmaking role, as a winger on either flank, or as an attacking midfielder through the centre of the pitch. During the 2010 FIFA World Cup, he was also deployed in a new role which was later described as a false 10 or central winger, due to his tendency to drift from the centre into a wide position when in possession of the ball; he was also deployed in a more advanced role, where he usually functioned as a second striker, as he often dropped into deeper positions, from which he could link the midfield with the attack and initiate passing moves. He even played as a centre-forward on occasion, seemingly operating as a lone striker, but actually operating false 9 role. An elegant left-footed player, his main attributes were his vision, his control, movement (both on and off the ball), positional sense, finesse, passing range, and accurate crossing ability, as well as his delivery from set-pieces, which allowed him to get into good attacking positions, create chances, and provide many assists for his teammates, or even score goals himself. Due to his creative ability and offensive prowess as a playmaker, Özil was called "assist-king" in the media. As of January 2016, Özil had the best ratio of assists per game in the history of the Premier League. Germany under-21 manager Horst Hrubesch once said, "We in Germany are prone to rave about foreign players. We praise Wayne Rooney to the heavens, likewise Ronaldo or Messi. But we have our own Messi. Our Messi is Özil." In the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifier against Belgium, he scored a goal which has been described as a "work of art". Germany coach Joachim Löw hails Özil for his "genius moments" and his performance without the ball. Reception Former Real Madrid midfielder Xabi Alonso described Özil as "the kind of player you don't find these days", adding, "He understands the game, sees things, combines and thrives between the lines, unlocking teams." José Mourinho, who coached Özil for a time at Real Madrid said, "Özil is unique. There is no copy of him – not even a bad copy." Assistant coach of the Germany national team Hansi Flick said, "We are proud to have him in our team. When he has the ball, you can feel the excitement and astonishment among the fans." Former Netherlands and Milan forward Ruud Gullit described Özil as a "technically perfect" player who has "total control of the ball" and a "great imagination". Former Germany teammate Phillip Lahm said of Özil "His vision is probably the best I have ever seen... He is a dream for strikers.", while Mario Gómez called Özil "probably the most brilliant footballer we have or ever had". Despite his reputation as an offensive playmaker, Özil also drew criticism at times for his lack of physicality and his low defensive work-rate off the ball. Despite his success, he was also accused by some in the sport, including Glenn Hoddle, Raymond Domenech and Jonathan Smith, of going missing in important or physical games. His nicknames have included "der Rabe" (the Raven, or in Spanish, "El Cuervo") – playing on his smart and opportunistic style of play, and at Werder Bremen "der neue Diego" (the new Diego), in reference to Brazilian Diego, whose playmaker role he inherited, "German Messi" and "German Zidane". At Real Madrid, he was supposedly called "Nemo", due to his physical appearance – in reference to the clownfish from the animated film Finding Nemo. Outside football Personal life Özil is a third-generation Turkish-German, who, in reference to his game, concludes, "My technique and feeling for the ball is the Turkish side to my game. The discipline, attitude and always-give-your-all is the German part." The first language Özil learned was Turkish. Instead of a regular kindergarten, he attended a special preschool (Vorbereitungsschule) populated exclusively with children of immigrants, mostly Turkish. Özil later said this actually greatly hindered his acquisition of German, as the children would speak German exclusively with the teacher and only Turkish for the rest of the time, saying in 2017: "even today, I need to concentrate when speaking German". He later attended school at Gesamtschule Berger Feld in Gelsenkirchen. Özil states his ancestors are ethnic Turks from Devrek. However, there are sources that claim Özil's ancestors are ethnic Kurds. Despite being born and raised in Germany, Özil only held Turkish citizenship until the age of 19, when he renounced it in order to naturalize as a German citizen, as Germany generally did not tolerate dual citizenship until 2024, particularly for Turkish citizens. Özil is a practising Muslim. He recites from the Quran before his matches. Talking to the Berlin-based daily Der Tagesspiegel, Özil said, "I always do that before I go out [on the pitch]. I pray and my teammates know that they cannot talk to me during this brief period." He observes fasting during the Islamic month of Ramadan, but he has admitted that: "Because of my job I cannot follow Ramadan properly. I do it only the few days I can, only when I have a free day. But other than that it's impossible, because you have to drink and eat a lot to stay at peak fitness." In May 2016, he performed Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca. During a Europa League match in 2018 against Atlético Madrid, an Atlético fan threw a piece of bread at Özil while he was preparing to take a corner. Özil picked up the bread, kissed it, and brought it to his forehead to express gratitude towards the food given to him, a central tenet in Islam. His gesture was later widely applauded throughout the stadium. In 2010, Özil was awarded the Bambi for being a prime example of successful integration within German society. Özil started dating singer Mandy Capristo in 2013. The relationship ended in 2014, following reports of Özil being involved with another woman. In 2015, Özil and Capristo appeared together at the Bambi awards ceremony in Berlin. An Instagram photo uploaded by Özil used the hashtag #OziStoIsBack, suggesting that the couple is back together. However, they broke up in 2017 and Özil began dating former Miss Turkey, Amine Gülşe. They married in 2019, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was a witness during the ceremony. In March 2020, the couple confirmed the birth of their first child, a daughter named Eda. Their second daughter, named Ela, was born in September 2022. In July 2019, Özil and Arsenal teammate Sead Kolašinac were the victims of an attempted carjacking by a pair of armed masked men. A Metropolitan Police spokesman later said Özil and Kolašinac managed to get away unharmed and travelled to a nearby restaurant in Golders Green, where they were "spoken to by officers". Footage also circulated on social media which appeared to show Kolašinac chasing off the carjackers. Arsenal commented they reviewed security measures with their players with help from independent experts and the police, which resulted in the pair not being included in Arsenal's Premier League season opener against Newcastle United on 11 August. Later the same day, two men were arrested and charged with a public order offence after becoming involved in an altercation with security staff outside Özil's home. Police noted this incident was unrelated to the car-jacking attempt. Philanthropy As part of the BigShoe project, Özil donated his 2014 World Cup winnings, an estimated £240,000, to pay for 23 sick Brazilian children to have medical surgery as a "personal thank you for the hospitality of the people of Brazil." In May 2016, international media covered Özil's visit to the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, home to around 80,000 people displaced as a result of the Syrian civil war. Özil toured the camp as well as playing with children, signing autographs and handing out football shirts. After getting married in June 2019, Özil paid for 1,000 children to have surgery in celebration. In 2017, he worked with the charity My Shining Star to make a child cancer patient's dreams come true. He invited the child, Charlie, to be a guest at his private box and in the player's lounge during a game with Sunderland at Emirates Stadium. In 2020, after Arsenal made longterm mascot Jerry Quy redundant, Özil offered to reimburse Arsenal for his salary if they rehired Quy, doing so due to their close friendship. In Ramadan 2021, Özil sent food packages to 41 provinces in Turkey to people in need, in collaboration with the Turkish Red Crescent. Activism and advocacy In December 2019, Özil went online to publish a poem denouncing the treatment of Uyghurs in China. It was written over a backdrop of the East Turkestan flag and in it, he also criticised Muslim countries for not speaking out about the Xinjiang internment camps. Arsenal later released a statement distancing itself from the comments. State broadcasters China Central Television and PP Sports responded two days later by removing the match between Arsenal and Manchester City from their schedules, while his likeness was removed from Chinese internet providers and version of eFootball PES 2020. The Chinese Football Association said Özil's comments were "unacceptable". Some have suggested Özil's eventual omission from the Arsenal squad was related to such criticism. China's government later stated Özil was "blinded and misled", and invited him to visit Xinjiang. In October 2020, he voiced his support for Azerbaijan in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, quoting Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on the Azerbaijani–Turkish relations. During his presentation as a Fenerbahçe player, he posed with the Azerbaijani flag. He announced his support for Palestine in the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, also wearing a "Free Palestine" T-shirt along with other Fenerbahçe footballers. In October 2021, Özil teamed with the Football Association (FA) and Football for Peace to launch a development center, located at the University of Bradford, to tackle the disparity of British Asians in association football. Quoting his own background, Özil stated a desire to "give [British Asians] an opportunity to be successful on and off the pitch". Media and sponsorships In 2013, Özil signed a sponsorship deal with German sportswear and equipment supplier Adidas. He has appeared in commercials for Adidas Predator boots with other star players such as Lionel Messi, Gareth Bale, Thomas Müller and James Rodríguez. One of those adverts, entitled "Create Your Own Game", was released in August 2015, in which Özil featured alongside those players. In 2013, Özil launched his own logo. Özil's "M" goal celebration – which is in tribute to his young niece Mira – is included in EA Sports' FIFA 17. His autobiography, The Magic of the Game / Gunning for Greatness, was released in 2017. Business ventures Özil has built a varied business portfolio over the years. He is the boss of his own M10 streetwear firm and esports team. Additionally he has his own chain of coffee shops, a sports clinic and he jointly runs a successful Unity Health supplements laboratory with former Arsenal teammate Mathieu Flamini. He also owns shares in Mexican football club Necaxa as part of an ownership deal which includes other shareholders like actress Eva Longoria and model Kate Upton. Controversies Allegations of tax fraud In December 2016, as part of the release of the Football Leaks disclosure platform, it became known that the Spanish tax authorities had demanded back taxes of €2,017,152 from Mesut Özil. In addition, a fine of €789,963 was imposed on him. According to the information published by Football Leaks, Özil is said to have evaded taxes using offshore shell companies, Swiss accounts and straw men. In February 2017, Özil paid taxes in the required amount. He appealed the fine. At the beginning of 2018, the Spanish judiciary had not yet made a decision on the fine. Alleged support for far-right organization In July 2023 a photo on Instagram was published showing a tattoo with three crescent moons and a howling wolf on Özil's chest, which are symbols of Turkish far-right ultranationalist group Grey Wolves. This group is alleged to be responsible for acts of violence and threats and is banned in France and being monitored by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution due to anti-constitutional efforts. Israel–Palestine conflict On 13 October 2023, one week after the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel and the subsequent bombing of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military, Özil expressed his regret over the deaths of thousands of people in Israel and the Gaza Strip and posted the slogan Free Palestine on X (formerly Twitter). After the Israeli airstrikes on Rafah in May 2024, he shared multiple Instagram story templates, including one on 31 May 2024 showing a map on which the word "Israel" has been crossed out and replaced with "Palestine" in handwriting. This was interpreted as a wish for a dissolution of the state of Israel. On 30 July 2024, Özil again published a post on Instagram showing a map on which the word "Israel" was crossed out and replaced with "Palestine". Career statistics Club International Scores and results list Germany's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Özil goal. Honours Werder Bremen DFB-Pokal: 2008–09; runner-up: 2009–10 UEFA Cup runner-up: 2008–09 Real Madrid La Liga: 2011–12 Copa del Rey: 2010–11; runner-up: 2012–13 Supercopa de España: 2012 Arsenal FA Cup: 2013–14, 2014–15, 2016–17, 2019–20 FA Community Shield: 2015 EFL Cup runner-up: 2017–18 UEFA Europa League runner-up: 2018–19 Germany U21 UEFA European Under-21 Championship: 2009 Germany FIFA World Cup: 2014; third place: 2010 Individual kicker Bundesliga Team of the Season: 2008–09 kicker Attacking Midfielder of the Year: 2010 Bundesliga top assists provider: 2009-10 Laliga top assists provider: 2011-12 UEFA Europa League top assists provider: 2009-10 UEFA Champions League top assists provider: 2010-11 UEFA European Championship top assists provider: 2012 FIFA World Cup top assists provider: 2010 Most assists in the Premier League: 2015–16 German Player of the Year: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 UEFA European Championship Team of the Tournament: 2012 UEFA Team of the Year: 2012, 2013 Laureus Media Award: 2014 PFA Fans Player of the Month: April, November & December 2015 German Football Ambassador Public Award: 2015 Arsenal Player of the Season: 2015–16 kicker Best German Abroad: 2016 References External links Official website Profile at Arsenal F.C. Mesut Özil at DFB (also available in German) Mesut Özil – UEFA competition record (archive) Mesut Özil – FIFA competition record (archived) Mesut Özil at Soccerbase Mesut Özil at kicker (in German) Mesut Özil at fussballdaten.de (in German) Mesut Özil at BDFutbol Mesut Özil at National-Football-Teams.com Mesut Özil at Premier League

Dani_Alves

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dani_Alves

Daniel "Dani" Alves da Silva (Portuguese: [dɐniˈɛw ˈawviz dɐ ˈsiwvɐ]; born 6 May 1983) is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a right-back. Widely regarded as one of the best full-backs of all time, he is also one of the most decorated players with 43 trophies. Starting his career at Bahia in 2001, Alves went on to have a successful six-year spell with Sevilla, winning two UEFA Cups and the Copa del Rey. He joined Barcelona for €32.5 million, becoming the third-most expensive defender of all-time at the time. He won the treble in his first season with the club and in the next season, won the Supercopa de España, UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup. Additionally, he helped the club to clinch another two Supercopa de España, five La Liga titles and two UEFA Champions League titles in the years that followed. In 2016, Juventus signed Alves on a free transfer. He won the 2016–17 Serie A title and 2016–17 Coppa Italia in his only season with the side, also reaching the Champions League Final. In 2017, Alves joined French side Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer, winning a domestic treble in his first season, followed by another league title the following season. In 2019, he returned to his home country, joining São Paulo, and winning the 2021 Campeonato Paulista with them. He returned to Barcelona in 2021. He joined Mexican club UNAM in 2022; UNAM terminated his contract in 2023 after he was detained in Spain, during a process that resulted in Alves being charged with sexual assault. He was convicted of this charge of rape in February 2024 and sentenced to four and a half years in prison. A full international for Brazil from 2006 to 2022, Alves is the nation's third most-capped player of all time. He was included in their squads for three FIFA World Cups and five Copa América tournaments, winning the 2007 and 2019 editions of the latter competition, as well as the 2009 and 2013 FIFA Confederations Cups. At the Summer Olympics in 2020, he won a gold medal. Individually, Alves was named in the IFFHS CONMEBOL Team of the Decade (2011–2020), FIFA Confederations Cup Team of the Tournament (2013), the Copa América Team of the Tournament (2019), and was awarded the Copa América Best Player (2019). Early life Alves was born in Juazeiro, a city in the Brazilian state of Bahia, to father Domingos Alves da Silva, a farmer. He played football with the neighboring kids. Alves' father had a passion for football as well, and eventually managed to organize his own football team. Alves, at age 6, started as a winger, but because of the lack of goals he scored, his father re-positioned him as a right back, a position he still plays up to this day. Alves worked as a farmer and a trader in his youth. Club career Bahia Alves made his professional debut for Bahia in a match against Paraná Clube for the 2001 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A. Bahia won 3–0, with Alves providing two assists and winning a penalty for the other goal. Head coach Evaristo de Macedo thereafter gave him a starting place in the team. In Bahia, he won the 2002 Copa do Nordeste. His consistently good performances landed him a transfer, at first on loan, to Spanish side Sevilla, midway through 2002. Sevilla After 2002–03, on loan to Sevilla from Bahia, Alves travelled to play in the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship, where he impressed as Brazil won the tournament. He was named the third-best player of the tournament and, after this, the Sevilla move was made permanent. In June 2006, Sevilla agreed to sell Alves to Liverpool, but Liverpool were unable to match Sevilla's asking price of around £8 million. In December 2006, he signed a new contract with Sevilla, tying him to the club until 2012. He had a successful 2006–07 season, making 47 appearances and scoring 5 goals. He played in every one of Sevilla's UEFA Cup matches, in a competition which the club went on to win. From his years in Spain, Alves acquired Spanish citizenship, thus allowing him to bypass any non-EU quota restrictions and exempting him from needing a work permit to play in any EU countries. On 1 August 2007, Alves told SporTV he wanted to leave Sevilla for a European giant, later reiterating his desire to leave Sevilla to Marca, saying he was flattered by Chelsea's interest and that he could never turn down such an opportunity. In an interview with Antena 3 on 8 August, Alves confirmed his agent had been in England for some time handling Chelsea's offer, urging Sevilla to at least consider the offer. On 16 August 2007, Sevilla rejected an unspecified Chelsea bid and, six days later, rejected another two bids from Chelsea, considering them to be "way below what was expected". Alves later revealed his dismay with Sevilla club president José María del Nido for having knocked back Chelsea's offers for his services after his move to Stamford Bridge collapsed, with Chelsea signing fellow Brazilian full back Juliano Belletti for a much lower fee. After a public war of words between Alves and Del Nido, as well as the death of teammate Antonio Puerta, Alves decided to stay with Sevilla, with player and president ostensibly reconciled. Barcelona On 2 July 2008, Alves joined Barcelona, leaving Sevilla in tears and saying he would love to play for the club again. He said he came to Sevilla as a boy and was leaving as a man. The official price of the transfer stood at £23 million up-front, with approximately £7 million more depending on a number of performance-related factors over the next few seasons of Alves' Barcelona career, making him one of the most expensive defenders in history and the third-most expensive player bought by Barça. He signed a four-year contract with Barcelona, which included a buy-out clause of €90 million. Alves made his competitive and European debuts for Barcelona against Wisła Kraków in the 2008–09 UEFA Champions League third-round qualifiers on 13 August 2008. He made his La Liga debut in the Liga season-opener away to Numancia on 31 August 2008. Later on in his debut season, he missed the 2009 UEFA Champions League Final due to a yellow-card suspension, although Barcelona nonetheless defeated Manchester United 2–0 to complete the treble after also winning La Liga and the 2008–09 Copa del Rey. In his second season at Barça, the club retained the Liga title and won the 2009 FIFA Club World Cup. In the 2010–11 season, Alves was instrumental in Barcelona's winning of their third consecutive Liga title. On 28 May 2011, Alves played in his first Champions League final as Barcelona defeated Manchester United 3–1 at Wembley Stadium to win its fourth European Cup. In 2011–12, Alves was part of a Barcelona team that won the Copa del Rey and the Club World Cup. In 2012–13, Alves won the Liga title for the fourth time in his five seasons at Barça. In 2013–14, Alves wore shirt number 22, formerly worn by his friend Eric Abidal, to whom he offered to donate part of his liver during Abidal's treatment for liver cancer. Banana incident On 27 April 2014, during a match at Villarreal's stadium, El Madrigal, Alves was targeted by a Villarreal supporter, who threw a banana at him as a gesture of racial abuse. Alves picked up the banana, peeled it and took a bite. He responded to the incident by saying: "We have suffered this in Spain for some time. You have to take it with a dose of humour. We aren't going to change things easily. If you don't give it importance, they don't achieve their objective." Teammate Neymar's response – to post a photograph of himself on social media also eating a banana – went viral. Other footballers have also since taken photographs of themselves eating bananas. Cyrille Regis, who had been racially abused while a player in the 1970s and 1980s, expressed concern that the viral campaign would detract from the important issues of combating racism in the game. Alves said that whoever threw the banana at him should be publicly shamed, and on 30 April 2014, a man was arrested in connection with the incident. Villarreal were later fined €12,000 for the incident. Third Champions League title On 6 June 2015, Alves started for Barça in the 2015 Champions League final as the club won its fifth European Cup by beating Juventus at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. This made Barcelona the first club in history to win the treble of domestic league, domestic cup and European Cup twice. Alves, Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta, Xavi, Gerard Piqué, Pedro and Sergio Busquets are the only players to have been a part of both treble-winning teams. On 9 June 2015, Alves signed a two-year contract with Barcelona, keeping him at the club until 30 June 2017, with the option to extend a further year. Final season After Barcelona were eliminated by compatriots Atlético Madrid in the quarter-finals of the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League, Alves recorded a "bizarre" video in which he impersonated his wife consoling him for the defeat, and posted it on Instagram; manager Luis Enrique subsequently dropped him from the following match against Valencia. On 2 June 2016, Roberto Fernández, Barcelona's technical secretary, announced Alves was leaving Barcelona that summer after eight years. Although under contract until 30 June 2017, Alves contract had a clause allowing him to leave as a free agent. Juventus On 27 June 2016, Juventus announced the signing of Alves on a two-year deal with the option of a third year. He made his Juventus debut on 20 August in a 2–1 home win over Fiorentina in Serie A. On 21 September, Alves scored his first goal with Juventus in a 4–0 home win over Cagliari, before opening his Champions League account with the club against Dinamo Zagreb six days later. On 27 November, he suffered a broken leg in Juventus' 3–1 defeat to Genoa. Alves made his return from injury as a substitute in a 1–0 Derby d'Italia win over Internazionale on 5 February 2017. On 9 May 2017, Alves scored once and assisted a goal for Mario Mandžukić as Juventus defeated Monaco 2–1 to qualify for the 2017 Champions League final. Six days earlier, Alves had assisted both goals for Gonzalo Higuaín in the first leg of the tie at the Stade Louis II. On 17 May, Alves scored the opening goal of a 2–0 win over Lazio in the 2017 Coppa Italia Final. On 3 June, Alves appeared in his third UEFA Champions League final as Juventus were defeated 4–1 by Real Madrid at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. On 29 June 2017, Alves had his contract with Juventus terminated by mutual consent. He made 33 appearances, winning the 2016–17 Serie A title and 2016–17 Coppa Italia in his one season in Turin. Paris Saint-Germain On 12 July 2017, Alves joined French side Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer, signing a two-year contract. He made his debut for the club on 29 July in the 2017 Trophée des Champions, scoring once and assisting the winning goal for Adrien Rabiot in a 2–1 victory over 2016–17 Ligue 1 champions Monaco. On 5 August, Alves assisted Edinson Cavani for PSG's first goal of the 2017–18 Ligue 1 season in a 2–0 win over Amiens at the Parc des Princes. On 8 May 2018, he started in the 2018 Coupe de France Final, as PSG defeated Les Herbiers VF 2–0 to clinch the 2017–18 Coupe de France title; he came off in the 86th minute for Thomas Meunier, after sustaining an injury. On 28 August 2018, Alves announced through a post on his Instagram page changing his squad number from 32 to 13 in tribute to Brazilian legend and four-time World Cup winner Mário Zagallo. After his contract with the club expired on 30 June 2019, Alves became a free agent. São Paulo On 1 August 2019, São Paulo announced the signing of Dani Alves on a contract that runs until December 2022. A lifelong supporter of São Paulo, Alves had previously on numerous occasions declared his wish of playing for the club. He was received at the Morumbi stadium, in front of 44,000 fans. Idols of the club's recent history, such as Hernanes, Kaká and Luís Fabiano were responsible for welcoming him. Starting his journey in São Paulo FC at Morumbi stadium, Alves commented: Do not stop believing in your dreams because they are possible. Now, after having gone around the world, it is the first club that I wear the shirt and I am a fan. It is a thrill to receive this mantle, and the moment has come. Alves received the number 10 shirt upon his arrival. He made his debut on 18 August 2019, scoring the only goal in a 1–0 league win over Ceará at the Morumbi. Despite being a right-back throughout his career, he generally played in central midfield during his time at São Paulo, mainly during Fernando Diniz's tenure between 2019 and 2021. He was also made first team captain at the time of his arrival. In 2021, new manager Hernán Crespo made Alves return to a more defensive role, playing him as a right-sided wingback. At the same time, he gave the captain's armband to Miranda, who was returning to the club after a decade. In May, he won his only title with the club and the 42nd of his career, the Campeonato Paulista, which also ended São Paulo's 8-year trophyless period. On 10 September 2021, Alves' representatives communicated to São Paulo that he would no longer return to training and subsequently play for the club following a dispute over unpaid image rights. His contract was terminated six days later. São Paulo FC's footballing director Carlos Belmonte stated: Daniel Alves and Miranda were serving the Brazilian team and should have returned to start regular training for out next games [on Friday]. Miranda attended and trained normally, but Daniel Alves did not attend. We were then informed by his representatives that Daniel Alves will not return to São Paulo until the settlement of the debt that São Paulo has with the athlete. A debt that São Paulo recognises and last week made a proposal seeking the right outcome, which was not accepted by the representatives. From our point of view, we have taken the decision that Daniel Alves will no longer be available to play for São Paulo. São Paulo is more important than all of us. Since then, São Paulo has agreed, in the same month, to pay Alves R$400,000 monthly over the next 5 years starting from January 2022. This is being done to cover the R$18 million debt at the time of the breakup, owing to the contract agreed in 2019, who São Paulo FC were increasingly unable to pay him then. Return to Barcelona On 12 November 2021, Barcelona announced an agreement in principle to sign Alves on a deal until the end of the season. He only became available for the team's official matches starting January 2022. In December 2021, he made his second debut for the Blaugrana in a friendly, honoring Diego Maradona, match against Boca Juniors, and made his debut in official matches for the Blaugrana on 5 January 2022, in a Copa del Rey 2–1 win over Linares Deportivo. On 6 February 2022, he scored for the first time since returning, in Barça's 4–2 home win over Atlético Madrid in the league; he also provided an assist for Jordi Alba and was sent off for a foul on Yannick Carrasco in the same match. On 15 June 2022, Alves announced via a post on his Instagram account that he would leave Barcelona for the second time, having made 408 competitive appearances for the club in total, the second most by a player from abroad, with only Lionel Messi having played more. UNAM On 23 July 2022, Alves signed a one-year contract with Liga MX club UNAM. For the 2022–23 Torneo Clausura, Alves decided to change his shirt number from 33 to 77. On 20 January 2023, following his arrest for sexual assault allegation, UNAM decided to end Alves' contract with the club. International career Early career and 2007 Copa América title Alves made his Brazil debut as a substitute in an unofficial friendly match against Kuwaiti club Al-Kuwait Selection on 7 October 2006. Three days later, he earned his first international cap in a friendly against Ecuador. He was included in Brazil's team for the 2007 Copa América. He appeared in four matches including the final against Argentina on 15 July, where he gave an assist to Roberto Ayala's own goal and scored a goal himself in the 3–0 victory. 2009 Confederations Cup title, 2010 World Cup, and 2011 Copa América Despite being the most expensive right-back in history at the time, he was initially unable to hold down a regular starting spot in the Brazilian national team, with Maicon being the first choice ahead of him. Alves came on as a substitute in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup semi-final against South Africa and scored the winner, a free-kick and a goal in the 88th minute in a 1–0 win. The following summer, he was named to Brazil's squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He scored another long-range free-kick against Iran on 7 October 2010. The following year, Alves was included in Brazil's 23-man squad for the 2011 Copa América in Argentina. 2013 Confederations Cup title and 2014 World Cup Alves was part of the 23 players called by coach Luiz Felipe Scolari to play in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup on home soil. He started in Brazil's 3–0 victory over Spain in the final on 30 June, at the Maracanã Stadium. On 7 May 2014, Alves was named to Brazil's squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup on home soil. He lost his position as a starter during the competition due to poor performances. After Brazil defeated Colombia 2–1 in the quarter-finals, Alves and teammate David Luiz were applauded for comforting James Rodríguez, an act they were both commended for by both Rodríguez and the media for showing respect. 2015 Copa América, and Copa América Centenario, and 2018 World Cup qualifying Alves was picked as a starter in both the 2015 and Centenario Copa América tournaments by manager Dunga. He retained his position following the appointment of Tite and helped Brazil secure qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, but was ruled out of the tournament due to a knee injury suffered in the 2018 Coupe de France Final. 2019 Copa América title In May 2019, he was included in Brazil's 23-man squad for the 2019 Copa América on home soil. He went on to replace Neymar as Brazil captain for the tournament. In the team's final group match against Peru in São Paulo on 22 June, Alves scored in a 5–0 win, which saw Brazil advance to the quarter-finals. In the final, on 7 July, at the Maracanã Stadium, Brazil faced Peru once again, and won the match 3–1 to win the title; Alves was subsequently named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament. The 2019 edition of the Copa América was the 40th title of his career. 2020 Summer Olympics On 17 June 2021, Alves was named in the Brazil squad for the 2020 Summer Olympics. In the final, Brazil faced Spain and won the gold medal following a 2–1 victory after an extra time goal by Malcom. At 38, he became the oldest footballer to ever win a medal in the men's Olympic football tournament, and the third oldest player overall behind Ryan Giggs in 2012 and Ricardo Piccinini in 1988. 2022 FIFA World Cup On 7 November 2022, at age 39, Alves was named in the squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. By starting in his side's final group stage fixture against Cameroon, Alves became the oldest ever player to feature in a World Cup match for Brazil, at the age of 39 years and 210 days. Style of play Regarded as one of the best full-backs of his generation, and of all time, Alves is an offensive right-back or wing-back who is known in particular for his pace, stamina, overlapping attacking runs, and technical skills, which also enable him to play in midfield, or as a winger; he is also gifted with good crossing accuracy and distribution, which allows him to link up with midfielders, and makes him an effective assist provider along the right flank. In addition to his ability to create chances, he is an accurate striker of the ball, and is known for his ability to score goals in particular from outside the area or long-range set-pieces. Despite not being particularly imposing physically, he possesses significant strength and tenacity, which along with his energy, anticipation and work-rate, enable him to intercept passes or chase down and press opponents when not in possession, thus allowing him to aid his team both offensively and defensively. However, despite his skill and offensive ability, he has drawn criticism at times in the media for neglecting the defensive aspect of his game. During his time with Paris Saint-Germain, he also played as a central midfielder on occasion. He continued to play in a free role in midfield during his time with São Paulo, citing his desire to play in the middle in order to have more touches on the ball as the reason for this tactical switch, as out wide he had felt more isolated, and less capable of creating chances for his team. Regarding his unique interpretation of the full-back role throughout his career, Alves commented in 2019: I'm a full-back who plays a combination game. But here – because of the characteristics of Brazilian football, the way the team plays and, a lot of times, the teammates – you don't have so many [short-passing] combinations. If I play in the position I did for 20 years, I can't interfere as much in the game. When I get involved, I help my teammates to become better. It's been like that my whole career – at Bahia, Sevilla, Barcelona, Juventus and PSG. Those clubs have a history of having done that for a while. Here, the coach changes all the time and you're always trying to adapt to the coach you have. In my position in the middle I'm better for my teammates. I'll be sincere, I created a new way of playing as a full-back. No false modesty. I am always adapting to my teammates. If they're wide, I'll go into the middle. If they're attacking, I'll help with the control. If the ball's on the other side, I tuck in. I play as a creative midfielder from the back. Barcelona gave me this understanding. When I played with Xavi or Rakiti[ć], there was always a player controlling the game. If I was wide, Xavi or Rakiti[ć] were behind me. Seeing them play, I thought: 'When you have a winger who stays wide, you need to stay in the area of control.' At São Paulo, my challenge is to be able to understand my teammates and to combine with them as well as possible. Personal life Alves is a black Brazilian. He was subjected to racist taunts while playing in Spain. On 29 September 2011, Alves was appointed as a Special Olympics Ambassador for its Global Football program, charged with promoting respect and inclusion in football for people with intellectual disabilities, particularly in the run up to the 2014 World Cup. On 24 April 2015, Alves publicly expressed his support for the campaign for international recognition of the Armenian genocide. The Embassy of Armenia in Spain would thank Alves the same day, with a comment on its official Facebook account. Alves would apologize to his Turkish fans 3 days later on 27 April 2015, stating: “I’d like to offer my most sincere apologies to all my Turkish fans. I never thought that this photo would cause you any offence, I have a lot of friends …” on his Twitter account. Along with his ex-teammate turned rapper, José Manuel Pinto, Alves released a song called "Suave" on YouTube on 15 June 2018. In September 2021, Alves indicated he was a supporter of Jair Bolsonaro after posting slogans in favor of the Brazilian president. That same year, Alves was appointed as an Earthshot Prize council member, an environmental initiative led by Prince William, Duke of Cambridge. In addition to his native Portuguese, Alves also speaks English and Spanish. After Alves was arrested on sexual assault charges, his wife Joana Sanz separated from him in March 2023; she publicly stated that he had caused great emotional hurt to her, and that she wanted to "close this chapter of her life". Sexual assault charges On 20 January 2023, Alves was arrested by Catalan police and remanded in custody without bail on charges of sexual assault. The alleged assault occurred at a Barcelona nightclub on 30 December 2022. The complainant had filed an official complaint on 2 January 2023. El Periódico de Catalunya reported that the complainant alleged to police and in court that after a waiter led her to meet Alves at the nightclub's VIP area, Alves twice made her touch his penis against her will, then ordered her to follow him into the nightclub's bathroom, prevented her from leaving the bathroom, threw her onto the ground, slapped her, tried to force her to fellate him, put her against the sink, then moved her to the toilet, raped her and ejaculated. According to El Periódico, semen that matched Alves' DNA was collected from samples from inside the complainant's vagina, from her underwear, from her dress, and from the bathroom floor; the complainant was documented by a hospital to have suffered a knee injury consistent with her allegations; and investigators found seven fingerprints around the bathroom that matched the complainant's account of events, with the complainant giving her account without knowing that investigators had such evidence. Alves has given at least five different accounts of the incident. El Periódico detailed three versions. In the first version, Alves told media outlet Antena 3 that he did not know the woman, and accused her of trying to become famous by making her allegation. He implied that he entered the bathroom not knowing that she was already inside using it, but this was contradicted by surveillance footage. After understanding that evidence had been collected against him and the above account was part of the evidence, Alves changed his story in court. In the second version, Alves admitted that he had entered the bathroom first before the woman, and that inside the bathroom, he had defecated in the toilet with the woman beside him, and nothing sexual occurred. When Alves was questioned on why the woman would remain in the small bathroom with him for 15 minutes doing nothing, or why his semen had been found on the bathroom floor, Alves changed his story again. In the third version, he said that the woman had performed fellatio on him in the bathroom. On 17 April 2023, Alves testified in court to a different version of events, claiming that he had consensual sexual intercourse with the woman during the incident; Alves also said that he earlier denied the sexual activity because he wanted to save his marriage. By February 2023, at least eight witnesses provided testimony, and it was reported that the crime could receive prosecution through Spain's recently passed 2022 consensual sex law which expanded the legal definition of sexual assault in Spain. In his fifth version, which was detailed by El Periódico on 17 January 2024, Alves claimed he was severely impaired by alcohol consumption. El Periódico reported in July 2023 that Alves' trial in Spain was originally scheduled to take place between October and November 2023, and no pretrial release should be granted to him until his trial finishes. However, when he was formally indicted on 2 August 2023, it was determined that a trial date would be set for later in the year or early in 2024. He had previously been denied bail in May 2023 and was still in prison by February 2024. On 20 December 2023, a Barcelona-based court scheduled for his trial to begin on 5 February 2024. His trial would then begin on the scheduled date, and it lasted for three days. The trial was also regarded as the first high-profile trial to be held under Spain's 2022 sex crime law. During the first day of his trial, the presiding Provincial Court of Barcelona rejected Alves' bid to have the trial suspended. The woman who accused Alves of sexually assaulting her provided testimony via a closed-door session, talking from behind a screen and having her voice distorted in order to protect her identity. During the second day of the trial, Alves' wife Joana Sanz was among the witnesses who testified. Catalan News described Sanz as appearing "very cold towards her husband" during the testimony. Friends of Alves who testified claimed they drank alcohol "from lunch until dawn," with Sanz even claiming that Alves appeared "reeking of alcohol" after arriving home. The first two days of the trial saw testimony from the alleged victim, witness, police and experts. The third and final day of the trial saw, among others, Alves himself give testimony, where he again denied raping the accuser and claimed that the encounter between him and his accuser was consensual. On 22 February 2024, Alves was found guilty of rape, and was sentenced to four and a half years in prison and ordered to pay €150,000 in damages to the victim. Alves' lawyer said that she would appeal against the verdict. After the sentence, Barcelona retired him from the "Legend" section. However, the club would reinstate his likeness on the website days later. On 20 March 2024, Alves was released from jail on a €1,000,000 bail. However, he was ordered to turn his Spanish and Brazilian passports over to the police, effectively prohibiting him from leaving Spain; to appear before a court weekly; and to keep distance from the victim. The ruling which was not unanimous can still be appealed. The victim's lawyer reacted saying "to me, it's a scandal that they let a person who they know can get a million euros in no time walk free." Tax fraud case On 16 November 2023, Alves won a tax fraud case against him which was related to alleged improper reporting to Spain tax authorities concerning his image rights earnings during the 2009–10 and 2010–11 seasons while he was a Barcelona player after appealing to a Spanish high court. He also received a €3.2 million ($3.4 million) payout from money that was confiscated from him. Suicide allegations On 10 March 2024, journalist Paulo Albuquerque claimed that Alves had committed suicide in jail, news sources such as GOAL, Fotomaç picked up on the story quickly after. On the same day, his brother Ney Alves would debunk the allegations on his Instagram Live broadcast, stating "‘How cruel people can be! He has already been convicted. Is that not enough? The madness is that people want him dead. They want to see my brother dead. How cruel is that!” Alves's press advisor, Acaz Felleger, also denied the false claims that Alves committed suicide and said on Brazilian radio station Rádio Itatiaia that legal action is being considered against the person who started the rumor. Albuquerque would make another post eight hours later after the allegations went viral on social media, stating that he was talking about his missing cousin Danielzinho from Nova Iguacu and that he had found him alive in the end. Career statistics Club As of match played 8 January 2023 Notes: International As of match played 5 December 2022 Scores and results list Brazil's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Alves goal. Honours Bahia Copa do Nordeste: 2002 Sevilla Copa del Rey: 2006–07 Supercopa de España: 2007 UEFA Cup: 2005–06, 2006–07 UEFA Super Cup: 2006 Barcelona La Liga: 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2012–13, 2014–15, 2015–16 Copa del Rey: 2008–09, 2011–12, 2014–15, 2015–16 Supercopa de España: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013 UEFA Champions League: 2008–09, 2010–11, 2014–15 UEFA Super Cup: 2009, 2011, 2015 FIFA Club World Cup: 2009, 2011, 2015 Juventus Serie A: 2016–17 Coppa Italia: 2016–17 Paris Saint-Germain Ligue 1: 2017–18, 2018–19 Coupe de France: 2017–18 Coupe de la Ligue: 2017–18 Trophée des Champions: 2017 São Paulo Campeonato Paulista: 2021 Brazil U20 FIFA World Youth Championship: 2003 Brazil Olympic Summer Olympics: 2020 Brazil Copa América: 2007, 2019 FIFA Confederations Cup: 2009, 2013 Individual FIFA U-20 World Cup Bronze Ball: 2003 UEFA Cup Most Valuable Player: 2005–06 UEFA Team of the Year: 2007, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2017 ESM Team of the Year: 2006–07, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12 FIFA FIFPro World11: 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 La Liga Defender of the Season: 2008–09 FIFA Confederations Cup Team of the Tournament: 2013 La Liga Team of the Season: 2014–15 France Football World XI: 2015 Serie A Team of the Year: 2016–17 IFFHS Men's World Team: 2017 UNFP Ligue 1 Team of the Year: 2017–18 Copa América Golden Ball: 2019 Copa América Team of the Tournament: 2019 IFFHS CONMEBOL Team of the Decade: 2011–2020 Campeonato Paulista Team of the Tournament: 2020 Records Most UEFA Super Cup titles: (4) (shared with six players) (2006, 2009, 2011, 2015) Most UEFA Super Cup final appearances: (5) (shared with four players) (2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2015) See also List of footballers with 100 or more UEFA Champions League appearances List of men's footballers with 100 or more international caps List of men's footballers with the most official appearances List of FC Barcelona players (100+ appearances) List of La Liga players (400+ appearances) List of world association football records References External links Profile at the FC Barcelona website Dani Alves at Olympedia Dani Alves at Olympics.com Dani Alves – FIFA competition record (archived) Dani Alves – UEFA competition record (archive)

Lionel_Messi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Messi

Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (Spanish pronunciation: [ljoˈnel anˈdɾes ˈmesi] ; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains both Major League Soccer club Inter Miami and the Argentina national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Messi set numerous records for individual accolades won throughout his professional footballing career such as eight Ballon d'Or awards and eight times being named the world's best player by FIFA. He is the most decorated player in the history of professional football having won 45 team trophies, including twelve league titles, four UEFA Champions Leagues, two Copa Américas, and one FIFA World Cup. Messi holds the records for most European Golden Shoes (6), most goals for a single club (672, with Barcelona), most goals (474), hat-tricks (36) and assists (192) in La Liga, most matches played (39), assists (18) and goal contributions (34) in the Copa América, most matches played (26) and goal contributions (21) in the World Cup, most international appearances (187) and international goals (109) by a South American male, and the second-most in the latter category outright. A prolific goalscorer and creative playmaker, Messi has scored over 850 senior career goals for club and country. Born in Rosario, Argentina, Messi relocated to Spain to join Barcelona at age 13, and made his competitive debut at age 17 in October 2004. He established himself as an integral player for the club within the next three years, and in his first uninterrupted season in 2008–09 helped Barcelona achieve the first treble in Spanish football; that year, aged 22, Messi won the first of his four consecutive Ballons d'Or, the first player to win it four times. During the 2011–12 season, he set La Liga and European records for most goals in a season, while establishing himself as Barcelona's all-time top scorer. The following two seasons, he finished second for the Ballon d'Or behind Cristiano Ronaldo, his perceived career rival, before regaining his best form during the 2014–15 campaign, where he became the all-time top scorer in La Liga, led Barcelona to a historic second treble, and won a fifth Ballon d'Or in 2015. Messi assumed captaincy of Barcelona in 2018, and won a record sixth Ballon d'Or in 2019. During his overall tenure at Barcelona, Messi won a club-record 34 trophies, including ten La Liga titles and four UEFA Champions Leagues, among others. He signed for French club Paris Saint-Germain in August 2021, where he would win the Ligue 1 title during both of his seasons there. Messi joined American club Inter Miami in July 2023. An Argentine international, Messi is the national team's all-time leading goalscorer and most-capped player. His style of play as a diminutive, left-footed dribbler drew career-long comparisons with compatriot Diego Maradona, who described Messi as his successor. At the youth level, he won the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship and gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics. After his senior debut in 2005, Messi became the youngest Argentine to play and score in a World Cup (2006). He assumed the national team's captaincy in 2011, and then led Argentina to three consecutive finals: the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the 2015 Copa América and the Copa América Centenario, all of which they would lose. After initially announcing his international retirement in 2016, he returned to help his country narrowly qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which they would again exit early. Messi and the national team would finally break Argentina's 28-year trophy drought with a victory in the 2021 Copa América, which helped Messi win his seventh Ballon d'Or later that year. He then led Argentina to win the 2022 FIFA World Cup, where he was awarded a record second Golden Ball after scoring seven goals including two in the final. He would receive a record-extending eighth Ballon d'Or in 2023. A second Copa América victory with Messi as captain followed in 2024. Messi has endorsed sportswear company Adidas since 2006. According to France Football, he was the world's highest-paid footballer for five years out of six between 2009 and 2014, and was ranked the world's highest-paid athlete by Forbes in 2019 and 2022. Messi was among Time's 100 most influential people in the world in 2011, 2012, and 2023. In 2020 and 2023, he was named the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year, the first team-sport athlete to win it. In 2020, Messi was named to the Ballon d'Or Dream Team and became the second footballer and second team-sport athlete to surpass $1 billion in career earnings. In 2024, Messi founded Más+, a sports and energy drink brand, and 525 Rosario, a film and television production company. Early life Messi was born on 24 June 1987 in Rosario, Santa Fe Province, the third of four children of Jorge Messi, a steel factory manager, and his wife Celia Cuccittini, who worked in a magnet manufacturing workshop. On his father's side, he is of Italian and Spanish descent, the great-grandson of immigrants from the north-central Adriatic Marche region of Italy, and on his mother's side, he has primarily Italian ancestry. Growing up in a tight-knit, football-loving family, "Leo" developed a passion for the sport from an early age, playing constantly with his older brothers, Rodrigo and Matías, and his cousins, Maximiliano and Emanuel Biancucchi, both of whom became professional footballers. At the age of four he joined local club Grandoli, where he was coached by his father, though his earliest influence as a player came from his maternal grandmother, Celia, who accompanied him to training and matches. He was greatly affected by her death, shortly before his eleventh birthday; since then, as a devout Catholic, he has celebrated his goals by looking up and pointing to the sky in tribute to his grandmother. Youth career Newell's Old Boys (1995–2000) A lifelong supporter of Newell's Old Boys, Messi joined the Rosario club when he was six years old. During the six years he played for Newell's, he scored almost 500 goals as a member of "The Machine of '87", the near-unbeatable youth side named for the year of their birth, and regularly entertained crowds by performing ball tricks during half-time of the first team's home games. His goalscoring idol growing up was Brazilian striker Ronaldo, with Messi calling him "the best forward I've ever seen". However, his future as a professional player was threatened when, aged 10, he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency. As his father's health insurance covered only two years of growth hormone therapy, which cost at least $1,000 per month, Newell's agreed to contribute, but later reneged on their promise. He was scouted by Buenos Aires club River Plate, whose playmaker Pablo Aimar he idolised. It was speculated that he failed to be signed into River Plate due to his ill health, however in a 2019 interview, Messi revealed that the club had offered to pay for his medical treatment despite ultimately rejecting him. Barcelona (2000–2004) As the Messi family had relatives in Catalonia, they sought to arrange a trial with Barcelona in September 2000. First team director Charly Rexach immediately wanted to sign him, but the board of directors hesitated; at the time it was highly unusual for European clubs to sign foreign players of such a young age. On 14 December, an ultimatum was issued for Barcelona to prove their commitment, and Rexach, with no other paper at hand, offered a contract on a paper napkin. In February 2001, the family relocated to Barcelona, where they moved into an apartment near the club's stadium, Camp Nou. During his first year in Spain, Messi rarely played with the Infantiles due to a transfer conflict with Newell's; as a foreigner, he could only be fielded in friendlies and the Catalan league. Without football, he struggled to integrate into the team; already reserved by nature, he was so quiet that his teammates initially believed he was mute. At home, he suffered from homesickness after his mother moved back to Rosario with his brothers and little sister, María Sol, while he stayed in Barcelona with his father. After a year at Barcelona's youth academy, La Masia, Messi was finally enrolled in the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) in February 2002. Now playing in all competitions, he befriended his teammates, among whom were Cesc Fàbregas and Gerard Piqué. After completing his growth hormone therapy aged 14, Messi became an integral part of the "Baby Dream Team", Barcelona's greatest-ever youth side. During his first full season (2002–03), he was top scorer with 36 goals in 30 games for the Cadetes A, who won an unprecedented treble of the league and both the Spanish and Catalan cups. The Copa Catalunya final, a 4–1 victory over Espanyol, became known in club lore as the partido de la máscara, the final of the mask. A week after suffering a broken cheekbone during a league match, Messi was allowed to start the game on the condition that he wear a plastic protector; soon hindered by the mask, he took it off and scored two goals in 10 minutes before his substitution. At the close of the season, he received an offer to join Arsenal, his first from a foreign club, but while Fàbregas and Piqué soon left for England, he chose to remain in Barcelona. Messi continued to progress through the club's ranks at a rapid pace, debuting for four youth teams during the 2003–04 season. After being named player of the tournament in four international pre-season competitions with the Juvenil B, he played only one official match with the team before being promoted to the Juvenil A, where he scored 18 goals in 11 league games. Messi was then one of several youth players called up to strengthen a depleted first team during the international break. French winger Ludovic Giuly explained how Messi caught the eye in a training session with Frank Rijkaard's first team: "He destroyed us all... They were kicking him all over the place to avoid being ridiculed by this kid, he just got up and kept on playing. He would dribble past four players and score a goal. Even the team's starting centre-backs were nervous. He was an alien." At 16 years, four months, and 23 days old, Messi made his first team debut when he came on in the 75th minute during a friendly against José Mourinho's Porto on 16 November 2003. His performance, creating two chances and a shot on goal, impressed the technical staff, and he subsequently began training daily with the club's reserve side, Barcelona B, as well as weekly with the first team. After his first training session with the senior squad, Barça's new star player, Ronaldinho, told his teammates that he believed the 16-year-old would become an even better player than himself. Ronaldinho soon befriended Messi, whom he called "little brother", which greatly eased his transition into the first team. To gain further match experience, Messi joined Barcelona C in addition to the Juvenil A, playing his first game for the third team on 29 November. He helped save them from the relegation zone of the Tercera División, scoring five goals in ten games, including a hat-trick in eight minutes during a Copa del Rey match while man-marked by Sevilla's Sergio Ramos. His progress was reflected in his first professional contract, signed on 4 February 2004, which lasted until 2012 and contained an initial buyout clause of €30 million. A month later, on 6 March, he made his debut for Barcelona B in the Segunda División B, and his buyout clause automatically increased to €80 million. He played five games with the B team that season but did not score. Physically he was weaker than his opponents, who were often much older and taller, and in training he worked on increasing his muscle mass and overall strength in order to be able to shake off defenders. Towards the end of the season, he returned to both youth teams, helping the Juvenil B win the league. He finished the campaign having scored for four of his five teams with a total of 36 goals in all official competitions. Club career Barcelona (2004–2021) 2004–2008: Rise to the first team Messi would begin the 2004–05 season as a guaranteed starter for the Barcelona B team, but after some lobbying by the senior players, he would be promoted to the first team by manager Frank Rijkaard. He made his La Liga debut for Barcelona on 16 October 2004 against Espanyol, and scored his first senior goal on 1 May 2005 against Albacete, from an assist by Ronaldinho, becoming at that time the youngest-ever scorer for the club. At 17 years, three months, and 22 days old, he was at the time the youngest player to represent Barcelona in an official competition, and the club would win the league title during that season. On his 18th birthday, he would sign his first contract as a senior team player, which would be updated three months later to keep him at the club until 2014. Barcelona would begin the 2005–06 season by winning the Supercopa de España without Messi, who was not selected to participate in the competition. By the end of the season, the team would win La Liga again as well as the UEFA Champions League, although Messi would not play in the final for the latter due to injury. During the 2006–07 season, Messi scored his first hat-trick in a Clásico against Real Madrid, the first player to do so in 12 years. An incredibly finesse goal from Messi against Getafe and another goal scored by a handball against Espanyol gained notice for their similarities to the two famous goals scored by fellow Argentine Diego Maradona in the 1986 World Cup match against England, beginning comparisons between the two that Messi would face throughout his career. The team finished the season with only one trophy – the 2006 Supercopa de España. Barcelona would finish the next 2007–08 season trophyless, leading to Rijkaard's departure. 2008–2012: Success under Pep Guardiola At the beginning of the 2008–09 season, his first under Barcelona's new manager, former captain Pep Guardiola, Messi was given the number 10 shirt. Over time, he effectively became the tactical focal point of Guardiola's posession-based system, increasing his goalscoring rate as a result. During that season, Messi scored 38 total goals, and alongside Samuel Eto'o and Thierry Henry, contributed to a total of 100 goals in all competitions, a record at the time for the club. Messi played as a false nine for the first time in a Clásico against Real Madrid, setting up his side's first goal and scoring twice in the team's greatest-ever score at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. He played his first final, winning the Copa del Rey. In addition to the Copa del Rey, Barcelona won the La Liga title and later won the Champions League. Barcelona thus achieved the first treble in the history of Spanish football. During the first half of the 2009–10 season, Barcelona would also win the Supercopa de España, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup, resulting in becoming the first club to achieve the sextuple. Messi finished as the Champions League top scorer, the youngest in the tournament's history. For his efforts in 2009, Messi won the Ballon d'Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year award. Messi scored a total of 47 goals in all competitions, equaling Ronaldo's club record from the 1996–97 campaign. He finished the season as top scorer in the Champions League, and La Liga, winning his second consecutive league trophy and earned his first European Golden Shoe. In the 2010–11 campaign, Messi won the Supercopa de España, Champions League, and a third consecutive La Liga title. His club performances in 2010 earned him his second consecutive Ballon d'Or. Messi was the top scorer in the Champions League, for the third consecutive year, and the league's top scorer and assist provider. He became Barcelona's all-time single-season top scorer with 53 goals. Messi began the 2011–12 season winning both the Spanish and European Super Cups trophies. At the close of the year, he won the FIFA Club World Cup and earned the Golden Ball for a second time. For his efforts in 2011, he received the FIFA Ballon d'Or, becoming only the fourth player in history to win the Ballon d'Or three times, and the inaugural UEFA Best Player in Europe Award. During the year 2012, Messi became the second player to be top scorer in four Champions League campaigns. Messi became the top goalscorer in Barcelona's history at 24 years old, overtaking the 57-year record of César Rodríguez's 232 goals with a hat-trick against Granada. He finished the season as league top scorer in Spain and Europe for a second time, with 50 goals, a La Liga record, while his 73 goals in all competitions made him the single-season top scorer in the history of European club football excluding regional and local competitions. The team would also win the Copa Del Rey that season, their 14th trophy under Guardiola, who resigned following the season after a four-year cycle of success. 2012–2014: Record-breaking year and Messidependencia For the start of the 2012–13 season, Barcelona had virtually secured their La Liga title by the start of 2013. A double scored against Real Betis saw Messi becoming Barcelona's all-time top scorer in La Liga, and surpassed Gerd Müller's record of most goals scored in a calendar year; Messi would score a record 91 goals in all competitions for Barcelona and Argentina throughout 2012. Messi again won the FIFA Ballon d'Or, becoming the first player in history to win the Ballon d'Or four times. He signed a new contract committing himself to the club through 2018, and wore the captain's armband for the first time in a league match against Rayo Vallecano. His input into the team's attack had increased; from 24% in their treble-winning campaign, his goal contribution rose to more than 40% that season. These statistics, as well as lopsided losses in the Champions League where Messi was unfit, gave credence to the notion of Messidependencia, Barcelona's perceived tactical and psychological dependence on their star player. The team would win La Liga again that year, Messi's sixth, equalling Real Madrid's 100-point record of the previous season. With 60 goals in all competitions, including 46 goals in La Liga, he finished the campaign as league top scorer in Spain and Europe for the second consecutive year, becoming the first player in history to win the European Golden Shoe three times. To offset the load on Messi, Barcelona would sign Brazilian forward Neymar from Santos before the 2013–14 season. The team would win the Supercopa de España at the beginning of the season. Messi finished the campaign with his worst output in five seasons, though he still managed to score 41 goals in all competitions. For the first time in five years, Barcelona ended the season without a major trophy. 2014–2017: Arrival of Luis Enrique and birth of MSN Barcelona hired coach Luis Enrique before the 2014–15 season, and would continue to aid Messi in the attack by signing Uruguayan forward Luis Suárez, who had won the European Golden Shoe the year before at Liverpool. Luis Enrique's system would feature quick transitions from defense to attack, led by the front three of Messi, Suárez and Neymar. The attacking trio, which colloquially became known as 'MSN', would break goalscoring records. A hat-trick scored against Sevilla earlier in the season would also make him the all-time top scorer in La Liga, as he surpassed the 59-year record of 251 league goals held by Telmo Zarra. After securing the La Liga title, the Copa Del Rey, and the Champions League that year, Messi helped Barcelona become the first club to win the continental treble twice. He would record 58 goals, but combined with Neymar and Suárez, the attacking trio scored a total of 122 goals in all competitions that season, a record in Spanish football. Messi opened the 2015–16 season by helping Barcelona's win over Sevilla in the UEFA Super Cup. Messi capped off the year by winning the 2015 FIFA Club World Cup final over River Plate in Yokohama, collecting his fifth club trophy of the calendar year. On 11 January 2016, Messi won the FIFA Ballon d'Or for a record fifth time in his career. He would end the season by winning La Liga as well as the Copa del Rey again. In total, Messi scored 41 goals, and Barcelona's attacking trio of him, Neymar and Suárez managed a Spanish record of 131 combined goals throughout the season, breaking the record they had set the previous season. The 2016–17 season would end with Messi winning the Supercopa de España and the Copa del Rey. He would finish the season with 54 goals, while his 37 goals in La Liga saw him claim both the Pichichi and European Golden Boot Awards for the fourth time in his career. Messi, Neymar and Suárez would combine for 110 goals by season's end. Neymar would depart for Paris Saint Germain the next year, leaving the attacking trio with a combined total of 363 goals over the course of three seasons. Luis Enrique would also leave Barcelona at the end of the season after managing the club to a total of nine trophies during his three-year tenure. 2017–2021: Final years at Barcelona Messi would sign a new deal with Barcelona on 25 November 2017, keeping him with the club through 2021. The 2017–18 season saw Messi achieving the domestic double, winning La Liga and the Copa Del Rey once again. He once again finished the season as the top scorer in La Liga, with 34 goals, which also saw him win his fifth European Golden Shoe award. With the departure of former captain Andrés Iniesta in May 2018, Messi was named the team's new captain for the 2018–19 season. He lifted his first trophy as Barcelona's captain, the Supercopa de España, following a 2–1 victory over Sevilla. He helped Barcelona clinch the La Liga title, his tenth but first as captain. With 36 goals in 34 appearances that season, he won his sixth league Golden Boot trophy, equalling Zarra as the player with the most top-scorer awards in La Liga. He also captured his sixth Golden Shoe award, and a record third consecutive award since the 2016–17 season. Messi would win his sixth Ballon d'Or, but the subsequent 2019–20 season saw Barcelona go trophyless for the first time since 2007–08. Following a disappointing season, Barcelona announced that Messi sent the club "a document expressing his desire to leave", but Messi ultimately decided to fulfill the final year of his contract. The 2020–21 season saw Messi surpass Xavi's record to reach a club record of 768 appearances. He would lead the club to victory in the 2021 Copa del Rey final. His last two seasons with Barcelona saw him lead La Liga in goal scoring, giving him a record-breaking total of eight Pichichi trophies. Messi became a free agent after his contract expired, with negotiations on a new deal complicated due to Barcelona's financial issues. Barcelona would eventually announce that Messi would not be staying at the club, citing financial and structural obstacles posed by La Liga regulations as a reason for Messi's departure. In a tearful press conference held at the Camp Nou, Messi confirmed that he would be leaving Barcelona. Paris Saint-Germain (2021–2023) On 10 August 2021, Messi joined Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), reuniting him with Neymar, for the 2021–22 season on a two-year deal until June 2023 with an option for an extra year. Messi chose 30 as his squad number, the same he wore as a teenager when he made his senior debut for Barcelona. He would make his debut with the club against Reims, made his first start and Champions League debut for the club against Club Brugge, and made his home debut in a match against Lyon He scored his first goal for the club in a Champions League group stage win over former manager Pep Guardiola's Manchester City. Having scored 40 goals at club and international level for the calendar year in addition to captaining Argentina to the 2021 Copa América, Messi received a record seventh Ballon d'Or. He finished his debut season with PSG with 11 goals and 14 assists across all competitions, helping the club win their 10th Ligue 1 title. Beginning the 2022–23 season, Messi would win his second trophy with PSG in the Trophée des Champions. A goal against Nice resulted in him surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo as the all-time highest goalscorer in European club football with 702 goals; during the match, he also achieved 1,000 career direct goal contributions at club level. By the end of the season, he had 21 goals across all competitors and the highest number of assists in the league with 16, which helped PSG clinch their 11th Ligue 1 title and his second in a row. Following the last game of the season, manager Christophe Galtier confirmed that it would be Messi's last for PSG, with the club confirming his departure two days later. Inter Miami (2023–present) Major League Soccer (MLS) club Inter Miami CF announced the signing of Messi on a two-and-a-half-year contract on 15 July 2023. Messi made his 2023 debut for the club in a Leagues Cup match against Cruz Azul, scoring with a free-kick in stoppage time for a victory. After scoring nine goals in his first six games for Miami, Messi led the team to the club's first-ever trophy by winning the Leagues Cup against Nashville SC. Messi made his MLS debut against New York Red Bulls. Miami would miss the playoffs, finish 14th in the Eastern Conference, having gone winless in their last seven games. On 30 October 2023, following his World Cup win with Argentina and Ligue 1 trophy with PSG, Messi was awarded a record-extending eighth Ballon d'Or. He was also named Time Athlete of the Year, the first footballer to ever win the award. During the 2024 season, Messi broke the record for the most assists in a single MLS game with five assists and he also broke the record for the most goal contributions in an MLS game with six in a 6–2 win over the New York Red Bulls. The team would clinch the best record in the league before season's end, securing the Supporters' Shield in the process. International career As a dual Argentine-Spanish national, Messi was eligible to play for the national team of both countries. He debuted for Argentina in 2004 for Argentina's U20 team against Paraguay, and was subsequently included in the squad for the 2005 South American U-20 Championship, where they would finish third. Messi would then lead the team to victory in the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship, his first success with Argentina. Finishing the tournament with six goals and two assists, he would also win the Golden Ball. He would make his debut with the senior national team in 2005, at age 18, coming off the bench friendly against Hungary. Messi would have his first start in 2006 against Peru, and score his first international goal in a friendly against Croatia. His World Cup debut came in the 2006 FIFA World Cup as a substitute in the 74th minute against Serbia and Montenegro, scoring the final goal in their victory. This made him the youngest player to represent and score for Argentina in the World Cup. He would represent Argentina again for the 2007 Copa América, where they would ultimately lose in the final. Messi was named the best young player of the tournament, having scored two goals and provided one assist. The 2008 Summer Olympics would mark another major achievement with his country, as he led Argentina's U23 team to claim the Olympic gold medal over Nigeria. Messi registered two goals and three assists throughout, and was singled out by FIFA as the stand-out player from the tournament's best team. With the international retirement of Juan Román Riquelme, Messi was given Argentina's number 10 shirt. During a 2010 FIFA World Cup group stage match against Greece, where a majority of the starters rested due to a secured place in the knockout rounds, Messi would wear the captain's armband for the first time. Argentina were ultimately eliminated in the quarterfinals against Germany during that tournament, but Messi was identified as one of the tournament's 10 best players due to his pace and creativity, despite failing to register a single goal and only having one assist. The appointment of Sergio Batista ahead of the 2011 Copa America resulted in Argentina now building their team around Messi. However, Messi would again be goalless during the tournament but had three assists. The team would ultimately lose to Uruguay in penalties during the quarter-finals. Following their unsuccessful performance, Batista was replaced by Alejandro Sabella, who awarded 24-year-old Messi the captaincy of the squad. The next several years saw many frustrations for Messi due to his inability to captain Argentina to an international trophy. During the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Messi and Argentina lost to Germany in the final, though Messi was awarded the Golden Ball as the best player of the tournament regardless due to his overall performance with four goals and an assist. Argentina would lose to Chile on penalties in the 2015 Copa América final the next year. At the close of the tournament, Messi, was reportedly selected to receive the Golden Ball award, having scored one goal and provided three assists, but rejected the honour. In the 2016 Copa América Centenario semi-final against the United States, a goal from Messi would put him ahead of Gabriel Batistuta as Argentina's all-time leading goalscorer in international matches. However, Argentina would again fall to Chile on penalties in the final. Messi would have five goals and four assists throughout the tournament. Losing three consecutive finals in three consecutive years caused Messi to briefly retire from international football, but a fan campaign in Argentina helped convince him to reverse his decision. He would return to the national team to lead them to the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Argentina were in jeopardy of missing the tournament on the last game of the qualifiers against Ecuador, but a hat-trick from Messi secured their entry. They would go on to lose to France in the Round of 16 during the World Cup, with Messi having one goal and two assists in the tournament. The next year, under new head coach Lionel Scaloni, Messi would again represent Argentina in the 2019 Copa América, where he registered only a single goal and assist. They would lose to hosts Brazil in the semi-final but ended with a third place finish after defeating Chile. He would receive a red card during the third-place match and be issued a suspension for his criticism of the tournament's organization and refereeing. Messi would finally end Argentina's 28-year trophy drought in the 2021 Copa América, as they had not won an international tournament since 1993. Argentina defeated Brazil in the final; Messi was directly involved in nine out of the 12 goals scored by Argentina, scoring four and assisting five, and was named the player of the tournament. He captained Argentina to win another international trophy in the 2022 Finalissima against UEFA Euro 2020 winners Italy, where he was named player of the match after providing three assists. At the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Messi led Argentina to its first World Cup victory in 36 years, defeating France during the final. He became the first player to score in every stage of the World Cup, having scored seven total with three assists, and also the first to win the Golden Ball for the tournament twice. With his appearance in the final, Messi set new records as the player with the most appearances at the World Cup (26) and most direct goal contributions at the World Cup (21 – 13 goals and 8 assists). He also set the record for most goals for Argentina in a calendar year with 18. A hat-trick in a 2023 friendly against Curaçao saw Messi reach 100 international goals; he became the third player and the first South American in history to achieve this milestone. Later that year, a goal against Peru during a World Cup qualifier saw Messi become the all-time top goalscorer in CONMEBOL World Cup qualifiers. His start in the 2024 Copa América opening game against Canada marked a new record for overall Copa appearances (35). A goal Messi scored in the semi-final, again against Canada, marked his first and only goal of the tournament while also making him the second-highest international goalscorer of all time. Argentina eventually won the final against Colombia, setting Messi with 39 total appearances in the tournament, while also marking Argentina's second consecutive Copa América win and third consecutive international tournament title with Messi as captain. Style of play Due to his short stature, Messi has a lower centre of gravity than taller players, which gives him greater agility, allowing him to change direction more quickly and evade opposing tackles; this has led the Spanish media to dub him La Pulga Atómica ("The Atomic Flea"). Despite being physically unimposing, he possesses significant upper-body strength, which, combined with his low centre of gravity and resulting balance, aids him in withstanding physical challenges from opponents; he has consequently been noted for his lack of diving in a sport rife with playacting. His short, strong legs allow him to excel in short bursts of acceleration while his quick feet enable him to retain control of the ball when dribbling at speed. His former Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola once stated, "Messi is the only player that runs faster with the ball than he does without it." Although he has improved his ability with his weaker foot since his mid-20s, Messi is predominantly a left-footed player; with the outside of his left foot, he usually begins dribbling runs, while he uses the inside of his foot to finish and provide passes and assists. A prolific goalscorer, Messi is known for his finishing, positioning, quick reactions, and ability to make attacking runs to beat the defensive line. He also functions in a playmaking role, courtesy of his vision and range of passing. He has often been described as a magician; a conjurer, creating goals and opportunities where seemingly none exist. Moreover, he is an accurate free kick and penalty kick taker. As of September 2023, Messi ranks fifth all time in goals scored from direct free kicks with 65, the most among active players. He also has a penchant for scoring from chips. Messi's pace and technical ability enable him to undertake individual dribbling runs towards goal, in particular during counterattacks, usually starting from the halfway line or the right side of the pitch. He widely considered to be the best dribbler in the world, and one of the greatest dribblers of all time. With regard to this ability, his former Argentina manager Diego Maradona has said of him, "The ball stays glued to his foot; I've seen great players in my career, but I've never seen anyone with Messi's ball control." Beyond his individual qualities, he is also a well-rounded, hard-working team player, known for his creative combinations, in particular with former Barcelona midfielders Xavi and Andrés Iniesta. As his career advanced, and his athleticism and tendency to dribble diminished slightly with age, Messi began to dictate play in deeper areas of the pitch and developed into one of the best passers and playmakers in football history. His work-rate off the ball and defensive responsibilities also decreased as his career progressed; by covering less ground on the pitch, and instead conserving his energy for short bursts of speed, he was able to improve his efficiency, movement, and positional play, and was also able to avoid muscular injuries, despite often playing a large number of matches throughout a particular season on a consistent basis. Indeed, while he was injury-prone in his early career, he was later able to improve his injury record by running less off the ball, and by adopting a stricter diet, training regime, and sleep schedule. Tactical positioning Tactically, Messi plays in a free attacking role; a versatile player, he is capable of attacking on either wing or through the centre of the pitch. His favoured position in childhood was the playmaker behind two strikers, known as the enganche in Argentine football, but he began his career in Spain as a left-winger or left-sided forward. Upon his first-team debut, he was moved onto the right wing by manager Frank Rijkaard; from this position, he could more easily cut through the defence into the middle of the pitch and curl shots on goal with his left foot, rather than predominantly cross balls for teammates. Under Guardiola and subsequent managers, he most often played in a false nine role; positioned as a centre-forward or lone striker, he would roam the centre, often moving deep into midfield and drawing defenders with him, in order to create and exploit spaces for passes, other teammates' attacking runs off the ball, Messi's own dribbling runs, or combinations with Xavi and Iniesta. Under the stewardship of Luis Enrique, Messi initially returned to playing in the right-sided position that characterised much of his early career in the manager's 4–3–3 formation, while he was increasingly deployed in a deeper, free playmaking role in later seasons. Under manager Ernesto Valverde, Messi played in a variety of roles. While he occasionally continued to be deployed in a deeper role, from which he could make runs from behind into the box, or even on the right wing or as a false nine, he was also used in a more offensive, central role in a 4–2–3–1, or as a second striker in a 4–4–2 formation, where he was once again given the licence to drop deep, link-up with midfielders, orchestrate his team's attacking plays, and create chances for his attacking partner Luis Suárez. With the Argentina national team, Messi has similarly played anywhere along the frontline; under various managers, he has been employed on the right wing, as a false nine, as an out-and-out striker, in a supporting role alongside another forward, or in a deeper, free creative role as a classic number 10 playmaker or attacking midfielder behind the strikers. Reception A prodigious talent as a teenager, Messi established himself among the world's best players before age 20. Shortly after winning the 2005 Ballon d'Or, teammate Ronaldinho commented, "I'm not even the best at Barça", in reference to his 18-year-old protégé. Four years later, after Messi had won his first Ballon d'Or by a record margin, the public debate regarding his qualities as a player moved beyond his status in contemporary football to the possibility that he was one of the greatest players in history. An early proponent was his then-Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola, who, as early as August 2009, declared Messi to be the best player he had ever seen. In the following years, this opinion gained greater acceptance among pundits, managers, former and current players, and by the end of Barça's second treble-winning season, the view of Messi as one of the greatest footballers of all time had become the apparent view among many fans and pundits in continental Europe. He initially received dismissals by critics based on the fact that he had not won an international tournament at senior level with Argentina. However, Messi's subsequent victories in the 2021 Copa América and the 2022 FIFA World Cup resulted in him finally winning every top tier trophy at both the club and international levels, an achievement that many pundits felt cemented his legacy. Comparisons with Diego Maradona Throughout his career, Messi has been compared with his late compatriot Diego Maradona, who was also considered the best player of his generation and one of greatest in the history of the sport. This was due to their short statures, their similar playing styles as diminutive, left-footed dribblers, and the fact that they both came from Argentina. Initially, Messi was merely one of many young Argentine players to receive the "New Maradona" moniker, but as his career progressed, Messi proved his similarity beyond all previous contenders, establishing himself as the best player Argentina had produced since Maradona. Even when Messi was 18 years old, Maradona called him the best player in the world and hailed him as his successor. Maradona and Messi would work together as manager and player for Argentina's national side from 2008 through the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the former thoroughly impressed with the latter's skills. During this period, Messi was given Argentina's number 10 shirt that Maradona famously wore, with Maradona telling him: "the No 10 is yours. There's nobody better than you to wear it." Jorge Valdano, who won the World Cup with Maradona, said in October 2013, "Messi is Maradona every day. For the last five years, Messi has been the Maradona of the World Cup in Mexico." César Menotti, who as manager orchestrated their 1978 World Cup victory, echoed this sentiment when he opined that Messi plays "at the level of the best Maradona". Other notable Argentines in the sport such as Diego Simeone and Javier Zanetti expressed their belief between 2012–13 that Messi had already overtaken Maradona as the best player in the nation's history. During the early and middle parts of his career, Messi was generally held in lesser esteem than Maradona in Argentine society. Part of this had to do with Messi's lack of tournament success and perceived uneven output with the national team during this period – Maradona had famously led Argentina to victory in the 1986 FIFA World Cup with a dominant overall performance, which set expectations for Messi to do the same. Also unlike Maradona, Messi never played in the Argentine Primera División, therefore depriving his countrymen a chance to watch him develop and prove himself, and through no fault of his own would do this overseas in La Liga instead. His lack of outward passion for the Albiceleste shirt, early tendency not to sing the national anthem, and disinclination to emotional displays have in the past led to the false perception that he felt more Catalan rather than truly Argentine. However, despite having lived in Barcelona since age 13, Messi rejected the option of representing Spain internationally, saying: "Argentina is my country, my family, my way of expressing myself. I would change all my records to make the people in my country happy." Another factor for the Argentine preference for Maradona over Messi was the differences between the two in personality, class and background. Maradona was an extroverted, fiery and controversial character who rose to greatness from the slums, all character traits that many Argentines identified as being representative of their national values. In contrast, Messi could be seen as the antithesis of his predecessor: introverted, reserved and unassuming, with a comparably unremarkable upbringing in Rosario. Several pundits and footballing figures would point to this temperament to question Messi's leadership capabilities for the national team, especially in contrast to Maradona's. Maradona himself once echoed these sentiments, stating that he did not believe that Messi had the personality to be a leader. When reflecting on the expectations that Messi faced in comparison to Maradona throughout his career, compatriot Osvaldo Ardiles stated: "Messi has always lived in the shadow of Diego Maradona, the leader of our last World Cup-winning team in 1986. He could never escape the similarities. They are both No. 10s, both the best players in the world, both left footed and both capable of magical, extraordinary moments. And yet they were very different in terms of personality ... people were always looking for a leader like Maradona and Messi wasn’t that person." Football journalist Tim Vickery stated the perception of Messi among Argentines changed in 2019, with Messi making a conscious effort to become "more one of the group, more Argentine". Other pundits noted that Messi had grown more assertive as a leader during the 2019 Copa América by becoming more vocal with his teammates both on and off the pitch, finally singing the national anthem with the team before matches, and speaking with journalists at length after matches, the latter of which he rarely did for Barcelona. The red card he was shown after a shoving match during the third-place match, and subsequent outburst during the post-game conference where he criticized the organization of the tournament, were cited as examples of Messi's new mindset. Longtime Argentina teammate Ángel Di María said that despite the tournament ending in a loss and continuing Argentina's long trophy drought, it revealed "a new Messi" leading the national team. Following the World Cup win for Messi and Argentina, Vickery felt that Messi would now be held in the same esteem by his compatriots as Maradona. In addition to Messi's output of goals and assists throughout the tournament, Valdano saw an edge to Messi's performances, which he described as a "Maradonian" streak. Ardiles highlighted Messi provoking the Netherlands side during the semi-final, particularly when he goaded the opposing bench after scoring a penalty and snapped at one of the Dutch players during the post-game conference. Stating that these actions were very unlike Messi but "more of a Maradona reaction," Ardiles believed that they resulted in Messi further endearing himself to his countrymen. Messi himself later remarked that the World Cup victory "won over all the people of Argentina. Today 95% or 100% of Argentines love me and that's a beautiful feeling." Comparisons with Cristiano Ronaldo Among his contemporary peers, Messi is most often compared and contrasted with Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo. Both have regularly broken the 50-goal barrier in the regular season, achieved numerous individual accolades, and racked up dozens of trophies for both club and country. Pundits have compared the ongoing rivalry to past sports rivalries like the Muhammad Ali–Joe Frazier rivalry in boxing, the Prost–Senna rivalry in motorsport, and the tennis rivalries between Federer–Nadal and Borg–McEnroe. Their first competitive matchup occurred in 2008, when Ronaldo's Manchester United were drawn to play Messi's Barcelona in the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League semi-finals, where Manchester United would eventually advance 1–0 on aggregate. The two teams, and subsequently the two players, would meet in the Champions League again the next year, this time in the final, with this time Messi and Barcelona being the victors after a 2–0 result. After this, Ronaldo would transfer to Real Madrid, the main rivals of Barcelona, and from 2009–10 to 2017–18, Messi faced Ronaldo at least twice every season in El Clásico, which ranks among the world's most viewed annual sports events. Ronaldo's would then transfer to Juventus in the summer of 2018; their final matchup in a competitive match would occur during a 2020–21 UEFA Champions League group stage match, where Ronaldo's two goals from the penalty spot helped Juventus to a 3–0 victory against Messi's Barcelona. When Ronaldo left Real Madrid for Juventus, Messi stated: "I miss Cristiano. Although it was a bit difficult to see him win trophies, he gave La Liga prestige." Although Messi has at times denied any rivalry, they are widely believed to push one another in their aim to be the best player in the world. Since 2008, Messi has won eight Ballons d'Or to Ronaldo's five, eight FIFA World's Best Player awards to Ronaldo's five, and six European Golden Shoes to Ronaldo's four. Pundits and fans regularly argue the individual merits of both players. Beyond their playing styles, the debate also revolves around their differing physiques – Ronaldo is 1.87 m (6 ft 1+1⁄2 in) with a muscular build – and contrasting public personalities with Ronaldo's self-confidence and theatrics a foil to Messi's humility. Off the pitch, Ronaldo is his direct competitor in terms of salary, sponsorships, and social media fanbase. After Messi led Argentina to victory in the 2022 World Cup, a number of football critics, commentators, and players have opined that Messi has settled the debate between the two players. In popular culture Messi was the world's highest-paid footballer for five years out of six between 2009 and 2014; he was the first player to exceed the €40 million benchmark, with earnings of €41 million in 2013, and the €50–€60 million points, with income of €65 million in 2014. Messi was second on Forbes list of the world's highest-paid athletes, after Ronaldo, with income of $81 million from salary and endorsements in 2015–16. In 2018 he was the first player to exceed the €100m benchmark for a calendar year, with earnings of €126m ($154m) in combined income from salaries, bonuses and endorsements. Forbes ranked him the world's highest-paid athlete in 2019. From 2008, he was Barcelona's highest-paid player, receiving a salary that increased incrementally from €7.8 million to €13 million over the next five years. Signing a new contract in 2017, he earned $667,000 per week in wages, and Barcelona paid him $60 million as a signing on bonus. His buyout clause was set at $835 million (€700 million). In 2020, Messi became the second footballer, as well as the second athlete in a team sport, after Ronaldo, to surpass $1 billion in earnings during their careers. Messi was among the Time 100, an annual list of the world's most influential people, in 2011, 2012 and 2023. His fanbase on Facebook is among the largest of public figures: within seven hours of its launch in April 2011, Messi's Facebook page had nearly seven million followers, and by July 2023 he had over 114 million followers, the second highest for a sportsperson after Cristiano Ronaldo. He has over 500 million Instagram followers, the second highest for an individual and sportsperson after Ronaldo. His World Cup celebration post from 18 December 2022 is the most liked post on Instagram with over 70 million likes. According to a 2014 survey in 15 international markets, Messi was familiar to 87% of respondents around the world, of whom 78% perceived him favourably, making him the second-most recognised player globally, behind Ronaldo, and the most likable of all contemporary players. On his economic impact on the city in which he plays, Terry Gibson called him a "tourist attraction". Madame Tussauds unveiled their first wax sculpture of Messi at Wembley Stadium in 2012. After the announcement of his first retirement from the international team in June 2016, a bronze statue of Messi was erected in Buenos Aires days later in an attempt to convince him to return. A life-sized statue of Messi holding the World Cup trophy was unveiled outside the CONMEBOL headquarters in Luque, Paraguay on March 2023, a few months after Argentina's World Cup win. The statue would stand alongside those of Pelé and Diego Maradona. World Press Photo selected "The Final Game", a photo of Messi facing the World Cup trophy after Argentina's final defeat to Germany, as the best sports image of 2014. Messi, a documentary by filmmaker Álex de la Iglesia, premiered at the Venice Film Festival in August 2014. In May 2022, Messi was unveiled as Saudi Arabia's tourism ambassador. Due to Saudi Arabia's poor human rights record, Messi was condemned for the role which was viewed as an attempt of Saudi sportswashing. In April 2023, Messi was featured in the 200 year old Thrissur Pooram festival in Kerala, India. During Thrissur Pooram, which is one of the largest festivals in Asia, umbrellas carrying the illuminated cut outs of Messi holding the World Cup trophy were displayed on the top of caparisoned elephants during the Kudamattam ceremony. Endorsements In addition to salary and bonuses, much of his income derives from endorsements; SportsPro has consequently cited him as one of the world's most marketable athletes every year since their research began in 2010. His main sponsor since 2006 is Adidas. As Barcelona's leading youth prospect, he was signed with Nike since age 14, but transferred to Adidas after they successfully challenged their rival's claim to his image rights in court. Messi established himself as their leading brand endorser; from 2008, he had a long-running signature collection of Adidas F50 boots, and in 2015, became the first footballer to receive his own sub-brand of Adidas boots, the Adidas Messi. Since 2017, he has worn the latest version of the Adidas Nemeziz. In 2015, a Barcelona jersey with Messi's name and number was the best-selling replica jersey worldwide. At the 2022 World Cup, Adidas sold out Messi's No. 10 Argentina jersey worldwide. As a commercial entity, Messi's brand has been based exclusively on his talents and achievements as a player, in contrast to arguably more glamorous players like Ronaldo and David Beckham. At the start of his career, he thus mainly held sponsorship contracts with companies that employ sports-oriented marketing, such as Adidas, Pepsi, and Konami. From 2010, concurrently with increased achievements as a player, his marketing appeal widened, leading to long-term endorsement deals with luxury brands Dolce & Gabbana and Audemars Piguet. Messi is a global brand ambassador for Gillette, Turkish Airlines, Ooredoo, and Tata Motors, among other companies. Messi was the face of Konami's video game series Pro Evolution Soccer, appearing on the covers of PES 2009, PES 2010, PES 2011 and PES 2020. He subsequently signed with rival company EA Sports to become the face of their series FIFA and appeared on consecutive covers from FIFA 13 to FIFA 16. In 2013, a Turkish Airlines advertisement starring Messi, in which he engages in a selfie competition with Kobe Bryant, was the most-watched ad on YouTube in 2013, receiving 137 million views, and was voted the best advertisement of the 2005–15 decade to commemorate YouTube's founding. In June 2021, Messi signed a five-year deal to become an ambassador for the Hard Rock Cafe brand. He stated, "sports and music are an integral part of my life. It is an honor to be the first athlete to partner with a brand who has a history of teaming with music legends." Philanthropy Throughout his career, Messi has been involved in charitable efforts aimed at vulnerable children, a commitment that stems in part from the medical difficulties he faced in his own childhood. Since 2004, he has contributed his time and finances to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), an organisation with which Barcelona also have a strong association. Messi has served as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since his appointment in March 2010, completing his first field mission for the organisation four months later as he travelled to Haiti to bring public awareness to the plight of the country's children in the wake of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. He has since participated in UNICEF campaigns targeting HIV prevention, education, and the social inclusion of disabled children. To celebrate his son's first birthday, in November 2013, Messi and Thiago were part of a publicity campaign to raise awareness of mortality rates among disadvantaged children. In addition to his work with UNICEF, Messi founded his own charitable organisation, the Leo Messi Foundation, which supports access to health care, education, and sport for children. It was established in 2007 following a visit Messi paid to a hospital for terminally ill children in Boston, an experience that resonated with him to the point that he decided to reinvest part of his earnings into society. Through his foundation, Messi has awarded research grants, financed medical training, and invested in the development of medical centres and projects in Argentina, Spain, and elsewhere in the world. In addition to his own fundraising activities, such as his global "Messi and Friends" football matches, his foundation receives financial support from various companies to which he has assigned his name in endorsement agreements, with Adidas as their main sponsor. A gold replica of his left foot, weighing 25 kg (55 lb) and valued at $5.3 million, went on sale in Japan in 2013 to raise funds for victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Messi has also invested in youth football in Argentina: he financially supports Sarmiento, a football club based in the Rosario neighbourhood where he was born, committing in 2013 to the refurbishment of their facilities and the installation of all-weather pitches, and funds the management of several youth players at Newell's Old Boys and rival club Rosario Central, as well as at River Plate and Boca Juniors in Buenos Aires. At Newell's Old Boys, his boyhood club, he funded the 2012 construction of a new gymnasium and a dormitory inside the club's stadium for their youth academy. His former youth coach at Newell's, Ernesto Vecchio, is employed by the Leo Messi Foundation as a talent scout for young players. On 7 June 2016, Messi won a libel case against La Razón newspaper and was awarded €65,000 in damages, which he donated to the charity Médecins Sans Frontières. Messi made a donation worth €1 million ($1.1 million) to fight the spread of coronavirus. This was split between Clinic Barcelona in Barcelona and his native Argentina. In addition to this, Messi along with his fellow FC Barcelona teammates announced he would be taking a 70% cut in salaries during the 2020 coronavirus emergency, and contribute further to the club to provide fully to salaries of all the clubs employees. In November 2016, with the Argentine Football Association being run by a FIFA committee for emergency due to an economic crisis, it was reported that three of the national team's security staff told Messi that they had not received their salaries for six months. He stepped in and paid the salaries of the three members. In February 2021, Messi donated to the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya his Adidas shoes which he wore when he scored his 644th goal for Barcelona and broke Pelé's record for most goals scored for a single club; the shoes were later auctioned off in April by the museum for charity to help children with cancer and were sold for £125,000. In advance of the 2021 Copa América, Messi donated three signed shirts to the Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech—whose directors spoke of their admiration for Messi—in order to secure 50,000 doses of Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccine, CoronaVac, in the hope of vaccinating all of South America's football players. A deal brokered by Uruguay's president Luis Lacalle Pou, the plan to prioritise football players caused some controversy given widespread vaccine scarcity in the region, with the Mayor of Canelones Yamandú Orsi remarking that "Just as the president manifested cooperation with CONMEBOL to vaccinate for the Copa América, he could just as well have the same consideration for Canelones". Business ventures On June 4, 2024, Messi announced the release of Más+, an American brand of sports and energy drinks. Messi created the drink because he couldn't find a flavorful and healthy hydration option that suited his needs. The drink was teased to debut in Miami, Florida, on June 13, 2024. It was released in Publix and Walmart stores and made available for delivery on Gopuff in South Florida the following day. Más+ is affiliated with White Claw Hard Seltzer founder Mark Anthony. Later that year, on September 19, 2024, Messi announced that he would be launching a production company called 525 Rosario, named after his hometown. Headquartered in Miami and Los Angeles, the company was created to produce film, sporting events and branded commercials for athletes worldwide. It would be a joint venture with Smuggler Entertainment, who produced the Apple TV+ docuseries Messi's World Cup: The Rise of a Legend earlier in 2024. Personal life Family and relationships Since 2008, Messi has been in a relationship with Antonela Roccuzzo, who he eventually married on 30 June 2017 in their hometown of Rosario. He has known Roccuzzo since he was five years old, as she is the cousin of his childhood best friend, Lucas Scaglia, who is also a football player. After keeping their relationship private for a year, Messi first confirmed their romance in an interview in January 2009, before going public a month later during a carnival in Sitges after the Barcelona–Espanyol derby. Messi and Roccuzzo have three sons. To celebrate his partner's first pregnancy, Messi placed the ball under his shirt after scoring in Argentina's 4–0 win against Ecuador on 2 June 2012, before confirming the pregnancy in an interview two weeks later. Thiago was born in Barcelona on 2 November 2012. In April 2015, Messi confirmed that they were expecting another child. In October 2017, his wife announced they were expecting their third child. Messi and his family are Catholic. Messi enjoys a close relationship with his immediate family members, particularly his mother, Celia, whose face he has tattooed on his left shoulder. His professional affairs are largely run as a family business: his father, Jorge, has been his agent since he was 14, and his oldest brother, Rodrigo, handles his daily schedule and publicity. His mother and other brother, Matías, manage his charitable organization, the Leo Messi Foundation, and take care of personal and professional matters in Rosario. Since leaving for Spain aged 13, Messi has maintained close ties to his hometown of Rosario, even preserving his distinct Rosarino accent. He has kept ownership of his family's old house, although it has long stood empty; he maintains a penthouse apartment in an exclusive residential building for his mother, as well as a family compound just outside the city. Once when he was in training with the national team in Buenos Aires, he made a three-hour trip by car to Rosario immediately after practice to have dinner with his family, spent the night with them, and returned to Buenos Aires the next day in time for practice. Messi keeps in daily contact via phone and text with a small group of confidants in Rosario, most of whom were fellow members of "The Machine of '87" at Newell's Old Boys. He was on bad terms with the club after his transfer to Barcelona, but by 2012 their public feud had ended, with Newell's embracing their ties with Messi, even issuing a club membership card to his newborn son. Messi has long planned to return to Rosario to end his playing career at Newell's. Messi holds triple citizenship, as he is a citizen of Argentina, Italy, and Spain. Tax fraud Messi's financial affairs came under investigation in 2013 for suspected tax evasion. Offshore companies in tax havens Uruguay and Belize were used to evade €4.1 million in taxes related to sponsorship earnings between 2007 and 2009. An unrelated shell company in Panama set up in 2012 was subsequently identified as belonging to the Messis in the Panama Papers data leak. Messi, who pleaded ignorance of the alleged scheme, voluntarily paid arrears of €5.1 million in August 2013. On 6 July 2016, Messi and his father were both found guilty of tax fraud and were handed suspended 21-month prison sentences and respectively ordered to pay €1.7 million and €1.4 million in fines. Facing the judge, he said, "I just played football. I signed the contracts because I trusted my dad and the lawyers and we had decided that they would take charge of those things." Career statistics Club As of match played 5 October 2024 International As of match played 14 July 2024 Honours Barcelona La Liga: 2004–05, 2005–06, 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2012–13, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2017–18, 2018–19 Copa del Rey: 2008–09, 2011–12, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2020–21 Supercopa de España: 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2016, 2018 UEFA Champions League: 2005–06, 2008–09, 2010–11, 2014–15 UEFA Super Cup: 2009, 2011, 2015 FIFA Club World Cup: 2009, 2011, 2015 Paris Saint-Germain Ligue 1: 2021–22, 2022–23 Trophée des Champions: 2022 Inter Miami Supporters' Shield: 2024 Leagues Cup: 2023 Argentina U20 FIFA World Youth Championship: 2005 Argentina U23 Olympic Games: 2008 Argentina FIFA World Cup: 2022 Copa América: 2021, 2024 Finalissima: 2022 Individual Ballon d'Or: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2021, 2023 FIFA World Player of the Year/FIFA Ballon d'Or/The Best FIFA Men's Player: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019, 2022, 2023 European Golden Shoe: 2009–10, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19 FIFA World Cup Golden Ball: 2014, 2022 FIFA World Cup Silver Boot: 2022 FIFA Club World Cup Golden Ball: 2009, 2011 FIFA U-20 World Cup Golden Ball: 2005 FIFA U-20 World Cup Golden Boot: 2005 UEFA Club Footballer of the Year: 2008–09 UEFA Men's Player of the Year Award: 2010–11, 2014–15 UEFA Champions League top scorer: 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2014–15, 2018–19 Copa América Golden Ball: 2015, 2021 Copa América Golden Boot: 2021 La Liga Best Player: 2008–09, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2012–13, 2014–15, 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19 Pichichi Trophy: 2009−10, 2011–12, 2012−13, 2016–17, 2017−18, 2018–19, 2019–20, 2020–21 Laureus World Sportsman of the Year: 2020, 2023 Ballon d'Or Dream Team: 2020 FIFA FIFPRO World 11: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 Argentine Sportsperson of the Year: 2011, 2021, 2022, 2023 Argentine Footballer of the Year: 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 See also Notes References Bibliography External links Official website Profile at Inter Miami Profile at PSG Profile at FC Barcelona Profile at La Liga Profile at Ligue 1 Profile at MLS Lionel Messi at BDFutbol Lionel Messi at Soccerbase Lionel Messi at Soccerway Lionel Messi at National-Football-Teams.com Lionel Messi – FIFA competition record (archived) Lionel Messi – UEFA competition record (archive)

Bratislava_International_Film_Festival

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bratislava_International_Film_Festival

The Bratislava International Film Festival (also known as Bratislava IFF) is an international film festival established in 1999 and held annually in Bratislava, Slovakia. Apart from the international competition programme, it also regularly features renowned authors' film retrospectives, a European film program, independent film programmes and various theme programmes. Awards Awards are presented in the following categories: Grand Prix for best film in the international competition Best Director Best Actress Best Actor FIPRESCI Award for best film, as determined by a jury of film critics Award winners Grand Prix 2003 IFF Bratislava Grand Prix – Bored in Brno (directed by Vladimír Morávek, Czech Republic) Best Director – Li Yang (Blind Shaft, China) Best Actress – Kateřina Holánová (Bored in Brno, Czech Republic) Best Actor – Maruf Pulodzoda (Angel on the Right, Tajikistan) FIPRESCI Award – The Island (directed by Constanza Quatriglio, Italy) 2004 IFF Bratislava Grand Prix – Or (My Treasure) (directed by Keren Yedaya, Israel) Best Director – Atiq Rahimi (Earth and Ashes, Afghanistan) Best Actress – Lindsay Duncan and Paula Sage (AfterLife, United Kingdom) Best Actor – Pietro Sibille (Days of Santiago, Peru) FIPRESCI Award – Private Madness (directed by Joachim Lafosse, Belgium) 2005 IFF Bratislava Grand Prix – The Cave of the Yellow Dog (directed by Byambasuren Davaa, Mongolia) Best Director – George Clooney (Good Night, and Good Luck., United States) Best Actress – Stephanie James (A Way of Life, United Kingdom) Best Actor – Pavel Liška (Something Like Happiness, Czech Republic) FIPRESCI Award – Everything Is Illuminated (directed by Liev Schreiber, United States) 2006 IFF Bratislava Grand Prix – 4:30 (directed by Royston Tan, Singapore) Best Director – Amat Escalante (Blood, Mexico) Best Actress – Hermila Guedes (Suely in the Sky, Brazil) Best Actor – Antoni Pawlicki (Retrieval, Poland) FIPRESCI Award – Retrieval (directed by Slawomir Fabicki, Poland) 2007 IFF Bratislava Grand Prix – Blind Mountain (directed by Li Yang, China) Best Director – Veiko Õunpuu (The Autumn Ball, Estonia) Best Actress – Julie Kolbeck (The Art of Crying, Denmark) Best Actor – Sam Riley (Control, United Kingdom) FIPRESCI Award – Tricks (directed by Andrzej Jakimowski, Poland) 2008 IFF Bratislava Grand Prix – Mid–August Lunch (directed by Gianni Di Gregorio, Italy) Best Director – Amat Escalante (The Bastards, Mexico, France, United States) Best Actress – Nada Abou Farhat (Under the Bombs, Lebanon, France, United Kingdom, Belgium) Best Actor – Zsolt Anger (The Investigator, Hungary, Sweden, Ireland) FIPRESCI Award – Under the Bombs (directed by Philippe Aractingi, Lebanon, France, United Kingdom, Belgium) 2009 IFF Bratislava Grand Prix – The Day God Walked Away (directed by Philippe Van Leeuw, Belgium, France) Best Director – Kamen Kalev (Eastern Plays, Bulgaria, Sweden) Best Actress – Ruth Nirere (The Day God Walked Away, France, Belgium) Best Actor – Christo Christov (Eastern Plays, Bulgaria, Sweden)– Ex-aequo / Post-mortem Best Actor – Harold Torres (Northless, Mexico, Spain)– Ex-aequo FIPRESCI Award – Northless (directed by Rigoberto Perezcano, Mexico, Spain) Special mention – Northless (directed by Rigoberto Perezcano, Mexico, Spain) Ecumenical Jury Award – Kamen Kalev (Eastern Plays, Bulgaria, Sweden) Ecumenical Jury Award special mention – Optical Illusions (directed by Cristian Jiménez, Chile, France) Student Jury Award – Whisper With the Wind (directed by Shahram Alidi, Iraq) Best Documentary Film – Petition (directed by Zhao Liang, France, China) Best Short Film – Rita (directed by Zhao Liang, Italy) Shorts Jury special mention – A Man Overboard (directed by Fabien Gorgeart, France) Shorts Jury special mention – Party (directed by Dalibor Matanić, Croatia) The IFF Bratislava Award for Artistic Excellence in World Cinematography – Juraj Herz (director) 2010 IFF Bratislava Grand Prix – The Four Times (directed by Michelangelo Frammartino, Italy, Germany, Switzerland) Best Director Dragomir Sholev (Shelter, Bulgaria) Constantine Popescu (Portrait of the Fighter As A Young Man) Best Actress – Charlotte Gainsbourg (The Tree, France, Australia) Best Actor – Robert Naylor (10½, Canada) 2011 IFF Bratislava Grand Prix – Las Acacias (directed by Pablo Giorgelli, Argentina, Spain) Best Director – Vincent Garenq (Guilty, France) Best Actress – Iben Hjejle (Stockholm East, Sweden) Best Actor – Ivan Trojan (Visible World, Czech Republic) References == External links ==

Boredom_in_Brno

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boredom_in_Brno

Boredom in Brno (Czech: Nuda v Brně) is a Czech comedy film directed by Vladimír Morávek, based on the story "Standa's Debut" by Pavel Bedura. It was released in 2003, and won five Czech Lion awards, including Best Film, Best Director (Morávek), Best Script (Morávek and Jan Budař), Best Male Actor in a Leading Role (Budař) and Best Editing (Jiří Brožek). Cast Kateřina Holánová as Olga Simáková Jan Budař as Stanislav Pichlík Miroslav Donutil as Miroslav Norbacher Martin Pechlát as Jaroslav Pichlík Jaroslava Pokorná as Miriam Simáková Pavla Tomicová as PhDr. Vlasta Kulková - Jará Ivana Hloužková as Marie Norbacherová Marek Daniel as Richard Klech Ivana Uhlířová as Jaroslava Pleváková Pavel Liška as Jan Bedura Filip Rajmont as Pavel Velicka Simona Peková as Jitka Spácilová Zuzana Valchárová-Poulová as Zorka V. Nadezda Chroboková as Simona P. Martina Nováková-Hamadáková as Martina N. Plot The film follows several couples over one night in Brno. The focus is on a 20-something couple with unspecified learning difficulties, Olinka (Kateřina Holánová) and Standa (Jan Budař), who are preparing to have sex for the first time. Standa has been receiving advice from his brother Jarda (Martin Pechlát), while Olinka has been given tips and guidance by her friends, the women who live in her apartment block. Standa and Jarda travel to Brno from Brundal for the occasion. Meanwhile, in a nearby pub, depressed actor Mirek (Miroslav Donutil) is with psychologist Vlasta (Pavla Tomicová), complaining about his life, and the two presently return to Vlasta's flat together where they have sex, and Vlasta counsels Mirek about the state of his marriage. In the same pub are Jaroslava (Ivana Uhlířová), a young woman who habitually attracts unpleasant men, and her current partner Richard (Marek Daniel), a pretentious and self-absorbed man who is tempted by sexual experimentation and submission. This couple return to Richard's flat in the same apartment block where Richard persuades an unwilling Jaroslava to spank him, alongside other requests. Also in the pub are life-long friends Honza (Pavel Liška) and Pavel (Filip Rajmont). While Honza rambles drunkenly about his desire for various women, Pavel has an undeclared love for Honza. At the house, Olinka is horrified to see her controlling mother return unexpectedly to the flat. Panicking, she administers rohypnol into her mother's coffee, and locks her unconscious in a storage cupboard. Standa arrives and they visit Olinka's friends so Standa can be vetted for their approval. Back down in Olinka's flat, Standa and Olinka share an awkward meal, and then proceed to the bedroom and are extremely nervous, but eventually Olinka manages to initiate sex. Despite Jarda's training, Standa is unable to put on the condom, so they do not use one. Meanwhile Jarda arrives at Olinka's friends' party upstairs to drink with them. Meanwhile, Mirek leaves Vlasta's house to go home, but on the way has a drunken argument with his wife on the phone, and ends up walking home to Líšeň in a drunken depression. Honza and Pavel also head home to Pavel's house, and Pavel is perturbed when Honza kisses his cheek while he sleeps. After having sex, Olinka excitedly tells her friends what happened, but at the same time her mother wakes up and sees Standa dancing in his underwear through the keyhole. When Olinka returns to the flat, the two women argue, and Standa flees the flat in panic. Pavel and Honza leave Pavel's place very early to deliver rohlík to Líšeň, but on the way Pavel takes his eyes off the road and hits Mirek, killing him. Comforting Pavel, Honza confides that his love is returned. Meanwhile, Olinka releases her mother from the pantry, but then locks her in again when Standa returns to her. A voice over confirms that Olinka is pregnant. External links Nuda v Brně at IMDb

Ji%C5%99%C3%AD_Bro%C5%BEek

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ji%C5%99%C3%AD_Bro%C5%BEek

Jiří Brožek (born March 11, 1947) is a Czech film editor. Biography During 1967‒1973 he attended Editing and Directing at FAMU. Then he started to work in Barrandov Movie Studios, from 1976 Brožek is self-employed. During the career he edited more than 100 feature films, variety of the TV production and many TV series. He cooperated with Ladislav Smoljak (Ball Lightning, Waiter, Scarper!, Jára Cimrman Lying, Sleeping) Karel Kachyňa (Love Between the Raindrops, Forbidden Dreams), Jiří Menzel (Cutting It Short, The Snowdrop Festival, My Sweet Little Village), Věra Chytilová (Calamity, Wolf's Hole) or Václav Havel (Leaving). Jiří Brožek was awarded nine Czech Lions for films Krvavý román (1993), Sekal Has to Die (1998), Anděl Exit (2000), Boredom in Brno (2003), The City of the Sun (2005), Pleasant Moments (2006), ...a bude hůř (2007), Leaving (2011) and Filthy (2017), twice he gained Slovak film award Slnko v sieti for The City of the Sun (2006) and Gypsy (2012). He is a member of Czech Film and Television Academy (ČFTA) and honourable member of Slovak Film and Television Academy (SFTA). He is married and has three children. Filmography Editor Actor Cooperation References External links Jiří Brožek at IMDb Jiří Brožek on FDb.cz (czech) Jiří Brožek on ČSFD.cz (czech) Jiří Brožek on Kinobox.cz (czech)

Roudnice_nad_Labem

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roudnice_nad_Labem

Roudnice nad Labem (Czech pronunciation: [ˈroudɲɪtsɛ ˈnad labɛm]; German: Raudnitz an der Elbe) is a town in Litoměřice District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 13,000 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone. A steel road bridge dating from the early 20th century spans the Elbe in Roudnice nad Labem. Its medieval predecessor was the third oldest stone bridge in Bohemia (after Prague and Písek) and the first bridge to connect both banks of the river. Roudnice nad Labem features a castle of late Romanesque origin, now reconstructed in Baroque style. Administrative parts The village of Podlusky is an administrative part of Roudnice nad Labem. Etymology The initial names Rúdnik and Rúdnica probably come from the iron water of a nearby spring (ruda = 'ore'). Geography Roudnice nad Labem is located about 15 kilometres (9 mi) southeast of Litoměřice and 37 km (23 mi) north of Prague. It lies in the Lower Ohře Table, in the Polabí lowlands. The highest point is on the hill Hostěraz at 265 m (869 ft) above sea level. The town is situated on the left bank of the Elbe River, which forms the northern municipal border. History Roudnice nad Labem is one of the oldest Czech towns. The first written mentions of Roudnice are from 1167 and 1176, but archeological excavations in the area confirm existence of a prehistoric settlement. The market settlement quickly became economically important due to its location on the Lusatian road, and in the 13th century, it received town status. In the 12th century, a Romanesque castle was built, used as the summer residence of archbishops and bishops. In 1333, Bishop Jan IV of Dražice ordered that a bridge be built over the Elbe. It was the first stone bridge over the Elbe and the third stone bridge in Bohemia. At the end of the 14th century, the New Town of Roudnice nad Labem (encompassing today's Jan of Dražice Square and Hus Square) was built and, along with the Old Town of Roudnice nad Labem, surrounded by walls. In 1421, during the Hussite Wars, Roudnice nad Labem was conquered by Jan Žižka. During the Hussite invasions, the local monastery was destroyed and would never be rebuilt. After the Hussite Wars, the town was sold several times, which did not benefit its development. In 1603, it was acquired by the Lobkowicz family and it remained under their control until 1945. During their rule, the town was rebuilt and expanded. During the Thirty Years' War, Roudnice nad Labem was burned down and demolished by the Swedish army. In the 19th century, Roudnice nad Labem became the industrial and economical centre of the Podřipský region, due to several new factories and the railway from Prague to Dresden. Until 1918, the town was part of Austria-Hungary, in the district of the same name, one of the 94 Bezirkshauptmannschaften in Bohemia. The first football match in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and in the Czech lands took place on the islet in the middle of the Elbe, located within the town limits, in 1887 (in 1892, according to some sources). In 1910, the old stone bridge was rebuilt into a new steel road bridge. Demographics Transport The D8 motorway from Prague to Ústí nad Labem runs along the western municipal border. Roudnice nad Labem is located on the intraregional railway line Prague–Děčín. It is also the starting point of a local line to Bříza with four stops within the town. Education There are four high schools in Roudnice nad Labem: Gymnasium Roudnice nad Labem, Vocational School and Training Centre, Podřipská Private Vocational School and Training Centre, and Higher Vocational School and Secondary Vocational School, which also offers higher education. There are also five primary schools, including one special school, and a primary art school. Sport The town has a swimming pool, an ice hockey arena, and football and athletic stadiums. Roudnice airport is located near the southwestern edge of the town and hosts the Memorial Air Show every other year. Sights The historic centre is made up of the castle complex and of Charles Square (Karlovo náměstí), Hus Square (Husovo náměstí), Purkyně Square (Purkyňovo náměstí) and Jan of Dražice Square (náměstí Jana z Dražic). The town hall is located on Charles Square. It is a pseudo-Renaissance building from 1869. The Gothic stone watchtower is the only preserved remnant of the Old Town's fortifications. It is open to the public as a lookout tower. The church complex is formed of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary and the Augustinian monastery. The monastery was built in 1333–1353. The church is a typical Czech Gothic building from the first half of the 14th century. The iron spring after which the town got its name is located there. Roudnice Castle Roudnice Castle was built in the 12th century by Prague bishops to protect an important trade route from Prague to Upper Lusatia along the Elbe. In the 14th and 15th centuries, it was rebuilt in the Gothic style and became a popular summer residence for Prague bishops. There is a common misconception that Jan Hus was ordained as a priest there. In 1421, the Catholic Church sold the castle to noble Jan Smiřický who renovated it again. King George of Poděbrady captured Roudnice from Smiřický in 1467. It passed into the ownership of William of Rosenberg, the Supreme Burgrave and one of the wealthiest men in Bohemia. After Rosenberg's death, his widow Polyxena Pernštejn married Zdeněk Vojtěch of Lobkowicz, Chancellor of the Czech Kingdom, and, later, 1st Prince Lobkowicz, bringing Roudnice into the Lobkowicz family possessions. In 1652, their son, Václav Eusebius, embarked upon an ambitious project to transform the castle into an early Baroque palace. From 1657 until World War II, the Lobkowicz Collection's library was stored in Roudnice Castle, leading to the library being named the Roudnice Lobkowicz Library. Václav Eusebius of Lobkowicz hired two Italian architects, Francesco Caratti and Antonio della Porta, to completely renovate Roudnice Castle. Between 1652 and 1684, they demolished most of the original structure, creating a 200-room baroque residence that included a clock tower, a chapel decorated with elaborate frescoes, a theatre, and large formal gardens. For two and a half centuries Roudnice served as a repository for the Lobkowicz family's collections of artwork, religious objects, musical instruments, and books and manuscripts. The castle was confiscated by the Communist government in 1948; the Czechoslovak People's Army used the building for the Vít Nejedlý military music school, as well as for administrative offices. After 1989, the castle was restored to the Lobkowicz family, who continued to rent the castle to the school until it closed in 2008. In 2009 the castle underwent major renovations, and it was opened to the public. The Castle Riding Hall was built in the 17th century by Antonio della Porta. Today it houses the Gallery of Modern Art. Notable people Twin towns – sister cities Roudnice nad Labem is twinned with: Dessau-Roßlau, Germany Ruelle-sur-Touvre, France Gallery References External links Official website Roudnice nad Labem – regional tourist portal Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Raudnitz" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 921.

James_Cameron

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cameron

James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker. He is a major figure in the post-New Hollywood era and often uses novel technologies with a classical filmmaking style. He first gained recognition for writing and directing The Terminator (1984), and found further success with Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), and True Lies (1994), as well as Avatar (2009) and its sequels. He directed, wrote, co-produced, and co-edited Titanic (1997), winning Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Film Editing. He is a recipient of various other industry accolades, and three of his films have been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Cameron co-founded the production companies Lightstorm Entertainment, Digital Domain, and Earthship Productions. In addition to filmmaking, he is a National Geographic explorer-in-residence and has produced many documentaries on deep-ocean exploration, including Ghosts of the Abyss (2003) and Aliens of the Deep (2005). Cameron has also contributed to underwater filming and remote vehicle technologies and helped create the digital 3D Fusion Camera System. In 2012, Cameron became the first person to do a solo descent to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the Earth's ocean, in the Deepsea Challenger submersible. Cameron's films have grossed over $8 billion worldwide, making him the second-highest-grossing film director of all time. Three of Cameron's films are amongst the top four highest-grossing films of all time; Avatar (2009), Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) and Titanic (1997) are the highest, third-highest and fourth-highest-grossing films of all time, respectively. Cameron directed the first film to gross over $1 billion, the first two films to gross over $2 billion, and is the only director to have had three films gross over $2 billion. In 2010, Time named Cameron one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Cameron is also an environmentalist and runs several sustainability businesses. Early life James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954, in Kapuskasing, Ontario, to Philip Cameron, an electrical engineer, and Shirley (née Lowe), an artist and nurse. He is the first of five children, with two brothers and two sisters. His paternal great-great-great-grandfather emigrated from Balquhidder, Scotland, in 1825. Cameron spent summers on his grandfather's farm in southern Ontario. He attended Stamford Collegiate in Niagara Falls. At age 17, Cameron and his family moved from Chippawa to Brea, California. He attended Sonora High School and then moved to Brea Olinda High School. Classmates recalled that he was not a sportsman but instead enjoyed building things that "either went up into the air or into the deep". After high school, Cameron enrolled at Fullerton College, a community college in 1973 to study physics. He switched subjects to English, but left the college at the end of 1974. Cameron worked odd jobs, including as a truck driver and a high school janitor. He drank beer, frequently consumed cannabis and LSD, and wrote in his free time. During this period, he learned about special effects by reading other students' work on "optical printing, or front screen projection, or dye transfers, anything that related to film technology" at the USC library. After the excitement of seeing Star Wars in 1977, Cameron quit his job as a truck driver to enter the film industry. Film career Early work and 1980s Cameron's directing career began in 1978. After borrowing money from a consortium of dentists, he learned to direct, write and produce his first short film, Xenogenesis (1978) with a friend. Learning as they went, Cameron said he felt like a doctor doing his first surgical procedure. He then served as a production assistant for Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979). While educating himself about filmmaking techniques, Cameron started a job as a miniature model maker at Roger Corman Studios. He was soon employed as an art director for the science-fiction film Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). He carried out the special effects for John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981), served as production designer for Galaxy of Terror (1981), and consulted on the design for Android (1982). Cameron was hired as the special effects director for the sequel to Piranha (1978), titled Piranha II: The Spawning in 1982. The original director, Miller Drake, left the project due to creative differences with producer Ovidio Assonitis. Shot in Rome, Italy, and on Grand Cayman Island, the film gave Cameron the opportunity to become director for a major film for the first time. Cameron later said that it did not feel like his first film due to power-struggles with Assonitis. Upon release of Piranha II: The Spawning, critics were not impressed; author Tim Healey called it "a marvellously bad movie which splices clichés from every conceivable source". In 1982, inspired by John Carpenter's horror film Halloween (1978), as well as a nightmare about an invincible robot hit-man sent from the future to assassinate him, Cameron wrote the script for The Terminator (1984), a sci-fi action film about a cyborg sent from the future to carry out a lethal mission. Cameron wanted to sell the script so that he could direct the movie. Whilst some film studios expressed interest in the project, many executives were unwilling to let a new and unfamiliar director make the movie. Gale Anne Hurd, a colleague and founder of Pacific Western Productions, agreed to buy Cameron's script for one dollar, on the condition that Cameron direct the film. He convinced the president of Hemdale Pictures to make the film, with Cameron as director and Hurd as a producer. Lance Henriksen, who starred in Piranha II: The Spawning, was considered for the lead role, but Cameron decided that Arnold Schwarzenegger was more suitable as the cyborg villain due to his bodybuilder appearance. Henriksen was given a smaller role instead. Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton also joined the cast. The Terminator was a box office success, exceeding expectations set by Orion Pictures. The film proved popular with audiences and earned over $78 million worldwide. George Perry of the BBC praised Cameron's direction, writing "Cameron laces the action with ironic jokes, but never lets up on hinting that the terror may strike at any moment". In 2008, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 1984, Cameron was hired to write a sequel to First Blood; it was rewritten by Sylvester Stallone and released as Rambo: First Blood Part II. Cameron was then hired to write and direct a sequel to Alien (1979), a science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott. Like the original, the sequel Aliens (1986) featured Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley. Aliens follows Ripley as she helps a group of marines fight off extraterrestrials. Despite conflicts with cast and crew during production, and having to replace one of the lead actors — James Remar with Michael Biehn — Aliens was a box office success, generating over $130 million worldwide. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1987; Best Actress, Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Sound. It won awards for Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects. In addition, Weaver and the film made the cover of Time in July 1986. After Aliens, Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd decided to make The Abyss, a story about oil-rig workers who discover strange intelligent life in the ocean. Based on an idea which Cameron had conceived of during high school, the film was initially budgeted at $41 million, although it ran considerably over this amount. It starred Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Michael Biehn. The production process began in the Cayman Islands and in South Carolina, in two huge water tanks "reclaimed from" an unfinished nuclear power plant. The cast and crew recall Cameron's dictatorial behavior, and the filming of water scenes which were mentally and physically exhausting. Upon the film's release, The Abyss was praised for its special effects, and earned $90 million at the worldwide box office. The Abyss received four Academy Award nominations, and won Best Visual Effects. 1990s In 1990, Cameron co-founded the firm Lightstorm Entertainment with partner Lawrence Kasanoff. In 1991, Cameron served as executive producer for Point Break (1991), directed by Kathryn Bigelow. After the success of The Terminator, there were discussions for a sequel, and by the late 1980s, Mario Kassar of Carolco Pictures secured the rights to the sequel, allowing Cameron to begin production of the film, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Written by Cameron and William Wisher Jr., Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton reprise their roles. The story follows on from Terminator, depicting a new villain (T-1000), with shape-shifting abilities who hunts for Sarah Connor's son, John (Edward Furlong). Cameron cast Robert Patrick as T-1000 because of his lean and thin appearance — a sharp contrast to Schwarzenegger. Cameron explained: "I wanted someone who was extremely fast and agile. If the T-800 is a human Panzer tank, then the T-1000 is a Porsche". Terminator 2 was one of the most expensive films to be produced, costing at least $94 million ($210 million in 2023). Despite the challenging use of computer-generated imagery (CGI), the film was completed on time and released on July 3, 1991. Terminator 2 broke box office records (including the opening weekend record for an R-rated film), earning over $200 million in North America and being the first to earn over $300 million worldwide (respectively over $447 million and $671 million in 2023). It won four Academy Awards: Best Makeup, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects. It also received nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Film Editing, but lost both to political thriller JFK (1991). In subsequent years, Cameron planned to do a third Terminator film, but plans never materialized. The rights to the Terminator franchise were eventually purchased by Kassar from a bankruptcy sale of Carolco's assets. Cameron moved on to other projects and, in 1993, co-founded Digital Domain, a visual effects production company. In 1994, Cameron and Schwarzenegger reunited for their third collaboration, True Lies, a remake of the 1991 French comedy La Totale! The story depicts an American secret agent who leads a double life as a married man, whose wife believes he is a computer salesman. The film co-stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Eliza Dushku and Tom Arnold. Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment signed a deal with 20th Century Fox for the production of True Lies. Budgeted at a minimum of $100 million, the film earned $146 million in the United States and Canada. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and Curtis won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. It was during the production of True Lies that he would first meet Jon Landau, who at the time oversaw the film's production for Fox. In July 2024, Cameron stated that he "lured" Landau away from Fox to Lightstorm. In 1995, Cameron co-produced Strange Days, a science fiction thriller. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow and co-written by Jay Cocks, Strange Days was critically and financially unsuccessful. In 1996, Cameron reunited with the cast of Terminator 2 to film T2 3-D: Battle Across Time, an attraction at Universal Studios Florida, and in other parks around the world. His next major project was Titanic (1997), an epic about RMS Titanic, which sank in 1912 after striking an iceberg. With a production budget of $200 million, at the time it was the most expensive film ever made. Starting in 1995, Cameron took several dives to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to capture footage of the wreck, which would later be used in the film. A replica of the ship was built in Rosarito Beach and principal photography began in September 1996. Titanic made headlines before its release, for being over-budget and exceeding its schedule. Cameron's completed screenplay depicts two star-crossed lovers, portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, from different social classes who fall in love amid the backdrop of the tragedy; a radical departure from his previous work. The supporting cast includes Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Victor Garber, Danny Nucci, David Warner and Bill Paxton. The film was also Cameron's first large scale production with Landau as a co-producer. After months of delay, Titanic premiered on December 19, 1997. The film received strong critical acclaim and became the highest-grossing film of all time, holding this position for twelve years, until Cameron's Avatar beat the record in 2010. The costumes and sets were praised, and The Washington Post considered the CGI graphics to be spectacular. Titanic received a record-tying fourteen nominations (tied with All About Eve (1950) at the 1998 Academy Awards. It won eleven of the awards, tying the record for most wins with 1959's Ben-Hur, and 2003's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, including: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Original Score and Best Original Song. Upon receiving Best Picture, Cameron and producer Jon Landau asked for a moment of silence to remember the 1,500 people who died when the ship sank. Film critic Roger Ebert praised Cameron's storytelling, writing: "It is flawlessly crafted, intelligently constructed, strongly acted, and spellbinding". Authors Kevin Sandler and Gaylyn Studlar wrote in 1999 that the romance, historical nostalgia and James Horner's music contributed to the film's cultural phenomenon. In 2017, on its 20th anniversary, Titanic became Cameron's second film to be selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. After the huge success of Titanic, Cameron kept a low profile. In 1998, he and his brother, John, formed Earthship Productions, to stream documentaries about the deep sea, one of Cameron's interests. Again during 1998, Cameron considered doing a large-scale technological/religious film by an unknown writer, but after three tries was forced to personally pass on the project "due to his secular nature." Cameron had also planned to make a film about Spider-Man, a project developed by Menahem Golan of Cannon Films. Columbia hired David Koepp to adapt Cameron's ideas into a screenplay, but due to various disagreements, Cameron abandoned the project. In 2002, Spider-Man was released with the screenplay credited solely to Koepp. 2000s In 2000, Cameron made his debut in television and co-created Dark Angel with Charles H. Eglee, a television series influenced by cyberpunk, biopunk, contemporary superheroes and third-wave feminism. Dark Angel starred Jessica Alba as Max Guevara, a genetically enhanced super-soldier created by a secretive organization. While the first season was moderately successful, the second season did less well, which led to its cancellation. In 2002, Cameron served as producer on the 2002 film Solaris, a science fiction drama directed by Steven Soderbergh. The film gained mixed reviews and failed at the box office. Keen to make documentaries, Cameron directed Expedition: Bismarck, about the German Battleship Bismarck. In 2003, he directed Ghosts of the Abyss, a documentary about RMS Titanic which was released by Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, and designed for 3D theaters. Cameron told The Guardian his intention for filming everything in 3D. In 2005, Cameron co-directed Aliens of the Deep, a documentary about the various forms of life in the ocean. He also starred in Titanic Adventure with Tony Robinson, another documentary about the Titanic shipwreck. In 2006, Cameron co-created and narrated The Exodus Decoded, a documentary exploring the Biblical account of the Exodus. In 2007, Cameron and fellow director Simcha Jacobovici, produced The Lost Tomb of Jesus. It was broadcast on Discovery Channel on March 4, 2007; the documentary was controversial for arguing that the Talpiot Tomb was the burial place of Jesus of Nazareth. By the mid-2000s, Cameron returned to directing and producing another mainstream film since Titanic. Cameron had displayed interest in making Avatar (2009) and Alita: Battle Angel (2019) as early as June 2005, with both films to be shot using 3D technology. He wanted to make Alita: Battle Angel first, followed by Avatar, but switched the order in February 2006. Although Cameron had written an 80-page treatment for Avatar in 1995, Cameron stated that he wanted the necessary technology to improve before starting production. Avatar, with the story line set in the mid-22nd century, had an estimated budget in excess of $300 million. The cast includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver. It was composed with a mix of live-action footage and computer-generated animation, using an advanced version of the performance capture technique, previously used by director Robert Zemeckis in The Polar Express. Cameron intended Avatar to be 3D-only but decided to adapt it for conventional viewing as well. Intended for release in May 2009, Avatar premiered on December 18, 2009. This delay allowed more time for post-production and the opportunity for theaters to install 3D projectors. Avatar broke several box office records during its initial theatrical run. It grossed $749.7 million in the United States and Canada and more than $2.74 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time in the United States and Canada, surpassing Titanic. It was the first film to earn more than $2 billion worldwide. Avatar was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won three: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects. In July 2010, an extended theatrical re-release generated an additional $33.2 million worldwide (equivalent to $45,300,000 in 2023) at the box office. In his mixed review, Sukhdev Sandhu of The Telegraph complimented the 3D, but opined that Cameron "should have been more brutal in his editing". That year, Vanity Fair reported that Cameron's earnings were US$257 million, making him the highest earner in Hollywood. As of 2022, Avatar and Titanic hold the achievement for being the first two of the six films in history to gross over $2 billion worldwide. As with Titanic, Landau would greatly assist Cameron as the co-producer of the Avatar films as well. 2010s and 2020s In 2011, Cameron served as an executive producer for Sanctum, a disaster-survival film about a cave diving expedition which turns deadly. Although receiving mixed reviews, the film earned a fair $108 million at the worldwide box office. Cameron re-investigated the sinking of RMS Titanic with eight experts in a 2012 TV documentary special, Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron, which premiered on April 8 on the National Geographic channel. In the feature, the experts revised the CGI animation of the sinking conceived in 1995. In March 2010, Cameron announced that Titanic will be converted and re-released in 3D to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the tragedy. On March 27, 2012, Titanic 3D premiered at London's Royal Albert Hall. He also served as executive producer of Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away and Deepsea Challenge 3D in 2012 and 2014, respectively. Cameron starred in the 2017 documentary Atlantis Rising, with collaborator Simcha Jacobovici. The pair go on an adventure to explore the existence of the city of Atlantis. The programme aired on January 29 on National Geographic. Next, Cameron produced and appeared in a documentary about the history of science fiction. James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction, the six-episodic series was broadcast on AMC in 2018. The series featured interviews with guests including Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Christopher Nolan. He stated "Without Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, there wouldn't have been Ray Bradbury or Robert A. Heinlein, and without them, there wouldn't be [George] Lucas, [Steven] Spielberg, Ridley Scott or me". Alita: Battle Angel was finally released in 2019, after being in parallel development with Avatar. Written by Cameron and friend Jon Landau, the film was directed by Robert Rodriguez and produced by Cameron. The film is based on a 1990s Japanese manga series Battle Angel Alita, depicting a cyborg who cannot remember anything of her past life and tries to uncover the truth. Produced with similar techniques and technology as in Avatar, the film starred Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley and Keean Johnson. The film premiered on January 31, 2019, to generally positive reviews and $404 million (equivalent to $474,900,000 in 2023) at the worldwide box office. In her review, Monica Castillo of RogerEbert.com called it "an awe-inspiring jump for [Rodriguez]" and "a visual bonanza", despite the bulky script. Cameron then returned to the Terminator franchise as producer and writer for Tim Miller's Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). In August 2013, Cameron announced plans to direct three sequels to Avatar simultaneously, for release in December 2016, 2017, and 2018. However, the release dates were adjusted due to Cameron's other priorities, with Avatar 3, 4 and 5 to be released, respectively, on December 20, 2024, December 18, 2026, and December 22, 2028. Deadline Hollywood estimated that the budget for these would be over $1 billion. Avatar 2 (later given the subtitle The Way of Water) and Avatar 3 (later given the subtitle Fire and Ash) began simultaneous production in Manhattan Beach, California on August 15, 2017. Principal photography began in New Zealand on September 25, 2017. Parts of Avatar 4 were also filmed during this time. Cameron stated in a 2017 interview: "Let's face it, if Avatar 2 and 3 don't make enough money, there's not going to be a 4 and 5". Avatar: The Way of Water had its world premiere in London on December 6, 2022. It became the highest-grossing film released in 2022, and as of 2023 stood as the 3rd highest-grossing film of all time, behind only Avatar and Avengers: Endgame, and just ahead of Titanic. Lightstorm Entertainment bought the film rights to the Taylor Stevens novel The Informationist, a thriller set in Africa with Cameron planning to direct. In 2010, he indicated he would adapt the Charles R. Pellegrino book The Last Train from Hiroshima, which is about the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Cameron met with survivor Tsutomu Yamaguchi before his death in 2010. In 2024, Deadline Hollywood confirmed that Cameron had purchased the rights of not only The Last Train from Hiroshima, but also of Pellegrino's forthcoming Ghosts of Hiroshima, to make a "uncompromising theatrical epic motion picture" titled Last Train From Hiroshima about a Japanese man who survives Hiroshima's bombing at the height of World War II only to then take a train to Nagasaki's bombing, which he will shoot as soon as the Avatar sequels' production permits. Feeling that he and Pellegrino owe Yamaguchi for handing the baton of his personal story to them so they could pass his unique and harrowing experience to future generations, Cameron was assisted by the Avatar sequels co-writer Shane Salerno and Pellegrino, who previously served as Cameron's science consultant on Titanic and Avatar. In June 2010, Cameron met with officials of the Environmental Protection Agency to discuss possible solutions to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It was reported that he offered his assistance to help stop the oil well from leaking. He is a member of the NASA Advisory Council and he worked with the space agency to build cameras for the Curiosity rover sent for Mars. NASA launched the rover without Cameron's technology due to a lack of time during testing. He has expressed interest in a project about Mars, stating: "I've been very interested in the Humans to Mars movement ... and I've done a tremendous amount of personal research for a novel, a miniseries, and a 3D film." Cameron is a member of the Mars Society, a non-profit organization lobbying for the colonization of Mars. Cameron endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for the 2016 United States presidential election. Deep-sea exploration Cameron has experience with deep-sea exploration, in part because of his work on The Abyss, Titanic, and Avatar: The Way of Water and his childhood fascination with shipwrecks. He has contributed to advancements in underwater filming and remotely operated vehicles, and helped develop the 3D Fusion Camera System. In 2011, Cameron became a National Geographic explorer-in-residence. In this role, on March 7, 2012, he dived five miles deep to the bottom of the New Britain Trench with the Deepsea Challenger. 19 days later, Cameron reached the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. He spent more than three hours exploring the ocean floor, becoming the first to accomplish the trip alone. During his dive to the Challenger Deep, he discovered new species of sea cucumber, squid worm and a giant single-celled amoeba. He was preceded by unmanned dives in 1995 and 2009, as well as by Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, the first men to reach the bottom of the Mariana Trench aboard the bathyscaphe Trieste in 1960. In the aftermath of the Titan submersible implosion, Cameron made appearances in multiple news outlets where he criticized OceanGate and its co-founder Stockton Rush for failing to certify the company's submersibles for safety. He was also critical of the use of carbon-fiber composite in the company's Titan submersible, stating that the material has "no strength in external compression" when withstanding the pressure in deep-sea environments. On July 15, Cameron stated that he had no plans for an OceanGate documentary. Personal life Cameron has been married five times. He was married to Sharon Williams from 1978 to 1984. A year after he and Williams divorced, Cameron married film producer Gale Anne Hurd, a close collaborator for his 1980s films. They divorced in 1989. Soon after separating from Hurd, Cameron met the director Kathryn Bigelow, whom he wed in 1989; they divorced in 1991. Cameron then began a relationship with Linda Hamilton, the lead actress in The Terminator series. Their daughter was born in 1993. Cameron married Hamilton in 1997. Amid speculation of an affair between Cameron and actress Suzy Amis, Cameron and Hamilton separated after two years of marriage, with Hamilton receiving a settlement of $50 million. He married Amis, his fifth wife, in 2000. They have one son and two daughters together. Cameron applied for American citizenship in 2004, but withdrew his application after George W. Bush won the presidential election. Cameron resided in the United States, but after filming Avatar in New Zealand, Cameron bought a home and a farm there in 2012. He divided his time between Malibu, California and New Zealand until 2020, after which he sold his Malibu home and decided to live in New Zealand permanently. He said in August 2020: "I plan to make all my future films in New Zealand, and I see the country having an opportunity to demonstrate to the international film industry how to safely return to work. Doing so with Avatar [sequels] will be a beacon that, when this is over [COVID-19 pandemic], will attract more production to New Zealand and continue to stimulate the screen industry and the economy for years." Cameron is an atheist; he formerly associated himself with agnosticism, a stance he said he had come to see as "cowardly atheism." Since 2011, he is vegan. Cameron met close friend Guillermo del Toro on the production of his 1993 film, Cronos. In 1998, del Toro's father Federico was kidnapped in Guadalajara and Cameron gave del Toro more than $1 million (equivalent to $1,744,000 in 2023) in cash to pay a ransom and have his father released. Cameron had been friends with Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet for over 25 years before the latter's death. Cameron had a strong interest in visiting the space stations Mir and International Space Station (ISS). He spent the summer of 2000 in Moscow getting ready for a potential trip to space, and was offered an opportunity to go by NASA. However, the trip did not include a visit to the space station, so he declined the offer as it did not align with his terms. The shuttle flight he turned down was the tragic 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Cameron attended the memorial service for the victims of the disaster. In June 2013, British artist Roger Dean filed a copyright complaint against Cameron, seeking damages of $50 million (equivalent to $64,500,000 in 2023). Relating to Avatar, Cameron was accused of "wilful and deliberate copying, dissemination and exploitation" of Dean's original images; the case was dismissed by US district judge Jesse Furman in 2014. In 2016, Premier Exhibitions, owner of many RMS Titanic artifacts, filed for bankruptcy. Cameron supported the UK's National Maritime Museum and National Museums Northern Ireland decision to bid for the artifacts, but they were acquired by an investment group before a formal bid took place. Filmmaking style Themes Cameron's films are often based on themes which explore the conflicts between intelligent machines and humanity or nature, dangers of corporate greed, strong female characters, and a romance subplot. Cameron has further stated in an interview with The Talks, "All my movies are love stories". Both Titanic and Avatar are noted for featuring star-crossed lovers. Characters suffering from emotionally intense and dramatic environments in the sea wilderness are explored in The Abyss and Titanic. The Terminator series amplifies technology as an enemy which could lead to devastation of mankind. Similarly, Avatar views tribal people as an honest group, whereas a "technologically advanced imperial culture is fundamentally evil". A danger for nuclear war, as featured in The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgement Day and in his forthcoming Last Train From Hiroshima film, has been one of Cameron's fears since he watched the Cuban Missile Crisis unfold when he was eight years old. Method Cameron is regarded as an innovative filmmaker in the industry, with a classical filmmaking style, as well as not easy to work for. Radio Times critic John Ferguson described Cameron as "the king of hi-tech thrillers". Dalin Rowell of /Film stated: "Known for his larger-than-life creations and unique filmmaking style, director James Cameron is in a league all of his own. With his genre-spanning work, lofty ambitions, and unrestrained energy, Cameron has carved out a name for himself in Hollywood as an artist willing to do anything to see his vision come true." Rebecca Keegan, author of The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron, describes Cameron as "comically hands-on", and would try to do every job on the set. Andrew Gumbel of The Independent says Cameron "is a nightmare to work with. Studios fear his habit of straying way over schedule and over budget. He is notorious on set for his uncompromising and dictatorial manner, as well as his flaming temper". Author Alexandra Keller writes that Cameron is an egomaniac, obsessed with vision, but praises his "technological ingenuity" at creating a "visceral viewing experience". According to Ed Harris, who starred in Cameron's film The Abyss, Cameron behaved in an autocratic manner. Orson Scott Card, who novelized The Abyss, stated that Cameron "made everyone around him miserable, and his unkindness did nothing to improve the film in any way. Nor did it motivate people to work faster or better". Harris later said: "I like Jim. He's an incredibly talented, intelligent guy", adding that "it was always good to see him" in later years. Speaking of her experience on Titanic, Kate Winslet said that she admired Cameron, but "there were times I was genuinely frightened of him". Describing him as having "a temper like you wouldn't believe", she had said she would not work with him again unless it was "for a lot of money". Despite this, Winslet and Cameron still looked for future projects, and Winslet was eventually cast in Avatar 2. Her co-star Leonardo DiCaprio told Esquire: "When somebody felt a different way on the set, there was a confrontation. He lets you know exactly how he feels", but complimented Cameron, "he's of the lineage of John Ford. He knows what he wants his film to be." Sam Worthington, who starred in Avatar, said that if a mobile phone rang during filming, Cameron would "nail it to the wall with a nail gun". Composer James Horner was also not immune to Cameron's demands; he recalls having to write music in a short time frame for Aliens. After the experience, Horner did not work with Cameron for a decade. In 1996, they reconciled their friendship and Horner produced the soundtracks for Titanic and Avatar. Despite this reputation, Sigourney Weaver has praised Cameron's perfectionism and attention to detail, saying: "He really does want us to risk our lives and limbs for the shot, but he doesn't mind risking his own". In 2015, Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis both applauded Cameron in an interview. Curtis remarked: "He can do every other job [than acting]. I'm talking about every single department, from art direction to props to wardrobe to cameras, he knows more than everyone doing the job". Curtis also said Cameron "loves actors", while Weaver referred to Cameron as "so generous to actors" and a "genius". Michael Biehn, a frequent collaborator, also praised Cameron, saying he "is a really passionate person. He cares more about his movies than other directors care about their movies", adding, "I've never seen him yell at anybody". Biehn acknowledged that Cameron is "not real sensitive when it comes to actors and their trailers, and waiting for actors to come to the set". Worthington commented: "He demands excellence. If you don't give it to him, you're going to get chewed out. And that's a good thing". When asked in 2012 about his reputation, Cameron dryly responded: "I don't have to shout any more, because the word is out there already". In 2021, while giving a MasterClass during a break from his work on the Avatar sequels, Cameron acknowledged his past demanding behaviour, opining that if he could go back in time, he would improve the working relationship with his cast and crew members by being less autocratic, thinking of himself as a "tinpot dictator"; Cameron stated that when he visited one of Ron Howard's sets, he was "dumbfounded" at how much time Howard took to compliment his crew, aspiring to become "his inner Ron Howard". Influence Cameron's work has had an impact in the Hollywood film industry. The Avengers (2012), directed by Joss Whedon, was inspired by Cameron's approach to action sequences. Whedon also admires Cameron's ability for writing heroic female characters such as Ellen Ripley of Aliens, adding that he is "the leader and the teacher and the Yoda". Director Michael Bay idolizes Cameron and was convinced by him to use 3D cameras for filming Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011). Cameron's approach to 3D inspired Baz Luhrmann during the production of The Great Gatsby (2013). Other directors that have been inspired by Cameron include Peter Jackson, Neill Blomkamp, and Xavier Dolan. Filmography Awards and recognition Cameron received the inaugural Ray Bradbury Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1992 for Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In recognition of "a distinguished career as a Canadian filmmaker", Carleton University awarded Cameron the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts on June 13, 1998. Cameron received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1998, presented by Awards Council member George Lucas. He also received an honorary doctorate in 1998 from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, for his accomplishments in the international film industry. In 1998, Cameron attended a convocation to receive an honorary degree from Ryerson University, Toronto. The university awards its highest honor to those who have made extraordinary contributions in Canada or internationally. A year later, Cameron received the honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from California State University, Fullerton. He accepted the degree at the university's summer annual commencement exercise. Cameron's work has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; as one of the few directors to have won three Academy Awards in a single year. For Titanic, he won Best Director, Best Picture (shared with Jon Landau) and Best Film Editing (shared with Conrad Buff and Richard A. Harris). In 2009, he was nominated for awards in Best Film Editing (shared with John Refoua and Stephen E. Rivkin, Best Director and Best Picture for Avatar. Cameron has won two Golden Globes: Best Director for Titanic and Avatar. In recognition of his contributions to underwater filming and remote vehicle technology, University of Southampton awarded Cameron the honorary degree of doctor of the university in July 2004. Cameron accepted the award at the National Oceanography Centre. In 2008, Cameron received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame and a year later, received the 2,396th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On February 28, 2010, Cameron was honored with a Visual Effects Society (VES) Lifetime Achievement Award. In June 2012, Cameron was inducted to The Science Fiction Hall of Fame at the Museum of Pop Culture for his contribution to the science fiction and fantasy field. Cameron collaborated with Walt Disney Imagineering and served as a creative consultant on Pandora – The World of Avatar, an Avatar-themed land at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida which opened to the public on May 27, 2017. A species of frog, Pristimantis jamescameroni, was named after Cameron for his work in promoting environmental awareness and advocacy of veganism. In 2010, Time magazine named Cameron one of the 100 most influential people in the world. That same year, he was ranked at the top of the list in The Guardian Film Power 100 and in 30th place in New Statesman's list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010". In 2013, Cameron received the Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public, which is annually awarded by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In 2019, Cameron was appointed as a Companion of the Order of Canada by Governor General Julie Payette, giving him the Post Nominal Letters "CC" for life. In 2020, Cameron was the subject of the second season of the Epicleff Media dramatic podcast Blockbuster. The audio drama, created and narrated by Emmy Award-winning journalist and filmmaker Matt Schrader, chronicles Cameron's life and career (leading up to the creation and release of Titanic), and stars actor Ross Marquand in the lead voice role as Cameron. See also Hans Hass Award James Cameron's unrealized projects List of people who descended to Challenger Deep List of vegans References Further reading Matthew Wilhelm Kapell and Stephen McVeigh, The Films of James Cameron: Critical Essays. McFarland & Company. 2011. Keegan, Rebecca Winters (2009), The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron, Crown Publishers, ISBN 978-0-307-46031-8 Siegel, Alan (December 13, 2022), ""It's Going to Be Epic": The Oral History of James Cameron", The Ringer, retrieved October 1, 2023 Parisi, Paula (1999), Titanic and the Making of James Cameron: The Inside Story of the Three-Year Adventure That Rewrote Motion Picture History, Newmarket Press, ISBN 1-55704-364-7 External links James Cameron at IMDb James Cameron at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database Appearances on C-SPAN James Cameron collected news and commentary at The Guardian James Cameron collected news and commentary at The New York Times James Cameron at AllMovie James Cameron at TED Cameron at Library of Congress, with 22 library catalog records

Solomon_Sea

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Sea

The Solomon Sea is a sea located within the Pacific Ocean. It lies between Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. Many major battles were fought there during World War II. Extent The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Solomon Sea as follows: On the Northwest. By the Southeast limit of Bismarck Sea [A line from the Southern point of New Ireland along the parallel of 4°50' South to the coast of New Britain, along its Northern coast and thence a line from its Western extreme through the Northern point of Umboi Island to Teliata Point, New Guinea (5°55′S 147°24′E)]. On the Northeast. By a line from the Southern point of New Ireland to the North point of Buka Island, through this island to the Northwest point of Bougainville Island, along the Southern coasts of Bougainville, Choisel [Choiseul], Ysabel [Santa Isabel], Malaita and San Cristobal [Makira] Islands. On the South. The Northern limit of the Coral Sea between San Cristobal Island, the Solomon Islands, and Gado-Gadoa Island, off the Southeast extreme of New Guinea [Gado-Gadoa Island near its Southeastern extreme (10°38′S 150°34′E), down this meridian to the 100-fathom [600 ft; 183 m] line and thence along the Southern edges of Uluma (Suckling) Reef and those extending to the Eastward as far as the Southeast point of Lawik Reef (11°43.5′S 153°56.5′E) off Tagula Island [Vanatinai], thence a line to the Southern extreme of Rennell Island and from its Eastern point to Cape Surville, the Eastern extreme of San Cristobal Island]. On the Southwest. By the coast of New Guinea and a line from its Southeasternmost point through the Louisiade Archipelago to Rossel Island. Etymology The Solomon Sea is named after the Solomon Islands. These islands received their name "Islas Salomón" from the legend of the biblical land of Ophir — fabled as the source of King Solomon's wealth which was hoped to be discovered, in the first 1568 voyage by their discoverer Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira. They were so named after his voyage when it was mapped. Deepest point The Solomon Sea roughly corresponds with the Solomon Sea Plate, a tectonic feature, and includes the New Britain Trench, in the New Britain subduction zone, which reaches its maximum depth at 29,988 feet (9,140 m) below sea level in the Planet Deep. References External links Map of the Solomon Sea. at the Library of Congress Web Archives (archived 2006-10-21)

List_of_tallest_buildings_in_San_Francisco

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_San_Francisco

San Francisco, California, in the United States, has at least 482 high-rises, 58 of which are at least 400 feet (122 m) tall. The tallest building is Salesforce Tower, which rises 1,070 ft (330 m) and as of April 2023 is the 17th-tallest building in the United States. The city's second-tallest building is the Transamerica Pyramid, which rises 853 ft (260 m), and was previously the city's tallest for 45 years, from 1972 to 2017. The city's third-tallest building is 181 Fremont, rising to 802 ft (244 m). San Francisco has 27 skyscrapers that rise at least 492 feet (150 m). Six more skyscrapers of over 150 m are under construction, have been approved for construction, or have been proposed. Its skyline is currently ranked second in the Western United States (after Los Angeles) and sixth in the United States, after New York City, Chicago, Miami, Houston, and Los Angeles. History San Francisco's first skyscraper was the 218-foot (66 m) Chronicle Building, which was completed in 1890. M. H. de Young, owner of the San Francisco Chronicle, commissioned Burnham and Root to design a signature tower to convey the power of his newspaper. Not to be outdone, de Young's rival, industrialist Claus Spreckels, purchased the San Francisco Call in 1895 and commissioned a tower of his own that would dwarf the Chronicle Building. The 315-foot (96 m) Call Building was completed in 1898 and stood across Market Street from the Chronicle Building. The Call Building (later named the Spreckels Building, and Central Tower today) would remain the city's tallest for nearly a quarter century. Both steel-framed structures survived the 1906 earthquake, demonstrating that tall buildings could be safely constructed in earthquake country. Other early twentieth-century skyscrapers above 200 feet (61 m) include the Merchants Exchange Building (1903), Humboldt Bank Building (1908), Hobart Building (1914), and Southern Pacific Building (1916). Another skyscraper boom took hold during the 1920s, when several Neo-Gothic and Art Deco high rises, reaching three to four hundred feet (90 to 120 m) in height, were constructed, including the Standard Oil Building (1922), Pacific Telephone Building (1925), Russ Building (1927), Hunter-Dulin Building (1927), 450 Sutter Medical Building (1929), Shell Building (1929), and McAllister Tower (1930). The Great Depression and World War II halted any further skyscraper construction until the 1950s when the Equitable Life Building (1955) and Crown-Zellerbach Building (1959) were completed. Many of San Francisco's tallest buildings, particularly its office skyscrapers, were completed in a building boom from the late 1960s until the late 1980s. During the 1960s, at least 40 new skyscrapers were built, and the Hartford Building (1965), 44 Montgomery (1967), Bank of America Center (1969), and Transamerica Pyramid (1972) each, in turn, took the title of tallest building in California upon completion. At 853 feet (260 m) tall, the Transamerica Pyramid was one of the most controversial, with critics suggesting that it be torn down even before it was completed. This surge of construction was dubbed "Manhattanization" by opponents and led to local legislation that set some of the strictest building height limits and regulations in the country. In 1985, San Francisco adopted the Downtown Plan, which slowed development in the Financial District north of Market Street and directed it to the area South of Market around the Transbay Terminal. Over 250 historic buildings were protected from development and developers were required to set aside open space for new projects. To prevent excessive growth and smooth the boom-and-bust building cycle, the Plan included an annual limit of 950,000 square feet (88,000 m2) for new office development, although it grandfathered millions of square feet of proposals already in the development pipeline. In response, voters approved Proposition M in November 1986 that reduced the annual limit to 475,000 square feet (44,100 m2) until the grandfathered square footage was accounted for, which occurred in 1999. These limits, combined with the early 1990s recession, led to a significant slowdown of skyscraper construction during the late 1980s and 1990s. To guide new development, the city passed several neighborhood plans, such as the Rincon Hill Plan in 2005 and Transit Center District Plan in 2012, which allow taller skyscrapers in certain specific locations in the South of Market area. Since the early 2000s, the city has been undergoing another building boom, with numerous buildings over 400 feet (122 m) proposed, approved, or under construction; some, such as the two-towered One Rincon Hill and mixed-use 181 Fremont, have been completed. Multiple skyscrapers have been constructed near the new Salesforce Transit Center, including Salesforce Tower, which topped-out in 2017 at a height of 1,070 feet (330 m). This building is the first supertall skyscraper in San Francisco and among the tallest in the United States. Tallest buildings This list ranks San Francisco skyscrapers that stand at least 400 feet (122 m) tall, based on standard height measurement. This includes spires and architectural details but does not include antenna masts. The "Year" column indicates the year in which a building was completed. Tallest under construction, approved and proposed Under construction This lists buildings that are under construction in San Francisco and are planned to rise at least 100 meters (328 ft). Under construction buildings that have already been topped out are also included. Approved This lists buildings that are approved for construction in San Francisco and are planned to rise at least 100 meters (328 ft). Proposed This lists buildings that are proposed in San Francisco and are planned to rise at least 100 meters (328 ft). * Table entries with dashes (—) indicate that information regarding building floor counts or dates of completion has not yet been released. Timeline of tallest buildings This lists buildings that once held the title of tallest building in San Francisco as well as the current titleholder, the Salesforce Tower. Notes Please note, that San Francisco with 29 high rises according to your numbers is ahead of Dallas. 29 vs 22 Please correct. Added with 10 planned high rises of 500 feet or more, it will in time surpass LA. Including one of well over 1,000 ft. References General "San Francisco". Emporis.com. Archived from the original on June 18, 2004. Retrieved July 31, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) Specific External links Diagram of San Francisco skyscrapers on SkyscraperPage The skyscrapers of San Francisco Video detailing the San Francisco skyline.

Big_12_Conference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_12_Conference

The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia. The Big 12 is a member of the Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division I-A), the higher of two levels of NCAA Division I football competition. The Big 12 is one of the Power Four conferences, the four highest-earning and most historically successful FBS football conferences. Power Four conferences are guaranteed at least one bid to a New Year's Six bowl game and have been granted exemptions from certain NCAA rules. The Big 12 is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Brett Yormark became the commissioner on August 1, 2022. The Big 12 was founded in February 1994. All eight members of the former Big Eight Conference joined with half the members of the former Southwest Conference (Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor and Texas Tech) to form the conference, with play beginning in 1996. Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah joined the conference on August 2, 2024, as part of a more extensive NCAA conference realignment. Member universities Current full members Notes Membership map Affiliate members Notes On July 29, 2015, the Big 12 announced it would add the six former members of the Western Wrestling Conference—Air Force, Northern Colorado, North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Utah Valley, and Wyoming—as affiliate members for wrestling, plus Denver as an affiliate member for women's gymnastics, all effective with the 2015–16 academic year. On July 5, 2017, the Big 12 added Fresno State and Northern Iowa as wrestling affiliates. On May 2, 2019, the Big 12 added Fresno State as an equestrian affiliate. Fresno State would drop wrestling in 2021, but remains an equestrian affiliate. In 2021, the Big 12 added former full member Missouri as a wrestling affiliate. Former full members Notes Former affiliate members Notes Membership timeline Full members Other Conference Other Conference Affiliate member (other sport)Founding members from Big 8 Conference Founding members from Southwest Conference Earlier Membership timelines Click here for the Big Eight Conference Timeline which predates the Big 12 timeline for founding members: Colorado Iowa State Kansas Kansas State Missouri Nebraska Oklahoma Oklahoma State Click here for the Southwest Conference Timeline which predates the Big 12 timeline for founding members: Baylor Texas Texas A&M Texas Tech Current members with the longest continuous association with the Big Eight Conference / Southwest Conference / Big 12 Conference. Sports The Big 12 Conference sponsors championship competition in 10 men's and 15 women's NCAA sanctioned sports. Current champions Source: Men's sponsored sports by university Below are the men's sports sponsored by each member institution. The only men's sports with full participation by the entire conference are basketball, football, and golf. Swimming and diving has the lowest participation with only seven universities fielding a team. The Big 12 fields 14 teams for wrestling. Before the conference's 2023 expansion, it had the most competing schools of any Big 12 sport, with 13 members at that time. The 2022–23 and 2024–25 wrestling lineups both included only 4 full conference members; all remaining wrestling schools were affiliate members (listed in a separate table below). Men's (and Coed – see Rifle) varsity sports not sponsored by the Big 12 Conference which are played by Big 12 universities: Women's sponsored sports by university Below are the women's sports sponsored by each member institution. The only women's sports with full participation by the entire conference are basketball, cross country, soccer, tennis, indoor track and outdoor track. Oklahoma State is the only member that does not sponsor volleyball, and only Utah and West Virginia do not sponsor golf. Beach volleyball (4 full members) and equestrian (3 full members, 1 affiliate) have the lowest participation, each with 4 total members. Lacrosse (3 full members, 3 affiliates) and rowing (4 full members, 2 affiliates) follow with 6 total members. The affiliate members are listed in a separate table below. Women's (and co-educational – see Rifle) varsity sports not sponsored by the Big 12 Conference which are played by Big 12 universities: In addition to the above, UCF lists its coeducational cheerleading and all-female dance teams as varsity teams on its official athletic website. History The Big 12 Conference was founded in February 1994. All eight members of the former Big Eight Conference joined with half the members of the former Southwest Conference (Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor and Texas Tech) to form the conference, with play beginning in 1996. The Big 12 does not claim the Big Eight's history as its own, even though it was essentially the Big Eight plus four of the Texas universities. The Big 12 began athletic play in fall 1996, with the Texas Tech vs. Kansas State football game being the first-ever sports event staged by the conference. From its formation until 2011, its 12 members competed in two divisions in most sports. The two Oklahoma universities and the four Texas universities formed the South Division, while the other six universities of the former Big Eight formed the North Division. Between 2011 and 2012 four charter members left the conference: Colorado Missouri Nebraska Texas A&M In 2012, two universities joined the conference: TCU West Virginia On July 26, 2021, Oklahoma and Texas notified the Big 12 Conference that the two universities do not wish to extend their grant of television rights beyond the 2024–25 athletic year. On July 27, 2021, Oklahoma and Texas sent a joint letter to the Southeastern Conference requesting an invitation for membership beginning July 1, 2025. On July 29, 2021, the 14 presidents and chancellors of SEC member universities voted unanimously to invite Oklahoma and Texas to join the SEC. The following day, the Texas Board of Regents and Oklahoma Board of Regents each accepted the invitation to join the SEC from July 1, 2025. On September 10, 2021, the Big 12 announced that invitations had been extended to and accepted by BYU (a football independent and member of the non-football West Coast Conference) and three members of the American Athletic Conference in Cincinnati, UCF, and Houston. These moves, combined with the impending departure of Oklahoma and Texas, would once again increase the Big 12's membership to twelve schools. All four schools began competing in Big 12 athletics beginning in summer of 2023. BYU had initially announced that it would join in 2023, and Houston indicated it could do so as well. On June 10, 2022, The American and its three departing members announced a buyout agreement that allowed those schools to join the Big 12 in 2023. On February 9, 2023, Oklahoma and Texas announced they had reached a settlement with the conference that allowed them to join the SEC on July 1, 2024. On July 27, 2023, Colorado, a former member of the Big 12, announced it would rejoin the conference from the Pac-12 beginning in the 2024–25 academic year. The following week, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah announced they would leave the Pac-12 for the Big 12, also effective for the 2024–25 academic year. Distinctive elements Population base and markets The largest media markets represented by the Big 12 are, ranked nationally: Dallas-Fort Worth (5th) Houston (6th) Phoenix (11th) Orlando (16th) Denver (17th) Salt Lake City (27th) San Antonio (31st) Kansas City (34th) Cincinnati (37th) Oklahoma City (47th) Tulsa (62nd) Tucson (65th) Des Moines (67th) Wichita (72nd) Although West Virginia University is based out of Morgantown, West Virginia (officially part of the Pittsburgh (26th) media market), the TV market encompasses the majority of West Virginia's TV viewership and also reaches well into Western Pennsylvania. Kansas State University is in Manhattan, Kansas, which is part of the Topeka, Kansas media market, but it is close to the Wichita market, which encompasses two-thirds of the state (stretching to the border with Colorado), including the cities of Dodge City, Garden City, Hutchinson and Salina. While the University of Kansas is in Lawrence, Kansas, it has close proximity to the Kansas City television market, increasing the base into western Missouri. Grant of Rights Member universities granted their first and second tier sports media rights to the conference for the length of their current TV deals. The Grant of Rights (GOR) deal with the leagues' TV contracts ensures that "if a Big 12 school leaves for another league in the next 13 years, that school's media rights, including revenue, would remain with the Big 12 and not its new conference". GOR is seen by league members as a "foundation of stability" and allowed the Big 12 to be "positioned with one of the best media rights arrangements in collegiate sports, providing the conference and its members unprecedented revenue growth, and sports programming over two networks." All members agreed to the GOR and later agreed to extend the initial 6-year deal to 13 years to correspond to the length of their TV contracts. Prior to this agreement, the Big Ten and Pac-12 also had similar GOR agreements. The Big 12 subsequently assisted the ACC in drafting its GOR agreement. Three of the four major conferences now have such agreements, with the SEC the only exception. Tier 3 events The Big 12 is the only major conference that allows members to monetize TV rights for tier 3 events in football and men's basketball. This allows individual Big 12 member institutions to create tier 3 deals that include TV rights for one home football game and four home men's basketball games per season. Tier 3 rights exist for other sports as well, but these are not unique to the Big 12. The unique arrangement potentially allows Big 12 members to remain some of college sports' highest revenue earners. Other conferences' cable deals are subject to value reductions based on how people acquire cable programming; Big 12 universities' tier 3 deals are exempt. Texas alone earned more than $150 million of that total from their Longhorn Network before it was shut down with its move to the SEC. As of 2022, all of the Big 12's tier 3 rights are held by ESPN; the network operates a joint venture with Learfield and the Texas Longhorns known as Longhorn Network, and ESPN bought the tier 3 rights to most Big 12 teams (besides Oklahoma) in 2019, moving the events exclusively to ESPN+. The Oklahoma Sooners retained an agreement with Bally Sports Oklahoma (which distributed its football game via pay-per-view) until 2022, when it also sold its rights to ESPN+. Business partnerships and innovation The Big 12 has a sponsorship rights partnership with Learfield IMG College. The Big 12 announced on September 9, 2022, that it appointed WME Sports and IMG Media, Endeavor companies, to facilitate its global content and commercial strategy. Commissioner Brett Yormark stated "We have aligned with a best-in-class team to build a best-in-class business strategy for the Conference". November 14, 2022 Big 12 formed a comprehensive business advisor board composed of over three dozen entrepreneurial icons and respective industry leaders. From the likes of Monte Lipman the Founder/CEO Republic Records, Steve Stoute Founder/CEO UnitedMasters & Translation, Mark Shapiro President of Endeavor, Gary Vaynerchuk’s VaynerMedia, singer Garth Brooks, NBA legend Jason Kidd, Keith Sheldon President of Entertainment for Hard Rock Cafe International, and Ross Levinsohn Chairman and CEO - The Arena Group & Sports Illustrated. The Big 12 partnered with creative agency Translation to help build a more contemporary audience and brand. Soon after Big 12 Conference made a deal with A Bathing Ape (BAPE) for Championship games. The Conference and BAPE worked together to create limited-edition clothing and a camouflaged Big 12 logo throughout the stadium, arena, and uniforms. The Big 12 has 11 official corporate partners: Allstate, Children’s Health, Dr Pepper, Gatorade, Grand Caliber, Old Trapper, On Location, Phillips 66, Sonic Hard Seltzer, Sprouts Farmers Market, and Tickets For Less. There are dozens of other companies engaged as sponsors of the conference. Conference Pro Day On March 15, 2023, before the NFL Draft, the Big 12 announced the first of its kind across all college conferences, being a conference-wide Pro Day. Instead of schools hosting separate pro days for their football players, there will be only one conference-wide scouting event before the 2024 NFL draft. The event will be held at the Dallas Cowboys training complex, Ford Center at The Star. What essentially would be a conference version of the NFL combine, the Pro Day would be televised on NFL Network. Hoops in the Park In March, the Big 12 Conference announced a partnership with the legendary Rucker Park for a community engagement event. In June the event was officially announced as "Big 12 Hoops in the Park", to host men's and women's summer exhibition games. Throughout the event, the Big 12 is also preparing a number of entertainment activities and community engagements. The activities include youth clinics, meet-and-greets, live music, and food. Mexico Early June 2023, the "Big 12 Mexico" was announced, which will include men's and women's soccer, baseball, basketball, and football games and an international media rights strategy. The Big 12 Mexico will debut in December 2024 with men's and women's basketball games between Kansas and Houston at the Arena CDMX in Mexico City. The Big 12 will also consider hosting a football bowl game in Monterrey beginning in 2026. This would be the first-ever bowl game in Mexico. Conference annual revenue distribution Conference revenue comes mostly from television contracts, bowl games, the NCAA, merchandise, licensing and conference-hosted sporting events. The Conference distributes revenue annually to member institutions. From 1996 to 2011, 57 percent of revenue was allotted equally; while 43 percent was based upon the number of football and men's basketball television appearances and other factors. In 2011, the distribution was 76 percent equal and 24 percent based on television appearances. Changing the arrangement requires a unanimous vote; as a Big 12 member, Nebraska and Texas A&M had withheld support for more equitable revenue distribution. With this model, larger universities can receive more revenue because they appear more often on television. In 2006, for example, Texas received $10.2 million, 44% more than Baylor University's $7.1 million. Big 12 revenue was generally less than other BCS conferences; this was due in part to television contracts signed with Fox Sports Net (four years for $48 million) and ABC/ESPN (eight years for $480 million). In 2011, the Big 12 announced a new 13-year media rights deal with Fox that would ensure that every Big 12 home football game is televised, as well as greatly increasing coverage of women's basketball, conference championships and other sports. The deal, valued at an estimated $1.1 billion, runs until 2025. In 2012, the conference announced a new agreement with Fox and ESPN, replacing the current ABC/ESPN deal, to immediately increase national media broadcasts of football and increase conference revenue; the new deal was estimated to be worth $2.6 billion through the 2025 expiration. The two deals pushed the conference per-university payout to approximately $20 million per year, while separating third-tier media rights into separate deals for each university; such contracts secured an additional $6 million to $20 million per university annually. The per-university payout under the deal is expected to reach $44 million, according to Commissioner Bob Bowlsby. In 2022, the conference renewed its media rights with ESPN and Fox Sports for six seasons starting in 2025–26, with an estimated US$380 million average annual fee. Athletic department revenue by school Total revenue includes ticket sales, contributions and donations, rights and licensing, student fees, school funds and all other sources including TV income, camp income, concessions, and novelties. Total expenses includes coach and staff salaries, scholarships, buildings and grounds, maintenance, utilities and rental fees, recruiting, team travel, equipment and uniforms, conference dues, and insurance. The following table shows institutional reporting to the United States Department of Education as shown on the DOE Equity in Athletics website for the 2022–23 academic year. The following table shows Big 12 Conference distributions during the fiscal year ending June 2023 as reported by ProPublica using Schedule A of the Big 12 Conference tax filings Academics All Big 12 members are doctorate-granting universities. All members except BYU and TCU have R1 "very high research activity," the highest classification given by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. BYU and TCU are in the Carnegie Foundation's second-tier classification of "high research activity". Apparel Facilities Key personnel Notes Sources: †Private institution not required to release coaching salaries •Salaries based on 2022–2023 academic year Championships National team titles by institution The national championships listed below are as of the March 31, 2024. Football, Helms, pre-NCAA competition and overall equestrian titles are included in the total, but excluded from the column listing NCAA and AIAW titles. † Co-ed sports include fencing (since 1990), rifle, and skiing (since 1983). Team fencing championships before 1990 and team skiing championships before 1983 were awarded as men's or women's championships and are counted here as such. Most recent NCAA championship National championships The following is a list of all NCAA, equestrian, and college football championships won by teams that were representing the Big 12 Conference in NCAA-recognized sports at the time of their championship. The most recent Big 12 team to win a national title is TCU men's tennis in 2024, along with being the most recent team to win a national title while representing the Big 12. Only two years of the Big 12's existence has the conference not won at least one team National Title, 2007 and 2020. However, in 2020 multiple National Championships were not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One former member of the conference did not win a National Championship while a member of the Big 12, Missouri. Original members Kansas State and Iowa State have not won a championship while representing the Big 12. The only national championships won by 2012 arrivals TCU and West Virginia since joining the Big 12 have been in rifle, a sport that the conference has never sponsored. Houston, BYU, UCF, and Cincinnati have not won a championship in the Big 12, however, the schools joined the conference in the 2023–24 school year. Men's gymnastics has the most overall championships with 9, while men's golf and women's outdoor track have had the most different schools win a championship with 4. Conference champions The Conference sponsors 23 sports, 10 men's and 13 women's. In football, divisional titles were awarded based on regular-season conference results, with the teams with the best conference records from the North and South playing in the Big 12 Championship Game from 1996 to 2010. Baseball, basketball, softball, tennis and women's soccer titles are awarded in both regular-season and tournament play. Cross country, golf, gymnastics, swimming and diving, track and field, and wrestling titles are awarded during an annual meet of participating teams. The volleyball title is awarded based on regular-season play. Football The first football game in conference play was Texas Tech vs. Kansas State in 1996, won by Kansas State, 21–14. From 1996 to 2010, Big 12 Conference teams played eight conference games a season. Each team faced all five opponents within its own division and three teams from the opposite division. Inter-divisional play was a "three-on, three-off" system, where teams would play three teams from the other division on a home-and-home basis for two seasons, and then play the other three foes from the opposite side for a two-year home-and-home. This format came under considerable criticism, especially from Nebraska and Oklahoma, who were denied a yearly match between two of college football's most storied programs. The Nebraska-Oklahoma rivalry was one of the most intense in college football history. (Until 2006, the teams had never met in the Big 12 Championship.) Due to the departure of Nebraska and Colorado in 2011, the Big 12 eliminated the divisions (and championship game) and instituted a nine-game round-robin format. With the advent of the College Football Playoff committee looking at teams' strength of schedule for picking the four playoff teams, on December 8, 2015, the Big 12 announced an annual requirement for all Big 12 teams to schedule a non-conference game against a team from the four other Power Five conferences (plus Notre Dame). Per Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby: "Schedule strength is a key component in CFP Selection Committee deliberations. This move will strengthen the resumes for all Big 12 teams. Coupled with the nine-game full round robin Conference schedule our teams play, it will not only benefit the teams at the top of our standings each season, but will impact the overall strength of the Conference." The Big 12 has made it to the Playoffs 6 times from 2014 to 2023. Three Big 12 participants have made it to the playoff: Oklahoma in 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2019; Texas in 2023; and TCU in 2022. Championship game The Big 12 Championship Game game was approved by all members except Nebraska. It was held each year, commencing with the first match in the 1996 season at the Trans World Dome in St. Louis. It pitted the division champions against each other after the regular season was completed. Following the 2008 game, the event was moved to the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, being played there in 2009 and 2010. In 2010, the Sooners defeated the Cornhuskers 23–20. After 2010, the game was moved to Arlington for 2011, 2012, and 2013. However, the decision became moot following the 2010 season because the league lacked sufficient members. In April 2015, the ACC and the Big 12 developed new rules for the NCAA to deregulate conference championship games. The measure passed on January 14, 2016, allowing a conference with fewer than 12 teams to stage a championship game that does not count against the FBS limit of 12 regular-season games under either of the following circumstances: The game involves the top two teams following a full round-robin conference schedule. The game involves two divisional winners, each having played a full round-robin schedule in its division. Under the first criterion, the Big 12 championship game resumed at the conclusion of the 2017 regular season, and is played during the first weekend of December, the time all other FBS conference championship games are played. Bowl affiliations The following were bowl games for the Big 12 for the 2022 season. Rivalries The Big 12 is known for rivalries (primarily in football) that mostly predate the conference. The Kansas-Missouri rivalry was the longest running, the longest west of the Mississippi, and the second longest in college football, dating back to the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association before evolving into the Big Eight. It was played 119 times before Missouri left the Big 12. As of October 2012, the University of Kansas' athletic department had not accepted Missouri's invitations to play inter-conference rivalry games, putting the rivalry on hold. Sports clubs sponsored by the two universities continued to play each other. Kansas and Missouri renewed the rivalry in men's basketball starting in December 2021, and have announced that they will meet again in football in 2025. The rivalry between TCU and Baylor, known as the Revivalry is also one of the longest running in college football, with the two universities having played each other — largely as Southwest Conference members — 114 times since 1899. Following the 2022 game, TCU leads the series 58–53–7. Some of the football rivalries between Big 12 universities include: Men's Basketball As of the end of the 2023-2024 season, nine current Big 12 members are among the teams with the most wins and/or the highest win percentage in NCAA Division 1 men's basketball: Kansas (#2 in wins, #3 in percentage), Cincinnati (#12 wins, #19 percentage), Utah (#15 wins, #22 percentage), BYU (#17 wins, #31 percentage), Arizona (#19 wins, #10 percentage), West Virginia (#20 wins, #36 percentage), Houston (#37 percentage), Oklahoma State (#39 wins), and Kansas State (#42 wins). On the list of the most Final Four appearances, Kansas is #5 and Cincinnati, Houston, and Oklahoma State are all tied (with several other schools) at #11. From 1996 to 2011, standings in conference play were not split among divisions, although the schedule was structured as if they were. Teams played a home-and-home against teams within their divisions and a single game against teams from the opposite division for a total of 16 conference games. After Nebraska and Colorado left, Big 12 play transitioned to an 18-game, double round robin schedule. When the conference temporarily expanded to 14 members for the 2023–24 season, the 18-game schedule remained, but the double round-robin was discontinued in favor of a new scheduling formula. Starting in 2024-25, the Big 12 will go to a 20-game schedule. Each team will face five opponents at home, five opponents on the road, and five opponents both home and away. Conference champions Kansas has the most Big 12 titles, winning or sharing the regular-season title 20 times in the league's 25 seasons, including 14 straight from 2004–05 to 2017–18. The 2002 Jayhawks became the first, and so far only, team to complete an undefeated Big 12 regular season, going 16–0. Though rematches between Big 12 regular season co-champions have happened in that year's Big 12 tournament, none have met in the ensuing NCAA Tournament. In 2004–05, Oklahoma won the Big 12 Tournament seeding tiebreaker over Kansas based on its 71–63 win over the Jayhawks in Norman, OK. The teams did not meet in Kansas City, MO.In 2005–06, Texas won the Big 12 Tournament seeding tiebreaker over Kansas based on its 80–55 win over the Jayhawks in Austin, TX. Kansas beat Texas 80–68 in the Big 12 Tournament championship game in Dallas, TX.In 2007–08, Texas won the Big 12 Tournament seeding tiebreaker over Kansas based on its 72–69 win over the Jayhawks in Austin, TX. Kansas beat Texas 84–74 in the Big 12 Tournament championship game in Kansas City, MO.In 2012–13, Kansas won the Big 12 Tournament seeding tiebreaker over Kansas State based on winning 59–55 in Manhattan and 83–62 in Lawrence. Kansas beat Kansas State for a third time 70–54 in the championship game in Kansas City, MO. *Due to the use of an ineligible player, Kansas was forced to vacate 15 victories from its 2017-18 season, including the Big 12 regular season and postseason championships the Jayhawks won that year. The bracketed numbers in subsequent are the official number of titles counting those that were vacated. **The 2020 Big 12 Tournament was cancelled due to COVID-19.In 2021–22, Kansas won the seeding tiebreaker over Baylor for the Big 12 Tournament, as Kansas had gone 1–1 against third place team Texas Tech, while Baylor had been swept by Texas Tech. NCAA tournament performance Totals through the end of the 2023–24 season. *Arizona has appeared in 38 tournaments; however, their 1999, 2008, 2017 and 2018 Tournament appearance was vacated by the NCAA, officially giving them 34 tournament appearances *Kansas has appeared in 51 tournaments and 16 final fours; however, their 2018 Tournament appearance was vacated by the NCAA, officially giving them 50 tournament appearances and 15 final fours *Texas Tech has appeared in 20 tournaments; however, their 1996 Tournament appearance was vacated by the NCAA, officially giving them 19 tournament appearances. *Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, UCF, Utah, Cincinnati & Houston totals are while members of other conferences All-time wins Source: Totals though the end of the 2023−24 season. All-time series record Totals from though the end of the 2023–24 season.Includes any regular season match up regardless of conference affiliation or postseason meetings. Source: Big 12 series record 1997 - 2024 as Big 12 Members Source:Note: Some of the values from the bottom of page 32 don't match with the detailed numbers given on pages 33–41 so that latter values were used: * Baseball All current Big 12 members sponsor baseball except Colorado, which never sponsored baseball during its first conference tenure and still does not sponsor the sport, and Iowa State, which dropped the sport after the 2001 season. All other former Big 12 members sponsored the sport throughout their tenures in the conference. NCAA tournament performance Totals through the end of the 2024 season. Broadcasting and media rights The Big 12's media rights are controlled primarily by ESPN network (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN+ and ABC) and Fox, which reached a 13-year agreement in 2012 valued at $2.6 billion in total. The Big 12's top football rights are split between ESPN and Fox, while the basketball inventory is held by ESPN and CBS Sports. The agreement also included a grant of rights for all current Big 12 teams over the period of the contract. In addition to the national agreement, each Big 12 university maintained the right to sell its "third-tier" covering selected events per-season (including one football game, basketball games, and other events outside of those sports). The third-tier rights to the Texas Longhorns are held through a channel dedicated to the team — Longhorn Network — which is operated by ESPN. In 2019, ESPN announced that it would acquire the third-tier rights to all Big 12 teams through 2024-25 (excluding Oklahoma and Texas, which are still under long-term contracts with ESPN+ and Longhorn Network respectively), and place their content on its subscription streaming service ESPN+. ESPN also acquired exclusive rights to all future Big 12 football championship games, replacing the previous alternation between ESPN and Fox. 2025 extension deal On October 30, 2022, the Big 12 announced that it had reached early broadcast deal to renew rights with ESPN network (includes ABC rights) and Fox. It is a six-year media rights agreement worth a total of $2.3 billion, but also reportedly includes an "escalator clause" that will raise the value of the contracts if only Power Five schools are added. By striking a deal prior to the exclusive negotiating window with ESPN and Fox, the Big 12 managed to achieve several of its primary objectives of stability and security, including the ability to consult its member schools to seek an extended grant of rights and potential future conference expansion. Fox's deal also places a slate of Big 12 college basketball games on Fox Sports for the first time. ESPN: Football games will primarily air in a primetime window on ESPN Rights to the football Big 12 Championship Game Rights to the Big 12 basketball championship Fox Sports: 26 football games per season: Will air a large slate of basketball games NFL Network: Will air conference wide Pro Day on NFL Network References External links Official website

Lincoln,_Nebraska

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln,_Nebraska

Lincoln is the capital of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers 100.4 square miles (260.035 km2) and had a population of 294,757 in 2023. It is the state's second-most populous city and the 71st-largest in the United States. Lincoln is considered the economic and cultural anchor of the substantially larger metropolitan area in southeastern Nebraska, the Lincoln Metropolitan and Lincoln-Beatrice Combined Statistical Areas, which is home to 361,921 people, the 104th-largest combined statistical area in the United States. Lincoln was founded in 1856 as the village of Lancaster on the wild salt marshes and arroyos of what became Lancaster County. Renamed after President Abraham Lincoln, it became Nebraska's state capital in 1869. The Bertram G. Goodhue–designed state capitol building was completed in 1932, and is the nation's second-tallest capitol. As the city is the seat of government for the state of Nebraska, the state and the U.S. government are major employers. The University of Nebraska was founded in Lincoln in 1869. The university is Nebraska's largest, with 26,079 students enrolled, and the city's third-largest employer. Other primary employers fall into the service and manufacturing industries, including a growing high-tech sector. The region makes up a part of what is known as the greater Midwest Silicon Prairie. Designated as a "refugee-friendly" city by the U.S. Department of State in the 1970s, the city was the 12th-largest resettlement site per capita in the country by 2000. Refugee Vietnamese, Karen (Burmese ethnic minority), Sudanese and Yazidi (Iraqi ethnic minority) people, as well as refugees from Iraq, the Middle East and Afghanistan, have resettled in the city. During the 2018–19 school year, Lincoln Public Schools provided support for about 3,000 students from 150 countries, who spoke 125 different languages. History Natives Before the expansion westward of settlers, the prairie was covered with buffalo grass. Plains Indians, descendants of indigenous peoples who occupied the area for thousands of years, lived in and hunted along Salt Creek. The Pawnee, which included four tribes, lived in villages along the Platte River. The Great Sioux Nation, including the Ihanktowan-Ihanktowana and the Lakota, to the north and west, used Nebraska as a hunting and skirmish ground, but did not have any long-term settlements in the state. An occasional buffalo could still be seen in the plat of Lincoln in the 1860s. Founding Lincoln was founded in 1856 as the village of Lancaster and became the county seat of the newly created Lancaster County in 1859. The village was sited on the east bank of Salt Creek. The first settlers were attracted to the area due to the abundance of salt. Once J. Sterling Morton developed his salt mines in Kansas, salt in the village was no longer a viable commodity. Captain W. T. Donovan, a former steamer captain, and his family settled on Salt Creek in 1856. In 1859, the village settlers met to form a county. A caucus was formed and the committee, which included Donovan, selected Lancaster as the county seat. The county was named Lancaster. After the passage of the 1862 Homestead Act, homesteaders began to inhabit the area. The first plat was dated August 6, 1864. By the end of 1868, Lancaster had a population of approximately 500. The township of Lancaster was renamed Lincoln, with the incorporation of the city of Lincoln on April 1, 1869. In 1869, the University of Nebraska was established in Lincoln by the state with a land grant of about 130,000 acres. Construction of University Hall, the first building, began the same year. State capital Nebraska was granted statehood on March 1, 1867. The capital of the Nebraska Territory had been Omaha since the creation of the territory in 1854. Most of its population lived south of the Platte River. After much of the territory south of the Platte was considered annexation to Kansas, the territorial legislature voted to place the capital south of the river and as far west as possible. Before the vote to remove the capital from Omaha, Omaha Senator J. N. H. Patrick made a last-ditch effort to derail the move by having the future capital named after recently assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Many of the people south of the Platte had been sympathetic to the Confederate cause in the recently concluded Civil War. It was assumed that senators south of the river would not vote to pass the measure if the future capital was named after Lincoln. In the end, the motion to name the future capital Lincoln was ineffective in blocking the measure and the vote to move the capital south of the Platte was successful, with the passage of the Removal Act in 1867. The Removal Act called for the formation of a Capital Commission to site the capital on state-owned land. On July 18, 1867, the Commission, composed of Governor David Butler, Secretary of State Thomas Kennard, and State Auditor John Gillespie, began to tour sites for the new capital. The village of Lancaster was chosen, in part due to its salt flats and marshes. Lancaster had approximately 30 residents. Disregarding the original plat of the village of Lancaster, Kennard platted Lincoln on a broader scale. The plat of the village of Lancaster was not dissolved nor abandoned; it became Lincoln when the Lincoln plat files were finished on September 6, 1867. To raise money for the construction of a capital, an auction of lots was held. Newcomers began to arrive and Lincoln's population grew. The Nebraska State Capitol was completed on December 1, 1868, a two-story building constructed with native limestone with a central cupola. The Kennard house, built in 1869, is the oldest remaining building in the original plat of Lincoln. In 1888, a new capitol building was constructed on the site of the first to replace the structurally unsound former capitol. The second building was a classical design by architect William H. Willcox. Construction began on a third capitol building in 1922. Bertram G. Goodhue was selected in a national competition as its architect. By 1924, the first phase of construction was completed and state offices moved into the new building. In 1925, the Willcox-designed capitol building was razed. The Goodhue-designed capitol was constructed in four phases, with the completion of the fourth phase in 1932. It is the second-tallest capitol building in the United States. Growth and expansion The worldwide economic depression of 1890 saw Lincoln's population fall from 55,000 to 40,169 by 1900 (per the 1900 census). Volga-German immigrants from Russia settled in the North Bottoms neighborhood and as Lincoln expanded with the growth in population, the city began to annex nearby towns. Normal was the first town annexed in 1919. Bethany Heights, incorporated in 1890, was annexed in 1922. In 1926, the town of University Place was annexed. College View, incorporated in 1892, was annexed in 1929. Union College, a Seventh Day Adventist institution, was founded in College View in 1891. In 1930, Lincoln annexed the town of Havelock. Havelock actively opposed annexation to Lincoln and only relented due to a strike by the Burlington railroad shop workers which halted progress and growth for the city. The Burlington and Missouri River Railroad's first train arrived in Lincoln on June 26, 1870, and the Midland Pacific (1871) and the Atchison and Nebraska (1872) soon followed. The Union Pacific began service in 1877. The Chicago and North Western and Missouri Pacific began service in 1886. The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific extended service to Lincoln in 1892. Lincoln became a rail hub. As automobile travel became more common, so did the need for better roads in Nebraska and throughout the U.S. In 1911, the Omaha-Denver Trans-Continental Route Association, with support from the Good Roads Movement, established the Omaha-Lincoln-Denver Highway (O-L-D) through Lincoln. The goal was to have the most efficient highway for travel throughout Nebraska, from Omaha to Denver. In 1920, the Omaha-Denver Association merged with the Detroit-Lincoln-Denver Highway Association. As a result, the O-L-D was renamed the Detroit-Lincoln-Denver Highway (D-L-D) with the goal of having a continuous highway from Detroit to Denver. The goal was eventually realized by the mid-1920s; 1,700 mi (2,700 km) of constantly improved highway through six states. The auto route's success in attracting tourists led entrepreneurs to build businesses and facilities in towns along the route to keep up with the demand. In 1924, the D-L-D was designated as Nebraska State Highway 6. In 1926, the highway became part of the Federal Highway System and was renumbered U.S. Route 38. In 1931, U.S. 38 was renumbered as a U.S. 6/U.S. 38 overlap and in 1933, the U.S. 38 route designation was dropped. In the early years of air travel, Lincoln had three airports and one airfield. Union Airport, was established northeast of Lincoln in 1920. The Lincoln Flying School was founded by E.J. Sias in a building he built at 2145 O Street. Charles Lindbergh was a student at the flying school in 1922. The flying school closed in 1947. Some remnants of the Union Airport are still visible between N. 56th and N. 70th Streets, north of Fletcher Avenue; mangled within a slowly developing industrial zone. Arrow Airport was established around 1925 as a manufacturing and test facility for Arrow Aircraft and Motors Corporation, primarily the Arrow Sport. The airfield was near Havelock; or to the west of where the North 48th Street Small Vehicle Transfer Station is today. Arrow Aircraft and Motors declared bankruptcy in 1939 and Arrow Airport closed roughly several decades later. An Arrow Sport is on permanent display, hanging in the Lincoln Airport's main passenger terminal. As train, automobile, and air travel increased, business flourished and the city prospered. Lincoln's population increased 38.2% from 1920 to a population of 75,933 in 1930. In 1930, the city's small municipal airfield was dedicated to Charles Lindbergh and named Lindbergh Field for a short period as another airfield was named Lindbergh in California. It was north of Salt Lake, in an area known over the years as Huskerville, Arnold Heights and Air Park; and was approximately within the western half of the West Lincoln Township. The air field was a stop for United Airlines in 1927 and a mail stop in 1928. In 1942, the Lincoln Army Airfield was established at the site. During World War II, the U.S. Army used the facility to train over 25,000 aviation mechanics and process over 40,000 troopers for combat. The Army closed the base in 1945, but the Air Force reactivated it in 1952 during the Korean War. In 1966, after the Air Force closed the base, Lincoln annexed the airfield and the base's housing units. The base became the Lincoln Municipal Airport, and later the Lincoln Airport, under the Lincoln Airport Authority's ownership. The two main airlines that served the airport were United Airlines and Frontier Airlines. The Authority shared facilities with the Nebraska National Guard, who continued to own parts of the old Air Force base. In 1966, Lincoln annexed the township of West Lincoln, incorporated in 1887. West Lincoln voters rejected Lincoln's annexation until the state legislature passed a bill in 1965 that allowed cities to annex surrounding areas without a vote. Revitalization and growth The downtown core retail district from 1959 to 1984 saw profound changes as retail shopping moved from downtown to the suburban Gateway Shopping Mall. In 1956, Bankers Life Insurance Company of Nebraska announced plans to build a $6 million shopping center next to their new campus on Lincoln's eastern outskirts. Gateway Shopping Center, now called Gateway Mall, opened at 60th and O streets in 1960. By 1984, 75% of Lincoln's revenue from retail sales tax came from within a one-mile radius of the Mall. The exodus of retail and service businesses led the downtown core to decline and deteriorate. In 1969, the Nebraska legislature legislated laws for urban renewal. Soon afterward, Lincoln began a program of revitalization and beautification. Most of the urban renewal projects focused on downtown and the near South areas. Many ideas were considered and not implemented. Successes included Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, designed by Philip Johnson; new branch libraries, new street lighting, the First National Bank Building and the National Bank of Commerce Building designed by I.M. Pei. In 1971, an expansion of Gateway Mall was completed. 1974 marked a new assembly facility in Lincoln, a subsidiary of Kawasaki Heavy Industries in Japan to produce motorcycles for the North American market. Lincoln's first woman mayor, Helen Boosalis, was elected in 1975. Mayor Boosalis was a strong supporter of the revitalization of Lincoln with the downtown beautification project being completed in 1978. In 1979, the square-block downtown Centrum was opened and connected to buildings with a skywalk. The Centrum was a two-level shopping mall with a garage for 1,038 cars. With the beautification and urban renewal projects, many historic buildings were razed in the city. In 2007 and 2009, the city of Lincoln received beautification grants for improvements on O and West O Streets, west of the Harris Overpass, commemorating the history of the D-L-D. After the fall of Saigon in 1975, Vietnamese refugees created a large residential and business community along the 27th Street corridor alongside Mexican eateries and African markets. Lincoln was designated as a "Refugee Friendly" city by the U.S. Department of State in the 1970s. In 2000, Lincoln was the twelfth-largest resettlement site per capita in the country. As of 2011, Lincoln had the second largest Karen (Burmese ethnic minority) population in the United States (behind Omaha), with an estimated 1,500 in 2019. As of the same year, Nebraska was one of the largest resettlement sites for the people of Sudan, mostly in Lincoln and Omaha. In 2014, some social service organizations estimated that up to 10,000 Iraqi refugees had resettled in Lincoln. In recent years, Lincoln had the largest Yazidi (Iraqi ethnic minority) population in the U.S., with over 2,000–3,000 having settled within the city (as of late 2017). In a three-year period, the immigrant and refugee student population at Lincoln Public Schools increased 52% - from 1,606 students in 2014, to 2,445 in 2017. The decade from 1990 to 2000 saw a significant rise in population from 191,972 to 225,581. North 27th Street and Cornhusker Highway were redeveloped with new housing and businesses built. The boom housing market in south Lincoln created new housing developments including high end housing in areas like Cripple Creek, Willamsburg and The Ridge. The shopping center Southpointe Pavilions was completed in competition of Gateway Mall. In 2001, Westfield America Trust purchased the Gateway Mall and named it Westfield Shoppingtown Gateway. In 2005, the company renamed it the Westfield Gateway. Westfield made a $45 million makeover of the mall in 2005 including an expanded food court, a new west-side entrance and installation of an Italian carousel. In 2012, Westfield America Trust sold Westfield Gateway to Starwood Capital Group. Starwood reverted the mall's name from Westfield Gateway to Gateway Mall and has made incremental expansions and renovations. In 2015, ALLO Communications announced it would bring ultra-high speed fiber internet to the city. Speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second were available for business and households by building off of the city's existing fiber network. Construction on the citywide network began in March 2016 and was estimated to be complete by 2019, making it one of the largest infrastructure projects in the United States. Telephone and cable TV service were also included, making it the third company to compete for such services within the same Lincoln footprint. In April 2016, Windstream Communications announced that 2,300 customers in Lincoln had 1 Gigabit per second fiber internet with an expected expansion of services to 25,000 customers by 2017. On November 29, 2017, Lincoln was named a Smart Gigabit Community by U.S. Ignite Inc. and in early 2018, Spectrum joined the ranks of internet service providers providing 1 gigabit internet within the city. Geography Lincoln has an area of 99.050 square miles (256.538 km2), of which 97.689 square miles (253.013 km2) is land and 1.361 square miles (3.525 km2) is water, according to the United States Census Bureau in 2020. Lincoln is one of the few large cities of Nebraska not along either the Platte River or the Missouri River. The city was originally laid out near Salt Creek and among the nearly flat saline wetlands of northern Lancaster County. The city's growth has led to development of the surrounding land, much of which is composed of gently rolling hills. In recent years, Lincoln's northward growth has encroached on the habitat of the endangered Salt Creek tiger beetle. Metropolitan area The Lincoln Metropolitan Statistical Area consists of Lancaster County and Seward County. Seward County was added to the metropolitan area in 2003. Lincoln is also in the Lincoln-Beatrice Combined Statistical Area which consists of the Lincoln metropolitan area and the micropolitan area of Beatrice. The city of Beatrice is the county seat of Gage County. The Lincoln-Beatrice combined statistical area is home to 363,733 people (2021 estimate) making it the 104th-largest combined statistical area in the United States. Neighborhoods Lincoln's neighborhoods include both old and new development. Some neighborhoods in Lincoln were formerly small towns that Lincoln later annexed, including University Place in 1926, Belmont, Bethany (Bethany Heights) in 1922, College View in 1929, Havelock in 1930, and West Lincoln in 1966. A number of Historic Districts are near downtown Lincoln, while newer neighborhoods have appeared primarily in the south and east. As of December 2013, Lincoln had 45 registered neighborhood associations within the city limits. One core neighborhood that has seen rapid residential growth in recent years is the downtown Lincoln area. In 2010, there were 1,200 downtown Lincoln residents; in 2016, there were 3,000 (an increase of 140%). Around the middle of the same decade, demand for housing and rent units began outpacing supply. With Lincoln's population expected to grow to more than 311,000 people by 2020, prices for homes and rent costs have risen. Home prices rose 10% from the first quarter of 2015 to the first quarter of 2016; rent prices rose 30% from 2007 to 2017 with a 5–8% increase in 2016 alone. Climate Located in the Great Plains far from the moderating influence of mountains or large bodies of water, Lincoln has a highly variable four season humid continental climate (Köppen Dfa): winters are cold and summers are hot. With little precipitation during winter, precipitation is concentrated in the warmer months, when thunderstorms frequently roll in, often producing tornadoes. Snow averages 26.0 inches (66 cm) per season but seasonal accumulation has ranged from 7.2 in (18 cm) in 1967–1968 to 55.5 in (141 cm) in 2018–2019. Snow tends to fall in light amounts, though blizzards are possible. There is an average of 38 days with a snow depth of 1 in (2.5 cm) or more. The average window for freezing temperatures is October 7 thru April 25, allowing a growing season of 164 days. The monthly daily average temperature ranges from 25.0 °F (−3.9 °C) in January to 78.1 °F (25.6 °C) in July. However, the city is subject both to episodes of bitter cold in winter and heat waves during summer, with 10.1 nights of 0 °F (−18 °C) or lower lows, 41.8 days of 90 °F (32 °C)+ highs, and 3.5 days of 100 °F (38 °C)+ highs. The city straddles the boundary of USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 5b and 6a. Temperature extremes have ranged from −33 °F (−36.1 °C) on January 12, 1974, up to 115 °F (46.1 °C) on July 25, 1936. Readings as high as 105 °F (41 °C) or as low as −20 °F (−29 °C) occur somewhat rarely; the last occurrence of each was August 24, 2023 and February 16, 2021. The second lowest temperature ever recorded in Lincoln was −31 °F (−35.0 °C) on February 16, 2021, which broke the monthly record of −26 °F (−32.2 °C) last set a day earlier. It occurred during the wider February 13–17, 2021 North American winter storm, which impacted the Midwestern and Northeastern United States as a whole. Based on 30-year averages obtained from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center for December, January and February, the Weather Channel ranked Lincoln the seventh-coldest major U.S. city in a 2014 article. In 2014, the Lincoln-Beatrice area was among the "Cleanest U.S. Cities for Ozone Air Pollution" in the American Lung Association's "State of the Air 2014" report. On May 5, 2019, an EF2 tornado hit parts of western Lincoln, although no major injuries occurred. Demographics Lincoln is Nebraska's second-most-populous city. In the 1970s, The U.S. government designated Lincoln a refugee-friendly city due to its stable economy, educational institutions, and size. Since then, refugees from Vietnam settled in Lincoln, and more came from other countries. In 2013, Lincoln was named one of the "Top Ten Most Welcoming Cities in America" by Welcoming America. 2020 census The 2020 United States census counted 291,082 people, 115,930 households, and 67,277 families in Lincoln. The population density was 2,937.6 per square mile (1,134.2/km2). There were 122,048 housing units at an average density of 1,231.7 per square mile (475.6/km2). The racial makeup was 78.66% (228,956) white, 4.67% (13,605) black or African-American, 0.89% (2,589) Native American, 4.77% (13,871) Asian, 0.07% (196) Pacific Islander, 3.5% (10,175) from other races, and 7.45% (21,690) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race was 7.0% (22,321) of the population. Of the 115,930 households, 26.9% had children under the age of 18; 43.8% were married couples living together; 27.1% had a female householder with no husband present. 31.0% of households consisted of individuals and 9.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.4 and the average family size was 3.0. 21.9% of the population was under the age of 18, 15.7% from 18 to 24, 26.8% from 25 to 44, 20.8% from 45 to 64, and 13.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32.9 years. For every 100 females, the population had 100.8 males. For every 100 females ages 18 and older, there were 99.4 males. The 2016-2020 5-year American Community Survey estimates show that the median household income was $60,063 (with a margin of error of +/- $1,248) and the median family income $79,395 (+/- $1,992). Males had a median income of $37,646 (+/- $1,251) versus $27,411 (+/- $805) for females. The median income for those above 16 years old was $31,869 (+/- $455). Approximately, 7.5% of families and 12.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.4% of those under the age of 18 and 6.2% of those ages 65 or over. Economy Lincoln's economy is fairly typical of a mid-sized American city; most economic activity is derived from the service and manufacturing industries. Government and the University of Nebraska are both large contributors to the local economy. Other prominent industries in Lincoln include finance, insurance, publishing, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, railroads, high technology, information technology, medical, education and truck transport. For October 2021, the Lincoln Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) preliminary unemployment rate was 1.3% (not seasonally adjusted). With a tight labor market, Lincoln has seen rapid wage growth. From the summer of 2014 to the summer of 2015, the average hourly pay for both public and private employees have increased by 11%. From October 2014 to October 2015, wages were also up by 8.4%. One of the largest employers is Bryan Health, which consists of two major hospitals and several large outpatient facilities across the city. Healthcare and medical jobs account for a large portion of Lincoln's employment: as of 2009, full-time healthcare employees in the city included 9,010 healthcare practitioners in technical occupations, 4,610 workers in healthcare support positions, 780 licensed and vocational nurses, and 150 medical and clinical laboratory technicians. Several national business were originally established in Lincoln; these include student lender Nelnet, Ameritas, Assurity, Fort Western Stores, CliffsNotes and HobbyTown USA. Several regional restaurant chains began in Lincoln, including Amigos/Kings Classic, Runza Restaurants, and Valentino's. The Lincoln area makes up a part of what is known as the greater Midwest Silicon Prairie. The city is also a part of a rapidly growing craft brewing industry. In 2013, Lincoln ranked no. 4 on Forbes's list of the Best Places for Business and Careers, no. 1 on NerdWallet's Best Cities for Job Seekers in 2015, and no. 2 on SmartAsset's Cities with the Best Work-life Balance in 2019. Principal employers According to the city's 2023 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the principal employers of the city are: Automotive and technology 1974 saw the establishment of a Kawasaki motorcycles assembly facility named the American Kawasaki Motors Corporation (KMC), to complete Japan-produced components into finished products for the North American market. Incorporated in 1981, Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Corp. (KMM) and assumed control of KMC. As of 2022, their webpresence named tallies "All-Terrain Vehicles, Utility Vehicles, Personal Watercraft, Recreation Utility Vehicles, and Passenger Rail Cars" as their range. Kawasaki is one of Lincoln's largest private employers with over 2,400 employees, and it has the largest square footage of manufacturing space. Newer product lines are rail cars and aircraft cargo doors. Military The Nebraska Air and Army National Guard's Joint Force Headquarters are in Lincoln along with other major units of the Nebraska National Guard. During the early years of the Cold War, the Lincoln Airport was the Lincoln Air Force Base; the Nebraska Air National Guard and the Nebraska Army National Guard now have joint-use facilities with the Lincoln Airport. Alongside the National Guard, the 55th Wing of Offutt Air Force Base was temporarily headquartered in Lincoln through September 2022. Arts and culture Since Pinnacle Bank Arena opened in 2013, Lincoln's music scene has grown to the point where it is sometimes called a "Music City". Primary venues for live music include Pinnacle Bank Arena, Bourbon Theatre, Duffy's Tavern, and the Zoo Bar. The Pla-Mor Ballroom is a classic Lincoln music and dance scene with its in-house Sandy Creek Band. Pinewood Bowl hosts a range of performances, from national music performances to local plays, during the summer. The Lied Center is a venue for national tours of Broadway productions, concert music, and guest lectures, and regularly features its resident orchestra, the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra. Lincoln has several performing arts venues. Plays are staged by UNL students in the Temple Building; community theater productions are held at the Lincoln Community Playhouse, the Loft at The Mill, and the Haymarket Theater. Lincoln has a growing number of arts galleries, including the Sheldon Museum of Art, Burkholder Project and Noyes Art Gallery. For movie viewing, Marcus Theatres owns 32 screens at four locations, and the University of Nebraska's Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center shows independent and foreign films. Standalone cinemas in Lincoln include the Joyo Theatre and Rococo Theater. The Rococo Theater also hosts benefits and other engagements. The downtown section of O Street is Lincoln's largest bar and nightclub district. There is also the Bourbon Theatre, which is primarily used for bands in the metal rock and other related genres. Lincoln is the hometown of Zager and Evans, known for their international hit record "In the Year 2525" (1969). It is also the hometown of several notable musical groups, such as Remedy Drive, VOTA, For Against, Lullaby for the Working Class, Matthew Sweet, Dirtfedd, The Show is the Rainbow and Straight. Lincoln is home to Maroon 5 guitarist James Valentine. In 2012, the city was listed among the 10 best places to retire in the United States by U.S. News & World Report. Annual cultural events Annual events in Lincoln have come and gone throughout time, such as Band Day at the University of Nebraska's Lincoln campus and the Star City Holiday Parade. However, some events have never changed while new traditions have been created. Current annual cultural events in Lincoln include the Lincoln National Guard Marathon and Half-Marathon in May, Celebrate Lincoln in early June, the Uncle Sam Jam around July 3, and Boo at the Zoo in October. A locally popular event is the Haymarket Farmers' Market, running from May to October in the Historic Haymarket, one of several farmers markets throughout the city. Tourism Tourist attractions and activities include the Sunken Gardens, basketball games at Pinnacle Bank Arena, the Lincoln Children's Zoo, the dairy store at UNL's East Campus, and Mueller Planetarium on the city campus. The Nebraska State Capitol, which is also the tallest building in Lincoln, offers tours. The Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed preserves, interprets, and displays physical items significant in racing and automotive history. The National Museum of Roller Skating extends public knowledge of roller skating history and seeks to preserve its legacy for future generations. In late 2016, Lincoln was ranked #3 on Lonely Planet's "Best in the U.S.," destinations to see in 2017 list. Sports Lincoln is home to the University of Nebraska's sports teams, the Cornhuskers. In total, the university fields 22 men's and women's teams in 14 NCAA Division I sports. Nebraska football began play in 1890. Of the 128 Division I-A football teams, Nebraska is one of nine to have won 900 or more games. Notable coaches include Tom Osborne and Bob Devaney. Devaney coached from 1962 to 1972; the university's indoor arena, the Bob Devaney Sports Center, is named for him. Osborne coached from 1972 to 1997. Other sports teams are the Nebraska Wesleyan Prairie Wolves, an NCAA Division III University; the Lincoln Saltdogs, an American Association independent minor league baseball team; the Lincoln Stars, a USHL junior ice hockey team; and the No Coast Derby Girls, a member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association. Lincoln Airpark hosts SCCA Solo Nationals each September. Parks and recreation Lincoln has an extensive park system, with over 131 individual parks connected by a 248 mi (399 km) system of recreational trails, a 2.3 mi (3.7 km) system of bike lanes and a 1.3 mi (2.1 km) system of cycle tracks. The MoPac Trail is a bicycling, equestrian and walking trail built on an abandoned Missouri Pacific Railroad corridor which runs for 27 miles (43 km) from the University of Nebraska's Lincoln campus eastward to Wabash, Nebraska. Regional parks include Antelope Park from S. 23rd and "N" Streets to S. 33rd Street and Sheridan Boulevard, Bicentennial Cascade Fountain, Hamann Rose Garden, Lincoln Children's Zoo, Veterans Memorial Garden, and Holmes Park at S. 70th Street and Normal Boulevard. Pioneers Park includes the Pioneers Park Nature Center at S. Coddington Avenue and W. Calvert Streets. Community parks include Ballard Park, Bethany Park, Bowling Lake Park, Densmore Park, Erwin Peterson Park, Fleming Fields, Irvingdale Park, Mahoney Park, Max E. Roper Park, Oak Lake Park, Peter Pan Park, Pine Lake Park, Sawyer Snell Park, Seacrest Park, Tierra Briarhurst, University Place Park and Woods Park. Other notable parks include Iron Horse Park, Lincoln Community Foundation Tower Square, Nine Mile Prairie owned by the University of Nebraska Foundation, Sunken Gardens, Union Plaza, and Wilderness Park. Smaller neighborhood parks are scattered throughout the city. Additionally, there are five public recreation centers, nine outdoor public pools and five public golf courses not including private facilities in Lincoln. Government Lincoln has a mayor–council government. The mayor and a seven-member city council are selected in nonpartisan elections. Four members are elected from city council districts; the remaining three members are elected at-large. Lincoln's health, personnel, and planning departments are joint city/county agencies; most city and Lancaster County offices are in the County/City Building. The most recent city general election was held on May 4, 2021. Since Lincoln is the state capital, many Nebraska state and United States Government offices are in Lincoln. The city lies within the Lincoln Public Schools school district. The Lincoln Fire and Rescue Department shoulders the city's fire fighting and emergency ambulatory services while private companies provide non-emergency medical transport and volunteer fire fighting units support the city's outlying areas. The city's public library system is Lincoln City Libraries, which has eight branches. Lincoln City Libraries circulates more than three million items per year to the residents of Lincoln and Lancaster County. Lincoln City Libraries is also home to Polley Music Library and the Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska authors. Law enforcement The Lincoln Police Department has just over 350 police officers. The police per capita rate is extremely low at 1.2 officers per 1,000 people (the average being 1.94), and the violent crime rate of 522 per 100,000 people. The department is nationally accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies and was the first law enforcement agency in Nebraska to become so. The LPD shares its headquarters with the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office. Education Primary and secondary education Lincoln Public Schools (LPS) is the public school district which includes the majority of the city limits. It includes eight traditional high schools: Lincoln High, East, Northeast, Northwest, North Star, Southeast, Southwest, and Standing Bear. LPS is also home to special interest high school programs, including the Arts and Humanities Focus Program, the Bryan Community School, The Career Academy and the Science Focus Program (Zoo School). Other programs include the Pathfinder Education Program, the Yankee Hill Program and the Lincoln Air Force JROTC. Some outerlying sections of Lincoln are in other school districts: Norris School District 160 and Waverly School District 145. There are several private parochial elementary and middle schools throughout the community. Like Lincoln Public Schools, these schools are broken into districts, but most will allow attendance outside of boundary lines. Lincoln's private high schools are College View Academy, Lincoln Christian, Lincoln Lutheran, Parkview Christian School and Pius X High School. Colleges and universities Lincoln has twelve colleges and universities. The University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the University of Nebraska system, is the largest university in Nebraska, with 20,830 undergraduate, 4,426 postgraduate students and 564 professionals enrolled in 2018. Out of the 25,820 enrolled, 2,187 undergraduate and 1,040 postgraduate students/professionals were international. With 135 countries outside of the U.S. represented, the five countries with the highest international enrollment were China, India, Malaysia, Oman and Rwanda. Nebraska Wesleyan University, as of 2020, has 1,924 undergraduate and 151 postgraduate students. The school teaches in the tradition of a liberal arts college education. Nebraska Wesleyan was ranked the #1 liberal arts college in Nebraska by U.S. News & World Report in 2002. In 2009, Forbes ranked it 84th of America's Best Colleges. It remains affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Union College is a private Seventh-day Adventist four-year coeducational college with 911 students enrolled 2013–14. Bryan College of Health Sciences offers undergraduate degrees in nursing and other health professions; a Masters in Nursing; a Doctoral degree in nurse anesthesia practice, as well as certificate programs for ancillary health professions. Universities with satellite locations in Lincoln are Bellevue University, Concordia University (Nebraska) and Doane University. Lincoln also hosts the College of Hair Design and Joseph's College of Cosmetology. Southeast Community College is a community college system in southeastern Nebraska, with three campuses in Lincoln and an enrollment of 9,505 students as of spring 2024. The two-year Academic Transfer program is popular among students who want to complete their general education requirements before they enroll in a four-year institution. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is the most popular transfer location. Media Television Lincoln has four licensed broadcast full power television stations; and one serving the city, but licensed to an area outside its limits: KSNB-TV (Channel 4; 4.1 DT) - NBC/MyNetworkTV affiliate Ion Television affiliate 4.3 KLKN (Channel 8; 8.1 DT) – ABC affiliate Grit affiliate 8.2 Escape affiliate 8.3 Laff affiliate 8.4 KOLN (Channel 10; 10.1 DT) – CBS affiliate KSNB-TV Simulcast/NBC 10.2 MeTV/MNTV 10.3 KUON (Channel 12; 12.1 DT) – PBS affiliate, Nebraska Public Media Television flagship station NET-W (World) 12.2 NET-C (Create) 12.3 NET-K (PBS Kids) 12.4 KFXL (Channel 15; 51.1 DT) – Fox affiliate The headquarters of Nebraska Public Media, which is affiliated with the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio, are in Lincoln. The city has two low power digital TV stations in Lincoln area: including the translator KFDY-LD (simulcast of (KOHA-LD)) owned by Flood Communications of Nebraska LLC, including for main Spanish-language network affiliate Telemundo on 27.1, NCN (Ind.) on 27.2, and religious network affiliate 3ABN on 27.3 in Lincoln area only, on virtual channel 27, digital channel 27; and another low power digital KCWH-LD on CW+ affiliate, owned by Gray on channel 18.1 included sub-channels like Ion on 18.2, and CBS (Simulcast of KOLN) on 18.3. Radio There are 18 radio stations licensed in Lincoln, not including radio stations licensed outside of the city that serve the Lincoln area. Most areas of Lincoln also receive radio signals from Omaha and other surrounding communities. FM stations include: KLCV (88.5) – Religious talk KZUM (89.3) – Independent Community Radio KRNU (90.3) – Alternative / College radio UNL KUCV (91.1) – National Public Radio K220GT (91.9) – Contemporary Christian K233AN (94.5) – Top 40 KNNA-LP (95.7) – Christian K255CS (98.9) – Christian KFOR (101.5) – News/Talk KLMS (103.3) – Hot AC KLNC (105.3) – Classic Rock KFRX (106.3) – Top-40 K294DJ (106.7) – Christian KBBK (107.3) – Hot AC KJTM-LP (107.9) – Contemporary Christian AM stations include: KFOR (1240) – News/Talk KLIN (1400) – News/Talk KLMS (1480) – HOT AC Print The Lincoln Journal Star is the city's major daily newspaper. The Daily Nebraskan is the official monthly magazine of the University of Nebraska's Lincoln campus and The DailyER is the university's biweekly satirical paper. Other university newspapers include the Reveille, the official periodical campus paper of Nebraska Wesleyan University and the Clocktower, the official weekly campus paper of Union College. Infrastructure Transportation Major highways Lincoln is served by Interstate 80 via seven interchanges, connecting the city to San Francisco in the west and Teaneck, New Jersey in the New York City metropolitan area in the east. Other Highways that serve the Lincoln area are Interstate 180, U.S. Route 6, U.S. Highway 34, U.S. Highway 77 and nearby Nebraska Highway 79. The eastern segment of Nebraska Highway 2 is a primary trucking route that connects the Kansas City metropolitan area (Interstate 29) to the I-80 corridor in Lincoln. A few additional minor State Highway segments are located within the city as well. Mass transit A public bus transit system, StarTran, operates in Lincoln. StarTran's fleet consists of 67 full-sized buses and 13 Handi-Vans. The transit system has 18 bus routes, with a circular bus route downtown. Annual ridership for the fiscal year 2017–18 was 2,463,799. Intercity transit The Lincoln Airport (KLNK/LNK) provides passengers with daily non-stop service to Chicago O'Hare International Airport, and Denver International Airport. General aviation support is provided through several private aviation companies. The Lincoln Airport was among the emergency landing sites for the NASA Space Shuttle. The site was chosen chiefly because of a 12,901 feet (3,932 m) runway; the longest of three at the airport. Lincoln is served by both Express Arrow and Burlington Trailways for regional bus service between Omaha, Denver and points beyond. Megabus, in partnership with Windstar Lines, provides bus service between Lincoln and Chicago with stops in Omaha, Des Moines, Iowa City and Moline. Amtrak provides service to Lincoln station, operating its California Zephyr daily in each direction between Chicago and Emeryville, California, using BNSF's Lincoln – Denver route through Nebraska. The city is an Amtrak crew-change point. Rail freight Rail freight travels coast-to-coast, to and through Lincoln via BNSF Railway, the Union Pacific Railroad, Lincoln's own Omaha, Lincoln and Beatrice Railway Company and an Omaha Public Power District rail line. Lincoln was once served by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (Rock Island), the Missouri Pacific Railroad (MoPac) and the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company (C&NW). The abandoned right-of-way of these former railroads have since been turned into bicycle trails. Cycling modes Lincoln has a third-generation dock-based bike share program that began in mid-April 2018, called BikeLNK. The first phase of the program included 19 docks and 100 bicycles, scattered throughout downtown and around the UNL City, UNL East & Nebraska Innovation campuses. A second phase in 2019 increased the number of docks to 21, total bicycles to 105 and expanded to a location outside of downtown. Lincoln also has a fleet of commercial pedicabs that operates in the downtown area. Modal characteristics In 2016, 80.5 percent of working Lincoln residents commuted by driving alone, 9.6 percent carpooled, 1.1 percent used public transportation, and 3.1 percent walked. About 2.4 percent used all other forms of transportation, including taxis, bicycles, and motorcycles as well as ride-sharing services such as Lyft and Uber which entered the Lincoln market in the summer of 2014. About 3.3 percent worked at home. In 2015, 6.3 percent of city of Lincoln households were without a car, which decreased slightly to 5.8 percent in 2016. The national average was 8.7 percent in 2016. Lincoln averaged 1.78 cars per household in 2016, compared to a national average of 1.8 per household. Utilities Power in Lincoln is provided by the Lincoln Electric System (LES). The LES service area covers 200 square miles (520 km2), serving Lincoln and several other communities outside of the city. A public utility, LES's electric rates are the 8th lowest in the nation, according to a nationwide survey conducted by LES in 2018. Current LES power supply resources are 35% oil and gas, 34% renewable and 31% coal. Renewable resources have increased with partial help from the addition of an LES-owned five Megawatt solar energy farm put into service June, 2016. The solar farm produces enough energy to power 900 homes. LES also owns two wind turbines in the northeast part of the city. Water in Lincoln is provided through the Lincoln Water System. In the 1920s, the city of Lincoln undertook the task of building the Lincoln Municipal Lighting and Waterworks Plant (designed by Fiske & Meginnis). The building worked as the main hub for water from nearby wells and power in Lincoln for decades until it was replaced and turned into an apartment building. Most of Lincoln's water originates from wells along the Platte River near Ashland, Nebraska. Wastewater is in turn collected by the Lincoln Wastewater System. The city of Lincoln owns both systems. Natural gas is provided by Black Hills Energy. Landline telephone service has had a storied history within the regional Lincoln area with the Lincoln Telephone & Telegraph Company, founded in 1880. In its history, LT&T introduced the first rotary dial telephone exchange in the U.S. in 1904; the first Radiotelephone in 1946; and piloted the first 911 system in the nation in 1968. Many years later, LT&T was renamed Aliant Communications and shortly thereafter merged in 1998 with Alltel. In 2006, Windstream Communications was formed with the spinoff of Alltel and a merge with VALOR Communications Group. Windstream Communications provides telephone service both over VoIP and conventional telephone circuits to the Lincoln area. Spectrum offers telephone service over VoIP on their cable network. In addition, ALLO Communications provides telephone, television and internet service over their underground fiber network to all parts of the city. Health care Lincoln has three major hospitals within two health care systems serving the city: Bryan Health and CHI Health St. Elizabeth. Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital is a geriatric facility and a physical medicine & rehabilitation center. Lincoln has two specialty hospitals: Lincoln Surgical Hospital and the Nebraska Heart Institute. A U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Community-Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) is in Lincoln (Lincoln VA Clinic, part of the Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System). In popular culture Lincoln, Nebraska, is purportedly the setting of the animated television series Transformers: Armada. However, this depiction of the city is vastly different than reality, featuring mountains, deserts, and palm trees. In April 2011, a contest held by DC Comics selected Omaha, Nebraska, as the site of a new issue. However, the Nebraska State Capitol was depicted in the issue, with the writers having confused Lincoln for Omaha. Lincoln was immortalised in song by John Prine in his 2018 song Egg & Daughter Nite, Lincoln Nebraska, 1967 (Crazy Bone). However in an interview Prine explained that the anecdote on which the song was based actually occurred in Norfolk, Nebraska. See also Charles Starkweather List of people from Lincoln, Nebraska List of mayors of Lincoln, Nebraska History of Lincoln, Nebraska References Notes Citations Cited works Hayes, A.B.; Cox, Sam D. (1889). 1889 History of the City of Lincoln, Nebraska. State Journal Company. McKee, James L. (1984). Lincoln: The Prairie Capital. Windsor Publications. ISBN 0897811097. McKee, James L. (2007). Visions of Lincoln; Nebraska's Capital City in the Present, Past and Future. TankWorks, LLC. ISBN 978-0979879401. External links Official website ExploreLincoln Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development Public Art Lincoln Archived June 5, 2020, at the Wayback Machine

Leirion_Gaylor_Baird

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leirion_Gaylor_Baird

Leirion Gaylor Baird is an American politician. Since the 2019 election, she has been the mayor of Lincoln, Nebraska, where she previously served as a city councilwoman. Early life and education Gaylor Baird grew up in Portland, Oregon; her parents were public school teachers. She completed a Bachelor of Arts in history from Yale College in 1993. She earned a Master of Science in comparative social policy from University of Oxford in 1997. Career Baird began her career as a management consultant, working also as a city budget and policy analyst. She was the director of an after-school and summer program in San Francisco. Upon moving to Lincoln, Nebraska, she was appointed to the Lincoln/Lancaster County Planning Commission and helped develop its 2040 Comprehensive Plan. She was elected to the Lincoln City Council as a city-wide representative in May 2013 and was, at the time, its only female member. She won reelection in 2017. Following the ratification of a term limit amendment by referendum, Baird announced her intention to succeed incumbent three-term Mayor Chris Beutler. Affiliated with the Democratic Party, she officially ran as a nonpartisan candidate due to municipal election law. She won the election for mayor on May 7, 2019, against Republican-affiliated Cyndi Lamm. She was sworn in on May 20, 2019, alongside the new city council. Political positions and mayoralty During her campaign for the mayoralty, Baird campaigned on additional road funding for the city, environmental preservation, and community land trusts for housing. During her time as a city councilwoman, she introduced legislation to ban bump stocks in the city. A recall against Baird was organized in October 2020. LNK Recall objected to the suspension of city charter rules that allowed Pat Lopez to be designated as health director. Organizers needed at least 21,652 signatures by December 23, 2020, to trigger a recall election; they were unable to do so. Baird responded by saying she continued to work as mayor. Baird was reelected in the 2023 mayoral election. Her two opponents in the primary were Republican state senator Suzanne Geist and Republican Stan Parker. Election results 2019 2023 == References ==

List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States_by_education

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States_by_education

Most presidents of the United States received a college education, even most of the earliest. Of the first seven presidents, five were college graduates. College degrees have set the presidents apart from the general population, and presidents have held degrees even though it was quite rare and unnecessary for practicing most occupations, including law. Of the 45 individuals to have been the president, 25 of them graduated from a private undergraduate college, nine graduated from a public undergraduate college, and 12 held no degree. Every president since 1953 has had a bachelor's degree, reflecting the increasing importance of higher education in the United States. List by university attended Did not graduate from college George Washington (The death of Washington's father ended his formal schooling. The College of William & Mary issued surveying licenses in Virginia, Washington received his license from the College in 1749 — surveyors did not attend classes at the school. Washington believed strongly in formal education, and his will left money and/or stocks to support three educational institutions, including George Washington University and Washington and Lee University) James Monroe (attended the College of William and Mary, but dropped out to fight in the Revolutionary War) Andrew Jackson Martin Van Buren William Henry Harrison (attended Hampden Sydney College for three years but did not graduate and then attended University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine but never received a degree) Zachary Taylor Millard Fillmore (founded the University at Buffalo) Abraham Lincoln (had only about a year of formal schooling of any kind) Andrew Johnson (no formal schooling of any kind) Grover Cleveland William McKinley (attended Allegheny College, but did not graduate; also attended Albany Law School, but also did not graduate) Harry S. Truman (went to business college and law school, but did not graduate) Undergraduate Additional undergraduate information Some presidents attended more than one institution. George Washington never attended college, though The College of William & Mary did issue him a surveyor's certificate. One president attended a foreign college at the undergraduate level: John Quincy Adams at Leiden University (John F. Kennedy intended to study at the London School of Economics, but failed to attend as he fell ill before classes began.) Bill Clinton won a Rhodes Scholarship, enrolling at the University of Oxford in Fall 1968, where he read for a B.Phil in politics. He left Oxford without earning a degree in order to enroll at Yale Law School. Three presidents have attended the United States Service academies: Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, while Jimmy Carter graduated from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. No presidents have graduated from the United States Coast Guard Academy or the much newer U.S. Air Force Academy. Eisenhower also graduated from the Army Command and General Staff College, Army Industrial College and Army War College. These were not degree-granting institutions when Eisenhower attended, but were part of his professional education as a career soldier. Graduate school A total of 20 presidents attended some form of graduate school (including professional schools). Among them, eleven presidents received a graduate degree during their lifetimes; two more received graduate degrees posthumously. Business school Graduate school Medical school Law school Several presidents who were lawyers did not attend law school, but became lawyers after independent study under the tutelage of established attorneys. Some had attended college before beginning their legal studies, and several studied law without first having attended college. Presidents who were lawyers but did not attend law school include: John Adams; Thomas Jefferson; James Madison; James Monroe; John Quincy Adams; Andrew Jackson; Martin Van Buren; John Tyler; James K. Polk; Millard Fillmore; James Buchanan; Abraham Lincoln; James A. Garfield; Grover Cleveland; Benjamin Harrison; and Calvin Coolidge. Presidents who were admitted to the bar after a combination of law school and independent study include; Franklin Pierce; Chester A. Arthur; William McKinley; and Woodrow Wilson. List by graduate degree earned Ph.D. (research doctorate) M.B.A. (Master of Business Administration) M.A. (Master of Arts) Note: John Adams and John Quincy Adams, along with George W. Bush are the only presidents to date to attain master's degrees. J.D. or LL.B. (law degree) Note: Hayes, Taft, Nixon and Ford were awarded LL.B. degrees. When most U.S. law schools began to award the J.D. as the professional law degree in the 1960s, previous graduates had the choice of converting their LL.B. degrees to a J.D. Duke University Law School made the change in 1968, and Yale Law School in 1971. List by president Other academic associations Faculty member School rector or president School trustee or governor See also List of vice presidents of the United States by education Other countries List of prime ministers of Australia by education List of prime ministers of Canada by academic degrees List of presidents of the Philippines by education List of prime ministers of the United Kingdom by education == References ==

List_of_United_States_cities_by_population

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population

This is a list of the most populous incorporated places of the United States. As defined by the United States Census Bureau, an incorporated place includes cities, towns, villages, boroughs, and municipalities. A few exceptional census-designated places (CDPs) are also included in the Census Bureau's listing of incorporated places. Consolidated city-counties represent a distinct type of government that includes the entire population of a county, or county equivalent. Some consolidated city-counties, however, include multiple incorporated places. This list presents only the portion of such consolidated city-counties that are not a part of another incorporated place. This list refers only to the population of individual municipalities within their defined limits; the populations of other municipalities considered suburbs of a central city are listed separately, and unincorporated areas within urban agglomerations are not included. Therefore, a different ranking is evident when considering U.S. urban areas or metropolitan areas. 50 states and Washington, D.C. This table lists the 336 incorporated places in the United States, excluding the U.S. territories, with a population of at least 100,000 as of July 1, 2023, as estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau. Five states have no cities with populations exceeding 100,000. They are: Delaware, Maine, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming. The table displays: The city rank by population as of July 1, 2023, as estimated by the United States Census Bureau The city name The name of the state in which the city lies The city population as of July 1, 2023, as estimated by the United States Census Bureau The city population as of April 1, 2020, as enumerated by the 2020 United States census The city percent population change from April 1, 2020, to July 1, 2023 The city land area as of January 1, 2020 The city population density as of April 1, 2020 (residents per unit of land area) The city latitude and longitude coordinates Distribution The total 2020 enumerated population of all cities over 100,000 is 96,598,047, representing 29.14% of the United States population (excluding territories) and covering a total land area of 29,588 square miles (76,630 km2). The mean city population is 301,765, and the mean density is 4,151 inhabitants per square mile (1,603/km2). Gallery Puerto Rico The following table lists the five municipalities (municipios) of Puerto Rico with a population greater than 100,000 on July 1, 2023, as estimated by the United States Census Bureau. If Puerto Rico were included with the broader U.S. list, San Juan would be the 58th largest city in the country. The table below contains the following information: The municipio rank by population as of July 1, 2023, as estimated by the United States Census Bureau The municipio The municipio population as of July 1, 2023, as estimated by the United States Census Bureau The municipio population as of April 1, 2020, as enumerated by the 2020 United States census The municipio percent population change from April 1, 2020, to July 1, 2023 The municipio land area as of January 1, 2020 The municipio population density as of April 1, 2020 (residents per land area) The municipio latitude and longitude coordinates Other U.S. territories As of 2023, four U.S. territories — American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands — have no cities with at least 100,000 people. Census-designated places The following table lists U.S. census-designated places (CDPs) with populations of at least 100,000 according to the 2020 census. A CDP is a concentration of population identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CDPs are delineated for each decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places such as cities, towns and villages. CDPs are populated areas that lack separate municipal government, but which otherwise physically resemble incorporated places. Unlike the incorporated cities in the main list, the US Census Bureau does not release annual population estimates for CDPs. The table below contains the following information: The census-designated place The state The census-designated place population as of April 1, 2020, as enumerated by the 2020 United States census The census-designated place population as of April 1, 2010, as enumerated by the 2010 United States census The census-designated place percent population change from April 1, 2010, to April 1, 2020 The census-designated place land area as of January 1, 2020 The census-designated place population density as of April 1, 2020 (residents per land area) The census-designated place latitude and longitude coordinates Cities formerly over 100,000 people The following table lists U.S. cities that, in past censuses, have had populations of at least 100,000 but have since decreased beneath this threshold or have been consolidated with or annexed into a neighboring city. Locations of 50 most populous cities See also Demographics of the United States Largest cities in the United States by population by decade List of largest cities – (world) List of largest cities of U.S. states and territories by population List of largest cities of U.S. states and territories by historical population List of United States cities by area List of United States cities by elevation List of United States cities by population density Lists of populated places in the United States United States Census Bureau List of United States urban areas List of U.S. states and territories by population List of United States counties and county equivalents Office of Management and Budget Statistical area (United States) Combined statistical area Core-based statistical area List of core-based statistical areas Metropolitan statistical area List of metropolitan statistical areas Micropolitan statistical area List of micropolitan statistical areas Notes References External links United States Government United States Census Bureau 2010 United States Census USCB population estimates United States Office of Management and Budget

Arlington,_Texas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlington,_Texas

Arlington is a city in Tarrant County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and is a principal city of the metropolis and region. The city had a population of 394,266 in 2020, making it the second-largest city in the county after Fort Worth and the third-largest city in the metropolitan area, after Dallas and Fort Worth. Arlington is the 50th-most populous city in the United States, the seventh-most populous city in the state of Texas, and the largest city in the state that is not a county seat. Arlington is home to the University of Texas at Arlington, a major urban research university, the Arlington Assembly plant used by General Motors, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Region IV, Texas Health Resources, Mensa International, and D. R. Horton. Additionally, Arlington hosts the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field, the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium, the Arlington Renegades at Choctaw Stadium, the Dallas Wings at College Park Center, the International Bowling Campus (which houses the United States Bowling Congress, International Bowling Museum and the International Bowling Hall of Fame), and the theme parks Six Flags Over Texas (the original Six Flags) and Hurricane Harbor. History European settlement in the Arlington area dates back at least to the 1840s. After the May 24, 1841 battle between Texas General Edward H. Tarrant and Native Americans of the Village Creek settlement, a trading post was established at Marrow Bone Spring in present-day Arlington (historical marker at 32°42.136′N 97°6.772′W). The rich soil of the area attracted farmers, and several agriculture-related businesses were well established by the late nineteenth century. Arlington was founded in 1876 along the Texas and Pacific Railway. Named after General Robert E. Lee's Arlington House in Arlington County, Virginia., Arlington grew as a cotton-ginning and farming center, and incorporated on April 21, 1884. The city could boast of water, electricity, natural gas, and telephone services by 1910, along with a public school system. From 1892 until 1951, a mineral well drilled exactly in the middle of downtown Arlington, Texas, was a key reason to visit the town. The water was part of the city's brand, also serving as a meeting point for everything from prohibition to the right of women to vote. The well has been paved over. In the 1920s and 1930s, life in Arlington was bustling with controversy and entertainment. In the early 1920s, a tea room known as "Top O' Hill Terrace" opened up along the now-defunct Bankhead Highway to serve dinner and tea to guests traveling through Dallas and Fort Worth. Ownership changed in the late 1920s and shortly thereafter the facilities were secretly converted into casinos and a speakeasy. Known by historians as "Vegas before Vegas", escape tunnels and secret rooms were constructed to hide the illegal gambling during police raids. However, the restaurant portion of the facility still existed as a legitimate business and a front. By 1925 the city's population was estimated at 3,031—well under the population of Dallas and Fort Worth at the time. In 1929, a horse-racing track called Arlington Downs was constructed by W.T. Waggoner and Brian Nyantika close by to the speakeasy. Gambling was still illegal, but people were making bets regardless. Waggoner and his sons campaigned to make parimutuel betting legal, and in 1933 the state issued its first legal gambling permit to Arlington Downs. The track was immensely profitable at that point, making a daily average of $113,000 before inflation with a daily attendance average of 6,700 people. At the end of the 1937 season, the state legislature repealed their parimutuel gambling laws, and the Downs were sold to commercial developers. In the 1940s, the Arlington Downs was used as a rodeo and event venue. Top O' Hill Terrace evaded the police until 1947, when famous Texas Ranger M. T. "Lone Wolf" Gonzaullas caught the gambling operation in full-swing and had the place shut down. The 1940s brought World War II to the forefront of the United States, and many families from around Texas moved to Arlington to find jobs. Before World War II, the city's population had grown to over 4,000. The war kick-started a manufacturing revolution in Texas. Arlington was between the biggest aerospace engineering hubs in Texas at the time, Dallas and Fort Worth. In 1956, the Top O' Hill Terrace property was purchased by the Bible Baptist Seminary and converted into what is now Arlington Baptist University. The underground tunnels and original structures are still standing. In 1958, the Arlington Downs was completely destroyed by commercial developers. All that is left is an original concrete water trough and a Texas historical landmark marker placed in 2016. Large-scale industrialization began in 1954 with the arrival of a General Motors assembly plant. Automotive and aerospace development gave the city one of the nation's greatest population growth rates between 1950 and 1990. Arlington became one of the "boomburbs", the extremely fast-growing suburbs of the post-World War II era. U.S. Census Bureau population figures for the city date the population boom: 7,692 (1950), 90,229 (1970), 261,721 (1990), 365,438 (2010) and almost 374,000 by 2011. Tom Vandergriff served as mayor from 1951 to 1977 during this period of robust economic development. Six Flags Over Texas opened in Arlington in 1961. In 1972 the Washington Senators baseball team relocated to Arlington and began play as the Texas Rangers and in 2009 the Dallas Cowboys also began to play at the newly constructed Cowboys Stadium, now AT&T Stadium. On January 13, 1996, a 9-year-old girl, Amber Hagerman, was abducted in Arlington and found murdered four days later. No one has been arrested or convicted for her murder as of 2024. The case led to the creation of the Amber Alert system. In October 2019, Arlington was chosen out of several major U.S. cities to become the permanent home of the $150 million National Medal of Honor Museum. Construction of the museum is set to be completed in 2024. Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city of Arlington has a total area of 99.7 square miles (258 km2); 96.5 square miles (250 km2) was land, and 3.2 square miles (8.3 km2) is water. The city lies approximately 12 miles (19 km) east of downtown Fort Worth and 20 miles (32 km) west of downtown Dallas. Johnson Creek, a tributary of the Trinity River, and the Trinity River itself, flow through Arlington. Arlington borders Kennedale, Grand Prairie, Mansfield and Fort Worth, and surrounds the smaller communities of Dalworthington Gardens and Pantego. Climate Arlington falls in the Cfa (humid subtropical) region of the Köppen climate classification system which is a climate zone characterized by hot, humid summers and mild to cool winters. The highest recorded temperature was 113 °F (45 °C) in 1980. The lowest recorded temperature was −8 °F (−22 °C) in 1899. The maximum average precipitation occurs in May. Severe weather generally occurs April and May months. Located in the famous Tornado Alley. Winters are typically mild with snow seldom occurring (snowless years are not unusual). 2012 Tornado During the April 3, 2012 tornado outbreak, a severe thunderstorm produced an EF2 tornado in Eastern Kennedale which moved northeast across 287 near Stagetrail Drive and continued in a North North-Eastern direction. The tornado had a maximum path width of 150 yards estimated path length of 4.6 miles, and estimated maximum wind speeds of 135 miles per hour (217 km/h). The tornado caused damage to numerous businesses including the Green Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center which had a large portion of its roof torn off and sustained damage to exterior walls. Eighteen homes were destroyed, and 291 others were damaged as well. There were eight injuries which occurred due to this tornado, one of which was serious. Demographics 2020 census At the 2020 United States census, there were 394,266 people, 135,240 households, and 93,164 families residing in the city. During the 2018 American Community Survey estimates, Arlington had a population of 392,462. At the census of 2010, there were 365,438 people, 133,072 households, and 90,099 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,811 people per square mile (1,471 people/km2). There were 144,805 housing units at an average density of 1,510 per square mile (580/km2). The 2011 estimated racial makeup of the city (based on the 2010 census) was 59% White, 18.8% Black or African American, 6.8% Asian, 0.7% Native American, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 11.3% from other races, and 3.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latinos of any race were 27.4% of the population. In 2018, the racial makeup of the city was 39.1% non-Hispanic White, 22% Black or African American, 0.3% American Indian or Alaska Native, 6.8% Asian American, 0.1% Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, 0.3% from some other race, 2.3% from two or more races, and 29.2% Hispanic or Latino of any race. Approximately 20.8% of the population were foreign-born from 2014 to 2018. By 2020, 34.93% were non-Hispanic White, 22.38% Black or African American, 0.31% Native American, 7.63% Asian, 0.11% Pacific Islander, 0.43% some other race, 3.54% multiracial, and 30.68% Hispanic or Latino of any race. The demographic increase of people of color has contributed to decline among the once predominantly non-Hispanic White population state- and nationwide. In 2010, there were 133,072 households, out of which 40% had children under the age of 18 living in them, 48% were married couples living together, 15% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32% were non-families. 25% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.7 and the average family size was 3.3. In the city, the 2010 population was spread out, with 31% under the age of 20, 8% from 20 to 24, 30% from 25 to 44, 23% from 45 to 64, and 8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females, there were 104 males. For every 100 females aged 18 and over, there were 94 males 18 and over. The median income for a household in the city was estimated to be $50,655 in 2011. Individual males working full-time year-round had a median income of $41,059 versus $35,265 for females. The per capita income for the city was $25,317. About 16% of Arlington families in general and 31% of female-headed families with no husband present were living below the poverty line; 20% of the Arlington population as a whole, including 28% of individuals under age 18 and 8% of those age 65 or over were living in poverty. Approximately 43% of Arlington renters and 28% of homeowners were paying 35% or more of their household income for housing costs in 2011. Economy Top employers According to Arlington's 2023 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), the top five employers, making up 13% of the total employment in the City, include: Additional American Excelsior Company (1888) Culture Arts and entertainment Arlington is home to Six Flags Over Texas, a nationwide theme park that includes many notable attractions. Six Flags also opened Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, a waterpark, after the previous location, Wet 'n Wild, was sold to them in the mid-1990s. With the relocation of the U.S. Bowling Congress, and the Bowling Proprietors Association of America and the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame, Arlington became the world headquarters for bowling. For retail shopping, Arlington is home to the Parks Mall at Arlington, which houses numerous stores, eateries, an ice skating rink, a bowling/arcade spot, and a movie theatre. In addition, the Arlington Highlands was completed in mid-2007, serving as a shopping and entertainment hotspot. The Arlington Highlands is located on I-20 at Matlock Rd. The Lincoln Square located near the AT&T Stadium also houses several stores, restaurants, and a Studio Movie Grill. Arlington is also home to Theatre Arlington, one of the largest community theatres in the nation, which produces quality live theatre year-round and offers theater classes for all ages. The Mainstage Theatre at UT Arlington is another well-known venue for live theatre in Arlington. The Arlington Museum of Art in downtown and the Gallery at UT Arlington are the city's designated art venues. In 2016, the city's art museum hosted a public art project called "The Star of Texas" to promote their new slogan as the "American Dream City." Community artists were chosen to paint a large star sculpture with their interpretation of the city. Today, these stars can still be seen throughout the city – most notably in the downtown and entertainment districts. In the mid-2010's, art murals began to appear in downtown Arlington, giving the area an artistic atmosphere. The Planetarium Dome Theater at UT Arlington is one of the largest in Texas. Levitt Pavilion Arlington opened in 2009 and offers 50 free concerts per year in downtown Arlington featuring a diverse range of music genres. Notable performers have included Asleep at the Wheel, the Band of Heathens, the Killdares, Pentatonix, the Polyphonic Spree, the Quebe Sisters, and Ray Wylie Hubbard. The Texas Hall and AT&T Stadium are also destinations for live concerts in Arlington. On July 4, the all-volunteer non-profit Arlington Fourth of July Parade Association puts on the annual parade through Downtown Arlington and UT Arlington's College Park District, featuring floats and entries from local schools, businesses, and organizations. The parade is broadcast on local radio stations as well as on the AISD TV station and website. The parade began in 1965 as decorated bicycles ridden through Randol Mill Park organized by citizen Dottie Lynn and Church Women United. It has grown to around 75,000 spectators a year enjoying the festivities. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the parade was canceled for the first time in 55 years. Texas Live! is a $250 million mixed-use district featuring dining, entertainment, and a 302-room hotel with a convention center. The 200,000-square-foot district is located immediately outside the new Globe Life Field. Texas Live! opened in August 2018. Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau The Arlington Convention & Visitors Bureau is the official tourism identity for the city of Arlington, Texas. The Arlington Convention & Visitors Bureau (ACVB) is tasked with pursuing conventions, meetings, tour groups, reunions, and individual leisure travelers to increase city revenues from sale and lodging taxes. The Arlington CVB also supports local stakeholders that pursue high-profile special events and sporting events to fill hotels, Arlington Convention Center, AT&T Stadium, College Park Center, Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, and other venues around the city. Sports Professional sports Arlington has long been the home of the Texas Rangers baseball team, who made Arlington Stadium their first home upon moving to Dallas/Fort Worth from Washington, D.C., in 1972. In 1994, the Rangers built a new stadium, The Ballpark in Arlington (renamed Choctaw Stadium in 2021). The Rangers made trips to the 2010 World Series, 2011 World Series, and 2023 World Series, winning in 2023 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. In 2016, residents voted to construct a new stadium and by 2017, construction began on the $1.1 billion Globe Life Field across the street from Choctaw Stadium. Globe Life Field serves as the new home of the Texas Rangers; however, the debut of the park was delayed by the postponement of the 2020 season. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Arlington became the first city since 1944 to hold every World Series game in a single venue at Globe Life Field. In October 2023, the Rangers defeated the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series, and won the 2023 World Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Dallas Cowboys football team moved from Texas Stadium in Irving in 2009 to the $1.3 billion AT&T Stadium, which is within walking distance of the Rangers Ballpark. Completed in 2009, it has attracted high-profile sporting events to Arlington, including the 2010 NBA All-Star Game, Super Bowl XLV in 2011, the 2013 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball South Regional Championships, and the 2014 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Final Four; the stadium was also the site of the first College Football Championship Game in January 2015 (covering the 2014 season). The Dallas Cowboys rent AT&T Stadium from the City of Arlington for $167,500 per month over a thirty-year period, a sum far less than market value; in exchange, the Cowboys have complete control over the facility's calendar and the revenues collected therefrom, including naming rights, billboard advertising, concession sales and most of the surrounding parking. The Dallas Wings became the first Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) franchise in North Texas in 2015. They were known as the Tulsa Shock while based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but reinvented their brand after relocating to North Texas. The Wings play home games at the College Park Center in Arlington. The Arlington Renegades is a UFL football team based in Arlington. The team was established in 2019 and played in the renovated Choctaw Stadium. The inaugural home opener drew 17,026 fans. The North Texas SC of MLS Next Pro also calls Arlington and Choctaw Stadium home since May 2020. AT&T Stadium will host the most matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. College sports The UT Arlington Mavericks are the athletic teams representing The University of Texas at Arlington. The Mavericks compete in the NCAA Division I Western Athletic Conference in 15 varsity sports. UTA was a founding member of the Southland Conference in 1963 and participated in the league until the end of the 2011–12 athletic year. They joined the Western Athletic Conference for one year before moving to the Sun Belt Conference for several years then moving back to the Western Athletic Conference in July 2022. A new arena called the College Park Center is now the host facility for basketball and volleyball home games as well as other university activities. The arena opened February 1, 2012, and seats approximately 7,000 people. Baseball home games are held at the Clay Gould Ballpark and softball home games are at the Allan Saxe Field; both facilities completed $5.5 million in upgrade cost in early 2015. The Mavericks' team name selection was made in 1971, predating the National Basketball Association's expansion franchise Dallas Mavericks' starting choice in 1980. Arlington Baptist College also competes in a number of sports. They are known as the Patriots and is an active member in the National Christian College Athletic Association, Southwest Region, Division II, and is a member of the Association of Christian College Athletics. The sports Arlington Baptist competes in range from: basketball (men and women's), golf (men and women's), cross country (men and women's), Track & Field (men), volleyball (women), softball (women), and baseball (men). Arlington athletes Arlington is the home of several notable athletes. 1998 American League Rookie of the Year Ben Grieve graduated from Martin High School in 1994. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim outfielder Vernon Wells grew up in Arlington and attended Bowie High School, San Francisco Giants outfielder Hunter Pence attended Arlington High School and played collegiate baseball at The University of Texas at Arlington, and St. Louis Cardinals pitcher John Lackey also played for UTA. Lamar High School alumnus Jeremy Wariner won two gold medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics, and the 2005 world championship in the 400 meters in Rome. UTA also produced Doug Russell, who won two gold medals in swimming at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968 and for whom a park on campus is named. Champion bodybuilder (Mr. Olympia 1998–2005) Ronnie Coleman resides in Arlington. Houston Comets Guard Erin Grant grew up in Arlington and attended Mansfield high school. NFL wide receiver Mark Clayton, now with the St. Louis Rams, graduated from Sam Houston High School in 2000 and was part of the University of Oklahoma's 2001 national championship team. Jared Connaughton, sprinter for the 2008 Canada Olympic team, was a sprinter for the UT Arlington team. Myles Garrett, defensive end for the Cleveland Browns and 1st overall pick in the 2017 NFL draft, graduated from Martin High School in 2014. Government Local The Arlington City Council has been presided over by Mayor Jim Ross since June 2021, following the 6-year incumbency of Mayor Jeff Williams. The Arlington City Council is composed of the Mayor and eight City Council members. Elections are conducted every May with runoffs in June, with an exception for a November and December election and runoff in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. City Officials are officially elected non-partisan, although many are affiliated with political parties outside of official capacity. The Mayor/Council Members are subject to a combined maximum of three 2-year terms. City Council Members as of August 2024: District 1: Mauricio Galante; first elected May 2024; term ends May 2027 District 2: Raul H. Gonzalez; first elected November 2020; term ends May 2027 District 3: Nikkie Hunter; first elected June 2021; term ends May 2026 District 4: Andrew Piel; first elected May 2019; term ends May 2026 District 5: Rebecca Boxall; first elected May 2021; term ends May 2026 District 6: Long Pham (at-large); first elected June 2022; term ends May 2027 District 7: Dr. Bowie Hogg (at-large); first elected May 2022; term ends May 2027 District 8: Dr. Barbara Odom-Wesley (at-large); first elected May 2019; term ends May 2026 According to Arlington's Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the fiscal year ended in September 2022, the city's various funds had $731.306 million in revenues, $678.643 million in expenditures, $4.995 billion in total assets, $1.970 billion in total liabilities, and $528.568 million in cash in investments. The Arlington Police Department had 871 employees and a budget of $118 million as of 2020. Fire protection is provided by the Arlington Fire Department, and emergency medical services are provided by American Medical Response, which also provides medical support to AT&T Stadium. The city of Arlington is a voluntary member of the North Central Texas Council of Governments association, the purpose of which is to coordinate individual and collective local governments and facilitate regional solutions, eliminate unnecessary duplication, and enable joint decisions. List of mayors State representation Arlington is home to the following State House districts: the 92nd represented by Salman Bhojani (D), the 94th represented by Tony Tinderholt (R), the 95th represented by Nicole Collier (D), the 96th represented by David Cook (R), and the 101st represented by Chris Turner (D). Arlington is also represented in the following State Senate districts: Kelly Hancock (R) of the 9th, Phil King (R) of the 10th, Brian Birdwell (R) of the 22nd, and Royce West (D) of the 23rd. It is represented in the Texas State Board of Education by Patricia Hardy (R) and Aicha Davis (D) of the 11th and 13th districts. Federal representation Four US House of Representatives districts go through Arlington: Texas' 6th represented by Jake Ellzey (R), Texas’ 25th represented by Roger Williams (R), Texas’ 30th represented by Jasmine Crockett (D), and Texas' 33rd represented by Marc Veasey (D). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service maintains the Arlington Ecological Services Field Office (ARLES) on Northeast Green Oaks Boulevard in far northeastern Arlington. While it is one of the oldest Ecological Services Field Stations in the United States, today its activities are focused primarily on the illegal trafficking of exotic species through Dallas/Fort-Worth International Airport. The office is not staffed or funded for nor active on the protection and enhancement of local urban-area endangered species habitat, nor on the enforcement of the related provisions of the Endangered Species Act. The United States Postal Service (USPS) operates the Arlington Main Post Office. Other post offices operated by the USPS include Bardin Road, East Arlington, Great Southwest, Oakwood, Pantego, and Watson Community. The National Transportation Safety Board operates the Arlington Aviation field office in Arlington. Education Colleges and universities Arlington is home to several public and private colleges and universities. Public institutions The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA or UT Arlington) is one of the largest universities in North Texas. The university has over 40,000 students and is a valuable asset to the city of Arlington and its economy. Buildings within the academic core of the UT Arlington campus are among the oldest structures in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, including Preston Hall, Ransom Hall, College Hall, and the original Arlington High School. The Southeast Campus of Tarrant County College is located in Arlington. Private institutions Arlington Baptist University (ABU) is a private 4-year Bible college affiliated with the World Baptist Fellowship that offers undergraduate and graduate degrees. ABU traces its founding to J. Frank Norris, the controversial Independent Baptist minister. A branch of University of Phoenix is located in Arlington, as well as the flagship campus of Ogle School, a cosmetology school. Primary and secondary schools Arlington's residents live in five independent school districts (or ISDs): Arlington ISD, Mansfield ISD, Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD, Kennedale ISD, and Fort Worth ISD. In Texas, school district boundaries do not always follow city and county boundaries because all aspects of school district government apparatus, including district boundaries, are separated from city and county governments. Not all city of Arlington residents is in the AISD, and not all AISD students are residents of Arlington. There are currently ten AISD high schools. Arlington has dozens of private and public charter schools not affiliated with any ISDs. Transportation On July 2, 1902, the first Dallas/Fort-Worth "Interurban" electric trolley came to Arlington; this popular service ran between those three cities and points in between until Christmas Eve, 1934, providing easy transportation for both business and pleasure. The track ran through Arlington along what is now Abram Street. In the era of private operation of passenger trains prior to the Amtrak era, Texas and Pacific Railway trains such as the Texas Eagle and the Louisiana Eagle made stops in Arlington, on trips between Fort Worth and Dallas. Amtrak's Texas Eagle (Chicago-San Antonio) makes stops at Fort Worth Central Station 14 miles to the west and Dallas Union Station 18 miles to the east. Arlington Municipal Airport (GKY) is located entirely within Arlington and is a public use airport owned by the City of Arlington. It serves as a reliever airport for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field. Several companies operate aircraft services on the airport property, including the Bell Helicopter division of Textron. For many years, Arlington had the infamous distinction of being the largest city in the United States that was not served by a public transportation system. Between 1980 and 2013, voters rejected three separate ballot proposals to bring public transportation to the city, though certain political and economic realities particular to North Texas made successful passage of those measures arguably more difficult in Arlington than in other parts of the state or country. On August 19, 2013, the two-year pilot project known as the Metro Arlington Xpress (MAX) bus began offering weekday bus service between College Park Center (on the campus of The University of Texas at Arlington) and the Trinity Railway Express (TRE) CentrePort Station near DFW Airport, with a single stop near the Arlington Entertainment District. From the TRE station, riders could take the TRE to Fort Worth, Dallas and points in between, all of which are served by comprehensive public transit systems. On its first year, the MAX program logged 64,600 one-way rides and cost $1.4 million. The service was run through a tri-party agreement between the City of Arlington, the Fort Worth Transportation Authority and the Dallas Area Rapid Transit. City Council extended the MAX bus service beyond the original two-year pilot timeframe through annual contracts until December 31, 2017. The MAX was officially shut down on December 29, 2017, a few weeks after Via debuted in Arlington. The City of Arlington has a lower than average percentage of households without a car. In 2015, just 4.7 percent of Arlington households lacked a car, which dropped to 3.7 percent in 2016. The national average is 8.7 percent in 2016. Arlington averaged 1.89 cars per household in 2016, compared to a national average of 1.8. In January 2017, Arlington was part of a Texas state-wide designation as an Automated Vehicle Proving Ground by the U.S. Department of Transportation. In August 2017, Arlington launched the first autonomous vehicle shuttle service in the United States offered by a municipal government to the general public on a continuous basis. Named Milo, the autonomous electric shuttles provide service during major events at Globe Life Park and AT&T Stadium, connecting remote parking areas to the stadiums. Arlington also offers Via Arlington, a public, on-demand, shared transportation service in partnership with the TransitTech company Via, which began in December 2017. Riders can request a pickup from a six-passenger van within a designated service area, which covers key destinations within Arlington as well as connecting to the Trinity Railway Express CentrePort Station. Beginning January 19, 2021, this service was expanded citywide. Arlington also partners with Via and autonomous vehicles provider May Mobility to operate Arlington RAPID, which provides on-demand autonomous vehicle rides in Downtown Arlington and on the University of Texas at Arlington's campus and is one of the first services of its kind in the United States. Additionally, Arlington has four transit services targeting individual demographic groups: "Handitran" serves senior citizens and disabled people; Arlington hotels pay for a tourist-oriented shuttle-bus system for their guests; The University of Texas at Arlington runs a limited shuttle service for college students; and lastly Mission Arlington, an Arlington-run charity serving the severely indigent, has a bus service that circulates people needing social services or transportation to employment. The city is served by two Interstate Highways, I-20, also known as Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway, and I-30, also named Tom Landry Memorial Highway. Other limited-access freeways include State Highway 360, which is named for the founder of Six Flags Over Texas, Angus G. Wynne, running along the eastern border, and U.S. Highway 287, which traverses the southwestern portion of the city. In most cases, the memorial names are not used in reference to these roadways. The city also has a tollway, The 360 Tollway, which connects Mansfield to Arlington and Grand Prairie. The tollway is also known as the Rosa Parks Memorial Parkway, named after the civil rights activist. Near US-287, where the tollway ends, the tollway is also named "Senator Chris Harris Memorial Highway" after the local legislator who aided the extension. The Union Pacific Railroad now owns and operates the original Texas and Pacific (later Missouri Pacific) transcontinental right-of-way and rail route through Arlington (parallel to which the Interurban originally ran); it offers no passenger stops in Arlington, its Arlington freight service is primarily to the local General Motors assembly plant, and most of its lengthy and numerous freight trains are merely passing through town to and from points far away. Notable people Notes References Bibliography External links City's Homepage Arlington from the Handbook of Texas Online

Rubik%27s_Cube

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubik%27s_Cube

The Rubik's Cube is a 3D combination puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube, the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Pentangle Puzzles in the UK in 1978, and then by Ideal Toy Corp in 1980 via businessman Tibor Laczi and Seven Towns founder Tom Kremer. The cube was released internationally in 1980 and became one of the most recognized icons in popular culture. It won the 1980 German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle. As of January 2024, around 500 million cubes had been sold worldwide, making it the world's bestselling puzzle game and bestselling toy. The Rubik's Cube was inducted into the US National Toy Hall of Fame in 2014. On the original, classic Rubik's Cube, each of the six faces was covered by nine stickers, with each face in one of six solid colours: white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow. Some later versions of the cube have been updated to use coloured plastic panels instead. Since 1988, the arrangement of colours has been standardised, with white opposite yellow, blue opposite green, and orange opposite red, and with the red, white, and blue arranged clockwise, in that order. On early cubes, the position of the colours varied from cube to cube. An internal pivot mechanism enables each face to turn independently, thus mixing up the colours. For the puzzle to be solved, each face must be returned to having only one colour. The Cube has inspired other designers to create a number of similar puzzles with various numbers of sides, dimensions, and mechanisms. Although the Rubik's Cube reached the height of its mainstream popularity in the 1980s, it is still widely known and used. Many speedcubers continue to practice it and similar puzzles, and to compete for the fastest times in various categories. Since 2003, the World Cube Association (WCA), the international governing body of the Rubik's Cube, has organised competitions worldwide and has recognised world records. History Precursors In March 1970, Larry D. Nichols invented a 2x2x2 "Puzzle with Pieces Rotatable in Groups" and filed a Canadian patent application for it. Nichols's cube was held together by magnets. Nichols was granted U.S. patent 3,655,201 on 11 April 1972, two years before Rubik invented his Cube. On 9 April 1970, Frank Fox applied to patent an "amusement device", a type of sliding puzzle on a spherical surface with "at least two 3×3 arrays" intended to be used for the game of noughts and crosses. He received his UK patent (1344259) on 16 January 1974. Rubik's invention In the mid-1970s, Ernő Rubik worked at the Department of Interior Design at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts in Budapest. Although it is widely reported that the Cube was built as a teaching tool to help his students understand 3D objects, his actual purpose was solving the structural problem of moving the parts independently without the entire mechanism falling apart. He did not realise that he had created a puzzle until the first time he scrambled his new Cube and then tried to restore it. Rubik applied for a patent in Hungary for his "Magic Cube" (Hungarian: bűvös kocka) on 30 January 1975, and HU170062 was granted later that year. The first test batches of the Magic Cube were produced in late 1977 and released in Budapest toy shops. Magic Cube was held together with interlocking plastic pieces that prevented the puzzle from being easily pulled apart, unlike the magnets in Nichols's design. With Ernő Rubik's permission, businessman Tibor Laczi took a Cube to Germany's Nuremberg Toy Fair in February 1979 in an attempt to popularise it. It was noticed by Seven Towns founder Tom Kremer, and they signed a deal with Ideal Toys in September 1979 to release the Magic Cube worldwide. Ideal wanted at least a recognisable name to trademark; that arrangement put Rubik in the spotlight because the Magic Cube was renamed after its inventor in 1980. The puzzle made its international debut at the toy fairs of London, Paris, Nuremberg, and New York in January and February 1980. After its international debut, the progress of the Cube towards the toy shop shelves of the West was briefly halted so that it could be manufactured to Western safety and packaging specifications. A lighter Cube was produced, and Ideal decided to rename it. "The Gordian Knot" and "Inca Gold" were considered, but the company finally decided on "Rubik's Cube", and the first batch was exported from Hungary in May 1980. The packaging had a few variations depending on the country, most popular being a clear plastic cylinder but cardboard versions were also used. The cube itself had slightly different variations in the order of the colours (Western vs. Japanese colour scheme where blue/yellow are switched) and some of the cubes did not have a white piece logo. 1980s Cube craze After the first batches of Rubik's Cubes were released in May 1980, initial sales were modest, but Ideal began a television advertising campaign in the middle of the year which it supplemented with newspaper advertisements. At the end of 1980, Rubik's Cube won a German Game of the Year special award and won similar awards for best toy in the UK, France, and the US. By 1981, Rubik's Cube had become a craze, and it is estimated that in the period from 1980 to 1983 around 200 million Rubik's Cubes were sold worldwide. In March 1981, a speedcubing championship organised by the Guinness Book of World Records was held in Munich, and a Rubik's Cube was depicted on the front cover of Scientific American that same month. In June 1981, The Washington Post reported that Rubik's Cube is "a puzzle that's moving like fast food right now ... this year's Hoola Hoop or Bongo Board", and by September 1981, New Scientist noted that the cube had "captivated the attention of children of ages from 7 to 70 all over the world this summer." As most people could solve only one or two sides, numerous books were published including David Singmaster's Notes on Rubik's "Magic Cube" (1980) and Patrick Bossert's You Can Do the Cube (1981). At one stage in 1981, three of the top ten best selling books in the US were books on solving Rubik's Cube, and the best-selling book of 1981 was James G. Nourse's The Simple Solution to Rubik's Cube which sold over 6 million copies. In 1981, the Museum of Modern Art in New York exhibited a Rubik's Cube, and at the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee a six-foot Cube was put on display. ABC Television even developed a cartoon show called Rubik, the Amazing Cube. In June 1982, the First Rubik's Cube World Championship took place in Budapest and would become the only competition recognized as official until the championship was revived in 2003. In October 1982, The New York Times reported that sales had fallen and that "the craze has died", and by 1983 it was clear that sales had plummeted. However, in some countries such as China and the USSR, the craze had started later and demand was still high because of a shortage of Cubes. 21st-century revival Rubik's Cubes continued to be marketed and sold throughout the 1980s and 1990s, but it was not until the early 2000s that interest in the Cube began increasing again. In the US, sales doubled between 2001 and 2003, and The Boston Globe remarked that it was "becoming cool to own a Cube again". The 2003 World Rubik's Games Championship was the first speedcubing tournament since 1982. It was held in Toronto and was attended by 83 participants. The tournament led to the formation of the World Cube Association in 2004. Annual sales of Rubik branded cubes were said to have reached 15 million worldwide in 2008. Part of the new appeal was ascribed to the advent of Internet video sites, such as YouTube, which allowed fans to share their solving strategies. Following the expiration of Rubik's patent in 2000, other brands of cubes appeared, especially from Chinese companies. Many of these Chinese branded cubes have been engineered for speed and are favoured by speedcubers. On 27 October 2020, Spin Master said it will pay $50 million to buy the Rubik's Cube brand. Imitations Taking advantage of an initial shortage of cubes, many imitations and variations appeared, many of which may have violated one or more patents. In 2000 the patents expired, and since then, many Chinese companies have produced copies, modifications, and improvements upon the Rubik and V-Cube designs. Patent history Nichols assigned his patent to his employer Moleculon Research Corp., which sued Ideal in 1982. In 1984, Ideal lost the patent infringement suit and appealed. In 1986, the appeals court affirmed the judgment that Rubik's 2×2×2 Pocket Cube infringed Nichols's patent, but overturned the judgment on Rubik's 3×3×3 Cube. Even while Rubik's patent application was being processed, Terutoshi Ishigi, a self-taught engineer and ironworks owner near Tokyo, filed for a Japanese patent for a nearly identical mechanism, which was granted in 1976 (Japanese patent publication JP55-008192). Until 1999, when an amended Japanese patent law was enforced, Japan's patent office granted Japanese patents for non-disclosed technology within Japan without requiring worldwide novelty. Hence, Ishigi's patent is generally accepted as an independent reinvention at that time. Rubik applied for more patents in 1980, including another Hungarian patent on 28 October. In the United States, Rubik was granted U.S. patent 4,378,116 on 29 March 1983 for the Cube. This patent expired in 2000. Trademarks Rubik's Brand Ltd. also holds the registered trademarks for the word "Rubik" and "Rubik's" and for the 2D and 3D visualisations of the puzzle. The trademarks were upheld by a ruling of the General Court of the European Union on 25 November 2014 in a successful defence against a German toy manufacturer seeking to invalidate them. However, European toy manufacturers are allowed to create differently shaped puzzles that have a similar rotating or twisting functionality of component parts such as for example Skewb, Pyraminx or Impossiball. On 10 November 2016, Rubik's Cube lost a ten-year battle over a key trademark issue. The European Union's highest court, the Court of Justice, ruled that the puzzle's shape was not sufficient to grant it trademark protection. Mechanics A standard Rubik's Cube measures 5.6 centimetres (2+1⁄4 in) on each side. The puzzle consists of 26 unique miniature cubes, also known as "cubies" or "cubelets". Each of these includes a concealed inward extension that interlocks with the other cubes while permitting them to move to different locations. However, the centre cube of each of the six faces is merely a single square façade; all six are affixed to the core mechanism. These provide structure for the other pieces to fit into and rotate around. Hence, there are 21 pieces: a single core piece consisting of three intersecting axes holding the six centre squares in place but letting them rotate, and 20 smaller plastic pieces that fit into it to form the assembled puzzle. Each of the six centre pieces pivots on a fastener held by the centre piece, a "3D cross". A spring between each fastener and its corresponding piece tensions the piece inward, so that collectively, the whole assembly remains compact but can still be easily manipulated. The older versions of the official Cube used a screw that can be tightened or loosened to change the "feel" of the Cube. Newer official Rubik's brand cubes have rivets instead of screws and cannot be adjusted. Inexpensive clones do not have screws or springs, all they have is a plastic clip to keep the centre piece in place and freely rotate. The Cube can be taken apart without much difficulty, typically by rotating the top layer by 45° and then prying one of its edge cubes away from the other two layers. Consequently, it is a simple process to "solve" a Cube by taking it apart and reassembling it in a solved state. There are six central pieces that show one coloured face, twelve edge pieces that show two coloured faces, and eight corner pieces that show three coloured faces. Each piece shows a unique colour combination, but not all combinations are present (for example, if red and orange are on opposite sides of the solved Cube, there is no edge piece with both red and orange sides). The location of these cubes relative to one another can be altered by twisting an outer third of the Cube by increments of 90 degrees, but the location of the coloured sides relative to one another in the completed state of the puzzle cannot be altered; it is fixed by the relative positions of the centre squares. However, Cubes with alternative colour arrangements also exist; for example, with the yellow face opposite the green, the blue face opposite the white, and red and orange remaining opposite each other. Douglas Hofstadter, in the July 1982 issue of Scientific American, pointed out that Cubes could be coloured in such a way as to emphasise the corners or edges, rather than the faces as the standard colouring does; but neither of these alternative colourings has ever become popular. Mathematics The puzzle was originally advertised as having "over 3,000,000,000 (three billion) combinations but only one solution". Depending on how combinations are counted, the actual number is significantly higher. Permutations The original (3×3×3) Rubik's Cube has eight corners and twelve edges. There are 8! (40,320) ways to arrange the corner cubes. Each corner has three possible orientations, although only seven (of eight) can be oriented independently; the orientation of the eighth (final) corner depends on the preceding seven, giving 37 (2,187) possibilities. There are 12!/2 (239,500,800) ways to arrange the edges, restricted from 12! because edges must be in an even permutation exactly when the corners are. (When arrangements of centres are also permitted, as described below, the rule is that the combined arrangement of corners, edges, and centres must be an even permutation.) Eleven edges can be flipped independently, with the flip of the twelfth depending on the preceding ones, giving 211 (2,048) possibilities. 8 ! × 3 7 × 12 ! 2 × 2 11 = 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 {\displaystyle {8!\times 3^{7}\times {\frac {12!}{2}}\times 2^{11}}=43{,}252{,}003{,}274{,}489{,}856{,}000} which is approximately 43 quintillion. To put this into perspective, if one had one standard-sized Rubik's Cube for each permutation, one could cover the Earth's surface 275 times, or stack them in a tower 261 light-years high. The preceding figure is limited to permutations that can be reached solely by turning the sides of the cube. If one considers permutations reached through disassembly of the cube, the number becomes twelve times larger: 8 ! × 3 8 × 12 ! × 2 12 = 519,024,039,293,878,272,000 {\displaystyle {8!\times 3^{8}\times 12!\times 2^{12}}=519{,}024{,}039{,}293{,}878{,}272{,}000} which is approximately 519 quintillion possible arrangements of the pieces that make up the cube, but only one-twelfth of these are actually solvable. This is because there is no sequence of moves that will swap a single pair of pieces or rotate a single corner or edge cube. Thus, there are 12 possible sets of reachable configurations, sometimes called "universes" or "orbits", into which the cube can be placed by dismantling and reassembling it. The preceding numbers assume the centre faces are in a fixed position. If one considers turning the whole cube to be a different permutation, then each of the preceding numbers should be multiplied by 24. A chosen colour can be on one of six sides, and then one of the adjacent colours can be in one of four positions; this determines the positions of all remaining colours. Centre faces The original Rubik's Cube had no orientation markings on the centre faces (although some carried the "Rubik's Cube" mark on the centre square of the white face), and therefore solving it does not require any attention to orienting those faces correctly. However, with marker pens, one could, for example, mark the central squares of an unscrambled Cube with four coloured marks on each edge, each corresponding to the colour of the adjacent face; a cube marked in this way is referred to as a "supercube". Some Cubes have also been produced commercially with markings on all of the squares, such as the Lo Shu magic square or playing card suits. Cubes have also been produced where the nine stickers on a face are used to make a single larger picture, and centre orientation matters on these as well. Thus one can nominally solve a Cube yet have the markings on the centres rotated; it then becomes an additional test to solve the centres as well. Marking Rubik's Cube's centres increases its difficulty, because this expands the set of distinguishable possible configurations. There are 46/2 (2,048) ways to orient the centres since an even permutation of the corners implies an even number of quarter turns of centres as well. In particular, when the Cube is unscrambled apart from the orientations of the central squares, there will always be an even number of centre squares requiring a quarter turn. Thus orientations of centres increases the total number of possible Cube permutations from 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 (4.3×1019) to 88,580,102,706,155,225,088,000 (8.9×1022). When turning a cube over is considered to be a change in permutation then we must also count arrangements of the centre faces. Nominally there are 6! ways to arrange the six centre faces of the cube, but only 24 of these are achievable without disassembly of the cube. When the orientations of centres are also counted, as above, this increases the total number of possible Cube permutations from 88,580,102,706,155,225,088,000 (8.9×1022) to 2,125,922,464,947,725,402,112,000 (2.1×1024). Algorithms In Rubik's cubers' parlance, a memorised sequence of moves that have a desired effect on the cube is called an "algorithm". This terminology is derived from the mathematical use of algorithm, meaning a list of well-defined instructions for performing a task from a given initial state, through well-defined successive states, to a desired end-state. Each method of solving the Cube employs its own set of algorithms, together with descriptions of what effect the algorithm has, and when it can be used to bring the cube closer to being solved. Many algorithms are designed to transform only a small part of the cube without interfering with other parts that have already been solved so that they can be applied repeatedly to different parts of the cube until the whole is solved. For example, there are well-known algorithms for cycling three corners without changing the rest of the puzzle or flipping the orientation of a pair of edges while leaving the others intact. Some algorithms do have a certain desired effect on the cube (for example, swapping two corners) but may also have the side-effect of changing other parts of the cube (such as permuting some edges). Such algorithms are often simpler than the ones without side effects and are employed early on in the solution when most of the puzzle has not yet been solved and the side effects are not important. Towards the end of the solution, the more specific (and usually more complicated) algorithms are used instead. Relevance and application of mathematical group theory Rubik's Cube lends itself to the application of mathematical group theory, which has been helpful for deducing certain algorithms – in particular, those which have a commutator structure, namely XYX−1Y−1 (where X and Y are specific moves or move-sequences and X−1 and Y−1 are their respective inverses), or a conjugate structure, namely XYX−1, often referred to by speedcubers colloquially as a "setup move". In addition, the fact that there are well-defined subgroups within the Rubik's Cube group enables the puzzle to be learned and mastered by moving up through various self-contained "levels of difficulty". For example, one such "level" could involve solving cubes that have been scrambled using only 180-degree turns. These subgroups are the principle underlying the computer cubing methods by Thistlethwaite and Kociemba, which solve the cube by further reducing it to another subgroup. Unitary representation The Rubik's group can be endowed with a unitary representation: such a description allows the Rubik's Cube to be mapped into a quantum system of few particles, where the rotations of its faces are implemented by unitary operators. The rotations of the faces act as generators of the Lie group. Solutions Singmaster notation Many 3×3×3 Rubik's Cube enthusiasts use a notation developed by David Singmaster to denote a sequence of moves, referred to as "Singmaster notation" or simple "Cube notation". Its relative nature allows algorithms to be written in such a way that they can be applied regardless of which side is designated the top or how the colours are organised on a particular cube. F (Front): the side currently facing the solver B (Back): the side opposite the front U (Up): the side above or on top of the front side D (Down): the side opposite the top, underneath the Cube L (Left): the side directly to the left of the front R (Right): the side directly to the right of the front f (Front two layers): the side facing the solver and the corresponding middle layer b (Back two layers): the side opposite the front and the corresponding middle layer u (Up two layers): the top side and the corresponding middle layer d (Down two layers): the bottom layer and the corresponding middle layer l (Left two layers): the side to the left of the front and the corresponding middle layer r (Right two layers): the side to the right of the front and the corresponding middle layer x (rotate): rotate the entire Cube on R y (rotate): rotate the entire Cube on U z (rotate): rotate the entire Cube on F When a prime symbol ( ′ ) follows a letter, it indicates an anticlockwise face turn; while a letter without a prime symbol denotes a clockwise turn. These directions are as one is looking at the specified face. A letter followed by a 2 (occasionally a superscript 2) denotes two turns, or a 180-degree turn. For example, R means to turn the right side clockwise, but R′ means to turn the right side anticlockwise. The letters x, y, and z are used to indicate that the entire Cube should be turned about one of its axes, corresponding to R, U, and F turns respectively. When x, y, or z is primed, it is an indication that the cube must be rotated in the opposite direction. When x, y, or z is squared, the cube must be rotated 180 degrees. One of the most common deviations from Singmaster notation, and in fact the current official standard, is to use "w", for "wide", instead of lowercase letters to represent moves of two layers; thus, a move of Rw is equivalent to one of r. For methods using middle-layer turns (particularly corners-first methods), there is a generally accepted "MES" extension to the notation where letters M, E, and S denote middle layer turns. It was used e.g. in Marc Waterman's Algorithm. M (Middle): the layer between L and R, turn direction as L (top-down) E (Equator): the layer between U and D, turn direction as D (left-right) S (Standing): the layer between F and B, turn direction as F The 4×4×4 and larger cubes use an extended notation to refer to the additional middle layers. Generally speaking, uppercase letters (F B U D L R) refer to the outermost portions of the cube (called faces). Lowercase letters (f b u d l r) refer to the inner portions of the cube (called slices). An asterisk (L*), a number in front of it (2L), or two layers in parentheses (Ll), means to turn the two layers at the same time (both the inner and the outer left faces) For example: (Rr)' l2 f' means to turn the two rightmost layers anticlockwise, then the left inner layer twice, and then the inner front layer anticlockwise. By extension, for cubes of 6×6×6 and larger, moves of three layers are notated by the number 3, for example, 3L. An alternative notation, Wolstenholme notation, is designed to make memorising sequences of moves easier for novices. This notation uses the same letters for faces except it replaces U with T (top), so that all are consonants. The key difference is the use of the vowels O, A, and I for clockwise, anticlockwise, and twice (180-degree) turns, which results in word-like sequences such as LOTA RATO LATA ROTI (equivalent to LU′ R′ U L′ U′ R U2 in Singmaster notation). The addition of a C implies rotation of the entire cube, so ROC is the clockwise rotation of the cube around its right face. Middle layer moves are denoted by adding an M to the corresponding face move, so RIM means a 180-degree turn of the middle layer adjacent to the R face. Another notation appeared in the 1981 book The Simple Solution to Rubik's Cube. Singmaster notation was not widely known at the time of publication. The faces were named Top (T), Bottom (B), Left (L), Right (R), Front (F), and Posterior (P), with + for clockwise, – for anticlockwise, and 2 for 180-degree turns. Another notation appeared in the 1982 "The Ideal Solution" book for Rubik's Revenge. Horizontal planes were noted as tables, with table 1 or T1 starting at the top. Vertical front to back planes were noted as books, with book 1 or B1 starting from the left. Vertical left to right planes were noted as windows, with window 1 or W1 starting at the front. Using the front face as a reference view, table moves were left or right, book moves were up or down, and window moves were clockwise or anticlockwise. Period of move sequences The repetition of any given move sequence on a cube which is initially in solved state will eventually return the cube back to its solved state: the smallest number of iterations required is the period of the sequence. For example, the 180-degree turn of any side has period 2 (e.g. {U2}2); the 90-degree turn of any side has period 4 (e.g. {R}4). The maximum period for a move sequence is 1260: for example, allowing for full rotations, {F x}1260 or {R y}1260 or {U z}1260; not allowing for rotations, {D R' U2 M}1260, or {B E L' F2}1260, or {S' U' B D2}1260; only allowing for clockwise quarter turns, {U R S U L}1260, or {F L E B L}1260, or {R U R D S}1260; only allowing for lateral clockwise quarter turns, {F B L F B R F U}1260, or {U D R U D L U F}1260, or {R L D R L U R F}1260. Optimal solutions Although there are a significant number of possible permutations for Rubik's Cube, a number of solutions have been developed which allow solving the cube in well under 100 moves. Many general solutions for the Cube have been discovered independently. David Singmaster first published his solution in the book Notes on Rubik's "Magic Cube" in 1981. This solution involves solving the Cube layer by layer, in which one layer (designated the top) is solved first, followed by the middle layer, and then the final and bottom layer. After sufficient practice, solving the Cube layer by layer can be done in under one minute. Other general solutions include "corners first" methods or combinations of several other methods. In 1982, David Singmaster and Alexander Frey hypothesised that the number of moves needed to solve the Cube, given an ideal algorithm, might be in "the low twenties". In 2007, Daniel Kunkle and Gene Cooperman used computer search methods to demonstrate that any 3×3×3 Rubik's Cube configuration can be solved in 26 moves or fewer. In 2008, Tomas Rokicki lowered that number to 22 moves, and in July 2010, a team of researchers including Rokicki, working with computers provided by Google, proved that the so-called "God's number" for Rubik's Cube is 20. This means that all initial configurations can be solved in 20 moves or less, and some (in fact millions) require 20. More generally, it has been shown that an n×n×n Rubik's Cube can be solved optimally in Θ(n2 / log(n)) moves. Speedcubing methods A solution commonly used by speedcubers was developed by Jessica Fridrich. This method is called CFOP standing for "Cross, F2L, OLL, PLL". It is similar to the layer-by-layer method but employs the use of a large number of algorithms, especially for orienting and permuting the last layer. The cross is solved first, followed by first layer corners and second layer edges simultaneously, with each corner paired up with a second-layer edge piece, thus completing the first two layers (F2L). This is then followed by orienting the last layer, then permuting the last layer (OLL and PLL respectively). There are a total of 120 algorithms for Fridrich's method, however they are not all required to use the CFOP method. Most dedicated cubers will learn as many of these algorithms as possible, and most advanced cubers know all of them. If a cuber knows every algorithm for OLL they may be described as knowing full OLL. It is the same for PLL and F2L. A now well-known method was developed by Lars Petrus. In this method, a 2×2×2 section is solved first, followed by a 2×2×3, and then the incorrect edges are solved using a three-move algorithm, which eliminates the need for a possible 32-move algorithm later. The principle behind this is that in layer-by-layer, one must constantly break and fix the completed layer(s); the 2×2×2 and 2×2×3 sections allow three or two layers (respectively) to be turned without ruining progress. One of the advantages of this method is that it tends to give solutions in fewer moves. For this reason, the method is also popular for fewest move competitions. The Roux Method, developed by Gilles Roux, is similar to the Petrus method in that it relies on block building rather than layers, but derives from corners-first methods. In Roux, a 3×2×1 block is solved, followed by another 3×2×1 on the opposite side. Next, the corners of the top layer are solved. The cube can then be solved using only moves of the U layer and M slice. Beginners' methods Most beginner solution methods involve solving the cube one layer at a time ("layer-by-layer" method or "beginner's method"), using algorithms that preserve what has already been solved. The easiest layer by layer methods require only 3–8 algorithms. In 1981, thirteen-year-old Patrick Bossert developed a solution for solving the cube, along with a graphical notation, designed to be easily understood by novices. It was subsequently published as You Can Do The Cube and became a best-seller. In 1997, Denny Dedmore published a solution described using diagrammatic icons representing the moves to be made, instead of the usual notation. Philip Marshall's The Ultimate Solution to Rubik's Cube takes a different approach, averaging only 65 twists yet requiring the memorisation of only two algorithms. The cross is solved first, followed by the remaining edges (using the Edge Piece Series FR'F'R), then five corners (using the Corner Piece Series URU'L'UR'U'L, which is the same as the typical last layer corner permutation algorithm), and finally the last three corners. Rubik's Cube solver programs The most move optimal online Rubik's Cube solver programs use Herbert Kociemba's two-phase algorithm which can typically determine a solution of 20 moves or fewer. The user has to set the colour configuration of the scrambled cube, and the program returns the steps required to solve it. Competitions and records Speedcubing competitions Speedcubing (or speedsolving) is the practice of trying to solve a Rubik's Cube in the shortest time possible. There are a number of speedcubing competitions that take place around the world. A speedcubing championship organised by the Guinness Book of World Records was held in Munich on 13 March 1981. The contest used standardised scrambling and fixed inspection times, and the winners were Ronald Brinkmann and Jury Fröschl with times of 38.0 seconds. The first world championship was the 1982 World Rubik's Cube Championship held in Budapest on 5 June 1982, which was won by Minh Thai, a Vietnamese student from Los Angeles, with a time of 22.95 seconds. Since 2003, the winner of a competition is determined by taking the average time of the middle three of five attempts. However, the single best time of all tries is also recorded. The World Cube Association maintains a history of world records. In 2004, the WCA made it mandatory to use a special timing device called a Stackmat timer. In addition to the main 3x3x3 event, the WCA also holds events where the cube is solved in different ways: Blindfolded solving Multiple blindfolded solving, or "multi-blind", in which the contestant solves any number of cubes blindfolded in a row Solving the cube using a single hand, or one handed solving Solving the cube in the fewest possible moves In blindfolded solving, the contestant first studies the scrambled cube (i.e., looking at it normally with no blindfold), and is then blindfolded before beginning to turn the cube's faces. Their recorded time for this event includes both the time spent memorizing the cube and the time spent manipulating it. In multiple blindfolded solving, all of the cubes are memorised, and then all of the cubes are solved once blindfolded; thus, the main challenge is memorising many – often ten or more – separate cubes. The event is scored not by time but by the number of points achieved after the one-hour time limit has elapsed. The number of points achieved is equal to the number of cubes solved correctly, minus the number of cubes unsolved after the end of the attempt, where a greater number of points is better. If multiple competitors achieve the same number of points, rankings are assessed based on the total time of the attempt, with a shorter time being better. In fewest moves solving, the contestant is given one hour to find a solution and must write it down. Records Competition records Single time: The world record time for solving a 3×3×3 Rubik's Cube is 3.13 seconds, held by Max Park of the United States, broken on 11 June 2023 at Pride in Long Beach. Average time: The world record average of the middle three of five solve times (which excludes the fastest and slowest) is 4.09 seconds, set by Yiheng Wang (王艺衡) of China on 21 September at the Xuzhou Autumn 2024 cubing competition in Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China. One-handed solving: The world record fastest one-handed solve is 6.20 seconds, set by Max Park of the United States on 27 August 2022 at Marshall Middle Slice in San Diego, California. The world record fastest average of five one-handed solves is 8.62 seconds, set by Max Park of the United States on 3 December 2023 at Nub Open Mission Viejo 2023. Feet solving: The world record fastest Rubik's Cube solve with one's feet is 15.56 seconds, set by Mohammed Aiman Koli of India on 27 December 2019 at the VJTI Mumbai Cube Open. The world record average of five feet solves is 19.90 seconds, set by Lim Hung (林弘) of Malaysia on 21 December 2019 at the Medan 10th Anniversary. Since 1 January 2020, 3x3x3 feet solving is no longer an event recognized by the WCA, and no results are being accepted. Blindfold solving: The world record fastest Rubik's Cube solve blindfolded is 12.00 seconds (including memorization), set by Tommy Cherry of the United States on 11 February 2024 at Triton Tricubealon 2024 in San Diego, California. The world record mean of three for blindfold solving is 14.05 seconds, set by Tommy Cherry on 28 July 2024 at the Rubik's WCA World Championship in Pamplona, Spain, beating the record Cherry had set the yet before in Incheon, South Korea. Multiple blindfold solving: The world record for multiple Rubik's Cube solving blindfolded is 62 out of 65 cubes in 57 minutes and 47 seconds, set by Graham Siggins of the United States on 26 June 2022 at Blind Is Back LA. Siggins inspected 65 cubes, donned a blindfold, and solved successfully 62 of them, all under the time limit of one hour. Fewest moves solving: The world record of fewest moves to solve a cube, given one hour to determine one's solution, is 16, which was achieved by Sebastiano Tronto of Italy on 15 June 2019 at FMC 2019. The world record mean of three for the fewest moves challenge (with different scrambles) is 20.00, set by Wong Chong Wen (黄崇文) of Singapore on 17 September 2023 at FMC Johor Bahru. Other records Non-human solving: The fastest non-human Rubik's Cube solve was performed by Rubik's Contraption, a robot made by Ben Katz and Jared Di Carlo. A YouTube video shows a 0.38-second solving time using a Nucleo with the min2phase algorithm. Highest order physical n×n×n cube solving: Jeremy Smith solved a 21x21x21 in 95 minutes and 55.52 seconds. Group solving (12 minutes): The record for most people solving a Rubik's Cube at once in twelve minutes is 134, set on 17 March 2010 by schoolboys from Dr Challoner's Grammar School, Amersham, England, breaking the previous Guinness World Record of 96 people at once. Group solving (30 minutes): On 21 November 2012, at the O2 Arena in London, 1414 people, mainly students from schools across London, solved Rubik's Cube in under 30 minutes, breaking the previous Guinness World Record of 937. The event was hosted by Depaul UK. On 4 November 2012, 3248 people, mainly students of the College of Engineering Pune, successfully solved Rubik's cube in 30 minutes on college ground. The successful attempt is recorded in the Limca Book of Records. The college will submit the relevant data, witness statements and video of the event to Guinness authorities. Top 10 solvers by single solve Variations There are many different variations of Rubik's Cubes. The most common class of variants changes the "order" of the cube, defined by the number of layers in each dimension or equivalently by the number of pieces along each edge (including corners). The 2×2×2 (Pocket/Mini Cube), the standard 3×3×3 cube, the 4×4×4 (Rubik's Revenge/Master Cube), and the 5×5×5 (Professor's Cube) are the most well known, as they are all available under the official Rubik's brand. The WCA sanctions speedsolving competitions for cube orders up to 7×7×7. These "big cubes" represent about the limit of practicality for the purpose of competitive speedsolving, as the cubes become increasingly ungainly and prone to mechanical failure (such as "popping", where one or more pieces become dislodged from the puzzle), and average solve times increase quadratically with each larger order, in proportion to the number of total "facelets" of the cube. Even larger cubes based on the V-Cube patents are commercially available to the mass-market from non-licensed manufacturers, most of them Chinese firms which also produce popular cubes designed for speed-solving. The 17×17×17 "Over the Top" cube (available late 2011) was until December 2017 the largest commercially sold cube, and the most expensive, costing over US$2000. A mass-produced 17×17×17 was later introduced by the Chinese manufacturer YuXin. A working design for a 22×22×22 cube exists and was demonstrated in January 2016, and a 33×33×33 in December 2017, though designs this large are not currently mass-produced. Chinese manufacturer ShengShou has been producing cubes in all sizes from 2×2×2 to 15×15×15 (as of May 2020), and has also come out with a 17×17×17. The largest currently mass-produced cube is 21×21×21, made by MoYu beginning in 2021, and costing between $1100 and $1600. There are many variations of the original cube, some of which are made by Rubik. The mechanical products include Rubik's Magic, 360, and Twist. There are electronic variants such as Rubik's Revolution and Slide that were also inspired by the original. One of the 3×3×3 Cube variants is Rubik's TouchCube. Sliding a finger across its faces causes its patterns of coloured lights to rotate the same way they would on a mechanical cube. The TouchCube also has buttons for hints and self-solving, and it includes a charging stand. The TouchCube was introduced at the American International Toy Fair in New York on 15 February 2009. The Cube has inspired an entire category of similar puzzles, commonly referred to as twisty puzzles, which includes the cubes of different sizes mentioned above, as well as various other geometric shapes. Some such shapes include the tetrahedron (Pyraminx), the octahedron (Skewb Diamond), the dodecahedron (Megaminx), and the icosahedron (Dogic). There are also puzzles that change shape such as Rubik's Snake and the Square One. In 2011, Guinness World Records awarded the "largest order Rubiks magic cube" to a 17×17×17 cube, made by Oskar van Deventer. On 2 December 2017, Grégoire Pfennig announced that he had broken this record, with a 33×33×33 cube, and that his claim had been submitted to Guinness for verification. On 8 April 2018, Grégoire Pfennig announced another world record, the 2x2x50 cube. Whether this is a replacement for the 33×33×33 record, or an additional record, remains to be seen. Some puzzles have also been created in the shape of Kepler–Poinsot polyhedra, such as Alexander's Star (a great dodecahedron). Grégoire Pfennig has also created at least one puzzle in the shape of a small stellated dodecahedron. Custom-built puzzles Puzzles have been built resembling Rubik's Cube, or based on its inner workings. For example, a cuboid is a puzzle based on Rubik's Cube, but with different functional dimensions, such as 2×2×4, 2×3×4, and 3×3×5. Other Rubik's Cube modifications include "shape mods", cubes that have been extended or truncated to form a new shape. An example of this is the Trabjer's Octahedron, which can be built by truncating and extending portions of a regular 3×3×3. Most shape modifications can be adapted to higher-order cubes. In the case of Tony Fisher's Rhombic Dodecahedron, there are 3×3×3, 4×4×4, 5×5×5, and 6×6×6 versions of the puzzle. Rubik's Cube software Puzzles, like Rubik's Cube, can be simulated by computer software to provide very large puzzles that are impractical to build, as well as virtual puzzles that cannot be physically built, such as many higher dimensional analogues of the Rubik's Cube. Chrome Cube Lab Google has released the Chrome Cube Lab in association with Ernő Rubik. The site has various interactive objects based on Rubik's Cube. Customised versions of Rubik's Cube can be created and uploaded. Exhibits and art Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey, and Google designed an interactive exhibit based on the Rubik's Cube. It opened in April 2014 in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Cube's invention before traveling internationally for seven years. Exhibition elements include a 35-foot-tall rooftop cube made of lights that people can manipulate with their cellphones, a $2.5 million cube made of diamonds, a giant walk-in cube displaying the inner workings of the puzzle, and cube-solving robots. Probably from the earliest days of the Rubik's Cube craze in the 1980s people have assembled cubes to form simple art pieces, several early 'Folk Artists' are noted for their work.Rubik's Cubes have also been the subject of several pop art installations. Owing to their popularity as a children's toy several artists and groups have created large Rubik's Cubes. Tony Rosenthal's Alamo (The Astor Place Cube) is a spinnable statue of a Cube standing in New York City. Once the cube was covered with coloured panels so that it resembled a Rubik's Cube. Similarly, the University of Michigan students covered Endover creating a large Rubik's Cube on the University of Michigan's Central Campus for April Fool's Day in 2008. Rubik's Cubism Beyond the Folk Art of the 1980s and 1990s, and the simple replication of a Rubik's Cube in oversized form, artists have developed a pointillist art style using the cubes. Rubik's Cube Art a.k.a. Rubik's Cubism or RubikCubism makes use of a standard Rubik's Cube, a popular puzzle toy of the 1980s. The earliest recorded artworks appear to have been created by Fred Holly, a legally blind man in his 60s in the mid-1980s. These early pieces focus on geometrics and colour patterns. There does not appear to be other recorded art pieces until the mid-1990s by cube aficionados involved in the puzzle and game industry. The Folk art form reached another level of its evolution with the development and maturity into a Pop art form consisting of pointillist Cube Art renderings. The street artist who uses the alias "Invader" or "Space Invader" started exhibiting pointillist pieces, including one of a man behind a desk and Mario Bros, using Rubik's Cube in June 2005 in an exhibition named 'Rubik Cubism' at Sixspace in Los Angeles. Prior to this exhibition the artist had used Rubik's Cubes to create giant Space Invaders. Another artist includes Robbie Mackinnon of Toronto Canada with earliest published work in 2007 who claims to have developed his pointillist Cube Art years earlier while being a teacher in China. Robbie Mackinnon's work has been exhibited in Ripley's Believe it or Not and focussed on using pop-art, while Space Invader has exhibited his Cube Art alongside mosaic Space Invaders in commercial and public galleries. In 2010 artist Pete Fecteau created "Dream Big", a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. using 4,242 officially licensed Rubik's Cubes. Fecteau also worked with the organization You Can Do The Rubik's Cube to create two separate guides designed to teach school children how to create Rubik's Cube mosaics from templates which he also created. Music Italian composer Maria Mannone created a cube called "CubeHarmonic" which has musical note names on its facets, creating different chord structures depending on its configuration. Reviews Games 1980 Games 100 in Games 1981 Games 100 in Games See also Mirror blocks n-dimensional sequential move puzzle Rubik's Domino Rubik's family cubes of all sizes Spatial ability V-Cube 8 (8×8×8) List of Rubik's Cube manufacturers References Further reading Bizek, Hana M. (1997). Mathematics of the Rubik's Cube Design. Pittsburgh, Pa: Dorrance Pub. Co. ISBN 0805939199. Frey, Alexander; Singmaster, David (1982). Handbook of Cubic Math. Enslow. ISBN 0894900587. Rubik, Ernő; Varga, Tamas; Keri, Gerson; Marx, Gyorgy; Vekerdy, Tamas (1987). Singmaster, David (ed.). Rubik's Cubic Compendium. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198532024. Slocum, Jerry; Singmaster, David; Huang, Wei-Hwa; Gebhardt, Dieter; Hellings, Geert; Rubik, Ernő (2009). The Cube: The Ultimate Guide to the World's Bestselling Puzzle. Black Dog & Leventhal. ISBN 978-1579128050. External links "Rubik's Cube". Google Doodle. Archived from the original on 19 May 2014. Retrieved 19 May 2014. (Working model) Rubik's Cube at Curlie Complete disassembly of a 3^3 classic Rubik's cube How to solve a Rubik's Cube on YouTube List of related puzzles and solutions Official website Safecracker Method: Solving Rubik's Cube with just 10 Numbers Speedsolving Wiki World Cube Association

United_States_federal_executive_departments

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_executive_departments

The United States federal executive departments are the principal units of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States. They are analogous to ministries common in parliamentary or semi-presidential systems but (the United States being a presidential system) they are led by a head of government who is also the head of state. The executive departments are the administrative arms of the president of the United States. There are currently 15 executive departments. Overview Structure Each department is headed by a secretary whose title echoes the title of their respective department, with the exception of the Department of Justice, whose head is known as the attorney general. The heads of the executive departments are appointed by the president and take office after confirmation by the United States Senate, and serve at the pleasure of the president. The heads of departments are members of the Cabinet of the United States, an executive organ that normally acts as an advisory body to the president. In the Opinion Clause (Article II, section 2, clause 1) of the U.S. Constitution, heads of executive departments are referred to as "principal Officer in each of the executive Departments". The heads of executive departments are included in the line of succession to the president, in the event of a vacancy in the presidency, after the vice president, the speaker of the House, and the president pro tempore of the Senate. They are included in order of their respective department's formation, with the exception of the Secretary of Defense, whose position in the line of succession is based on when the Department of War was formed. Separation of powers To enforce a strong separation of powers, the federal Constitution's Ineligibility Clause expressly prohibits executive branch employees (including heads of executive departments) from simultaneously serving in Congress, and vice versa. Accordingly, in sharp contrast to virtually all other Western democracies (parliamentary systems) where ministers are selected to form a government from members of parliament, U.S. legislators who are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate to serve as heads of executive departments must resign from Congress before assuming their new positions. If the emoluments for a new appointee's executive branch position were increased while the appointee was previously serving in Congress (e.g., cost of living adjustments), the president must implement a Saxbe fix. Contracting and grantmaking roles As is evident from the chart below, several executive departments (Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Transportation) have disproportionately small employee headcounts in contrast to the size of their budgets. This is because many of their employees merely supervise contracts with private independent contractors or grants (especially categorical grants) to state or local government agencies who are primarily responsible for providing services directly to the general public. In the 20th century, when the federal government began to provide funding and supervision for matters which were historically seen as the domain of state governments (i.e., education, health and welfare services, housing, and transportation), Congress frequently authorized only funding for grants which were voluntary, in the sense that state or local government agencies could choose to apply for such grants (and accept conditions attached by Congress) or they could decline to apply. In the case of HHS's Medicare program, Congress chose to contract with private health insurers because they "already possessed the requisite expertise for administering complex health insurance programs", and because American hospitals preferred to continue dealing with private insurers instead of a new federal bureaucracy. Current departments Former departments Proposed departments Department of Industry and Commerce, proposed by Secretary of the Treasury William Windom in a speech given at a Chamber of Commerce dinner in May 1881 Department of Natural Resources, proposed by the Eisenhower administration, President Richard Nixon, the 1976 GOP national platform, and by Bill Daley (as a consolidation of the Departments of the Interior and Energy, and the Environmental Protection Agency) Department of Peace, proposed by Senator Matthew Neely in the 1930s, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, 2020 and 2024 presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, and other members of the U.S. Congress Department of Social Welfare, proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1937 Department of Public Works, proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1937 Department of Conservation (renamed Department of the Interior), proposed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1937 Department of Urban Affairs and Housing, proposed by President John F. Kennedy Department of Business and Labor, proposed by President Lyndon B. Johnson Department of Community Development, proposed by President Richard Nixon; to be chiefly concerned with rural infrastructure development Department of Human Resources, proposed by President Richard Nixon; essentially a revised Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Department of Economic Affairs, proposed by President Richard Nixon; essentially a consolidation of the Departments of Commerce, Labor, and Agriculture. Department of Environmental Protection, proposed by Senator Arlen Specter and others Department of Intelligence, proposed by former Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell Department of Global Development, proposed by the Center for Global Development Department of Art, proposed by Quincy Jones Department of Business, proposed by President Barack Obama as a consolidation of the U.S. Department of Commerce's core business and trade functions, the Small Business Administration, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency Department of Commerce and the Workforce, a merger of the Department of Commerce and the Department of Labor proposed in 2011 and 2013 by Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) in S. 1116 Department of Education and the Workforce, proposed by President Donald Trump as a consolidation of the Departments of Education and Labor Department of Health and Public Welfare, proposed by President Donald Trump as a renamed Department of Health and Human Services Department of Economic Development, proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren to replace the Commerce Department, subsume other agencies like the Small Business Administration and the Patent and Trademark Office, and include research and development programs, worker training programs, and export and trade authorities like the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative with the single goal of creating and defending good American jobs Department of Technology, proposed by businessman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang Department of Children and Youth, proposed by Marianne Williamson Department of Culture, patterned on similar departments in many foreign nations, proposed by, among others, Murray Moss and Jeva Lange See also British government departments Canadian Federal government departments Cabinet of the Confederate States of America Cabinet of the United States Independent agencies of the United States government List of federal agencies in the United States References Citations Sources External links Media related to Executive Departments of the United States at Wikimedia Commons

United_States_Secretary_of_Homeland_Security

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_Homeland_Security

The United States secretary of homeland security is the head of the United States Department of Homeland Security, the federal department tasked with ensuring public safety in the United States. The secretary is a member of the Cabinet of the United States. The position was created by the Homeland Security Act following the attacks of September 11, 2001. The new department consisted primarily of components transferred from other Cabinet departments because of their role in homeland security, such as the Coast Guard, the Federal Protective Service, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (which includes the United States Border Patrol), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (which includes Homeland Security Investigations), the United States Secret Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It does not, however, include the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the U.S. Marshals Service. They continue to operate under U.S. Department of Justice. The current secretary of homeland security is Alejandro Mayorkas, since February 2, 2021. He is the first Latino and immigrant to lead the Department of Homeland Security. List of secretaries of homeland security Prior to the establishment of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, there existed an assistant to the president for the Office of Homeland Security, which was created following the September 11 attacks in 2001. Parties Republican (5) Democratic (3) Independent (4) Status Denotes Acting Homeland Security Secretary a. ^ James Loy served as acting secretary in his capacity as Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. b. ^ Rand Beers served as acting secretary in his capacity as confirmed Undersecretary of Homeland Security for National Protection and Programs and Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security; Beers was the highest ranking Senate-approved presidential appointee at the Department of Homeland Security. c. ^ Elaine Duke served as acting secretary in her capacity as Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security. d. ^ Kevin McAleenan served as acting secretary in his capacity as Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. His tenure was ruled unlawful. e. ^ Chad Wolf served as acting secretary in his capacity as Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Strategy, Policy, and Plans. His tenure was ruled unlawful. f. ^ Peter Gaynor served as acting secretary in his capacity as Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator. g. ^ David Pekoske served as acting secretary in his capacity as Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration Order of succession While appointment of acting officials is generally governed by the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 (FVRA), the Homeland Security Act of 2002 creates exceptions to FVRA, mandating that the under secretary of homeland security for management is third in the line of succession for Secretary of Homeland Security, and establishes an alternate process by which the secretary can directly establish a line of succession outside the provisions of the FVRA. As of November 8, 2019, the order of succession is as follows. However, the legality of this update was challenged. Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Under Secretary for Management Commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Under Secretary for Strategy, Policy, and Plans Administrator and Assistant Secretary of the Transportation Security Administration Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Formerly, an April 10, 2019 update to the DHS Orders of Succession, made pursuant to the Homeland Security Act of 2002, provided a different order in the case of unavailability to act during a disaster or catastrophic emergency: Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Under Secretary for Management Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Under Secretary for Science and Technology Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Under Secretary for Strategy, Policy, and Plans General Counsel Deputy Under Secretary for Management Deputy Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Deputy Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration Deputy Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers As a result of Executive Order 13753 in 2016, the order of succession for the secretary of homeland security was as follows: Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Management Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Under Secretary of Homeland Security for National Protection and Programs Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Science and Technology Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Assistant Secretary for Policy General Counsel of the Department of Homeland Security Deputy Under Secretary for Management Deputy Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Deputy Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration Deputy Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Administration-cited potential nominees Bernard Kerik George W. Bush nominated Bernard Kerik for the position in 2004. However a week later, Kerik withdrew his nomination, explaining that he had employed an illegal immigrant as a nanny. Raymond Kelly By July 2013, Raymond Kelly had served as Commissioner of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) for nearly 12 straight years. Within days of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano's announcement that she was resigning, Kelly was soon cited as an obvious potential successor by New York senator Charles Schumer and others. During a July 16, 2013, interview, President Obama referred generally to the "bunch of strong candidates" for nomination to head the Department of Homeland Security, but singled out Kelly as "one of the best there is" and "very well qualified for the job". Later in July 2013, the online internet news website/magazine Huffington Post detailed "a growing campaign to quash the potential nomination of New York City Police commissioner Raymond Kelly as the next secretary of the Department of Homeland Security" amid claims of "divisive, harmful, and ineffective policing that promotes stereotypes and profiling". Days after that article, Kelly penned a statistics-heavy Wall Street Journal opinion article defending the NYPD's programs, stating "the average number of stops we conduct is less than one per officer per week" and that this and other practices have led to "7,383 lives saved—and... they are largely the lives of young men of color." Kelly was also featured because of his NYPD retirement and unusually long tenure there in a long segment on the CBS News program Sunday Morning in December 2013, especially raising the question of the controversial "stop and frisk" policy in New York City and the long decline and drop of various types of crimes committed. Office of the Secretary of Homeland Security Purpose The Office of the Secretary (OS) oversees the execution of the duties of the Department of Homeland Security. Certain elements also aid the Secretary of Homeland Security and senior officials of the Department of Homeland Security, as well as private sector and government partners in their duties. Composition The Office of the Secretary contains several offices and other elements of the DHS. Most of the heads of these elements report directly to the Secretary or Deputy Secretary, but the Military Advisor and Executive Secretary report to the DHS Chief of Staff, who is currently Jonathan Davidson. See also Interior minister List of current interior ministers References External links Official website

Tom_Ridge

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Ridge

Thomas Joseph Ridge (born August 26, 1945) is an American politician and author who served in the George W. Bush administration as the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security from 2001 to 2003 and as the United States Secretary of Homeland Security from 2003 to 2005. He was the first person to hold either office. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 to 1995 and as the 43rd governor of Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2001. Ridge was born in Munhall, Pennsylvania, and raised in veterans' public housing in Erie, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Harvard University with honors, he served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War where he was awarded the Bronze Star. He then returned to Pennsylvania and completed his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree at the Dickinson School of Law, graduating in 1972, and entered private practice. As assistant district attorney in Erie, Ridge ran for Congress in his district, where he served six terms. He then ran for governor in 1994, despite being little-known outside of northwest Pennsylvania. He won the election, and was reelected in 1998 with the most votes for a Republican governor in Pennsylvania (where Democrats outnumbered Republicans by almost 500,000) in more than half a century. As Governor of Pennsylvania, he is credited for statewide advances in economic development, education, health care and the environment. As of 2024, he is the last Republican to win reelection as Pennsylvania's governor. Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, U.S. President George W. Bush named Ridge the first director of the newly created Office of Homeland Security. In January 2003, the Office of Homeland Security became an official Cabinet-level Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and Ridge became the first Secretary of Homeland Security. He served in these roles for Bush's first term as president, then retired and returned to the private sector. Since reentering the private sector, Ridge has served on the boards of The Home Depot, The Hershey Company and Exelon Corporation and as a senior advisor to Deloitte & Touche and TechRadium. He is also the founder and chairman of Ridge Global, a Washington, D.C.-based security consulting firm. He spent time campaigning with Senator John McCain during his 2008 presidential bid and was believed by some to have been on the short list of potential running mates. Early life and education Ridge was born in Munhall, Pennsylvania, in Pittsburgh's Steel Valley, the eldest of three children. His parents were Laura (née Sudimack) and Thomas Regis Ridge, who was a traveling salesman and Navy veteran. Ridge's maternal grandparents were Rusyn immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), and his paternal great-grandparents emigrated from Great Britain. He was raised in veterans' public housing in Erie, Pennsylvania. He was educated at St. Andrews Elementary School and Cathedral Preparatory School and did well both academically and in sports. He attended Harvard College, where he paid his way through with construction work, played intramural baseball and football, and graduated with honors in 1967. In 1968, after his first year at the Dickinson School of Law, he was drafted into the United States Army. Military service in Vietnam Ridge waived an opportunity for officer training school because it would have required a longer service commitment. In November 1969, Ridge arrived as a sergeant in South Vietnam where he would serve for six months as a staff sergeant with Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, 11th Infantry Brigade, 23rd Infantry Division (Americal Division) during the Vietnam War. In May 1970, a ruptured appendix cut short his tour of duty in Vietnam and he was sent home; his service also aggravated a childhood ear infection which caused him afterwards to have a hearing aid in his left ear. For his service in Vietnam, Ridge received the Bronze Star with "V" Device, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross Unit Citation with Palm, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, and the Combat Infantryman Badge. Military awards Legal career After returning to Pennsylvania, he completed his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree at the Dickinson School of Law, graduating in 1972, and entered private practice. Ridge became assistant district attorney in Erie County, Pennsylvania, in 1980 and prosecuted 86 cases in two years. Elected office U.S. House of Representatives In 1982 he won a seat in Congress from northwestern Pennsylvania by the margin of only 729 votes, and was re-elected five times. Governor In 1994, despite being little-known outside of northwest Pennsylvania, Ridge ran for governor. He won the election as a pro-choice Republican. He was reelected in 1998 with 57 percent of the vote in a four-way race. His share of the vote in that election was the highest for a Republican governor in Pennsylvania (where Democrats outnumber Republicans by almost 500,000) in more than half a century. During his time as governor, Ridge promoted "law and order" policies, supporting a three-strikes law and a faster death penalty process. A death penalty supporter, Ridge signed more than 224 execution warrants – five times the number signed over a 25-year period by the two previous governors – but only three voluntary executions were carried out. On social issues, he opposed same-sex marriage but supported abortion rights. Over Ridge's tenure, the Commonwealth's budget grew by two to three percent per fiscal year and combined tax reductions totaled over $2 billion. Ridge created and grew a "Rainy Day" Fund balance to over $1 billion to be utilized during an economic downturn or recession. Ridge pushed for legislation permitting competition among electric utilities and enhanced federal and state support for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). He separated the Commonwealth's environmental regulatory and conservation programs into two new agencies; the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Ridge proposed the creation of public charter schools in Pennsylvania and in establishing alternate schools for disruptive students. He launched new academic standards that established academic expectations for what students were expected to know in different grades. He proposed a school choice demonstration program. Ridge oversaw a number of e-government projects including renewing drivers' licenses and vehicle registrations to viewing historical documents and library catalogs. The Commonwealth's portal won several national awards. One of the nation's first electronic grant systems was put into place at the Pennsylvania Department of Education. He created the Link-to-Learn initiative to increase the effective use of technology in public schools and universities. Ridge signed two death warrants for African-American civil rights activist Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing a police officer at a traffic stop. Ridge served as governor until he resigned to become the Director of Homeland Security in 2001, following the September 11 attacks. 2000 presidential election Ridge was a potential running mate for Bob Dole in 1996, and served as a close advisor to Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush, a close friend from their simultaneous tenures as governors, during the 2000 presidential campaign. In return, Bush named Ridge to his short list for possible running mates, along with New York Governor George Pataki, Michigan Governor John Engler, Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, former Missouri Senator John Danforth, and former American Red Cross President Elizabeth Dole. Homeland Security Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, U.S. President George W. Bush created the Office of Homeland Security within the White House, and named Ridge to head it. The charge to the nation's new director of homeland security was to develop and coordinate a comprehensive national strategy to strengthen the United States against terrorist threats or attacks. Ridge formally resigned as Pennsylvania's governor on October 5, 2001. In January 2003 and after the passage of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the Office of Homeland Security split into a Cabinet-level Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the White House Homeland Security Advisory Council. Ridge left the White House and became the first Secretary of Homeland Security. The department's mission "is to (A) prevent terrorist attacks within the United States; (B) reduce the vulnerability of the United States to terrorism; and (C) minimize the damage, and assist in the recovery, from terrorist attacks that do occur within the United States" (From H.R. 5005-8 the Homeland Security Act of 2002). The newly created department was the most comprehensive reorganization of the Federal government since the National Security Act of 1947. The Department of Homeland Security consolidates 22 agencies and 180,000 employees, unifying once-fragmented Federal functions in a single agency dedicated to protecting America from terrorism. Ridge worked with the employees from combined agencies to strengthen borders, provide for intelligence analysis and infrastructure protection, improve the use of science and technology to counter weapons of mass destruction, and to create a comprehensive response and recovery division. In January 2004, Ridge was named among others in a lawsuit filed by a Syrian-born Canadian Maher Arar who said he was tortured in Syria after being deported by American authorities. Retirement from public office and book On November 30, 2004, Ridge submitted his resignation to the President, saying, "After more than 22 consecutive years of public service, it is time to give personal and family matters a higher priority." In his book The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege...and How We Can Be Safe Again, Ridge says his resignation was due to an effort by senior Bush administration officials to raise the nation's terror alert level in the days before the 2004 presidential vote. Work in the private sector Ridge is the founder and chairman of Ridge Global, an advisory firm in Washington, D.C. Ridge served on a state-appointed incident review panel that investigated the Virginia Tech shooting. Ridge also sits on the board of directors of the Atlantic Council. Ridge Policy Group In 2010, Ridge's two former Chiefs of Staff, Mark Campbell and Mark Holman, opened a lobbying firm after Ridge lent the firm his name. The full-service government affairs firm has offices in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. In July 2010, companies seeking to use hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation engaged Ridge and Ridge Policy Group at $75,000 a month to help them gain support. Board memberships and other corporate associations Ridge has served on a variety of corporate boards of directors and in other roles. In 2005, he was named to the board of Home Depot, with an expected annual compensation of about $100,000. and in the same year was appointed to the board of the RFID company Savi Technology. He was appointed to the board of directors of the Exelon Corporation electric utility in 2006, with starting director compensation of $35,000 annual retainer plus a $1,500 meeting fee or per diem fee and (at the time) $60,000 in annual deferred stock units. In 2006, Ridge was announced as a senior advisor for Deloitte & Touche USA LLP. He was named to serve on the executive board of The Hershey Company in 2007, and was named senior advisor to Texas-based security technology company TechRadium, Inc. in 2008. In 2009, antimicrobial company PURE Bioscience named Ridge, along with former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson, to its advisory board. He currently sits on the bipartisan advisory board of States United Democracy Center. Political activity 2008 presidential election Ridge served as a senior aide to Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain of Arizona, and was considered by some as a possible running mate for McCain. Speculated 2010 Senate candidacy According to Fox News, many Republicans hoped Ridge would run for the United States Senate against the newly turned Democrat Arlen Specter, who stated he would seek re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary. Already seeking the Republican nomination was former Representative Pat Toomey, who narrowly lost to Specter in the Republican primary in 2004. Some Republicans thought Ridge would have a better chance against Specter than would Toomey. A Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll conducted between April 30, 2009, and May 3, 2009, placed Ridge within three points of Specter in a hypothetical matchup between the two men. Some Toomey supporters criticized the idea of a Ridge candidacy because, although Ridge was still registered to vote in Pennsylvania, he was actually living in Chevy Chase, Maryland. On May 7, 2009, Ridge announced that he would not be a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2010. 2012 presidential election In September 2011, Ridge endorsed the campaign of former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman in the 2012 election. Mitt Romney announced an endorsement from Ridge on March 14, 2012. Supreme Court brief In 2013, Ridge was a signatory to an amicus curiae brief submitted to the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage during the Hollingsworth v. Perry case. Stance on the People's Mujahedin of Iran Ridge spoke at a conference in support of the removal of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK, also PMOI, MKO) from the United States State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The group was listed on the State Department list from 1997 until September 2012. They were placed on the list for killing six Americans in Iran during the 1970s and attempting to attack the Iranian mission to the United Nations in 1992. Ridge, along with other former government officials and politicians Ed Rendell, R. James Woolsey, Porter Goss, Louis Freeh, Michael Mukasey, James L. Jones, Rudy Giuliani, and Howard Dean, were criticized for their involvement with the group. Some were subpoenaed during an inquiry about who was paying the prominent individuals' speaking fees. Ridge and others wrote an article for the conservative publication National Review stating their position that the group should not be classified as a terrorist organization, raising the point that, at the time, only the United States and Iran still listed it as a terrorist group. 2015 Blue Ribbon Commission In 2015, Ridge served as co-chair of the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense, a commission that recommended changes to U.S. policy regarding biodefense. In order to address biological threats facing the nation, the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense created a 33-step initiative for the U.S. Government to implement. Tom Ridge headed the organization with former Senator Joe Lieberman, and the Study Panel assembled in Washington, D.C., for four meetings concerning current biodefense programs. The Study Panel concluded that the federal government had little to no defense mechanisms in case of a biological event. The Study Panel's final report, The National Blueprint for Biodefense, proposes a string of solutions and recommendations for the U.S. Government to take, including items such as giving the vice president authority over biodefense responsibilities and merging the entire biodefense budget. These solutions represent the Panel's call to action in order to increase awareness and activity for pandemic related issues. 2016 presidential election In 2016, Ridge endorsed Jeb Bush and subsequently John Kasich after Bush's withdrawal from the 2016 Republican presidential primaries. Ridge stated he would not endorse Donald Trump, following Trump becoming the presumptive nominee, or Hillary Clinton in the general election. Criticisms of President Trump In July 2020, Ridge criticized President Trump for saying in June that vote-by-mail leads to widespread voter fraud, responding that it is not a threat and that voters need a safe way to cast a ballot in the 2020 election, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Ridge also said that it was "sad" that the President wants to quash the legitimacy of the election. In response to Ridge's comments, the RNC said lawsuits by Democrats to strip ballot safeguards are an attempt to delegitimize the election. Ridge is a co-chair of VoteSafe, a bipartisan group that promotes safe voting by mail and in person. Also in July 2020, Ridge slammed his former Department for sending in federal agents to detain rioters allegedly committing federal crimes in Portland, Oregon, after more than 50 days of protests and riots there. He also said, during an interview with radio host Michael Smerconish, that it would be a "cold day in hell" before he "would consent to an uninvited, unilateral intervention" in one of his cities in Pennsylvania. The White House cited federal law to support this use of federal law enforcement. Trump later slammed Ridge on Twitter, calling him "a failed RINO" and saying he "loved watching pathetic Never Trumpers squirm!". 2020 presidential election In September 2020, Ridge endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for president in a Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed. He confirmed to CNN on November 6, 2020, it was the first time he ever voted for a Democratic presidential candidate. Ridge, along with more than 100 Republican former national security officials, signed a letter in November that stated that the delay of the presidential transition imperiled the security of the nation. The 9/11 Commission finding that the shortened transition to the administration of George W. Bush during the disputed 2000 presidential election "hampered the new administration in identifying, recruiting, clearing, and obtaining Senate confirmation of key appointees" was mentioned in the statement. In August 2022, Ridge described the January 6 United States Capitol attack as "conduct you’d see in a Third World country, not in the United States of America" and described current politics in America as "distressing", "personal, vengeful, [and] mean-spirited." 2022 Senate Election In 2022, Ridge endorsed fellow Republican Mehmet Oz in the 2022 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania. Memoir Tom Ridge's book The Test of Our Times was published in September 2009. Written with Larry Bloom, it concerns Ridge's time as the head of the Department of Homeland Security. He explains the challenges and decision-making processes of the newly formed department, and gives his own views as to the future of the security of the United States of America. The book further discusses the infighting he saw that frustrated his attempts to build a smooth-running department. Among the headlines promoted by publisher Thomas Dunne Books: Ridge was never invited to sit in on National Security Council meetings; was 'blindsided' by the FBI in morning Oval Office meetings because the agency withheld critical information from him; found his urgings to block Michael Brown from being named head of the emergency agency blamed for the Hurricane Katrina disaster ignored; and was pushed to raise the security alert on the eve of President Bush's re-election, something he saw as politically motivated and worth resigning over. Ridge wrote in his memoir that then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft pressured him to raise the terror alert level, running up to the 2004 elections, because of a pre-election message critical of President Bush from Osama Bin Laden. Recognition Presented with the Woodrow Wilson Award by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Erie International Airport was co-named Tom Ridge Field in honor of Ridge. The Tom Ridge Environmental Center at Presque Isle State Park in Erie, Pennsylvania, is named after the former governor. Ridge was instrumental in securing funds for the center. His picture hangs in the moot court room at the Penn State Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Presque Isle Downs in Erie, Pennsylvania, runs the $100,000 Tom Ridge Stakes every meet. Mercyhurst University named its Tom Ridge College of Intelligence Studies and Applied Science after the first U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. Personal life Tom's wife, Michele Ridge, is the former executive director of the Erie County Library System. Married since 1979, they have two children: Lesley and Tommy. Ridge was hospitalized in critical condition in Texas after a cardiac event on November 16, 2017. On June 16, 2021, Ridge suffered a stroke while at his home in Bethesda, Maryland. He was hospitalized and underwent a successful procedure to remove a blood clot. Discharged in late June, Ridge began rehabilitation therapy in the Washington, D.C., area. Gubernatorial electoral history References External links Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Appearances on C-SPAN

Colosteidae

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colosteidae

Colosteidae is a family of stegocephalians (stem-group tetrapods) that lived in the Carboniferous period. They possessed a variety of characteristics from different tetrapod or stem-tetrapod groups, which made them historically difficult to classify. They are now considered to be part of a lineage intermediate between the earliest Devonian terrestrial vertebrates (such as Ichthyostega), and the different groups ancestral to all modern tetrapods, such as temnospondyls (probably ancestral to modern amphibians) and reptiliomorphs (ancestral to amniotes such as mammals, reptiles, and birds). Description Colosteids had elongated bodies, with an estimated 40 vertebrae, not including the tail. The skull is relatively flat and composed of many separate bones, like that of other stegocephalians. Colosteids lacked otic notches at the back of the head, unlike temnospondyls and other "labyrinthodonts". However, they did possess large mandibular and palatal fangs (on the lower jaw and the roof of the mouth), in addition to smaller marginal teeth (at the edge of the mouth), like "labyrinthodonts". The skull was overlaid with wide sensory grooves known as lateral lines, which extended from rear edge of the skull to the tip of the snout. Most aquatic stegocephalians have their lateral lines dip, unbroken, under the nostrils once they reach the tip of the snout, or alternately disconnect into separate grooves separated by the nostrils. However, colosteids evolved a unique alternative; their lateral lines droop below the nostrils so far that they contact the marginal teeth, so that the edge of the skull is responsible for subdividing the grooves, rather than the nostrils. The mandibular fangs were larger than the palatal ones, though those on the palate were still large. Colosteids were unique compared to most stegocephalians in the fact that a pair of palatal fangs were present on the premaxillary bones at the tip of the snout. In conjunction with the forward position of these fangs, the dentary bones of the lower jaw developed a notch on either side near the symphysis (chin). The symphysis itself is formed by a rough area of bone on the left and right dentaries. This rough patch is formed by a complex system of ridges, which have been described as "brassicate" (textured like a cauliflower). Only Megalocephalus is known to share this brassicate patch with colosteids. The mandibles were also unique in the fact that they possessed a single elongated hole along their inner surface, known as an exomeckelian foramen (or a meckelian fenestra). Earlier stegocephalians like Ichthyostega possessed a subtle slit in the mandible, while most later groups had a series of smaller, well-defined holes. Relationships The analysis below was conducted by Swartz in 2012, showing the relationship of colosteids with other tetrapodomorphs. References External links "Tetrapoda: Carboniferous Forms. Colosteidae". Palaeos. Archived from the original on October 6, 2022. "Museum of Geology & Natural History: Selected Fossils". West Virginia: Geological & Economic Survey. Archived from the original on October 10, 2023.

Deltaherpeton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deltaherpeton

Deltaherpeton is an extinct genus of colosteid from middle Mississippian (late Viséan age) deposits of Delta, Iowa, United States. It was first named by John R. Bolt and R. Eric Lombard in 2010 and the type species is Deltaherpeton hiemstrae. Deltaherpeton can be differentiated from other colosteids due to possessing several unique bones along the midline of the skull, separating paired skull bones which typically contact each other along the midline. These include an internasal, an oval-shaped bone which lies at the intersection of the paired premaxillae and nasal bones at the top of the snout. Internasals are known from several of the earliest four-limbed vertebrates, such as Acanthostega, Ichthyostega, and baphetids. Further back, what seems to be a pair of lozenge-shape bones lie at the intersection of the nasal bones and frontal bones. These bones may be interfrontonasals, which have been found in some eryopoids and microsaurs. In addition, Deltaherpeton has a single postparietal (rather than a pair), which separates the left and right supratemporal and tabular bones at the rear edge of the skull. Lone postparietals are rare among non-amniote tetrapods and tetrapod relatives; only Ichthyostega and diadectomorphs are known to possess them. The discovery of Deltaherpeton prompted a review and re-augmentation of the defining characteristics for the family Colosteidae, though it did not help to clarify the relationship between colosteids and other early tetrapods. Though it is believed that Deltaherpeton is more derived, the species is thought to have shared its environment with other early four-limbed vertebrates such as Whatcheeria and Siguornea, approximately 339.4 to 336 million years ago. == References ==

Greererpeton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greererpeton

Greererpeton burkemorani ("crawler from Greer, West Virginia") is an extinct genus of colosteid stem-tetrapods from the Early Carboniferous period (late Viséan) of North America. Greererpeton was first described by famed vertebrate paleontologist Alfred S. Romer in 1969, based on a skull and partial skeleton from the Bluefield Formation. The skull was redescribed by Timothy R. Smithson in 1982, while postcranial remains were redescribed by Stephen J. Godfrey in 1989. Greererpeton were probably aquatic, with an elongated body adapted for swimming. Adults have overall length of 1.0–1.4 metres (3.3–4.6 ft) or 1.5 metres (4.9 ft), similar in size to modern Asian giant salamanders (Andrias). The body was elongated, with about 40 vertebrae, while the flattened skull reached about 18 centimetres (7.1 in) long in adult specimens. The most complete adult specimen only preserved 12 tail vertebrae, only about a third the length of the body as in Andrias. However, smaller specimens have been found preserving over 30 vertebrae, so it is not inconceivable that a complete tail was approximately as long as the body. The limbs were short, though not vestigial; the fingers were still well-developed. Greererpeton were carnivores which probably lived in rivers and swamps. Paleobiology There is a large amount of evidence that Greererpeton and other colosteids were completely aquatic animals. Grooves on the side of the skull indicate that Greererpeton had lateral lines, sensory organs commonly found only in fish and aquatic stem-tetrapods. The stapes bone at the rear of the skull is massive, probably used as a support for the skull. This contrasts with the stapes of terrestrial animals such as frogs, mammals, and lizards. In these groups the bone is thin and sensitive to vibration, so it is used for sensitive hearing. The thick stapes of Greererpeton is an indication that did not have good hearing like terrestrial animals. Greererpeton retains a postbranchial lamina on its shoulder blade, which may have been indicative of internal gills like those of fish. However, the erratic distribution of postbranchial laminae in aquatic and terrestrial fish and amphibians makes this conclusion questionable. Godfrey (1989) considered Greererpeton to be biologically similar to the modern Asian giant salamanders (Andrias), the largest living amphibians. Preserved Greererpeton skeletons have their bodies lay completely flat, with their tails twisted over to lay flat perpendicular to the body. These preservational quirks may indicate that the body was flattened dorsoventrally (from top-to-bottom), while the tail was flattened mediolaterally (from side-to-side) into a fin-like structure used for swimming. Young Andrias congregate in shallow water while older individuals were bottom-dwelling predators preferring deeper rivers. Given that small Greererpeton skeletons have been found in groups while larger ones are solitary, it is presumable that Greererpeton behaved similarly. Footnotes External links Greerpeton & Spathicephalus from Palaeos web THE MANDIBLE OF THE PRIMITIVE TETRAPOD GREERERPETON by JOHN R. BOLT and R. ERIC LOMBARD Skull fossil

Pholidogaster

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pholidogaster

Pholidogaster ('scaly stomach') is an extinct genus of stem-tetrapod that lived during the Middle Carboniferous period (late Viséan to early Serpukhovian). Pholidogaster is known from only two specimens found in Gilmerton, Scotland. Historically it was one of the first to show science the evolutionary link between fish and amphibians. This animal had a very long and slender body, with small and feeble limbs. The shoulder structure is further back than is usual. Belly scales are present (hence its name), suggesting that in life it did not just swim, but scrawled over hard surfaces as well. The structure of the jaw is not clear, since the jaw bones on both specimens are not well preserved. However, there are large fangs in the front of the mouth, presumably used in hunting. It was a small to medium-sized animal around 1 m in length. References External links "Pholidogaster". Palaeos.com. Archived from the original on April 5, 2023.

Ma%C5%82gorzata_Ro%C5%BCniecka

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma%C5%82gorzata_Ro%C5%BCniecka

Małgorzata Rożniecka (born 1978, in Szczecin) is a Polish model and beauty queen who won Miss International 2001. Her 2001 victory broke the four-year monopoly of Latin American countries of the crown. She is 1.78 m tall. References External links Małgorzata Rożniecka profile

Miss_International

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_International

Miss International (Miss International Beauty or The International Beauty Pageant) is a Japan-based international major beauty pageant organized by the International Culture Association. First held in 1960, it is the fourth largest pageant in the world in terms of the number of national winners participating in the international contest. Along with Miss World, Miss Universe, and Miss Earth, the pageant is one of the Big Four beauty pageants. The Miss International Organization and the brand are currently owned (since 1968), along with Miss International Japan, by the International Cultural Association and Miss Paris Group. The pageant crown used by the organization is supplied and patented by the Mikimoto pearl company. In 2020 and again in 2021, the pageant was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The current Miss International is Andrea Rubio of Venezuela who was crowned on 26 October 2023 in Tokyo, Japan. History The pageant was created in Long Beach, California, United States in 1960, after the departure of the Miss Universe pageant to Miami Beach. Hosted in Long Beach until 1967, the pageant moved to Japan from 1968 to 1970, being hosted each year in the same city as the Expo '70. For 1971, it was held in Long Beach again, but since that time it had been held annually in Japan until 2003. Since 2004, it is held in China or Japan. The first winner of the pageant in 1960 was Stella Araneta of Colombia. Since then, Japan became the host country and the pageant has mostly been held in Japan, around autumn season either in October or November. The pageant is also called "Miss International Beauty". The pageant advocacy is to achieve a world where women can live with positivity, inner strength and individuality. The slogan of Miss International is to "correct understanding of Japan in the international community" and "the realization of world peace through mutual understanding". It has also recently adapted the slogan "Cheer All Women". The winner of Miss International 2012, Ikumi Yoshimatsu of Japan, was stripped of her title and was not able to crown her successor due to conflict with a talent agency that threatened her safety and the pageant night itself; instead Miss International 2008, Alejandra Andreu, crowned Bea Santiago of the Philippines as Miss International 2013. Yoshimatsu was the first titleholder of the pageant from Japan to be dethroned shortly before the end of her reign. The organization was criticized for allegedly asking Yoshimatsu to skip the succession ceremony and "play sick and shut up" in order to avoid a scandal with a Japanese production company whose president was allegedly harassing her. In 2017, Kevin Lilliana Junaedy of Indonesia became the first Muslim woman to win Miss International. 2020 and 2021 edition was the second and third times the pageant has been cancelled since 1966 edition, because of the COVID-19 pandemic and Japanese government banned International events, following the 2020 Summer Olympics postponement. Recent titleholders Gallery of winners Crowns Gallery of Miss International crowns The Long Beach Pearl Crown (2022–present) – This crown was designed by Mrs. Bùi Thị Mỹ Cảnh - founder of Long Beach Pearl, the official crown sponsor of the Miss International Organization. The crown was used from 2022. The crown of Miss International 2022 (Miss International) with the theme of Cherry Blossoms welcoming the spring sun, inspired by the beauty of the cherries blooming under the spring sunshine, is the departure of spring. color, bringing the beauty of faith and positivity. The cherry blossom is a symbol of Japan, representing the spirit, strength, culture and people of Japan. Not only that, the cherry blossoms are also a symbol of intense vitality, a symbol of humility, the desire to live together peacefully, characteristic of youth. The design gathers 333 pure white pearls, symbolizing the flowers that are opening, ready to welcome the rays of spring sunshine. It is also a number that carries the meaning of luck, enthusiasm and longevity. In particular, with the highlight are 3 selected pearls with sizes up to more than 15mm, bringing the beauty of eternal life, sublimation and spread. The Miss International crown is also encrusted with 1960 white gems - symbolizing the first year the Miss International pageant was held. The fusion of feats of craftsmanship with top-notch craftsmanship, Long Beach Pearl has brought a special work for the Miss International contest. The Mikimoto Crown (1970–1998; 2015–2019) – This crown was designed by Tomohiro Yamaji for the Mikimoto Company, the official jewel sponsor of the Miss International Organization. It contains 575.31 grams of 14k and 18k gold, 650 South Sea and Akoya pearls, ranging in size from 3 to 18 mm diameter and is valued at US$350,000. The crown was designed for the pageant on Mikimoto Pearl Island in Japan with the Mikimoto crown and tiara being first used for Miss International 2013, which was unveiled by the president of Miss International Akemi Shimomura, like the previous crown edition there are also 4 sets of small tiara's for the runners-up in this crown collection. The crown was retired after Sireethorn Leearamwat of Thailand used the crown in 2019. The Couple of Horses Crown (1999–2005; 2007–2014) – This crown was used from 1999–2005; 2007–2014. Same as the current Mikimoto crown, this crown was designed by Tomohiro Yamaji for the Mikimoto Company. The crown has a symbolic design with a couple of horses and 530 South Sea and Akoya pearls, there are 4 sets of small tiara's for the runners-up in this crown collection. It was retired after Valerie Hernandez of Puerto Rico used the crown in 2015. The Crystal Crown (2006) – also known as Maki Diamond tiara, this crown was used when Daniela di Giacomo of Venezuela was crowned Miss International 2006. She was the only Miss International titleholder to wear this crown. The crown was valued at US$150,000, was made of an 18 karat combination of white and yellow gold and composed of over 1,000 precious stones. See also List of beauty contests Big Four international beauty pageants References Further reading "Miss International Trivia: Surprising Facts And Controversies". Yibada. 14 October 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2016. External links Official English website

Agnieszka_Kotlarska

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnieszka_Kotlarska

Agnieszka Kotlarska may refer to: Agnieszka Kotlarska (model) (1972–1996), the first Polish winner of the Miss International beauty pageant Agnieszka Kotlarska (actress) (1971–2015), Polish film and stage actress

Tulsa,_Oklahoma

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa,_Oklahoma

Tulsa ( TUL-sə) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and is the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa metropolitan area, a region with 1,034,123 residents. The city serves as the county seat of Tulsa County, the most densely populated county in Oklahoma, with urban development extending into Osage, Rogers and Wagoner counties. Tulsa was settled between 1828 and 1836 by the Lochapoka Band of Creek Native American tribe and most of Tulsa is still part of the territory of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Historically, a robust energy sector fueled Tulsa's economy; however, today the city has diversified and leading sectors include finance, aviation, telecommunications and technology. Two institutions of higher education within the city have sports teams at the NCAA Division I level: the University of Tulsa and Oral Roberts University. As well, the University of Oklahoma has a secondary campus at the Tulsa Schusterman Center, and Oklahoma State University has a secondary campus located in downtown Tulsa. For most of the 20th century, the city held the nickname "Oil Capital of the World" and played a major role as one of the most important hubs for the American oil industry. It is situated on the Arkansas River between the Osage Hills and the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in northeast Oklahoma, a region of the state known as "Green Country". Considered the cultural and arts center of Oklahoma, Tulsa houses two art museums, full-time professional opera and ballet companies, and one of the nation's largest concentrations of art deco architecture. History The area where Tulsa now exists is considered Indian Territory, on the land of the Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo), Wahzhazhe Ma zha (Osage), Muscogee (Creek), and Caddo tribes, among others, before it was first formally settled by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in 1836. They established a small settlement under the Creek Council Oak Tree at the present-day intersection of Cheyenne Avenue and 18th Street. They named their new settlement Tallasi, meaning "old town" in Creek, which later became "Tulsa". The area around Tulsa was also settled by members of the other so-called "Five Civilized Tribes" who had been relocated to Oklahoma from the Southern United States. Most of modern Tulsa is located in the Creek Nation, with parts located in the Cherokee and Osage Nations. Although Oklahoma was not yet a state during the Civil War, the Tulsa area saw its share of fighting. The Battle of Chusto-Talasah took place on the north side of Tulsa and several battles and skirmishes took place in nearby counties. After the War, the tribes signed Reconstruction treaties with the federal government that in some cases required substantial land concessions. In the years after the Civil War and around the turn of the century, the area along the Arkansas River that is now Tulsa was periodically home to or visited by a series of colorful outlaws, including the legendary Wild Bunch, the Dalton Gang, and Little Britches. Incorporation and "Oil Capital" prosperity Around August 1, 1882, the town was almost centered at a location just north of the current Whittier Square, when a construction crew laying out the line of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad chose that spot for a sidetrack. However, an area merchant persuaded them to move the site further west into the Muscogee Nation, which had friendlier laws for white business owners. On January 18, 1898, Tulsa was officially incorporated and elected Edward E. Calkins as the city's first mayor. Tulsa was still a micro town near the banks of the Arkansas River in 1901 when its first oil well, named Sue Bland No. 1, was established. Much of the oil was discovered on land whose mineral rights were owned by members of the Osage Nation under a system of headrights. By 1905, the discovery of the grand Glenn Pool Oil Reserve (located approximately 15 miles or 24 kilometers south of downtown Tulsa and site of the present-day town of Glenpool) prompted a rush of entrepreneurs to the area's growing number of oil fields; Tulsa's population swelled to over 140,000 between 1901 and 1930. Unlike the early settlers of Northeastern Oklahoma, who most frequently migrated from the South and Texas, many of these new oil-driven settlers came to Tulsa from the commercial centers of the East Coast and lower Midwest. This migration distinguished the city's demographics from neighboring communities (Tulsa has larger and more prominent Catholic and Jewish populations than most Oklahoma cities) and is reflected in the designs of early Tulsa's upscale neighborhoods. Known as the "Oil Capital of the World" for most of the 20th century, the city's success in the energy industry prompted construction booms in the popular Art Deco style of the time. Profits from the oil industry continued through the Great Depression, helping the city's economy fare better than most in the United States during the 1930s. In 1923, Harwelden was built by oil baron E. P. Harwell and his wife Mary, and is an example of prosperity in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the 1920s. 1921 race massacre In the early 20th century, Tulsa was home to the "Black Wall Street", one of the most prosperous Black communities in the United States at the time. Located in the Greenwood neighborhood, it was the site of the Tulsa Race Massacre, said to be "the single worst incident of racial violence in American history", in which mobs of White Tulsans killed Black Tulsans, looted and robbed the Black community, and burned down homes and businesses. Sixteen hours of massacring on May 31 and June 1, 1921, ended only when National Guardsmen were brought in by the governor. An official report later claimed that 23 Black and 16 White citizens were killed, but other estimates suggest as many as 300 people died, most of them Black. Over 800 people were admitted to local hospitals with injuries, and an estimated 1,000 Black people were left homeless as 35 city blocks, composed of 1,256 residences, were destroyed by fire. Property damage was estimated at $1.8 million. Efforts to obtain reparations for survivors of the violence have been unsuccessful, but the events were re-examined by the city and state in the early 21st century, acknowledging the terrible actions that had taken place. 20th century In 1925, Tulsa businessman Cyrus Avery, known as the "Father of Route 66," began his campaign to create a road linking Chicago to Los Angeles by establishing the U.S. Highway 66 Association in Tulsa, earning the city the nickname the "Birthplace of Route 66". Once completed, U.S. Route 66 took an important role in Tulsa's development as the city served as a popular rest stop for travelers, who were greeted by Route 66 icons such as the Meadow Gold Sign and the Blue Whale of Catoosa. During this period, Bob Wills and his group, The Texas Playboys, began their long performing stint at a small ballroom in downtown Tulsa. In 1935, Cain's Ballroom became the base for the group, which is largely credited for creating Western Swing music. The venue continued to attract famous musicians through its history, and is still in operation today. For the rest of the mid-20th century, the city had a master plan to construct parks, churches, museums, rose gardens, improved infrastructure, and increased national advertising. The Spavinaw Dam, built during this era to accommodate the city's water needs, was considered one of the largest public works projects of the era. A national recession greatly affected the city's economy in 1982, as areas of Texas and Oklahoma heavily dependent on oil suffered the freefall in gas prices due to a glut, and a mass exodus of oil industries. Tulsa, heavily dependent on the oil industry, was one of the hardest-hit cities by the fall of oil prices. By 1992, the state's economy had fully recovered, but leaders worked to expand into sectors unrelated to oil and energy. 21st century In 2003, the "Vision 2025" program was approved by voters, to enhance and revitalize Tulsa's infrastructure and tourism industry. The keystone project of the initiative, the BOK Center, was designed to be a home for the city's minor league hockey and arena football teams, as well as a venue for major concerts and conventions. The multi-purpose arena, designed by famed architect Cesar Pelli, broke ground in 2005 and was opened on August 30, 2008. In July 2020 the Supreme Court ruled in McGirt v. Oklahoma that as it pertains to criminal law much of eastern Oklahoma, including Tulsa, remains as Native American lands. Specifically, prosecution of crimes by Native Americans on these lands falls into the jurisdiction of the tribal courts and federal judiciary under the Major Crimes Act, rather than Oklahoma's courts. Geography Tulsa is located in the northeastern corner of Oklahoma between the edge of the Great Plains and the foot of the Ozarks in a generally forested region of rolling hills. The city touches the eastern extent of the Cross Timbers, an ecoregion of forest and prairie transitioning from the drier plains of the west to the wetter forests of the east. With a wetter climate than points westward, Tulsa serves as a gateway to "Green Country", a popular and official designation for northeast Oklahoma that stems from the region's green vegetation and relatively large number of hills and lakes compared to central and western areas of Oklahoma, which lie largely in the drier Great Plains region of the Central United States. Located near the western edge of the U.S. Interior Highlands, northeastern Oklahoma is the most topographically diverse part of the state, containing seven of Oklahoma's 11 eco-regions and more than half of its state parks. The region encompasses 30 lakes or reservoirs and borders the neighboring states of Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas. Topography The city developed on both sides of the prominent Arkansas River, which flows in a wide, sandy-bottomed channel. Its flow through Tulsa is controlled by reservoirs at Keystone Lake, and a low-water dam was built at Zink Lake in downtown Tulsa to maintain a full channel at all times. This dam deteriorated and eventually failed, and was repaired and reopened in 2014. Heavily wooded and with abundant parks and water areas, the city has several prominent hills, such as "Shadow Mountain" and "Turkey Mountain", which create varied terrain, especially in its southern portions. While its central and northern sections are generally flat to gently undulating, the Osage Hills extension into the northwestern part of the city further varies the landscape. Holmes Peak, north of the city, is the tallest point in the Tulsa Metro area at 1,360 ft (415 m) According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 186.8 square miles (484 km2), of which 182.6 square miles (473 km2) is land and 4.2 square miles (11 km2) (2.24%) is water. Cityscape Architecture A building boom in Tulsa in the early 20th century coincided with the rise of art deco architecture in the United States. Most commonly in the zigzag and streamline styles, the city's art deco is dotted throughout its older neighborhoods, primarily in downtown and midtown. A collection of large art deco structures such as the Mid-Continent Tower, the Boston Avenue Methodist Church, Will Rogers High School, and the Philtower, have attracted events promoting the preservation and architectural interest. In addition, the city's early prosperity funded the construction of many elegant Craftsmen, Georgian, storybook, Tudor, Greek Revival, Italianate, Spanish revival, and colonial revival homes (many of which can be found in Tulsa's uptown and Midtown neighborhoods). Noted architects and firms working in Tulsa during this period include Charles Dilbeck, John Duncan Forsyth, and Nelle Peters. Growth in the twentieth century gave the city a larger base of contemporary architectural styles, including several buildings by famed Tulsa architects Bruce Goff and Adah Robinson. The Prairie School was very influential in Tulsa: Barry Byrne designed Tulsa's Christ the King Church and, in 1927, Frank Lloyd Wright's midtown Tulsa residential project Westhope was completed. In particular, the middle of the 20th century brought a wealth of modern architecture to Tulsa. Tulsa's Mies-trained modernist Robert Lawton Jones designed many buildings in the region, including the Tulsa International Airport. Other noted modernists working in Tulsa include the pioneering Texas architect O'Neil Ford and Joseph R. Koberling Jr., who had also been active during the art deco period. South, East, and Midtown Tulsa are home to a number of the ranch and Mid-Century Modern homes that reflect Tulsa's prosperous post-war period. The BOK Tower, built during this period, is the second tallest building in Oklahoma and the surrounding states of Missouri, New Mexico, Arkansas, and Kansas. Tulsa also has the third-, and fourth-tallest buildings in the state, including the Cityplex Tower, which is located in South Tulsa across from Oral Roberts University, far from downtown. One of the area's unique architectural complexes, Oral Roberts University, is built in a Post-Modern Futuristic style, incorporating bright gold structures with sharp, jetting edges and clear geometric shapes. The BOK Center, Tulsa's new arena, incorporates many of the city's most prominent themes, including Native American, art deco, and contemporary architectural styles. Intended to be an architectural icon, the building was designed by César Pelli, the architect of the Petronas Towers in Malaysia. Neighborhoods Downtown Tulsa is an area of approximately 1.4 square miles (3.6 km2) surrounded by an inner-dispersal loop created by Interstate 244, Highway 64, and Highway 75. The area serves as Tulsa's financial and business district, and is the focus of a large initiative to draw tourism, which includes plans to capitalize on the area's historic architecture. Much of Tulsa's convention space is located in downtown, such as the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, the Tulsa Convention Center, and the BOK Center. Prominent downtown sub-districts include the Blue Dome District, the Brady Arts district, the "Oil Capital Historic District", the Greenwood Historical District, Owen Park Historical Neighborhood, and the site of ONEOK Field, a baseball stadium for the Tulsa Drillers opened in 2010. The city's historical residential core lies in an area known as Midtown, containing upscale neighborhoods built in the early 20th century with architecture ranging from art deco to Greek Revival. The University of Tulsa, the Swan Lake neighborhood, Philbrook Museum, and the upscale shopping districts of Utica Square, Cherry Street, and Brookside are located in this region. A large portion of the city's southern half has developed since the 1970s, containing low-density housing and retail developments. This region, marked by secluded homes and suburban neighborhoods, contains one of the state's largest shopping malls, Woodland Hills Mall, as well as Southern Hills Country Club, and Oral Roberts University. East of Highway 169 and north of 61st street, a diverse racial makeup marks the eastern portions of the city, with large Asian and Mexican communities and much of the city's manufacturing industry. Areas of Tulsa west of the Arkansas River are called West Tulsa and are marked by large parks, wilderness reserves, and large oil refineries. The northern tier of the city is home to OSU-Tulsa, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa International Airport, the Tulsa Zoo, the Tulsa Air and Space Museum, and the nation's third-largest municipal park, Mohawk Park. Climate Tulsa has a temperate climate of the humid subtropical variety (Köppen: Cfa) with a yearly average temperature of 61.3 °F (16.3 °C) and average precipitation of just under 41 inches (1,000 mm) per year. Average monthly precipitation is lowest from December to February, and peaks dramatically in May, which averages 5.9 inches (150 mm) of rainfall. Early June can still be wet, but late June through the end of August is frequently dry. On average, Tulsa experiences a secondary rainfall peak in September and early October. As is typical of temperate zones, weather patterns vary by season with occasional extremes in temperature and rainfall. Primarily in the spring and early summer months, the city is subjected to severe thunderstorms containing large hail, damaging winds, and, occasionally, tornadoes, providing the area with a disproportionate share of its annual rainfall. Severe weather is not limited to this season, however. For instance, on December 5, 1975, and on December 24, 1982, Tulsa experienced tornadoes. Due to its potential for major flooding events, the city has developed one of the most extensive flood control systems in the nation. A comprehensive flood management plan was developed in 1984 following a severe flood caused by a stalled weather front that dropped 15 in (380 mm) of rain overnight, killing 14, injuring 288, and destroying 7,000 buildings totaling $180 million in damage. In the early 1990s and again in 2000, the Federal Emergency Management Agency honored Tulsa as leading the nation in flood plain management. Triple-digit temperatures (≥38 °C) are observed on average 11 days per year, most of which occur from July to early September, and are usually accompanied by high humidity brought in by southerly winds. The highest recorded temperature was 115 °F (46 °C) on August 10, 1936. Lack of air circulation due to heat and humidity during the summer months leads to higher concentrations of ozone, prompting the city to release "Ozone Alerts", encouraging all parties to do their part in complying with the Clean Air Act and United States Environmental Protection Agency standards. The autumn season is usually short, consisting of pleasant, sunny days followed by cool nights. Winter temperatures, while generally mild, dip below 10 °F (−12 °C) on average three nights per year, and occasionally below 0 °F (−18 °C), the most recent such occurrence being a −2 °F (−19 °C) reading on January 16, 2024. The average seasonal snowfall is 8.7 inches (22.1 cm) with the record highest seasonal snowfall of 26.1 inches (66.3 cm) occurring in the winter of 2010–2011. Only three winters on record have officially recorded trace amounts or no snowfall, the most recent being 1910–11. The lowest recorded temperature was −16 °F (−27 °C) on January 22, 1930. See or edit raw graph data. August 6, 2017 tornado An EF2 tornado struck Tulsa early on the morning of Sunday, August 6, 2017. The funnel touched down just after 1 A.M. near 36th Street and Harvard Avenue, then travelled in an easterly direction for about six minutes. The heaviest property damage occurred along 41st Street between Yale Avenue and Sheridan Road. Two restaurants, TGI Friday's and Whataburger, were particularly hard hit, with several people being sent to hospitals for treatment. The Whataburger was later bulldozed, and rebuilt in 2019. Demographics 2020 census 2010 census According to the 2010 census, Tulsa had a population of 391,906 and the racial and ethnic composition was as follows: White American: 62.6% (57.9% Non-Hispanic Whites); Black, 15.6%; Hispanic or Latino (of any race), 14.1% (11.5% Mexican, 0.4% Puerto Rican, 0.3% Guatemalan, 0.2% Spanish, 0.2% Honduran, 0.2% Salvadoran); some other race, 8.0%; Two or more races, 5.9%; Native American, 5.3%; Asian American, 2.3% (0.5% Hmong, 0.4% Vietnamese, 0.3% Chinese, 0.2% Indian, 0.2% Korean, 0.2% Burmese); and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander: 0.1%. In the 2020 census, its population increased to 413,066. As of the 2010 census, there were 391,906 people, 163,975 households, and 95,246 families residing in the city, with a population density of 2,033.4 inhabitants per square mile (785.1/km2) There were 185,127 housing units at an average density of 982.3 per square mile (379.3/km2). Of 163,975 households, 27% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.2% were married couples living together, 14.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.9% were non-families. Of all households, 34.5% are made up of only one person, and 10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.34 people and the average family size was 3.04. In the city proper, the age distribution was 24.8% of the population under the age of 18, 10.9% from 18 to 24, 29.9% from 25 to 44, 21.5% from 45 to 64, and 12.9% who were 65 years of age or older, while the median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.5 males, while for every 100 females over the age of 17 there were 90.4 males. In 2011, the median income for a household in the city was $40,268 and the median income for a family was $51,977. The per capita income for the city was $26,727. About 19.4% of the population were below the poverty line. Of the city's population over the age of 25, 29.8% holds a bachelor's degree or higher, and 86.5% have a high school diploma or equivalent. Metropolitan area The Tulsa metropolitan area, or the region immediately surrounding Tulsa with strong social and economic ties to the city, occupies a large portion of the state's northeastern quadrant. It is informally known as "Green Country", a longstanding name adopted by the state's official tourism designation for all of northeastern Oklahoma (its usage concerning the Tulsa Metropolitan Area can be traced to the early part of the 20th century). The U.S. Census Bureau defines the sphere of the city's influence as the Tulsa metropolitan statistical area (MSA), spanning seven counties: Tulsa, Rogers, Osage, Wagoner, Okmulgee, Pawnee, and Creek. The 2020 U.S. census shows the Tulsa MSA to have 1,015,331 residents The 2020 U.S. census shows the Tulsa-Muscogee-Bartlesville CSA to have 1,134,125 residents. Religion Tulsa has a large conservative following, with the majority of Tulsans being Christians. The second-largest religion in Tulsa is Islam, followed by Buddhism and Judaism. Tulsa is part of the Southern region demographers and commentators refer to as the "Bible Belt," where Protestant and, in particular, Southern Baptist and other evangelical Christian traditions are very prominent. In fact, Tulsa, home to Oral Roberts University, Phillips Theological Seminary, and RHEMA Bible Training College (in the suburb of Broken Arrow), is sometimes called the "buckle of the Bible Belt". Tulsa is also home to a number of vibrant Mainline Protestant congregations. Some of these congregations were founded during the oil boom of the early twentieth century and are noted for striking architecture, such as the art deco Boston Avenue Methodist Church and First Presbyterian Church of Tulsa. The metropolitan area has at least four religious radio stations (KCFO, KNYD, KXOJ, & KPIM), and at least two religious TV stations (KWHB & KGEB). While the state of Oklahoma has fewer Roman Catholics than the national average, Holy Family Cathedral serves as the Cathedral for the Diocese of Tulsa. Tulsa is also home to the largest Jewish community in Oklahoma, with active Reform, Conservative and Orthodox congregations. Tulsa's Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art offers the largest collection of Judaica in the South-Central and Southwestern United States. Tulsa is also home to the progressive All Souls Unitarian Church, reportedly the largest Unitarian Universalist congregation in the United States. Chùa Tam Bào (Vietnamese: "Three Jewels Temple"), then Oklahoma's only Buddhist temple, was established in east Tulsa in 1993 by Vietnamese refugees. A 57-foot-tall (17 m) granite statue of Quan Âm (commonly known by her Chinese name, Guanyin) is located in the grounds. Crime rate Tulsa experienced elevated levels of gang violence in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when crack cocaine flooded neighborhoods in North Tulsa. Tulsa gang problems became noticeable after an outbreak of gang-related crime between 1980 and 1983, which was traced to the Crips, a local gang which had been founded by two brothers whose family had recently moved to Oklahoma from Compton. In 1986, gang graffiti started to show up on walls and drive-by shootings started occurring on late nights. In 1990 the city hit a record of 60 homicides, the highest since the 1981 peak. North Tulsa has the highest crime rate in the city, with public housing projects being the most heavily affected areas., the Broken Arrow murders took place on July 22, 2015, when five members of the Bever family were murdered in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. the attackers were identified as 18 year-old Robert Bever and 16 year-old Michael Bever. On June 1, 2022, a mass shooting occurred in a medical center, killing at least 4 people, including the perpetrator. Economy Energy industry's legacy and resurgence The United States Oil and Gas Association was founded in Tulsa on October 13, 1917. Over the city's history many large oil companies have been headquartered in the city, including Warren Petroleum (which merged with Gulf Oil in what was then the largest merger in the energy industry), Skelly Oil, Getty Oil and CITGO. In addition, ConocoPhillips was headquartered in nearby Bartlesville. Industry consolidation and increased offshore drilling threatened Tulsa's status as an oil capital, but new drilling techniques and the rise of natural gas have buoyed the growth of the city's energy sector. Today, Tulsa is again home to the headquarters of many international oil- and gas-related companies, including Williams Companies, ONE Gas, Syntroleum, ONEOK, Laredo Petroleum, Samson Resources, Helmerich & Payne, Magellan Midstream Partners, and Excel Energy. Diversification and emerging industries Tulsa has diversified to capitalize on its status as a regional hub with substantial innovation assets. Products from Tulsa manufacturers account for about sixty percent of Oklahoma's exports, and in 2001, the city's total gross product was in the top one-third of metropolitan areas, states, and countries, with more than $29 billion in total goods, growing at a rate of $250 million each year. Tulsa's primary employers are small and medium-sized businesses: there are 30 companies in Tulsa that employ more than 1,000 people locally, and small businesses make up more than 80% of the city's companies. During a national recession from 2001 to 2003, the city lost 28,000 jobs. In response, a development initiative, Vision 2025, promised to incite economic growth and recreate lost jobs. Projects spurred by the initiative promised urban revitalization, infrastructure improvement, tourism development, riverfront retail development, and further diversification of the economy. By 2007, employment levels had surpassed pre-recession heights and the city was in a significant economic development and investment surge. This economic improvement is also seen in Tulsa's housing trends which show an average of a 6% increase in rent in 2010. Since 2006, more than 28,000 jobs have been added to the city. The unemployment rate of Tulsa in August 2014 was 4.5%. Though the oil industry has historically dominated Tulsa's economy, efforts in economic diversification have created a base in the sectors of aerospace, finance, technology, telecommunications, high tech, and manufacturing. A number of substantial financial corporations are headquartered in Tulsa, the largest being the BOK Financial Corporation. Among these financial services firms are energy trading operations, asset management firms, investment funds, and a range of commercial banks. The national convenience store chain QuikTrip, fast-casual restaurant chain Camille's Sidewalk Cafe, and pizza chain Mazzio's are all headquartered in Tulsa, as is Southern regional BBQ restaurant Rib Crib. Tulsa is also home to the Marshall Brewing Company. Tulsa is also home to a burgeoning media industry, including PennWell, consumer review website ConsumerAffairs, Stephens Media Group, This Land Press, Educational Development Corporation (the parent publisher of Kane/Miller), GEB America, Blooming Twig Books, and a full range of local media outlets, including Tulsa World and local magazines, radio and television. Tulsa is also a hub for national construction and engineering companies including Manhattan Construction Company and Flintco. A number of the Cherokee Nation Businesses are also headquartered or have substantial operations in Tulsa. Tulsa's aerospace industry is substantial and growing. An American Airlines maintenance base at Tulsa International Airport is the city's largest employer and the largest maintenance facility in the world, serving as the airline's global maintenance and engineering headquarters. American Airlines announced in February, 2020 that it will pour $550 million over seven years into its maintenance base, this being the largest single economic development investment in city history. The Tulsa Port of Catoosa and the Tulsa International Airport house extensive transit-focused industrial parks. Tulsa is also home to a division of Lufthansa, the headquarters of Omni Air International, and the Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology. Tulsa is also part of the Oklahoma-South Kansas Unmanned Aerial Systems (drone) industry cluster, a region which awarded funding by the U.S. Small Business Administration to build on its progress as a hub this emerging industry. As the second largest metropolitan area in Oklahoma and a hub for the growing Northeastern Oklahoma-Northwest Arkansas-Southwestern Missouri corridor, the city is also home to a number of the region's most sophisticated law, accounting, and medical practices. Its location in the center of the nation also makes it a hub for logistics businesses; the Tulsa International Airport (TUL) and the Tulsa Port of Catoosa, connect the region with international trade and transportation. Amazon recently announced plans to build a more than 600,000-square-foot fulfillment center near Tulsa International Airport. The company will invest an estimated $130 million for this state-of-the-art facility, which will employ around 1,500 people with an annual payroll of roughly $50 million. Arts and culture Tulsa culture is influenced by the nearby Southwest, Midwest, and Southern cultural regions, as well as a historical Native American presence. These influences are expressed in the city's museums, cultural centers, performing arts venues, ethnic festivals, park systems, zoos, wildlife preserves, and large and growing collections of public sculptures, monuments, and artwork. Museums, archives and visual culture Tulsa is home to several museums. Located in the former villa of oil pioneer Waite Phillips in Midtown Tulsa, the Philbrook Museum of Art is considered one of the top 50 fine art museums in the United States and is one of only five to offer a combination of a historic home, formal gardens, and an art collection. The museum's expansive collection includes work by a diverse group of artists including Pablo Picasso, Andrew Wyeth, Giovanni Bellini, Domenico di Pace Beccafumi, Willem de Kooning, William Merritt Chase, Auguste Rodin and Georgia O'Keeffe. Philbrook also maintains a satellite campus in downtown Tulsa. In the Osage Hills of Northwest Tulsa, the Gilcrease Museum holds the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of art and artifacts of the American West. The museum includes the extensive collection of Native American oilman and famed art collector Thomas Gilcrease with numerous works by Frederic Remington, Thomas Moran, Albert Bierstadt and John James Audubon among the many displayed. On the west bank of the Arkansas River in the suburb of Jenks, the Oklahoma Aquarium is the state's only freestanding aquarium, containing over 200 exhibits, including a shark tank. In addition, the city hosts a number of galleries, experimental art-spaces, smaller museums, and display spaces located throughout the city (clustered mostly in downtown, Brookside, and the Pearl District). Living Arts of Tulsa, in downtown Tulsa, is among the organizations dedicated to promoting and sustaining an active arts scene in the city. Cultural and historical archives Opened in April 2013, the Woody Guthrie Center in the Tulsa Arts District is Tulsa's newest museum and archive. In addition to interactive state-of-the-art museum displays, the Woody Guthrie Center also houses the Woody Guthrie Archives, containing thousands of Guthrie's personal items, sheet music, manuscripts, books, photos, periodicals, and other items associated with the iconic Oklahoma native. The archives of Guthrie protégé, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan will also be displayed in Tulsa when a new facility designed to showcase The Bob Dylan Archive is completed. The Church Studio is a recording studio and tourist attraction with an archive of more than 5,000 pieces. Constructed in 1915, the church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places due to musician Leon Russell, who turned the old church into a recording studio and office to Shelter Records in 1972. With remnants of the Holocaust and artifacts relevant to Judaism in Oklahoma, the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art preserves the largest collection of Judaica in the Southwestern and South-Central United States. Other museums, such as the Tulsa Historical Society, the Tulsa Air and Space Museum & Planetarium, the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, and the Tulsa Geosciences Center, document histories of the region, while the Greenwood Cultural Center preserves the culture of the city's African American heritage, housing a collection of artifacts and photography that document the history of the Black Wall Street before the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921. Public art Since 1969, public displays of artwork in Tulsa have been funded by one percent of its annual city budget. Each year, a sculpture from a local artist is installed along the Arkansas River trail system, while other sculptures stand at local parks, such as an enlarged version of Cyrus Dallin's Appeal to the Great Spirit sculpture at Woodward Park. At the entrance to Oral Roberts University stands a large statue of praying hands, which, at 60 feet (18 m) high, is the largest bronze sculpture in the world. As a testament to the city's oil heritage, the 76-foot (23 m) Golden Driller guards the front entrance to the Tulsa County Fairgrounds. Tulsa has a number of exhibits related to U.S. Route 66, including The Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza, located next to the east entrance of the historic 11th Street Bridge. The Plaza contains a giant sculpture weighing 20,000 pounds (9,100 kg) and costing $1.178 million called "East Meets West" of the Avery family riding west in a Model T Ford meeting an eastbound horse-drawn carriage. In 2020, Avery Plaza Southwest is scheduled to open, at the west end of the bridge, and should include replicas of three neon signs from Tulsa-area Route 66 motels from the era, being the Will Rogers Motor Court. Tulsa Auto Court, and the Oil Capital Motel. Tulsa has also installed "Route 66 Rising," a 70 by 30 ft (21 by 9 m) sculpture on the road's eastern approach to town at East Admiral Place and Mingo Road. In addition, Tulsa has constructed twenty-nine historical markers scattered along the 26-mile (42 km) route of the highway through Tulsa, containing tourist-oriented stories, historical photos, and a map showing the location of historical sites and the other markers. The markers are mostly along the highway's post-1932 alignment down 11th Street, with some along the road's 1926 path down Admiral Place. The largest augmented reality mural in the world, "The Majestic", a 15,000-square-foot (1,400 m2) work which adorns two sides of the Main Park Plaza at 410 S. Main downtown, was completed in October 2021. The $230,000 project was created by Los Angeles-based artists Ryan "Yanoe" Sarfati and Eric "Zoueh" Skotnes. The mural becomes animated when viewed through a smartphone camera. Flag The flag of Tulsa is considered one of the most attractive city flags in the United States. In 2023, it became one of two city flags to receive an A+ rating from the North American Vexillological Association. The Tulsa City Council voted to adopt the new city flag in 2018 following a campaign from local community. The design incorporates a dreamcatcher to represent the Tulsa settlement under the Council Oak Tree. The color red is meant to represent the people who died in the Tulsa race massacre, the color blue represents the Arkansas River, the gold represents the discovery of "black gold", or oil. Performing arts, film and cultural venues Tulsa contains several permanent dance, theater, and concert groups, including the Tulsa Ballet, the Tulsa Opera, the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, Light Opera Oklahoma, Signature Symphony at TCC, the Tulsa Youth Symphony, the Heller Theatre, American Theatre Company, which is a member of the Theatre Communications Group and Oklahoma's oldest resident professional theatre, and Theatre Tulsa, the oldest continuously operating community theatre company west of the Mississippi River. Tulsa also houses the Tulsa Spotlight Theater at Riverside Studio, which shows the longest-running play in America (The Drunkard) every Saturday night. Many of the world's best choreographers have worked with Tulsa Ballet including: Leonide Massine, Antony Tudor, Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine, Paul Taylor, Kurt Jooss, Nacho Duato (ten works), Val Caniparoli who is its resident choreographer (with seven works and four world premieres), Stanton Welch, Young Soon Hue, Ma Cong, Twyla Tharp and many others. In April 2008, Tulsa Ballet completed an ambitious $17.3 million integrated campaign, which was celebrated at the opening of the brand new Studio K; an on-site, three hundred-seat performance space dedicated to the creation of new works. Tulsa's music scene is also famous for the eponymous "Tulsa Sound" which blends rockabilly, country, rock 'n' roll, and blues and has inspired local artists like J.J. Cale and Leon Russell as well as international superstars like Eric Clapton and Hanson. A number of concert venues, dance halls, and bars gave rise to the Tulsa Sound but Cain's Ballroom might be the best known. Cain's is considered the birthplace of Western Swing, housed the performance headquarters of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys during the 1930s. The centerpiece of the downtown Brady Arts District, the Brady Theater, is the largest of the city's five operating performing arts venues that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its design features extensive contributions by American architect Bruce Goff. The Pearl District features The Church Studio. Large performing arts complexes include the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, which was designed by World Trade Center architect Minoru Yamasaki, the Cox Business Center, the art deco Expo Square Pavilion, the Mabee Center, the Tulsa Performing Arts Center for Education, and the River Parks Amphitheater and Tulsa's largest venue, the BOK Center. Ten miles west of the city, an outdoor amphitheater called "Discoveryland!" holds the official title of the world performance headquarters for the musical Oklahoma!. The city's film community hosts annual festivals such as the Tulsa United Film Festival and Tulsa Overground Film and Music Festival. Outdoor attractions Tulsa Zoo encompasses a total of 84 acres (34 ha) with over 2,600 animals representing 400 species. The zoo is located in 2,820-acre (1,140 ha) Mohawk Park (the third largest municipal park in the United States) which also contains the 745-acre (301 ha) Oxley Nature Center. The Tulsa State Fair, operating in late September and early October, attracts over one million people during its 10-day run. A number of other cultural heritage festivals are held in the city throughout the year, including the Intertribal Indian Club Powwow of Champions in August; Scotfest, India Fest, Greek Festival, and Festival Viva Mexico in September; ShalomFest in October; Dia de Los Muertos Art Festival in November; and the Asian-American Festival in May. The annual Mayfest arts and crafts festival held downtown was estimated to have drawn more than 365,000 people in its four-day run in 2012. On a smaller scale, the city hosts block parties during a citywide "Block Party Day" each year, with festivals varying in size throughout city neighborhoods. Tulsa has one major amusement park attraction, Paradise Beach Waterpark (formerly Safari Joe's H2O Water Park, formerly Big Splash Water Park), featuring multi-story water slides and large wave pools. Until 2006, the city also hosted Bell's Amusement Park, which closed after Tulsa County officials declined to renew its lease agreement. Music Western Swing, a musical genre with roots in country music, was made popular at Tulsa's Cain's Ballroom. The Tulsa Sound, a variation of country, blues, rockabilly, blues rock, swamp rock and rock 'n' roll, was started and largely developed by local musicians J. J. Cale and Leon Russell in the 1960s and 1970s. Musicians from Tulsa or who started their musical careers in Tulsa include Elvin Bishop, Jim Keltner, David Gates, Dwight Twilley, Jesse Ed Davis, Garth Brooks, The Gap Band, St. Vincent, Clyde Stacy, Flash Terry, Hanson, Gus Hardin, Jeff Carson, Ronnie Dunn, Jamie Oldaker, Bob Wills, David Cook, Broncho, Jacob Sartorius, Tyson Meade, John Moreland, John Calvin Abney, Kristin Chenoweth, JD McPherson, and Wilderado. The heart of the Tulsa Sound can be found at The Church Studio. AleXa a representative from Tulsa won American Song Contest. Cuisine Tulsa restaurants and food trucks offer a number of cuisines, but several cuisines are particularly prominent in its culinary landscape because of its distinctive history. BBQ Tulsa is known nationally for its barbecue offerings; its barbecue reflects its midpoint location "between pig country and cow country," that is, in the transition zone between the South and the West. The city's barbecue is also helped by its geography; the wood used in barbecuing is abundant in Northeastern Oklahoma (including pecan, oak, hickory, mesquite and maple). The region's ethnic diversity is felt, too: its BBQ traditions bear the influences of white, African-American and American Indian foodways. Tulsa is also home to the nationally acclaimed premium smoker manufacturer Hasty-Bake Company. Some Tulsa based barbecue joints have expanded even beyond the state's borders, including Leon's Smoke Shack, Rib Crib and Billy Sims Barbecue. The prize-winning Oklahoma Joe's was founded by Oklahoman Joe Davidson, who mastered his craft at Tulsa's T-Town BBQ Cook-Off. Oklahoma barbecue is also unique in its emphasis on hickory-smoked barbecue bologna, nicknamed "Oklahoma tenderloin," and its fried okra. Lebanese steakhouses Lebanese steakhouses were once numerous in the region stretching from Bristow, Oklahoma to Tulsa, but now mostly exist in the Tulsa region. These restaurants were founded by Syrian and Lebanese families who immigrated to Oklahoma before statehood. Traditionally, many of these restaurants had live entertainment (including performers like Ella Fitzgerald and the Ink Spots) and featured Mediterranean dishes like tabbouleh, rice pilaf and hummus alongside local favorites like smoked BBQ bologna. Chili and Coney Island hot dogs Oklahomans have been consuming chili since well before statehood, owing to the influence of Mexican-American culture on the state. In 1910, iconic Tulsa restaurant Ike's Chili Parlor opened and Ivan "Ike" Johnson is purported to have acquired his recipe from a Hispanic-Texan named Alex Garcia. Greek immigrants to Tulsa who came by way of Brooklyn, Pennsylvania and Michigan brought with them the tradition of Coney Island-style hot dogs with chili on a bun. Today, a related group of Greek-American families operate Coney restaurants around the city, including Coney I-Lander which opened in 1926 and was described by food writers Jane and Michael Stern as perfectly delivering "the cheap-eats ecstasy that is the Coney's soul". Many of these restaurants sell Greek food, either year round or at Tulsa's annual Greek Holiday, sponsored by Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church (which dates to 1925). Southern "homestyle" food By and large, Tulsa's traditional cuisine reflects the influence of Southern foodways, particularly "upland South and... Texas where many of Oklahoma's nineteenth-century population originated." The prominence of certain foods reflects the agricultural heritage of the surrounding regions. For instance, at the suggestion of experts at what is now Oklahoma State University, peanuts became a major crop in now eastern Oklahoma as a means for lessening the reliance on cotton cultivation. Chicken-fried steak is part of the state meal of Oklahoma and is the signature dish at a number of Tulsa restaurants. Wild onion dinner The wild onion dinner is a festive gathering that originated with the Southeastern tribes which call Eastern Oklahoma home. The meals often feature wild onion, pork, frybread, corn bread, Poke salad and a unique dish known as grape biscuits. The Tulsa Indian Women's Club has been holding annual Wild Onion Dinners since at least 1932. Baking and confectionery Tulsa is home to the Oklahoma Sugar Arts Show, a premier sugar craft competition hosted by Tulsa-based Food Network personality Kerry Vincent. Tulsa is also home to the nationally renowned Pancho Anaya Mexican bakery, recognized by Food & Wine as one of America's 100 best bakeries. Tulsa is home to several national dessert companies: Daylight Donuts was founded in Tulsa and remains headquartered there, as is the Bama Pie Company. Breweries Brewing in Tulsa dates back to at least the late 1930s with the Ahrens Brewing Company and their Ranger Beer line. The Ahrens Brewing Company opened in May 1938. Tulsa's craft beer scene has boomed since legislation passed allowing for microbreweries to serve the public directly (Tulsa's first microbrewery in the post-World War II era was Marshall Brewing Company in 2008). Public libraries The largest library system in the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, the Tulsa City-County Library, contains over 1.7 million volumes in 25 library facilities. The library is active in the community, holding events and programs at most branches, including free computer classes, children's storytimes, business and job assistance, and scholarly databases with information on a variety of topics. The McFarlin Library at the University of Tulsa is a federal depository library holding over three million items. Founded in 1930, the library is known for its collection of Native American works and the original works of Irish author James Joyce. The Tulsa City-County Library and the University of Tulsa's Law Library are also federal depository libraries, making Tulsa the only city in Oklahoma with more than two federal depository libraries. The Tulsa City County Library's Downtown branch was massively renovated and opened to the public on Saturday, October 1, 2016. Sports Tulsa supports a wide array of sports at the professional and collegiate levels. The city hosts two NCAA Division I colleges and multiple professional minor league sports teams in baseball, football, hockey, and soccer. In addition, Tulsa once had a WNBA team, the Tulsa Shock women's professional basketball team. Professional sports Tulsa's Class AA Texas League baseball team is called the Tulsa Drillers; famous former Drillers include Sammy Sosa, Matt Holliday, and Iván Rodríguez. In 2008, Tulsa funded $39.2 million to build a new ballpark in the Greenwood District near downtown for the Drillers. The ground breaking was held on December 19, 2008. ONEOK bought the naming rights for $10 million for the next 25 years. The first game at ONEOK Field was held on April 8, 2010. Country music star Tim McGraw threw out the first pitch. The 19,199-seat BOK Center is the centerpiece of the Vision 2025 projects and was completed in August 2008; the BOK Center was in the top ten among indoor arenas worldwide in ticket sales for the first quarter of 2009 when it was the home for the city's Tulsa Shock WNBA, Tulsa Talons arena football, and Tulsa Oilers ice hockey teams; as of 2022, the Oilers are the sole remaining tenant. College sports Two Tulsa universities compete at the NCAA Division I level: the University of Tulsa Golden Hurricane, and the Oral Roberts University Golden Eagles. The University of Tulsa's men's basketball program has reached the Sweet Sixteen three times, made an appearance in the Elite Eight in 2000, won the NIT championship in 1981 and 2001, and won the inaugural College Basketball Invitational in 2008. The Tulsa football team has played in 16 bowl games, including the Sugar Bowl (twice) and the Orange Bowl. Oral Roberts University's men's basketball team reached the Elite Eight in 1974, the Sweet Sixteen in 2021, and won the Mid-Continent Conference title three straight years, from 2005 to 2007. The University of Tulsa also boasts one of the nation's top tennis facilities, the Michael D. Case Tennis Center, which hosted the 2004 and 2008 NCAA tennis championships. The Golden Hurricane Tennis program has a string of success, including men's Missouri Valley championships in 1995 and 1996, men's Conference USA championships in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2011 and women's Conference USA championships in 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2011. In 2007, Tulsa's top-ranked player Arnau Brugués-Davi ranked as high as #1 in the nation and a four time All-American, advanced to the quarterfinals of the singles competition at the NCAA Men's Tennis Championship, improving on his 2006 round of sixteen appearances. Golf Tulsa is home to the Southern Hills Country Club, which is one of only two courses that have hosted seven men's major championships: three U.S. Opens and four PGA Championships, the most recent in 2022. The course has held five amateur championships and from 2001 to 2008 the LPGA had a regular tour stop, latterly known as the SemGroup Championship at Cedar Ridge Country Club. Tulsa also hosts two golf courses designed by famed golf course architect A.W. Tillinghast: the Oaks Country Club and Tulsa Country Club. The Tom Fazio-designed Golf Club of Oklahoma is located just outside of Tulsa. Professional soccer Tulsa is home to FC Tulsa, which competes in the USL Championship. From 1978 to 1984, the city hosted the Tulsa Roughnecks, who played in the now-defunct North American Soccer League and won that league's championship in 1983. Professional football In 1984, the city hosted the Oklahoma Outlaws of the now-defunct United States Football League for a single season. Running, biking and trails The city's running and cycling communities support events such as the Tulsa Tough cycling race, the Hurtland cyclocross, the Route 66 Marathon, and the Tulsa Run, which features over 8000 participants annually. Another popular gambling draw, horse racing events are housed by the Fair Meadows Race Track and Will Rogers Downs in nearby Claremore. Saint Francis Tulsa Tough Ride and Race is a three-day cycling festival in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It features both non-competitive riding through scenic areas around the Tulsa Metropolitan Area and professional level races. It is held each year on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the second weekend in June. Just as popular as the biking itself is the weekend-long festivities at Crybaby Hill, for it is held in the Riverview District. The Blue Dome District hosts its race on the first night and takes riders down East 2nd Street. The race has participants riding at fast speeds through crowded streets lined with cheering spectators, live music, and several vendors. Events include the Men's Cat 3, Women's Pro 1/2, Men's 1/2 and Men's Pro 1. Motorsports In motorsports, Tulsa annually hosts the Chili Bowl indoor race at the Tulsa Expo Center. The race was initially sponsored by the Chili Bowl food company of Bob Berryhill. The race has since accommodated "over two hundred race rigs, bleachers for thousands of people and an ever-growing trade show". Parks and recreation As of 2016, the city of Tulsa manages 134 parks spread over 8,278 acres (3,350 ha). Woodward Park, a 45-acre (18 ha) tract located in midtown Tulsa, doubles as a botanical garden, featuring the Tulsa Municipal Rose Garden, with more than 6,000 rose plants in 250 varieties, and the Linnaeus Teaching Gardens, which demonstrate the latest and most successful techniques for growing vegetables, annuals, perennials, woody plants and groundcovers. Some Tulsa-area parks are run by Tulsa County Parks. These include the 270-acre (110 ha) LaFortune Park in Midtown Tulsa, and the 192-acre (78 ha) Chandler Park. Some parks are under the Tulsa River Parks Authority. These include a series of linear parks that run adjacent to the Arkansas River for about 10 miles (16 km) from downtown to the Jenks bridge. Since 2007 a significant portion of the River Parks area has been renovated with new trails, landscaping, and playground equipment. The River Parks Turkey Mountain Urban Wilderness Area on the west side of the Arkansas River in south Tulsa is a 300-acre (120 ha) area that contains over 45 miles (72 km) of dirt trails available for hiking, trail running, mountain biking and horseback riding. Gathering Place is a 66-acre (27 ha) park which features a playground, lodge, boathouse, splash playground, sports courts, skate park, wetland pond and garden, trails, classrooms, and amphitheatre. Bicycling Tulsa has a number of cycling trails, and has installed protected bike lanes in parts of the downtown area. Additional efforts to expand this infrastructure have been included as part of the city's "GoPlan". Government A mayor-council government has been in place in Tulsa since 1989, when the city converted from a city commission government deemed wasteful and less efficient. Since the change, Tulsa mayors have been given more power in accordance with a strong mayoral system and have greater control of a more consolidated array of governmental branches. Plurality voting is used to elect mayors, who serve a term in office of four years. The present mayor of Tulsa is Republican G. T. Bynum, who won the 2016 mayoral election and took office on December 5, 2016. Another Tulsa political figure, Jim Inhofe, who represented Oklahoma in the United States Senate for 30 years, served as the mayor of Tulsa early in his political career. A city councilor from each of the city's nine council districts is elected every two years, each serving a term of two years. Councilors are elected from their own respective districts based on a plurality voting system, and serve on the Tulsa City Council. As a whole, the council acts as the legislative body of the city government, which aims to pass laws, approve the city budget, and manage efficiency in the city government. In accordance with the mayor-council form of government, the Tulsa City Council and the office of the Mayor coordinate in city government operations. A third body of the government, the city auditor, is elected independently of the city council and mayor to ensure that the auditor can act in an objective manner. The auditor is elected for a term of two years. Phil Wood, a Democrat, held the position for 21 years before being defeated by Republican Preston Doerflinger in the 2009 election. The city serves as the seat of county government for Tulsa County, and lies mostly within Oklahoma's 1st congressional district, with its far northwestern areas in southern Osage County in Oklahoma's 3rd congressional district. Municipal and state laws are enforced in Tulsa by the Tulsa Police Department, an organization of 781 officers as of 2012. Education K–12 education Tulsa Public Schools, with nine high schools and over 41,000 students, is the second-largest school district in Oklahoma. In 2006, there were more than 90,000 students attending Tulsa County's public schools. Portions of Tulsa within Tulsa County are in the following school districts: Tulsa, Berryhill, Bixby, Broken Arrow, Jenks, Owosso, and Union. Portions within Osage County are in Tulsa Public Schools. Portions within Wagoner County are in the following districts: Tulsa, Broken Arrow, and Catoosa. A variety of independent and sectarian schools exist in Tulsa, also. Most, but not all, of the private schools have religious affiliations with various Christian, Jewish or Muslim denominations. The Catholic Diocese of Tulsa supports a system of parochial and diocesan schools, including Bishop Kelley High School, administered by the LaSallians (French Christian Brothers). Another Catholic high school, Cascia Hall Preparatory School, is administered by Augustinians. Holland Hall School is independent but historically affiliated with the Episcopal Church. Riverfield Country Day School is non-sectarian. History of K-12 education The Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) established the Presbyterian Mission Day School, a one-story building at what would become the intersection of 4th Street and Boston Avenue in 1884. A second story was soon added to accommodate the number of children who were to attend. This school operated until 1889. When Tulsa incorporated in 1899, it took over the school, which became the first public school. James M. Hall and three other men bought the property with their own funds and held the title until the city could reimburse them. Tulsa built its first two public schools in 1905. The construction of more schools began accelerating in 1906. In December 1907, control of the public schools passed from the city government to the Tulsa Board of Education. Tulsa High School opened in 1906 on the same block formerly occupied by the Presbyterian mission school, which had been razed. The new school was a three-story cream colored brick building with a dome. The school was accredited by the North Central Association of Schools and Colleges in 1913. It proved too small by 1916, when Tulsa voters approved a bond issue to construct a new high school at Sixth Street and Cincinnati Avenue, which was renamed Central High School. The north half of this facility opened in 1917, while the south half opened in 1922. The building remained in this service until 1976, when it was replaced by a new building on West Edison Street. The old building was taken over by the Public Service Company of Oklahoma. Higher education The first institute of higher education was established in Tulsa when Kendall College, a Presbyterian school, moved from Muskogee to Tulsa in 1907. In 1920, the school merged with a proposed McFarlin College to become the University of Tulsa (abbreviated as TU). The McFarlin Library of TU was named for the principal donor of the proposed college, oilman Robert M. McFarlin. Tulsa has 15 institutions of higher education, including two private universities: the University of Tulsa, a school founded in 1894, and Oral Roberts University, a school founded by evangelist Oral Roberts in 1963. The University of Tulsa has an enrollment of 3,832 undergraduate and graduate students as of 2021. In addition to doctoral and masters programs, TU is home to the University of Tulsa College of Law and the Collins College of Business. TU also manages the famous Gilcrease Museum in northwest Tulsa and hosts the Alexandre Hogue Gallery on its main campus. Oral Roberts University is a charismatic Christian institution with an enrollment of 5,109 undergraduate and graduate students. Both of the state's flagship research universities have campuses in Tulsa: Oklahoma State University houses three campuses in the city, the OSU Center for Health Sciences, the OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine, and OSU – Tulsa, accommodating upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses. OSU-Tulsa has an advanced materials research facility and is home to the Oklahoma Center for Poets and Writers. The University of Oklahoma operates what is known as the OU-Tulsa Schusterman Center, offering bachelors, master's, and doctoral degree programs in conjunction with the main campus in Norman and the OU Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. The OU-Tulsa Schusterman Center also houses the OU School of Community Medicine, the first medical school of its kind in the United States. Rogers State University in Claremore, Oklahoma, is the Tulsa area's original public, undergraduate-focused, four-year university. Tulsa Community College (TCC), the largest community college in Oklahoma, operates four campuses spread across the area as well as a conference center in Midtown, and has a partnership allowing students to complete four-year bachelor's degrees through OU-Tulsa, OSU-Tulsa, LU-Tulsa and NSU-Broken Arrow. Tulsa also has a Tulsa branch of Langston University, the only historically black college or university in the state, founded in 1897. Tulsa previously had a branch campus of St. Gregory's University, a Catholic university with its main campus in Shawnee, Oklahoma; however, that school went into bankruptcy in 2017. New York University operates a study away center in Tulsa for its students. The Spartan School of Aeronautics enrolls 1,500 students at its flight programs near Tulsa International Airport and the city's vocational education is headed by Tulsa Technology Center, the oldest and largest vocational technology institution in the state. Among trade schools located in Tulsa are Community Care College (including branches Oklahoma Technical College and Clary Sage College), Holberton School Tulsa, and Tulsa Tech. Media Print Tulsa's leading newspaper is the daily Tulsa World, the second-most widely circulated newspaper in Oklahoma with a Sunday circulation of 189,789. The Tulsa Voice is an Alt-Weekly newspaper covering entertainment and cultural events. Covering primarily economic events and stocks, the Tulsa Business Journal caters to Tulsa's business sector. Other publications include the Oklahoma Indian Times, the Tulsa Daily Commerce and Legal News, the Tulsa Beacon, This Land Press, and the Tulsa Free Press. The first black-owned newspaper was the Tulsa Star, which ceased publication when its office burned during the Tulsa race massacre. It was succeeded by the Oklahoma Eagle, which began publishing using the press salvaged from the Star's office. Until 1992, the Tulsa Tribune served as a daily afternoon newspaper competing with the Tulsa World. The paper was acquired by the Tulsa World that year. Urban Tulsa Weekly served as the city's alt-weekly paper from 1991 until its closure in 2013. Television and radio Tulsa is also served by television and radio broadcasting networks. All major U.S. television networks are represented in Tulsa through local affiliates in the designated market area (a region covering a 22-county area serving the northeastern and east-central portions of Oklahoma, and far southeastern Kansas); these include NBC affiliate KJRH-TV (channel 2), CBS affiliate KOTV-DT (channel 6), ABC affiliate KTUL (channel 8), PBS station KOED-TV (channel 11, a satellite of the state-run OETA member network), CW affiliate KQCW-DT (channel 19), Fox affiliate KOKI-TV (channel 23), MyNetworkTV affiliate KMYT-TV (channel 41), Ion Television owned-and-operated station KTPX-TV (channel 44). The market is also home to several religious stations including TBN owned-and-operated station KDOR-TV (channel 17), religious/secular independent station KWHB (channel 47), and Oral Roberts University-owned KGEB (channel 53, which is distributed nationwide via satellite as GEB America). Cable television service in the area is provided by Cox Communications, which acquired Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI)'s franchise rights to the area in a $2.85 billion deal (which also included the purchase of AT&T Broadband's Louisiana cable systems, minority ownership of TCA Cable TV systems in Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico, and TCI's Peak Cablevision systems in four other Oklahoma cities, and select markets in Arkansas, Utah and Nevada) in July 1999; Cox assumed control of TCI's Tulsa-area systems on March 15, 2000. Infrastructure Transportation Transportation in Tulsa is aided by Tulsa Transit's bus network of 97 vehicles and two primary airports, while the Tulsa Port of Catoosa provides transportation of goods and industry through international trade routes. Highways Tulsa has an extensive highway system that connects many cities in the region such as Joplin, Missouri on the Will Rogers Turnpike and Oklahoma City on the Turner Turnpike. Most commuters use the highway system in Tulsa to get to and from work. Highways that run through Tulsa are I-44, I-244, US-412, US-169, OK-66, US-64, US-75, OK-11, OK-51, Creek Turnpike, and Gilcrease Expressway. In 2011, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation reported that Tulsa's busiest freeway was US-169 with about 121,500 vehicles daily between 51st and 61st Streets, and its second busiest freeway was OK-51 with about 104,200 vehicles between Memorial and I-44. Surrounding Downtown is the Inner Dispersal Loop (sometimes called the "I-D-L"), which connects Downtown with almost all the highways in Tulsa. Buses Tulsa Transit, the city's transit bus operator, runs 97 buses on 19 different routes across Tulsa and in surrounding suburbs such as Broken Arrow, Sand Springs and Jenks. Tulsa Transit has two stations: the Memorial Midtown Station at 7952 E. 33rd St. in Midtown Tulsa, and the Denver Avenue Station at 319 S. Denver, across from the BOK Center in Downtown. Most routes go through one or both of the stations, facilitating the commute to work and events in Downtown or Midtown. Buses stop at specific stops such as Tulsa Community College, Oklahoma State University-Tulsa, CityPlex Towers, Cox Communications, the various medical facilities in Tulsa, and many shopping destinations, hotels, and schools. The bus schedules are periodically changed; votes are taken by Tulsa Transit to help decide the particulars of certain routes. Tulsa debuted its first bus rapid transit line, Aero on Peoria Avenue, in November 2019. The service has more frequent buses, upgraded stations, and faster travel times. Intercity bus service is provided by both Greyhound Lines and Jefferson Lines. The station for both is at 317 S. Detroit, five blocks from Tulsa Transit's Downtown bus terminal. As to private chartered bus companies, Red Carpet Charters a/k/a Red Carpet Trailways of Tulsa, is an independent member of the Trailways Charter Bus Network. Airports Tulsa International Airport, which has service on twelve commercial airlines (eight passenger and four cargo ones), serves more than three million travelers annually, with almost 80 departures every day. In 2007, the airport completed most of an expansion project, which included larger terminal sizes and the addition of restaurants and shops. In 2011, the airport opened the newly renovated Concourse B, complete with skylights, open gate holds, an average of 76 ways to charge a device per gate, and much more. Concourse A is under renovation. Richard L. Jones Jr. Airport, a/k/a Jones-Riverside Airport, a general aviation airport in West Tulsa, saw 335,826 takeoffs and landings in 2008, making it the busiest airport in Oklahoma and the fifth-busiest general aviation airport in the nation. Its operations contribute over $3.2 million to the economy annually. The Tulsa Airports Improvement Trust also manages the Okmulgee Regional Airport in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, further to the south of Tulsa. Railways Freight railways bisect the city in every direction; the state's chief freight rail transporter is BNSF, operator of the Cherokee Rail Yard in Tulsa, which facility includes a freight terminal, diesel shop and hump yard for railcar sorting. Other Class I transporters are Union Pacific Railroad, as well as the CPKC (formerly the Kansas City Southern Railway) via a short-line switch on the South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad. Tulsa Union Depot served Frisco, M-K-T and Santa Fe passenger trains until the 1960s. The Santa Fe continued service through use of its own station until 1971. There are no mass transit rail lines in Tulsa, but the prospect of passenger rail lines from Downtown Tulsa to the suburb of Broken Arrow has been studied. Long-distance passenger rail transportation today serves Tulsa only through Greyhound bus lines, which provide bus connections to nearby cities with Amtrak stations. A private proposal to re-establish passenger service between Oklahoma City and Tulsa via a train called the ‘’Eastern Flyer’’ fell through in 2019. However, in early 2024, the Federal Railroad Administration released an interim report on its ongoing Amtrak Daily Long-Distance Service Study regarding fifteen new or previously discontinued rail routes under consideration for federal funding, which included a proposed route from Oklahoma City to Tulsa, and on from Tulsa to St. Louis in one direction and Kansas City in another. Tulsa has two static displays of antique steam railroad locomotives for free public viewing: the 1917 wood-burning Dierks Forest 207, a Baldwin 2-6-2 Prairie-type located at the Tulsa State Fairgrounds; and, the 1942 oil-burning Frisco Meteor 4500, a Baldwin 4-8-4 Northern-type at the Route 66 Historical Village at 3770 Southwest Blvd. Port of Catoosa At the head of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, the Tulsa Port of Catoosa is an inland port in the United States and connects barge traffic from Tulsa to the Mississippi River via the Verdigris River and the Arkansas River. The facility is one of the largest riverports in the United States and contributes to one of the busiest waterways in the world via its course to the Gulf of Mexico. Medical facilities The Saint Francis Health System owns several hospitals with a central location at Saint Francis Hospital in the southern part of the city. The facility contains 700 doctors and 918 beds, and with more than 7,000 employees, the network is the second-largest healthcare employer in the state. The health system also operates a heart hospital, which was named by General Electric in 2004 one of the most advanced heart hospitals in the nation. St. John Medical Center, located in an 11-story midtown center, employs nearly 700 doctors. Other networks, such as Hillcrest Health System, operate a number of facilities of various sizes. Beginning in 2007, the city elected to renew a five-year contract with EMSA for ambulance service after a period spent contemplating a switch to the Tulsa Fire Department for the provision of such services. Notable people In popular culture Several films starring Brat Pack actors and written by S.E. Hinton were filmed in Tulsa in the early 1980s; among them were Tex (1982), The Outsiders (1983), Rumble Fish (1983), That Was Then... This Is Now (1985) and Fandango (1985). "Tampa to Tulsa" song by The Jayhawks Most of the HBO TV series Watchmen (2019) takes place in Tulsa. "Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa" song by Gene Pitney "Tulsa Time" song by Don Williams "Tulsa Jesus Freak" song by Lana Del Rey Tulsa King TV series starring Sylvester Stallone (2022) The novel The Outsiders takes place in Tulsa. Sister cities In accordance with the Tulsa Global Alliance, which operates in conjunction with Sister Cities International, an organization that began under President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, Tulsa has been given eight international sister cities in an attempt to foster cross-cultural understanding: See also Tulsa (book) Tulsa (movie) List of oil refineries USS Tulsa, 3 ships Notes References External links Official website Vision 2025

Broken_Arrow,_Oklahoma

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_Arrow,_Oklahoma

Broken Arrow is a city in Tulsa and Wagoner counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is the largest suburb of Tulsa. According to the 2020 census, Broken Arrow has a population of 113,540 residents and is the 4th most populous city in the state. The city is part of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, which has a population of 1,023,988 residents. The Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad sold lots for the town site in 1902 and company secretary William S. Fears named it Broken Arrow. The city was named for a Creek community settled by Creek Native Americans who had been forced to relocate from Alabama to Oklahoma along the Trail of Tears. Although Broken Arrow was originally an agricultural community, its current economy is diverse. The city has the third-largest concentration of manufacturers in the state. History The city's name comes from an old Creek community in Alabama. Members of that community were expelled from Alabama by the United States government, along the Trail of Tears in the 1830s. The Creek founded a new community in the Indian Territory and named it after their old settlement in Alabama. The town's name in the Muscogee language was Rekackv (pronounced [ɬiˌkaːtʃkə]), meaning "broken arrow". The new Creek settlement was located several miles south of present-day downtown Broken Arrow. The community of Elam, located in present-day Broken Arrow near 145th East Avenue and 111th Street, began around 1901. It consisted of a cluster of stores, a cotton gin, and a few homes. In 1902 the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad planned a railroad through the area and was granted town site privileges along the route. They sold three of the as-yet-unnamed sites to the Arkansas Valley Town Site Company. William S. Fears, secretary of that company, was allowed to choose and name one of the locations. He selected a site about 18 miles (29 km) southeast of Tulsa and about five miles north of the thlee-Kawtch-kuh settlement and named the new townsite Broken Arrow, after the Indian community. The MKT railroad, which was completed in 1903, ran through the middle of the city. It still exists today and is now owned by Union Pacific which currently uses it for freight. For the first decades of Broken Arrow's history, the town's economy was based mainly on agriculture. The coal industry also played an important role, with several strip coal mines located near the city in the early 20th century. The city's newspaper, the Broken Arrow Ledger, started within a couple of years of the city's founding. Broken Arrow's first school was built in 1904. The city did not grow much during the first half of the 1900s. During this time Broken Arrow's main commercial center was along Main Street. Most of the city's churches were also located on or near Main Street as well. A 1907 government census listed Broken Arrow's population at 1,383. The Haskell State School of Agriculture opened in the Broken Arrow, Oklahoma Opera House on November 15, 1909. The school closed in 1917 for lack of funding, and the building was then used as Broken Arrow High School. The building was razed in 1987. Only a marker remains at 808 East College Street in Broken Arrow. The front of cornerstone reads, "Haskell State School / Of Agriculture / J. H. Esslinger Supt. / W. A. Etherton Archt. / Bucy & Walker Contr." The side of cornerstone reads "Laid by the Masonic Fraternity / May 25, A. D. 1910, A. L. 5810. / George Huddell G. M. / Erected by The State Board of Agriculture / J. P. Conners Pres. / B. C. Pittuck Dean.". The school is commemorated on the National Register of Historic Places. In the 1960s, Broken Arrow began to grow from a small town into a suburban city. The Broken Arrow Expressway (Oklahoma State Highway 51) was constructed in the mid-1960s and connected the city with downtown Tulsa, fueling growth in Broken Arrow. The population swelled from a little above 11,000 in 1970 to more than 50,000 in 1990, and then more than 74,000 by the year 2000. During this time, the city was more of a bedroom community. In recent years, city leaders have pushed for more economic development to help keep more citizens of Broken Arrow working, shopping, and relaxing in town rather than going to other cities. Broken Arrow killings The Broken Arrow killings took place on July 22, 2015, when five members of the Bever family were murdered in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, United States. the attackers were identified as 18 year-old Robert Bever and 16 year-old Michael Bever. Geography Broken Arrow is located in the northeastern corner of Oklahoma. The city is part of the state's Green Country region known for its green vegetation, hills and lakes. Green Country is the most topographically diverse portion of the state with seven of Oklahoma's 11 eco-regions. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 45.6 square miles (118 km2), of which 45.0 sq mi (117 km2) is land and 0.6 sq mi (1.6 km2) (1.34%) is water. Climate Broken Arrow has the typical eastern and central Oklahoma humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) with uncomfortably hot summers and highly variable winters that can range from mild to very cold depending on whether the air mass comes from warmed air over the Rocky Mountains or very cold polar anticyclones from Canada. Demographics 2020 census According to the 2010 census, there were 98,850 people, 36,141 households, and 27,614 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,200 inhabitants per square mile (850/km2). There were 38,013 housing units at an average density of 602.0 per square mile (232.4/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 79.3% White, 4.3% African American, 5.2% Native American, 3.6% Asian (1.0% Vietnamese, 0.7% Indian, 0.4% Chinese, 0.3% Korean, 0.3% Hmong, 0.2% Pakistani, 0.2% Filipino, 0.1% Japanese), 0.05% Pacific Islander, 2.2% from other races, and 5.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino were 6.5% (4.4% Mexican, 0.4% Puerto Rican, 0.3% Spanish, 0.1% Venezuelan, 0.1% Colombian). There were 36,141 households, out of which 36.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 76.4% were married couples living together, 10.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.6% were non-families. Of all households, 19.2% were made up of individuals, and 6.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.72 and the average family size was 3.11. In the city, the population dispersal was 30.8% under the age of 18, 7.7% from 18 to 24, 32.3% from 25 to 44, 21.6% from 45 to 64, and 7.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.2 males. The median income for a household in the city was $65,385 and the median income for a family was $74,355. The per capita income for the city was $29,141. About 7.2% of the population were below the poverty line. Of the city's population over the age of 25, 30.3% hold a bachelor's degree or higher. Business and industry Broken Arrow is home to a wide range of businesses and industries. In fact, the city is ranked third in its concentration of manufacturers in the state. Some of the city's more notable employers include: FlightSafety International FedEx Ground Blue Bell Creameries Windstream Communications Located in Broken Arrow since 1985, FlightSafety International (FSI) designs and builds aviation crew training devices called Flight Simulators at its Simulation Systems Division. With currently over 675 employees located there, of which about half are engineers, FSI is the largest private employer in the city. A number of new commercial developments are being built throughout the city, most notably along Oklahoma State Highway 51, which runs through the city. A Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World opened in 2005 as the anchor to a development that includes hotels, restaurants, shopping, and eventually offices. A new full-service hospital and medical office building were constructed nearby in 2010 as an anchor to another large commercial development that will include retail space and two hotels. Oklahoma's first Dick's Sporting Goods opened in late 2011. In 2007 the city created the Broken Arrow Economic Development Corporation to help oversee economic development. In late 2007, the Broken Arrow Chamber of Commerce began "Advance Broken Arrow", an economic development campaign aimed at expanding and diversifying the city's economic base. In October 2023, plans were announced for a new 12,500-seat amphitheater to be built in town by 2025. The Sunset Amphitheater is projected to host a minimum of 45 concert events annually. Downtown redevelopment In 2005, the city adopted a downtown revitalization master plan to help revive the city's historic downtown area. Some of the plans include a new 3-story museum to house the historical society and genealogical society, a farmer's market and plaza, a new performing arts center, updates and expansions to area parks, the conversion of the historic Central Middle School on Main Street into a professional development center, infrastructure, and landscape improvements, and incentives to encourage denser infill, redevelopment, and reuse of the area's historic structures. Numerous buildings and homes have since been renovated, many new shops and offices have moved to downtown, and new townhomes are being built. The new historical museum, farmers market, and performing arts center opened in 2008. The city also sets strict new design standards in place that all new developments in the downtown area must adhere to. These standards were created to prevent "suburban" development in favor of denser, "urban" development, and to ensure that new structures complement and fit in with the historic buildings downtown. In October 2012 Downtown Broken Arrow's main street corridor was named the Rose District. Government Broken Arrow uses the council–manager model of municipal government. The city's primary authority resides in the city council which approves ordinances, resolutions, amendments, and contracts. The city council consists of five members with one member elected from each of the four city wards, and the fifth member as an at-large member. Each council member serves for a two-year term and is eligible to serve for four years. Out of the council members, a mayor and vice-mayor are chosen every two years. The day-to-day operations of the city are run by the city manager, who reports directly to the city council. At the federal level, Broken Arrow lies within Oklahoma's 1st congressional district, represented by Kevin Hern. In the State Senate, Broken Arrow is in District 25 (Joe Newhouse) and 36 (Bill Brown). In the State House, District 75 (Karen Gaddis), 76 (Ross Ford), 98 (Michael Rogers) covers the city. Education Broken Arrow is served by Broken Arrow Public Schools, Union Public Schools, and Bixby Public Schools. Within Tulsa County, most of BA is served by BAPS while the northwestern part of town is Union Public Schools, and the far southwest part of town is Bixby Public Schools. Within Wagoner County, all of BA is zoned to BAPS. Some far southeastern areas with Broken Arrow postal addresses are zoned to Coweta Public Schools. The Coweta portion also includes large unincorporated tracts of land that may eventually be annexed into the city of Broken Arrow. Bixby, Union and Broken Arrow schools all operate at least one school in the city while the Coweta School District does not currently have any schools within the city limits. Colleges and universities Higher education in Broken Arrow is provided by Northeastern State University (Broken Arrow campus). The campus opened in 2001 and has an upperclassmen and graduate student population of 3,000. Broken Arrow is also served by Tulsa Technology Center Broken Arrow Campus. Established in 1983, it has an enrollment of about 3,500 full- and part-time secondary and adult students. Broken Arrow is also home to Rhema Bible Training Center, established in 1974 by Kenneth E. Hagin; located on 110 acres (45 ha), it has graduated over 40,000 alumni and has seven ministry concentrations. RBTC is currently led by Hagin's son, Kenneth W. Hagin. Libraries The city's two libraries, Broken Arrow Library and South Broken Arrow Library, are part of the Tulsa City-County Library System. Infrastructure Major highways in Broken Arrow include State Highway 51 (Broken Arrow Expressway). It passes through the north side of the city and leads to downtown Tulsa to the northwest. Heading east on the Broken Arrow Expressway leads to the Muskogee Turnpike, which connects the city to Muskogee. Partial beltway Creek Turnpike circles around the south of the city and connects the Turner Turnpike to the west terminus of the Will Rogers Turnpike. Public transportation for Broken Arrow is provided by Tulsa Transit. It has one route that connects the city to Tulsa. Bus services run Monday through Friday. Media Newspapers Broken Arrow had one newspaper, the Broken Arrow Ledger. The paper was published every Wednesday. It is owned by BH Media Group. The Tulsa World, northeast Oklahoma's major daily newspaper, also features Broken Arrow news regularly. The staff at the Ledger featured journalists and photographers Lesa Jones, Doug Quinn, and G. B. Poindexter. The Ledger was closed by the Tulsa World’s owners in 2017. Television Cox Cable channel 24 is the Broken Arrow government-access television (GATV) cable TV municipal information channel. It displays, among other things, information about the city government, upcoming events, and general information about the city. The channel also features local weather reports. Internet Broken Arrow has a website that provides information on the city, its government, local amenities, safety, local news, and economic development. The city's chamber of commerce also has a website, which contains information about the chamber and economic development in the city. Notable people David Alexander, former NFL player and former head coach of Broken Arrow High School football team Brady Bacon, racing driver Alvin Bailey, offensive lineman for the Seattle Seahawks Jim Baumer, former Major League infielder and general manager for Milwaukee Brewers Archie Bradley, pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels, drafted 7th overall in 2011 MLB first-year player draft Jim Brewer, former Major League pitcher with Los Angeles Dodgers P.C. Cast, author and novelist best known for the House of Night series Kristin Chenoweth, singer, actress and graduate of Broken Arrow High School. Broken Arrow Performing Arts Center's (PAC) theater and stage are named after Chenoweth. Ernest Childers, Medal of Honor recipient in World War II Marguerite Churchill, actress, died in Broken Arrow DeDe Dorsey, Las Vegas Locomotives running back, former NFL player with Cincinnati Bengals and Indianapolis Colts Phil Farrand, author known for Nitpicker's Guides Kenneth E. Hagin, evangelist and founder of Rhema Bible Training College Holley Hollan, racing driver Steve Logan, running backs coach for Tampa Bay Buccaneers JD McPherson, singer-songwriter and guitarist George O'Brien, actor Charles Ogle, racing driver Brad Penny, Major League Baseball pitcher Jamie Pinkerton, Head Women's Softball Coach at Iowa State University, graduate of Broken Arrow High School. Donald Roulet, Presbyterian minister and civil rights activist Warren Spahn, Hall of Fame baseball pitcher and longtime Broken Arrow resident Will Thomas, historical mystery writer, winner of 2005 and 2015 Oklahoma Book Award for fiction Andy Wilkins, first baseman for Milwaukee Brewers Kathryn Zaremba, stage actress See also Broken Arrow killings References External links Broken Arrow travel guide from Wikivoyage City website Chamber of Commerce "Broken Arrow," Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

Norman,_Oklahoma

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman,_Oklahoma

Norman () is the 3rd most populous city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,026 as of the 2020 census. It is the most populous city and the county seat of Cleveland County and the second-most populous city in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area after the state capital, Oklahoma City, 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Norman. The city was settled during the Land Run of 1889, which opened the former Unassigned Lands of Indian Territory to American pioneer settlement. It was named in honor of Abner Norman, the area's initial land surveyor, and was formally incorporated on May 13, 1891. Norman has prominent higher education and related research industries, as it is home to the University of Oklahoma, the largest university in the state, with nearly 32,000 students. The university is well known for its sporting events by teams under the banner of the nickname "Sooners", with over 85,000 people routinely attending football games. The university is home to several museums, including the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, which contains the largest collection of French Impressionist art ever given to an American university, as well as the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. Norman's National Weather Center (NWC) houses a unique collection of university, state, federal, and private-sector organizations that work together to improve the understanding of events related to the Earth's atmosphere. Norman lies within Tornado Alley, a geographic region colloquially known for frequent and intense tornadic activity. The Storm Prediction Center (SPC), a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that delivers forecasts for severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, and other high-impact hazardous weather in the contiguous United States, is located at the NWC. Additionally, research is conducted at the co-located National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL), which operates various experimental weather radars and develops innovative tools, applications, and techniques aimed at improving forecasts and warnings of severe weather. History The Oklahoma region became part of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Before the American Civil War, the U.S. government began relocating the Five Civilized Tribes—the five Native American tribes that the United States officially recognized via treaty—to Oklahoma. Treaties of 1832 and 1833 assigned the area known today as Norman to the Creek Nation. After the Civil War, the Creeks were accused of aiding the Confederacy; as a result they ceded the region back to the United States in 1866. In the early 1870s, the federal government undertook a survey of these unassigned lands. Abner Ernest Norman, a 23-year-old surveyor from Kentucky, was hired to oversee part of this project. Norman's work crew set up camp near what is today the corner of Classen Boulevard and Lindsey Street; it was there that the men, perhaps jokingly, carved a sign on an elm tree that read "Norman's Camp," in honor of their young boss. In 1887, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway began service to the area, which was later opened to settlement as part of the Land Run of 1889; early settlers decided to keep the name "Norman." On April 22, 1889, that first Land Run in what would become the state of Oklahoma saw the founding of Norman, with at least 150 residents spending the night in makeshift campsites, and by the next morning a downtown was already being constructed. Almost immediately two prominent Norman businessmen, former Purcell railroad freight agent Delbert Larsh and railroad station chief cashier Thomas Waggoner, began lobbying for the territorial government to locate its first university in Norman. The two were interested in growing the city and had reasoned that, rather than try to influence territorial lawmakers to locate the heavily contested territory capital in Norman, it made sense to attempt to secure the state's first university instead (a move that would be far less controversial). On December 19, 1890, Larsh and Waggoner were successful with the passage of Territorial Council Bill 114, establishing the University of Oklahoma in Norman about 18 years before Oklahoma statehood. The City of Norman was formally incorporated on May 13, 1891. The new Norman was a sundown town. African Americans were not allowed to live within the city limits or stay overnight until the early 1960s, nor could they study at the University of Oklahoma. In 2020, the Norman City Council issued an apology. Norman has grown throughout the decades. By 1902 the downtown district contained two banks, two hotels, a flour mill, and other businesses; by 1913 over 3,700 people lived in Norman when the Oklahoma Railway Company decided to extend its interurban streetcar running from Oklahoma City to Moore into Norman, spurring additional population growth. The rail lines eventually transitioned to freight during the 1940s as the United States Numbered Highway system developed. The population reached 11,429 in 1940. With the completion of Interstate 35 in June 1959, Norman found its role as a bedroom community to Oklahoma City increasing rapidly; in 1960 Norman's population was 33,412 but by the end of the decade had grown to 52,117. Throughout the 1960s Norman's land mass increased by 174 sq mi (450 km2) by annexing surrounding areas. The city's growth trends have continued early in the 21st century, with the population reaching 95,694 in 2000, 110,925 in 2010, and 128,026 in 2020. Military in Norman In 1941, the University of Oklahoma and Norman city officials established Max Westheimer Field, a university airstrip, and then leased it to the U.S. Navy as a Naval Flight Training Center in 1942. It became the Naval Air Station Norman, and it was used for training combat pilots during World War II. A second training center, known as Naval Air Technical Training Center, and a naval hospital were later established to the south. In the years following World War II the airstrip was transferred back to the university's control. Today the airstrip is called the University of Oklahoma Westheimer Airport. Following the war the remaining military presence and post-war veterans who came to Norman to get an education again grew the city's population, which was 27,006 by 1950. The Navy again utilized the bases in a lesser capacity from 1952 to 1959 in support of the Korean War effort. Geography As of 2010, the city has a total area of 189.42 sq mi (490.6 km2), of which 178.77 sq mi (463.0 km2) is land and 10.65 sq mi (27.6 km2) is water. The center of this large incorporated area is 20 mi (30 km) from the center of Oklahoma City, and separated primarily by Moore, is in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. Topography Norman and the surrounding areas are mostly flat with an elevation near 1,171 ft (357 m). The terrain in the western section of Norman is prairie, while the eastern section, including the area surrounding Lake Thunderbird, consists of some 6,000 acres (24 km2) of lakes and Cross Timbers forest. Neighborhoods Norman has a wide variety of neighborhoods. Downtown Norman is an area of approximately 2 sq mi (5 km2) bounded by University Blvd., Symmes St., Porter Ave., and Daws St.; primary streets include Main St. and Gray St. The area consists of restaurants, art galleries, and other businesses; it is home to some of the oldest buildings in Oklahoma. Hall Park is an area northeast of downtown Norman that was originally an independent township; in 2005 it was annexed into Norman, becoming one of its neighborhoods. The area is home to many middle-class suburban homes and is historically important in that it was advertised as the United States' first "all-electric town." President Ronald Reagan, then an executive with General Electric, attended Hall Park's grand opening ceremonies in 1962 where he was named the town's honorary first mayor. The University of Oklahoma and the area surrounding it are home to many historically significant neighborhoods. The university itself has a unique Gothic-inspired architecture known as "Cherokee Gothic," so named by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Churches and houses in the surrounding neighborhoods can be described as neo-Gothic or Queen Anne in style. Norman has two city-designated historic preservation districts in the area: the Miller Historic District, bounded by Symmes St., Classen Blvd., and Miller Ave.; and the Chautauqua Historic District, bounded by Symmes St., Brooks St., Chautauqua Ave., and Lahoma Ave. Both of these residential neighborhoods contain houses designed from a mixture of architectural styles dating from 1903 to 1935, with the majority of the Miller neighborhood being of the Bungalow or American Craftsman style homes. Any external changes or repairs to homes in these areas must be approved by the Norman Historic Preservation Commission. The area immediately north of the university is known as Campus Corner and contains a mixture of businesses, bars, and restaurants. The neighborhoods to the east of the campus are home to many students, both in residential housing and high-rise condos/apartments. Norman enjoys many tree-lined landscapes, participating in the ReLeaf Norman and Tree City USA programs. Climate Norman falls within a temperate, humid subtropical climate region that is identified as "Cfa" class on the Köppen climate classification. On average Norman receives about 38 in (970 mm) of precipitation per year; May and June are the wettest months. Temperatures average 61 °F (16 °C) for the year. Average daytime highs range from 50 °F (10 °C) in January to 92.5 °F (33.6 °C) in July; average lows range from around 28 °F (−2 °C) in January to 71 °F (22 °C) in July. While Summers generally range from warm to hot, some summers can be very hot, as was evident in the historically hot summers of 1980 and 2011, when temperatures climbed above 100 °F (38 °C) over most days from mid-June through early September in those years. Consistent winds, averaging near 10 mph (16 km/h) and usually from the south to southeast, help to temper hotter weather during the summer and intensify cold periods during the winter. The average growing season in Norman is 209 days, but plants that can withstand short periods of colder temperatures may have an additional three to six weeks. Winter months tend to be cloudier than those in summer, with the percentage of possible sunshine ranging from an average of about 55% in winter to nearly 80% in summer. Norman lies within an area colloquially referred to as "Tornado Alley", a region of the United States known for frequent tornadic activity, and the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, which encompasses Norman, is known for being one of the more tornado-prone areas in the United States. The risk for tornadoes is greatest in the springtime months of March through June when the majority of all reported tornadoes occur. Severe weather, including tornadoes, still occurs outside this range. Notably, a high-end EF2 tornado tore through the southeastern side of Norman on the night of February 26, 2023, passing within a mile of the NWC. There have been several other tornado events in recent years. On May 10, 2010, numerous tornadoes occurred in Cleveland County, resulting in the loss of multiple homes and businesses within Norman city limits. Weak tornadoes also struck Norman on April 13, 2012 and May 6, 2015. Demographics 2020 census As of the census of 2010, there were 110,925 people, 44,661 households, and 24,913 families residing within the city. By population, Norman was the third-largest city in Oklahoma and the 225th-largest city in the United States. The population density was 616 inhabitants per square mile (238/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 84.7% White, 4.3% African American, 4.7% Native American, 3.8% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 1.9% from other races, and 5.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.4% of the population. Of the 44,661 households, 25.0% had children under the age of 18, 41.5% were married couples living together, 10.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 44.2% were non-families. Individuals living alone made up 30.7% of all households; 7.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.33 and the average family size was 2.94. The age distribution was 5.8% under the age of 5, 5.7% from 5 to 9, 5.2% from 10 to 14, 8.9% from 15 to 19, 16.0% from 20 to 24, 9.0% from 25 to 29, 6.6% from 30 to 34, 5.6% from 35 to 39, 5.3% from 40 to 44, 5.9% from 45 to 49, 5.9% from 50 to 54, 5.4% from 55 to 59, 4.6% from 60 to 64, 3.2% from 65 to 69, 2.3% from 70 to 74, 1.8% from 75 to 79, 1.4% from 80 to 84, and 1.3% over 85 years of age. The median age was 29.6 years. Males made up 49.7% of the population while females made up 50.3%. The median household income in the city was $44,396, and the median income for a family was $62,826. Males had a median income of $41,859 versus $35,777 for females. The per capita income for the city was $24,586. About 11.8% of families and 19.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.9% of those under age 18 and 8.9% of those age 65 or over. Although religious information is not collected by the U.S. census, according to a 2000 survey by Dale E. Jones of the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies, 50.2% of the population in Norman is affiliated with a religious institution. Of those 43.6% were Southern Baptist, 15.0% Catholic Church, 13.0% United Methodist, 3.3% Assembly of God, 2.8% Churches of Christ, 2.1% Latter-day Saint (Mormon), 2.1% Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, 1.9% Disciples of Christ, 1.7% Presbyterian Church, and 14.6% other Christian denominations or religions. Economy The University of Oklahoma employs over 11,600 personnel across three campuses, making it a significant driver of Norman's economy. The campus is a center for scientific and technological research, having contributed over $277 million to such programs in 2009. Norman is also home of the National Weather Center, a cooperative research effort between the University of Oklahoma and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that houses a number of weather- and climate-related organizations; the city is also the location of the National Weather Museum & Science Center. As a result of this ongoing academic and public weather research, several private meteorological businesses are present in the city, including Weathernews Americas, Inc., Vieux and Associates, Inc., Verisk Analytics, Pivotal Weather, and DTN (formerly Weather Decision Technologies). In addition to weather, Norman is a center for other scientific ventures, public and private. The Oklahoma Geological Survey, which conducts geological research, and the Oklahoma Renewable Energy Council, which is a public-private alliance that fosters renewable energy technology with the aim of establishing more viable applications, make the city their home. Southwest NanoTechnologies is a producer of single-walled carbon nanotubes. Bergey Windpower is a supplier of small wind turbines. Other major employers in the city include Norman Regional Health System, Norman Public Schools, Johnson Controls, Griffin Memorial Hospital, Hitachi, Astellas Pharma Technologies, Albon Engineering, Xyant Technology, MSCI, SITEL, the United States Postal Service National Center for Employee Development, Sysco Corporation, and AT&T. Fair trade In 2010, Norman became the 17th city in the United States to adopt a council resolution giving it status as a Fair Trade Town. The resolution states that the city of Norman supports the purchasing of goods from the local community; when goods cannot be purchased locally the city will support buying from producers abroad who meet Fair Trade standards. These standards include supporting quality of life in developing countries and planning for environmental sustainability. Top employers According to the Norman's 2022 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are: Arts and culture Museums and theater Norman enjoys many cultural attractions that are funded by the university. The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art made national and international news in 2000 when it was given the Weitzenhoffer Collection, the largest collection of French Impressionist art ever given to an American university. The collection includes works by Mary Cassatt, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro. The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is a museum containing over 50,000 sq ft (5,000 m2) of exhibits ranging from archaeology, paleontology, ethnology, herpetology, ornithology, and Native American studies. Its exhibits are intended to immerse visitors in the state's long history. The museum features many complete collections of dinosaur fossils and is also noted for its Paleozoic collection, considered to be one of the largest and most important in existence. The Moore-Lindsay House is a Queen Anne-style home built prior to 1900 by prominent Norman home builder William Moore; it was purchased by the city of Norman in 1973 and today serves as the city and Cleveland County's historical museum. Located at 508 N. Peters, the Moore-Lindsay House's architecture is representative of Norman during the Victorian era. The Cleveland County Historical Society maintains a collection of over 5,000 rare books, documents, and other artifacts in its archives located inside the house. Catlett Music Center at the University of Oklahoma features many orchestral and jazz performances and the Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts' Schools of Dance, Drama, and Musical Theatre offer many student programs throughout the year. The city is also home to many privately funded galleries and performance sites. Community events Norman hosts many free festivals and community events that occur throughout the year. The Norman Medieval Fair is a celebration of medieval-themed games, art, and culture, with highlights of jousting, human chessmatch combats & other combat shows, and several musical & dance acts. The event is typically held during the last weekend of March or first weekend of April in Reaves Park, near the university. It has been held annually in Norman since 1976 and was originally a forum for the English Department at the University of Oklahoma. It is the largest weekend event held in the state of Oklahoma, with over 325,000 people in attendance in 2006 and growing yearly. Events Media Network has named Medieval Fair one of the top 100 events in the United States. Norman Music Festival is an annual weekend music festival held in April in downtown Norman. Established in 2008, the event had over 26,000 people in attendance during the 2009 festival. Originally a one-day event, the festival has quickly grown so large that it is now an all-weekend concert series. The festival highlights both local musicians and internationally acclaimed artists and features many forms and styles of music. Groovefest is a music festival hosted annually at Andrews Park. On the last Sunday in September, the music festival is held to help raise awareness about human rights. The event was established in 1986 by the University of Oklahoma chapter of Amnesty International. The Chocolate Festival, the only fundraiser of the year for the city's Firehouse Arts Center, was ranked No. 3 for food festivals across America by the Food Network. This festival offers various chocolate tasting sessions, chocolate art competitions and exhibits, chocolate dessert competitions and more. It has been an annual tradition since 1983. The National Weather Festival takes place at the National Weather Service every fall, featuring food trucks, weather balloon launches, educational booths, and meet-and-greets with local meteorologists. Jazz in June is a music festival held the last full weekend in June at various venues across Norman. The festival features both jazz and blues musical performances as well as jazz educational clinics taught by professional musicians appearing in the festival and post-concert jam sessions at local venues which bring headliners and local artists together. Jazz in June, one of the major cultural events in the state as well as the City of Norman, attracts a combined concert audience of 50,000 drawn from throughout the state, region and nation. Another 100,000 or more enjoy these same performances through post-festival broadcasts on KGOU Public Radio as well as other public radio stations throughout the state, region and nation. May Fair is an arts festival held every year during the first weekend in May at Andrews Park. It features top area performers, fine art, crafts, and food. Summer Breeze Concert Series is a series of concerts held from Spring to Fall at various park venues across Norman. The series is sponsored by the Performing Arts Studio. Midsummer Nights' Fair is a nighttime arts festival held during two evenings in June. The fair features art, music, and food and is held outside the Firehouse Art Center located in Lions Park. The Norman Mardi Gras parade is a celebration of Mardi Gras occurring on the Saturday closest to Fat Tuesday. The parade is held in downtown Norman and features themed costumes and floats. The Main Street Christmas Holiday Parade is a celebration of Christmas and the holiday season held every December in downtown Norman. The parade features holiday-themed costumes and floats. Libraries Norman is served by three public libraries, Norman Public Library Central, Norman Public Library East, and Norman Public Library West, all of which are part of the 12-branch Pioneer Library System which serves the entirety of Cleveland County, McClain County and Pottawatomie County in Central Oklahoma. The library has a reciprocal agreement with the Metropolitan Library System of Oklahoma City through which those eligible for a library card in one system are also eligible in the other. Cardholders are also able to borrow books unavailable in the PLS collection through the use of Interlibrary Loan. Books can be reserved and shipped to a local library free of charge. In addition to books, the library maintains a collection of periodicals, DVD videos, audio books, e-books and research materials. The Bizzell Memorial Library at the University of Oklahoma is the largest library in the state of Oklahoma, containing more than five million volumes. In addition to books, the library maintains over 17,000 ft (5,200 m) in length of manuscripts and archives, 1.6 million photographs, and more than 1.5 million maps. The library also houses more than 50 books printed before the year 1500. Sports The University of Oklahoma sponsors many collegiate sporting events in Norman. The school is well known for its football program, having won seven NCAA Division I National Football Championships. In addition, it has the best winning percentage of any Division I FBS team since the introduction of the AP Poll in 1936 and has played in four BCS National Championship Games since 1998. During football season, the Oklahoma Sooners football program contributes significantly to Norman's economy. During game day weekends, Norman sees an influx out of town traffic from all over the country with over 80,000 people routinely attending football games. Norman's local businesses, especially areas around campus and Campus Corner, benefit greatly from the game day traffic alone. The program ranks in the top 10 of ESPN's top college football money-makers with home games generating revenues at approximately $59 million and game day operating expenses at about $6.1 million. In 1951 and 1994 its baseball team won the NCAA national championship, and the women's softball team won the national championship in 2000, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. The men's and women's gymnastics teams have won ten national championships since 2001. Other university men's sports include: basketball, cross country, golf, gymnastics, football, Ultimate Frisbee, tennis, track and field, and wrestling. The OU Sooners men's hockey team competes in the American College Hockey Association, at the "club" level, but has yet to apply for higher-level play. Due to the lack of a rink in Norman, the team plays at the Blazers Ice Centre in south Oklahoma City. Women's sports include: basketball, cross country, golf, gymnastics, football, Ultimate Frisbee, rowing, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. The Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA), a non-profit professional association of men's collegiate golf coaches, is located in Norman. Parks and recreation Norman's Parks and Recreation Department facilitates 55 neighborhood and community parks, three recreation centers, a golf course and driving range, three disc golf courses, a complete swim complex with waterslides, a wading pool, 32 tennis courts, and three special services centers (that offer cultural arts and senior citizen activities). Griffin Community Park Sports Complex includes 16 soccer fields, 14 baseball/softball fields, and four football fields. Government A council-manager government has been in place in Norman since the adoption of its city charter on June 28, 1919. A councilor from each of the city's eight council wards is elected to office every two years, each serving a two-year term. Councilors are elected from their own respective wards based on a plurality voting system; a councilor from each ward serves on the Norman City Council. A mayor is elected by the entire voting population of Norman and serves as an at-large councilor; the mayor serves a three-year term. As a whole, the council acts as the legislative body of city government; it aims to pass laws, approve the city budget, and manage efficiency in the government. The City Council appoints a professional City Manager who is responsible for the city's day-to-day administrative activities. The City of Norman has approximately 650 employees working in 11 departments and 31 boards and commissions that help oversee and implement the city's policies and services. The City Council meets biweekly in City Hall, at 201 W. Gray Street; various boards and commissions meet in accordance with their own schedules. The mayor is Larry Heikkila (elected in 2022), and the city manager is Darrel Pyle (appointed in 2019). In accordance with the charter of the city of Norman, all city elected positions are nonpartisan. Municipal and state laws are enforced by the Norman Police Department. The police department consists of up to 171 commissioned officers and 71 office employees and is Oklahoma's third-largest police department. The city serves as the county seat of Cleveland County. Education Higher education Colleges and universities The University of Oklahoma is the largest university in the state of Oklahoma, with approximately 30,000 students enrolled. The university was founded in 1890, prior to Oklahoma statehood. The university includes Norman, Oklahoma City and, Tulsa campuses with the main campus located in Norman. In 2007, The Princeton Review named the University of Oklahoma one of its "Best Value" colleges. The school is ranked first per capita among public universities in enrollment of National Merit Scholars and has seen 28 Rhodes Scholars graduate since the program's inception in 1902. PC Magazine and the Princeton Review rated it one of the "20 Most Wired Colleges" in both 2006 and 2008, while the Carnegie Foundation classifies it as a research university with "highest research activity." The school is well known for its athletic programs, having won many distinctions and awards including seven NCAA Division I National Football Championships. CareerTech The city of Norman is served by the Moore Norman Technology Center. The school was established in 1972 and has been awarded the Oklahoma Association of Technology Center's Gold Star School Award on multiple occasions. The Franklin Road Campus consists of six buildings totaling 323,500 sq ft (30,100 m2) of classroom, meeting, and office space. The school has a full-time staff of 207. Primary and secondary schools Public schools Public school districts in Oklahoma are independent of other local governments. Several districts overlap the municipal boundaries of the City of Norman. Norman Public Schools is the largest district serving Norman; there are 15 elementary schools, four middle schools, and two high schools in the district. More than 17,000 students are enrolled in the district, making it one of the largest in the state. Noble Public Schools is a school district that serves southeastern portions of Norman, the adjoining cities of Noble and Slaughterville, and other parts of Cleveland County. It consists of two elementary schools, an intermediate school, a middle school, and a high school. Little Axe Public Schools serves the eastern area of Norman. It consists of an elementary, junior, and high school. Other school districts with territory within the city are McLoud, Mid-Del, Moore, and Robin Hill. Private schools Several private schools also serve the area: All Saints Catholic School (Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City) – pre-kindergarten through 8th grade Blue Eagle Christian Academy – kindergarten through 10th grade Community Christian School – kindergarten through 12th grade Norman Christian Academy – pre-kindergarten through 7th grade Robinson Street Academy – kindergarten through 12th grade Rose Rock School – pre-kindergarten through kindergarten Terra Verde Discovery School – kindergarten through 5th grade Trinity Lutheran School – pre-kindergarten through 6th grade Veritas Classical Christian Academy – pre-kindergarten through 12th grade Media The Norman Transcript is the most widely circulated Norman-based newspaper in the city. It is a daily newspaper covering events in Cleveland and McClain counties. It is the oldest continuous business in Norman and was founded shortly after the Land Run of April 1889 on July 13, 1889. The Oklahoma Daily is a student-run newspaper at the University of Oklahoma. It was first published in 1897, several years after the university's founding. The paper has received numerous awards for journalism excellence including the Associated Collegiate Press' Pacemaker Award. KGOU is a full-service public radio station licensed to the University of Oklahoma. The station serves Norman and the greater Oklahoma City metropolitan area with a news/talk/jazz format, using programs from National Public Radio, Public Radio International, and others. Norman TV is a government-access television station airing on Cox Communications cable television channel 20. It broadcasts programming provided by the City of Norman, including video from city council meetings. Infrastructure Transportation Airports Scheduled air transport, major commercial air transportation is available at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, located approximately 20 mi (30 km) northwest of Norman. The airport serves more than 3.78 million passengers per year. Norman is served locally by Max Westheimer Airport, a general aviation airport run by the University of Oklahoma. The airport is one of only two airports in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area designated as a reliever airport to Will Rogers World Airport. Max Westheimer Airport is capable of handling aircraft up through and including executive class jet aircraft. Buses The Cleveland Area Rapid Transit, operated by the University of Oklahoma, provides bus service throughout the 191 sq mi (490 km2) Norman area. CART also provides service to the Social Security Administration offices in Moore, as well as to Oklahoma City's EMBARK transit hub downtown. EMBARK maintains a fleet of buses and trolleys serving the greater Oklahoma City area, with a new light-rail system expected to begin operations in 2018. All service to Will Rogers World Airport is not currently available. In 2008, CART became the 39th public transportation system in the United States to be featured on Google Transit, a website that allows transportation users to electronically plan their travel routes. In 2010, CART buses were modified to include a GPS tracking system that allows riders to see the location of buses and their predicted arrival times via the CART and Google websites. CART buses transport more than 1.3 million travelers annually. Rail Inter-city passenger train service is available via Amtrak at Norman Depot. Amtrak's Heartland Flyer provides daily round trip service to downtown Oklahoma City and Fort Worth, Texas. Although Norman currently has no light rail or commuter rail service, there is growing interest in incorporating such services into the city's future transportation plans as part of the Oklahoma City metro area's regional transit system. Roads and highways The predominant form of transportation in Norman is roads and highways with 80.0% of all residents driving alone to work, 9.0% carpooling, and just 1.3% taking public transportation. As of 2007, Interstate 35 alone was handling over 99,000 vehicles per day. Other major highways include State Highway 9, a portion of which serves 28,000 vehicles per day, and U.S. Highway 77, which serves more than 25,000 vehicles per day. Norman is served by two major federal highways: Interstate 35 U.S. Highway 77 Norman is served by two major Oklahoma state highways: State Highway 9 State Highway 77H Utilities Electric utility companies servicing Norman include Oklahoma Gas & Electric, which is headquartered in Oklahoma City, and Oklahoma Electric Cooperative (a utility cooperative). Natural gas is provided by Oklahoma Natural Gas. The city's Utility Department offers water, wastewater, and recycling services to parts of the city as well as solid waste pickup citywide. Drinking water quality In 2010, drinking water in Normal was identified as levels of hexavalent chromium 3 and 6 near the higher end of the acceptable EPA limit. The Garber-Wellington Aquifer, which is known to have elevated levels of heavy metals, was identified as a possible source. Norman's water supply has also been noted for excessive levels of arsenic. The city responded by building new wells and removing old ones. Healthcare Norman Regional Health System is a multi-campus system that provides medical services in Norman and throughout south central Oklahoma. Its Porter Avenue campus, located north of downtown Norman, is a 337-bed general hospital providing a wide range of services including acute care. In October 2009, the Norman Regional HealthPlex campus opened in west Norman. It provides a 152-bed facility specializing in cardiology, cardiovascular services, as well as women's and children's services. Notable people Twin towns – sister cities In accordance with Sister Cities International, an organization that began under President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, Norman has been given four international sister cities in an attempt to foster cross-cultural understanding: Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy Clermont-Ferrand, Puy-de-Dôme, France Colima, Col., Mexico Seika, Kyoto, Japan See also List of sundown towns in the United States Notes References External links Official website Norman Convention & Visitor's Bureau Norman's who's who website

Chikhali,_Latur_district

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chikhali,_Latur_district

Chikhali is a village in Ahmedpur taluka of Latur district, Maharashtra. == References ==

Panchayati_raj

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panchayati_raj

The Panchayat raj is a political system originating from the Indian subcontinent, primarily found in India and neighboring countries Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. It is one of the oldest systems of local government in the Indian subcontinent, with historical mentions dating back to around 250 CE. The word 'raj' means 'rule,' and panchayat' means 'assembly' (ayat) of 'five' (panch). Traditionally, panchayats consisted of wise and respected elders chosen and accepted by the local community. These assemblies resolved disputes between individuals and villages. However, there were various forms of such assemblies. The leader of the panchayat was often called the president, mukhiya, sarpanch, or pradhan, which was an elected or generally acknowledged position. The modern panchayati raj system of India and its gram panchayats should not be confused with the traditional system or the extra-constitutional khap panchayats (or caste panchayats) found in parts of northern India. Mahatma Gandhi advocated for panchayat raj as the foundation of India's political system. It was envisioned as a decentralized form of government, where each village would be responsible for its own affairs. This vision was termed Gram Swaraj ("village self-governance"). While India developed a highly centralized system of government, this has been moderated by delegating several administrative functions to the local level, thereby empowering elected gram panchayats. Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated the panchayati raj system at Nagaur on 2 October 1959. The date was chosen to coincide with Mahatma Gandhi's birthday. Gandhi envisioned Gram Swaraj through the panchayati raj system. The system was later modified in 1992. In the Indian subcontinent Early history The Hindu text Rigveda (1700 BCE) provides evidence suggesting that self-governing village bodies called sabhas existed. Over time, these bodies evolved into panchayats (five-person councils). Panchayats were functional institutions of grassroots governance in almost every village. The village panchayat or elected council had significant powers, both executive and judicial. It distributed land, collected taxes from the produce, and paid the government's share on behalf of the village. Above these village councils, a larger panchayat or council existed to supervise and intervene if necessary. However, casteism and the feudalistic system of governance under Mughal rule during the medieval period gradually eroded self-government in villages. A new class of feudal chiefs and revenue collectors (zamindars) emerged between the ruler and the people, leading to the stagnation and decline of self-government in villages. A detailed account of how a medieval South Indian village council functioned is carved into a temple wall in Uthiramerur, a village in Tamil Nadu, approximately 85 kilometers (53 miles) west of Chennai. Thirty council members were chosen by lot, a form of sortition. Males were eligible for selection if they were of good character and met certain requirements based on landholdings and knowledge of Hindu scriptures. They were then assigned to various committees responsible for irrigation works, gardens, and other matters. During British rule The British were generally not concerned with local administration, leaving that to the local rulers. They did not interfere with existing panchayati systems or encourage rulers to consider more democratic institutions at the local level. The rulers were interested in creating 'controlled' local bodies that could assist in their trading interests by collecting taxes on their behalf. When the colonial administration faced severe financial pressure after the 1857 uprising, decentralization was pursued by transferring responsibility for road and public works to local bodies. However, this 'compelled' decentralization primarily focused on municipal administration. The panchayat was dismantled by the East India Company when it was granted the office of Diwan in 1765 in Bengal by the nawab, as part of reparation following his defeat at Buxar. As Diwan, the Company made two key decisions. First, it abolished the village land record office and established a company official called the Patwari, who became the official record keeper for multiple villages. Second, it created the office of magistrate and abolished the village police. The magistrate performed policing functions through the Darogha, who had always been a state functionary under the Faujdar. The primary purpose of these measures was the collection of land revenue by decree. The depredations of the Patwari and the Darogha, which are part of our folklore, contributed to the worst famine in Bengal, with its effects lingering until the end of the 18th century. These measures completely disempowered the village community and destroyed the panchayat. After 1857, the British attempted to restore the panchayat by granting it powers to try minor offences and resolve village disputes, but these measures did not restore the lost powers of the village community. From 1870, when Lord Mayo's Resolution on decentralization aimed to improve administrative efficiency, meet public demands, and bolster colonial finances, there was significant impetus for the development of local institutions. This resolution was a landmark in the evolution of colonial policy towards local government. However, the real benchmark for government policy on decentralization can be attributed to Lord Ripon. In his famous resolution on local self-government on 18 May 1882, Ripon addressed the twin considerations of administrative efficiency and political education. The Ripon Resolution, which focused on towns, provided for local bodies consisting of a large majority of elected non-official members and presided over by a non-official chairperson. This resolution faced resistance from colonial administrators, and the progress of local self-government was slow, with only half-hearted efforts made in setting up municipal bodies. Rural decentralization, in particular, remained a neglected area of administrative reform. The Royal Commission on Decentralization (1907), chaired by Sir H. W. Primrose, recognized the importance of panchayats at the village level. The commission recommended that 'it is most desirable, both in the interests of decentralization and to involve the people in the local administration tasks, to attempt to constitute and develop village panchayats for the administration of local village affairs.' However, the Montague-Chelmsford Reforms (1919) introduced local self-government as a provincial transferred subject, coming under the domain of Indian ministers in the provinces. Due to organizational and fiscal constraints, the reforms were unable to make panchayat institutions truly democratic and vibrant. Nevertheless, a significant development of this period was the 'establishment of village panchayats in several provinces, which were no longer mere ad hoc judicial tribunals but representative institutions symbolizing the corporate character of the village and having wide jurisdiction over civic matters.' By 1925, eight provinces had enacted panchayat acts, and by 1926, six native states had also passed panchayat laws. Provincial autonomy under the Government of India Act, 1935, marked the evolution of panchayats in India. Elected provincial governments enacted legislation to further democratize local self-government institutions. However, the system of responsible government at the grassroots level was notably ineffective. D. P. Mishra, the then minister for local self-government under the Government of India Act of 1935 in the Central Provinces, observed that "the working of our local bodies ... in our province and perhaps in the whole country presents a tragic picture ... 'Inefficiency' and 'local body' have become synonymous terms." Despite various committees such as the Royal Commission on Decentralization (1907), the Montagu-Chelmsford Report on constitutional reform (1919), and the Government of India Resolution (1919), a hierarchical administrative structure based on supervision and control evolved. The administrator became the focal point of rural governance. The British were not concerned with decentralized democracy but were pursuing colonial objectives. From the 1920s to 1947, the Indian National Congress emphasized the issue of all-India Swaraj and organized movements for independence under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. As a result, the task of preparing a blueprint for local governance was neglected. There was no consensus among the top leaders regarding the status and role of rural local self-government, leading to divergent views on the subject. Gandhi favored Village Swaraj and aimed to strengthen the village panchayat to the fullest extent, while Dr. B.R. Ambedkar opposed this idea. He viewed the village as a symbol of regressive India and a source of oppression, believing that the model state needed safeguards against such social oppression, which could only be achieved through the adoption of the parliamentary model of politics. During the drafting of the Constitution of India, Panchayati Raj Institutions were included in the non-justiciable part of the Constitution, the Directive Principles of State Policy, as Article 40. This Article stated, 'The State shall take steps to organize village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government.' However, no substantial legislation was enacted at either the national or state level to implement it. Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated the Panchayati Raj system at Nagaur, Rajasthan, on 2 October 1959, to coincide with Mahatma Gandhi's birthday. Gandhi had envisioned Gram Swaraj through Panchayati Raj. Rajasthan was the first state to implement it. Nehru also inaugurated Panchayati Raj in Andhra Pradesh on 11 October 1959, on the occasion of Dussehra. The system was gradually established across India. In the four decades since the adoption of the Constitution, panchayat raj institutions have evolved from being part of the non-justiciable Directive Principles to acquiring a new status through a separate constitutional amendment. Post-Independence period Panchayat raj went through various stages. The First Five-Year Plan failed to achieve active participation and involvement of the people in Plan processes, including formulation, implementation, and monitoring. The Second Five-Year Plan aimed to cover the entire countryside through National Extension Service Blocks, utilizing Block Development Officers, Assistant Development Officers, Village Level Workers, as well as nominated representatives of village panchayats and other popular organizations like cooperative societies. However, this plan did not satisfactorily accomplish decentralization. Consequently, various committees were constituted to advise the central government on different aspects of decentralization. To advance the Gandhian goal of direct political participation at the grassroots level, the National Development Council appointed a committee under Balwant Rai Mehta in 1957. The committee submitted its report in 1958, recommending a three-tier structure consisting of a Zila Parishad at the district level, a Panchayat Samiti at the block level, and a Gram Panchayat at the village level. The next major change in the panchayat system of India came with the passage of the Panchayati Raj Act (73rd Amendment) in 1992. A key motivation behind this act was the belief that local governments could be more effective than centrally appointed bureaucrats in identifying and responding to the needs of villages. Consequently, this act was a significant step in India's move towards decentralization. The main features of this act are: (a) a three-tier system of Panchayati Raj for all states with a population of over 20 lakh; (b) regular Panchayat elections every five years; (c) reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and women (not less than one-third of the seats); and (d) the appointment of a State Finance Commission to recommend the financial powers of the Panchayats. Thus, in theory, Panchayats have been given sufficient authority to function as institutions of self-governance and promote social justice. There have been several positive effects of this amendment, some of which are listed above. However, there is also evidence of deeply ingrained vote-trading structures maintained through extra-political means. This issue can potentially be attributed to the fact that Gram Sabhas have not been sufficiently empowered and strengthened to ensure greater public participation and transparency in the functioning of Panchayats, as envisaged in the Panchayat Act. See also Panchayat (Nepal) Khap panchayat References Further reading Rajiv Balakrishnan, ed. (2007), Participatory Pathways: People's Participation in Development Initiatives, Pearson Education India, ISBN 978-81-317-0034-1

Mahatma_Gandhi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (ISO: Mōhanadāsa Karamacaṁda Gāṁdhī; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā (from Sanskrit 'great-souled, venerable'), first applied to him in South Africa in 1914, is now used throughout the world. Born and raised in a Hindu family in coastal Gujarat, Gandhi trained in the law at the Inner Temple in London and was called to the bar in June 1891, at the age of 22. After two uncertain years in India, where he was unable to start a successful law practice, Gandhi moved to South Africa in 1893 to represent an Indian merchant in a lawsuit. He went on to live in South Africa for 21 years. There, Gandhi raised a family and first employed nonviolent resistance in a campaign for civil rights. In 1915, aged 45, he returned to India and soon set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against discrimination and excessive land-tax. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, and, above all, achieving swaraj or self-rule. Gandhi adopted the short dhoti woven with hand-spun yarn as a mark of identification with India's rural poor. He began to live in a self-sufficient residential community, to eat simple food, and undertake long fasts as a means of both introspection and political protest. Bringing anti-colonial nationalism to the common Indians, Gandhi led them in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930 and in calling for the British to quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned many times and for many years in both South Africa and India. Gandhi's vision of an independent India based on religious pluralism was challenged in the early 1940s by a Muslim nationalism which demanded a separate homeland for Muslims within British India. In August 1947, Britain granted independence, but the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two dominions, a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan. As many displaced Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs made their way to their new lands, religious violence broke out, especially in the Punjab and Bengal. Abstaining from the official celebration of independence, Gandhi visited the affected areas, attempting to alleviate distress. In the months following, he undertook several hunger strikes to stop the religious violence. The last of these was begun in Delhi on 12 January 1948, when Gandhi was 78. The belief that Gandhi had been too resolute in his defence of both Pakistan and Indian Muslims spread among some Hindus in India. Among these was Nathuram Godse, a militant Hindu nationalist from Pune, western India, who assassinated Gandhi by firing three bullets into his chest at an interfaith prayer meeting in Delhi on 30 January 1948. Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is commemorated in India as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Nonviolence. Gandhi is considered to be the Father of the Nation in post-colonial India. During India's nationalist movement and in several decades immediately after, he was also commonly called Bapu (Gujarati endearment for "father", roughly "papa", "daddy"). Early life and background Parents Gandhi's father, Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi (1822–1885), served as the dewan (chief minister) of Porbandar state. His family originated from the then village of Kutiana in what was then Junagadh State. Although Karamchand only had been a clerk in the state administration and had an elementary education, he proved a capable chief minister. During his tenure, Karamchand married four times. His first two wives died young, after each had given birth to a daughter, and his third marriage was childless. In 1857, Karamchand sought his third wife's permission to remarry; that year, he married Putlibai (1844–1891), who also came from Junagadh, and was from a Pranami Vaishnava family. Karamchand and Putlibai had four children: a son, Laxmidas (c. 1860–1914); a daughter, Raliatbehn (1862–1960); a second son, Karsandas (c. 1866–1913). and a third son, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who was born on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar (also known as Sudamapuri), a coastal town on the Kathiawar Peninsula and then part of the small princely state of Porbandar in the Kathiawar Agency of the British Raj. In 1874, Gandhi's father, Karamchand, left Porbandar for the smaller state of Rajkot, where he became a counsellor to its ruler, the Thakur Sahib; though Rajkot was a less prestigious state than Porbandar, the British regional political agency was located there, which gave the state's diwan a measure of security. In 1876, Karamchand became diwan of Rajkot and was succeeded as diwan of Porbandar by his brother Tulsidas. Karamchand's family then rejoined him in Rajkot. They moved to their family home Kaba Gandhi No Delo in 1881. Childhood As a child, Gandhi was described by his sister Raliat as "restless as mercury, either playing or roaming about. One of his favourite pastimes was twisting dogs' ears." The Indian classics, especially the stories of Shravana and king Harishchandra, had a great impact on Gandhi in his childhood. In his autobiography, Gandhi states that they left an indelible impression on his mind. Gandhi writes: "It haunted me and I must have acted Harishchandra to myself times without number." Gandhi's early self-identification with truth and love as supreme values is traceable to these epic characters. The family's religious background was eclectic. Mohandas was born into a Gujarati Hindu Modh Bania family. Gandhi's father, Karamchand, was Hindu and his mother Putlibai was from a Pranami Vaishnava Hindu family. Gandhi's father was of Modh Baniya caste in the varna of Vaishya. His mother came from the medieval Krishna bhakti-based Pranami tradition, whose religious texts include the Bhagavad Gita, the Bhagavata Purana, and a collection of 14 texts with teachings that the tradition believes to include the essence of the Vedas, the Quran and the Bible. Gandhi was deeply influenced by his mother, an extremely pious lady who "would not think of taking her meals without her daily prayers... she would take the hardest vows and keep them without flinching. To keep two or three consecutive fasts was nothing to her." At the age of nine, Gandhi entered the local school in Rajkot, near his home. There, he studied the rudiments of arithmetic, history, the Gujarati language and geography. At the age of 11, Gandhi joined the High School in Rajkot, Alfred High School. He was an average student, won some prizes, but was a shy and tongue-tied student, with no interest in games; Gandhi's only companions were books and school lessons. Marriage In May 1883, the 13-year-old Mohandas Gandhi was married to 14-year-old Kasturbai Gokuldas Kapadia (her first name was usually shortened to "Kasturba", and affectionately to "Ba") in an arranged marriage, according to the custom of the region at that time. In the process, he lost a year at school but was later allowed to make up by accelerating his studies. Gandhi's wedding was a joint event, where his brother and cousin were also married. Recalling the day of their marriage, Gandhi once said, "As we didn't know much about marriage, for us it meant only wearing new clothes, eating sweets and playing with relatives." As was the prevailing tradition, the adolescent bride was to spend much time at her parents' house, and away from her husband. Writing many years later, Mohandas described with regret the lustful feelings he felt for his young bride by saying, "Even at school I used to think of her, and the thought of nightfall and our subsequent meeting was ever haunting me." Gandhi later recalled feeling jealous and possessive of her, such as when Kasturba would visit a temple with her girlfriends and being sexually lustful in his feelings for her. In late 1885, Gandhi's father, Karamchand, died. Gandhi had left his father's bedside to be with his wife mere minutes before his passing. Many decades later Gandhi wrote "if animal passion had not blinded me. I should have been spared the torture of separation from my father during his last moments." Later, Gandhi, then 16 years old, and his wife of age 17, had their first child, who survived only a few days. The two deaths anguished Gandhi. The Gandhi couple had four more children, all sons: Harilal, born in 1888; Manilal, born in 1892; Ramdas, born in 1897; and Devdas, born in 1900. In November 1887, the 18-year-old Gandhi graduated from high school in Ahmedabad. In January 1888, he enrolled at Samaldas College in Bhavnagar State, then the sole degree-granting institution of higher education in the region. However, Gandhi dropped out, and returned to his family in Porbandar. Three years in London Student of law Gandhi had dropped out of the cheapest college he could afford in Bombay. Mavji Dave Joshiji, a Brahmin priest and family friend, advised Gandhi and his family that he should consider law studies in London. In July 1888, Gandhi's wife Kasturba gave birth to their first surviving child, Harilal. Gandhi's mother was not comfortable about Gandhi leaving his wife and family and going so far from home. Gandhi's uncle Tulsidas also tried to dissuade his nephew, but Gandhi wanted to go. To persuade his wife and mother, Gandhi made a vow in front of his mother that he would abstain from meat, alcohol, and women. Gandhi's brother, Laxmidas, who was already a lawyer, cheered Gandhi's London studies plan and offered to support him. Putlibai gave Gandhi her permission and blessing. On 10 August 1888, Gandhi, aged 18, left Porbandar for Mumbai, then known as Bombay. A local newspaper covering the farewell function by his old high school in Rajkot noted that Gandhi was the first Bania from Kathiawar to proceed to England for his Barrister Examination. Upon arrival in London, he stayed with the local Modh Bania community whose elders warned Gandhi that England would tempt him to compromise his religion, and eat and drink in Western ways. Despite Gandhi informing them of his promise to his mother and her blessings, Gandhi was excommunicated from his caste. Gandhi ignored this, and on 4 September, he sailed from Bombay to London, with his brother seeing him off. Gandhi attended University College, London, where he took classes in English literature with Henry Morley in 1888–1889. Gandhi also enrolled at the Inns of Court School of Law in Inner Temple with the intention of becoming a barrister. His childhood shyness and self-withdrawal had continued through his teens. Gandhi retained these traits when he arrived in London, but joined a public speaking practice group and overcame his shyness sufficiently to practise law. Gandhi demonstrated a keen interest in the welfare of London's impoverished dockland communities. In 1889, a bitter trade dispute broke out in London, with dockers striking for better pay and conditions, and seamen, shipbuilders, factory girls and other joining the strike in solidarity. The strikers were successful, in part due to the mediation of Cardinal Manning, leading Gandhi and an Indian friend to make a point of visiting the cardinal and thanking him for his work. Vegetarianism and committee work His vow to his mother influenced Gandhi's time in London. Gandhi tried to adopt "English" customs, including taking dancing lessons. However, he didn't appreciate the bland vegetarian food offered by his landlady and was frequently hungry until he found one of London's few vegetarian restaurants. Influenced by Henry Salt's writing, Gandhi joined the London Vegetarian Society and was elected to its executive committee under the aegis of its president and benefactor Arnold Hills. An achievement while on the committee was the establishment of a Bayswater chapter. Some of the vegetarians Gandhi met were members of the Theosophical Society, which had been founded in 1875 to further universal brotherhood, and which was devoted to the study of Buddhist and Hindu literature. They encouraged Gandhi to join them in reading the Bhagavad Gita both in translation as well as in the original. Gandhi had a friendly and productive relationship with Hills, but the two men took a different view on the continued LVS membership of fellow committee member Thomas Allinson. Their disagreement is the first known example of Gandhi challenging authority, despite his shyness and temperamental disinclination towards confrontation. Allinson had been promoting newly available birth control methods, but Hills disapproved of these, believing they undermined public morality. He believed vegetarianism to be a moral movement and that Allinson should therefore no longer remain a member of the LVS. Gandhi shared Hills' views on the dangers of birth control, but defended Allinson's right to differ. It would have been hard for Gandhi to challenge Hills; Hills was 12 years his senior and unlike Gandhi, highly eloquent. Hills bankrolled the LVS and was a captain of industry with his Thames Ironworks company employing more than 6,000 people in the East End of London. Hills was also a highly accomplished sportsman who later founded the football club West Ham United. In his 1927 An Autobiography, Vol. I, Gandhi wrote: The question deeply interested me...I had a high regard for Mr. Hills and his generosity. But I thought it was quite improper to exclude a man from a vegetarian society simply because he refused to regard puritan morals as one of the objects of the society A motion to remove Allinson was raised, and was debated and voted on by the committee. Gandhi's shyness was an obstacle to his defence of Allinson at the committee meeting. Gandhi wrote his views down on paper, but shyness prevented Gandhi from reading out his arguments, so Hills, the President, asked another committee member to read them out for him. Although some other members of the committee agreed with Gandhi, the vote was lost and Allinson was excluded. There were no hard feelings, with Hills proposing the toast at the LVS farewell dinner in honour of Gandhi's return to India. Called to the bar Gandhi, at age 22, was called to the bar in June 1891 and then left London for India, where he learned that his mother had died while he was in London and that his family had kept the news from Gandhi. His attempts at establishing a law practice in Bombay failed because Gandhi was psychologically unable to cross-examine witnesses. He returned to Rajkot to make a modest living drafting petitions for litigants, but Gandhi was forced to stop after running afoul of British officer Sam Sunny. In 1893, a Muslim merchant in Kathiawar named Dada Abdullah contacted Gandhi. Abdullah owned a large successful shipping business in South Africa. His distant cousin in Johannesburg needed a lawyer, and they preferred someone with Kathiawari heritage. Gandhi inquired about his pay for the work. They offered a total salary of £105 (~$4,143 in 2023 money) plus travel expenses. He accepted it, knowing that it would be at least a one-year commitment in the Colony of Natal, South Africa, also a part of the British Empire. Civil rights activist in South Africa (1893–1914) In April 1893, Gandhi, aged 23, set sail for South Africa to be the lawyer for Abdullah's cousin. Gandhi spent 21 years in South Africa where he developed his political views, ethics, and politics. During this time Gandhi briefly returned to India in 1902 to mobilise support for the welfare of Indians in South Africa. Immediately upon arriving in South Africa, Gandhi faced discrimination due to his skin colour and heritage. Gandhi was not allowed to sit with European passengers in the stagecoach and was told to sit on the floor near the driver, then beaten when he refused; elsewhere, Gandhi was kicked into a gutter for daring to walk near a house, in another instance thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after refusing to leave the first-class. Gandhi sat in the train station, shivering all night and pondering if he should return to India or protest for his rights. Gandhi chose to protest and was allowed to board the train the next day. In another incident, the magistrate of a Durban court ordered Gandhi to remove his turban, which he refused to do. Indians were not allowed to walk on public footpaths in South Africa. Gandhi was kicked by a police officer out of the footpath onto the street without warning. When Gandhi arrived in South Africa, according to Arthur Herman, he thought of himself as "a Briton first, and an Indian second." However, the prejudice against Gandhi and his fellow Indians from British people that Gandhi experienced and observed deeply bothered him. Gandhi found it humiliating, struggling to understand how some people can feel honour or superiority or pleasure in such inhumane practices. Gandhi began to question his people's standing in the British Empire. The Abdullah case that had brought him to South Africa concluded in May 1894, and the Indian community organised a farewell party for Gandhi as he prepared to return to India. The farewell party was turned into a working committee to plan the resistance to a new Natal government discriminatory proposal. This led to Gandhi extending his original period of stay in South Africa. Gandhi planned to assist Indians in opposing a bill to deny them the right to vote, a right then proposed to be an exclusive European right. He asked Joseph Chamberlain, the British Colonial Secretary, to reconsider his position on this bill. Though unable to halt the bill's passage, Gandhi's campaign was successful in drawing attention to the grievances of Indians in South Africa. He helped found the Natal Indian Congress in 1894, and through this organisation, Gandhi moulded the Indian community of South Africa into a unified political force. In January 1897, when Gandhi landed in Durban, a mob of white settlers attacked him, and Gandhi escaped only through the efforts of the wife of the police superintendent. However, Gandhi refused to press charges against any member of the mob. During the Boer War, Gandhi volunteered in 1900 to form a group of stretcher-bearers as the Natal Indian Ambulance Corps. According to Arthur Herman, Gandhi wanted to disprove the British colonial stereotype that Hindus were not fit for "manly" activities involving danger and exertion, unlike the Muslim "martial races." Gandhi raised 1,100 Indian volunteers, to support British combat troops against the Boers. They were trained and medically certified to serve on the front lines. They were auxiliaries at the Battle of Colenso to a White volunteer ambulance corps. At the Battle of Spion Kop, Gandhi and his bearers moved to the front line and had to carry wounded soldiers for miles to a field hospital since the terrain was too rough for the ambulances. Gandhi and 37 other Indians received the Queen's South Africa Medal. In 1906, the Transvaal government promulgated a new Act compelling registration of the colony's Indian and Chinese populations. At a mass protest meeting held in Johannesburg on 11 September that year, Gandhi adopted his still evolving methodology of Satyagraha (devotion to the truth), or nonviolent protest, for the first time. According to Anthony Parel, Gandhi was also influenced by the Tamil moral text Tirukkuṛaḷ after Leo Tolstoy mentioned it in their correspondence that began with "A Letter to a Hindu." Gandhi urged Indians to defy the new law and to suffer the punishments for doing so. His ideas of protests, persuasion skills, and public relations had emerged. Gandhi took these back to India in 1915. Europeans, Indians and Africans Gandhi focused his attention on Indians and Africans while he was in South Africa. Initially, Gandhi was not interested in politics, but this changed after he was discriminated against and bullied, such as by being thrown out of a train coach due to his skin colour by a white train official. After several such incidents with Whites in South Africa, Gandhi's thinking and focus changed, and he felt he must resist this and fight for rights. Gandhi entered politics by forming the Natal Indian Congress. According to Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed, Gandhi's views on racism are contentious in some cases. He suffered persecution from the beginning in South Africa. Like with other coloured people, white officials denied Gandhi his rights, and the press and those in the streets bullied and called Gandhi a "parasite", "semi-barbarous", "canker", "squalid coolie", "yellow man", and other epithets. People would even spit on him as an expression of racial hate. While in South Africa, Gandhi focused on the racial persecution of Indians before he started to focus on racism against Africans. In some cases, state Desai and Vahed, Gandhi's behaviour was one of being a willing part of racial stereotyping and African exploitation. During a speech in September 1896, Gandhi complained that the whites in the British colony of South Africa were "degrading the Indian to the level of a raw Kaffir." Scholars cite it as an example of evidence that Gandhi at that time thought of Indians and black South Africans differently. As another example given by Herman, Gandhi, at the age of 24, prepared a legal brief for the Natal Assembly in 1895, seeking voting rights for Indians. Gandhi cited race history and European Orientalists' opinions that "Anglo-Saxons and Indians are sprung from the same Aryan stock or rather the Indo-European peoples" and argued that Indians should not be grouped with the Africans. Years later, Gandhi and his colleagues served and helped Africans as nurses and by opposing racism. The Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela is among admirers of Gandhi's efforts to fight against racism in Africa. The general image of Gandhi, state Desai and Vahed, has been reinvented since his assassination as though Gandhi was always a saint, when in reality, his life was more complex, contained inconvenient truths, and was one that changed over time. Scholars have also pointed the evidence to a rich history of co-operation and efforts by Gandhi and Indian people with nonwhite South Africans against persecution of Africans and the Apartheid. In 1903, Gandhi started the Indian Opinion, a journal that carried new of Indians in South Africa, Indians in India with articles on all subjects -social, moral and intellectual. Each issue was multi-lingual and carried material in English, Gujarati, Hindi and Tamil. It carried ads, depended heavily on Gandhi's contributions (often printed without a byline) and was an 'advocate' for the Indian cause. In 1906, when the Bambatha Rebellion broke out in the colony of Natal, the then 36-year-old Gandhi, despite sympathising with the Zulu rebels, encouraged Indian South Africans to form a volunteer stretcher-bearer unit. Writing in the Indian Opinion, Gandhi argued that military service would be beneficial to the Indian community and claimed it would give them "health and happiness." Gandhi eventually led a volunteer mixed unit of Indian and African stretcher-bearers to treat wounded combatants during the suppression of the rebellion. The medical unit commanded by Gandhi operated for less than two months before being disbanded. After the suppression of the rebellion, the colonial establishment showed no interest in extending to the Indian community the civil rights granted to white South Africans. This led Gandhi to becoming disillusioned with the Empire and aroused a spiritual awakening within him; historian Arthur L. Herman wrote that Gandhi's African experience was a part of his great disillusionment with the West, transforming Gandhi into an "uncompromising non-cooperator." By 1910, Gandhi's newspaper, Indian Opinion, was covering reports on discrimination against Africans by the colonial regime. Gandhi remarked that the Africans "alone are the original inhabitants of the land. … The whites, on the other hand, have occupied the land forcibly and appropriated it for themselves." In 1910, Gandhi established, with the help of his friend Hermann Kallenbach, an idealistic community they named Tolstoy Farm near Johannesburg. There, Gandhi nurtured his policy of peaceful resistance. In the years after black South Africans gained the right to vote in South Africa (1994), Gandhi was proclaimed a national hero with numerous monuments. Struggle for Indian independence (1915–1947) At the request of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, conveyed to Gandhi by C. F. Andrews, Gandhi returned to India in 1915. He brought an international reputation as a leading Indian nationalist, theorist and community organiser. Gandhi joined the Indian National Congress and was introduced to Indian issues, politics and the Indian people primarily by Gokhale. Gokhale was a key leader of the Congress Party best known for his restraint and moderation, and his insistence on working inside the system. Gandhi took Gokhale's liberal approach based on British Whiggish traditions and transformed it to make it look Indian. Gandhi took leadership of the Congress in 1920 and began escalating demands until on 26 January 1930 the Indian National Congress declared the independence of India. The British did not recognise the declaration, but negotiations ensued, with the Congress taking a role in provincial government in the late 1930s. Gandhi and the Congress withdrew their support of the Raj when the Viceroy declared war on Germany in September 1939 without consultation. Tensions escalated until Gandhi demanded immediate independence in 1942, and the British responded by imprisoning him and tens of thousands of Congress leaders. Meanwhile, the Muslim League did co-operate with Britain and moved, against Gandhi's strong opposition, to demands for a totally separate Muslim state of Pakistan. In August 1947, the British partitioned the land with India and Pakistan each achieving independence on terms that Gandhi disapproved. Role in World War I In April 1918, during the latter part of World War I, the Viceroy invited Gandhi to a War Conference in Delhi. Gandhi agreed to support the war effort. In contrast to the Zulu War of 1906 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914, when he recruited volunteers for the Ambulance Corps, this time Gandhi attempted to recruit combatants. In a June 1918 leaflet entitled "Appeal for Enlistment", Gandhi wrote: "To bring about such a state of things we should have the ability to defend ourselves, that is, the ability to bear arms and to use them... If we want to learn the use of arms with the greatest possible despatch, it is our duty to enlist ourselves in the army." However, Gandhi stipulated in a letter to the Viceroy's private secretary that he "personally will not kill or injure anybody, friend or foe." Gandhi's support for the war campaign brought into question his consistency on nonviolence. Gandhi's private secretary noted that "The question of the consistency between his creed of 'Ahimsa' (nonviolence) and his recruiting campaign was raised not only then but has been discussed ever since." According to political and educational scientist Christian Bartolf, Gandhi's support for the war stemmed from his belief that true ahimsa could not exist simultaneously with cowardice. Therefore, Gandhi felt that Indians needed to be willing and capable of using arms before they voluntarily chose non-violence. In July 1918, Gandhi admitted that he could not persuade even one individual to enlist for the world war. "So far I have not a single recruit to my credit apart," Gandhi wrote. He added: "They object because they fear to die." Champaran agitations Gandhi's first major achievement came in 1917 with the Champaran agitation in Bihar. The Champaran agitation pitted the local peasantry against largely Anglo-Indian plantation owners who were backed by the local administration. The peasants were forced to grow indigo (Indigofera sp.), a cash crop for Indigo dye whose demand had been declining over two decades and were forced to sell their crops to the planters at a fixed price. Unhappy with this, the peasantry appealed to Gandhi at his ashram in Ahmedabad. Pursuing a strategy of nonviolent protest, Gandhi took the administration by surprise and won concessions from the authorities. Kheda agitations In 1918, Kheda was hit by floods and famine and the peasantry was demanding relief from taxes. Gandhi moved his headquarters to Nadiad, organising scores of supporters and fresh volunteers from the region, the most notable being Vallabhbhai Patel. Using non-co-operation as a technique, Gandhi initiated a signature campaign where peasants pledged non-payment of revenue even under the threat of confiscation of land. A social boycott of mamlatdars and talatdars (revenue officials within the district) accompanied the agitation. Gandhi worked hard to win public support for the agitation across the country. For five months, the administration refused, but by the end of May 1918, the government gave way on important provisions and relaxed the conditions of payment of revenue tax until the famine ended. In Kheda, Vallabhbhai Patel represented the farmers in negotiations with the British, who suspended revenue collection and released all the prisoners. Khilafat movement In 1919, following World War I, Gandhi (aged 49) sought political co-operation from Muslims in his fight against British imperialism by supporting the Ottoman Empire that had been defeated in the World War. Before this initiative of Gandhi, communal disputes and religious riots between Hindus and Muslims were common in British India, such as the riots of 1917–18. Gandhi had already vocally supported the British crown in the first world war. This decision of Gandhi was in part motivated by the British promise to reciprocate the help with swaraj (self-government) to Indians after the end of World War I. The British government had offered, instead of self-government, minor reforms instead, disappointing Gandhi. He announced his satyagraha (civil disobedience) intentions. The British colonial officials made their counter move by passing the Rowlatt Act, to block Gandhi's movement. The Act allowed the British government to treat civil disobedience participants as criminals and gave it the legal basis to arrest anyone for "preventive indefinite detention, incarceration without judicial review or any need for a trial." Gandhi felt that Hindu-Muslim co-operation was necessary for political progress against the British. He leveraged the Khilafat movement, wherein Sunni Muslims in India, their leaders such as the sultans of princely states in India and Ali brothers championed the Turkish Caliph as a solidarity symbol of Sunni Islamic community (ummah). They saw the Caliph as their means to support Islam and the Islamic law after the defeat of Ottoman Empire in World War I. Gandhi's support to the Khilafat movement led to mixed results. It initially led to a strong Muslim support for Gandhi. However, the Hindu leaders including Rabindranath Tagore questioned Gandhi's leadership because they were largely against recognising or supporting the Sunni Islamic Caliph in Turkey. The increasing Muslim support for Gandhi, after he championed the Caliph's cause, temporarily stopped the Hindu-Muslim communal violence. It offered evidence of inter-communal harmony in joint Rowlatt satyagraha demonstration rallies, raising Gandhi's stature as the political leader to the British. His support for the Khilafat movement also helped Gandhi sideline Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who had announced his opposition to the satyagraha non-co-operation movement approach of Gandhi. Jinnah began creating his independent support, and later went on to lead the demand for West and East Pakistan. Though they agreed in general terms on Indian independence, they disagreed on the means of achieving this. Jinnah was mainly interested in dealing with the British via constitutional negotiation, rather than attempting to agitate the masses. In 1922, the Khilafat movement gradually collapsed following the end of the non-cooperation movement with the arrest of Gandhi. A number of Muslim leaders and delegates abandoned Gandhi and Congress. Hindu-Muslim communal conflicts reignited, and deadly religious riots re-appeared in numerous cities, with 91 in United Provinces of Agra and Oudh alone. Non-co-operation With his book Hind Swaraj (1909) Gandhi, aged 40, declared that British rule was established in India with the co-operation of Indians and had survived only because of this co-operation. If Indians refused to co-operate, British rule would collapse and swaraj (Indian independence) would come. In February 1919, Gandhi cautioned the Viceroy of India with a cable communication that if the British were to pass the Rowlatt Act, he would appeal to Indians to start civil disobedience. The British government ignored him and passed the law, stating it would not yield to threats. The satyagraha civil disobedience followed, with people assembling to protest the Rowlatt Act. On 30 March 1919, British law officers opened fire on an assembly of unarmed people, peacefully gathered, participating in satyagraha in Delhi. People rioted in retaliation. On 6 April 1919, a Hindu festival day, Gandhi asked a crowd to remember not to injure or kill British people, but to express their frustration with peace, to boycott British goods and burn any British clothing they owned. He emphasised the use of non-violence to the British and towards each other, even if the other side used violence. Communities across India announced plans to gather in greater numbers to protest. Government warned him not to enter Delhi, but Gandhi defied the order and was arrested on 9 April. On 13 April 1919, people including women with children gathered in an Amritsar park, and British Indian Army officer Reginald Dyer surrounded them and ordered troops under his command to fire on them. The resulting Jallianwala Bagh massacre (or Amritsar massacre) of hundreds of Sikh and Hindu civilians enraged the subcontinent but was supported by some Britons and parts of the British media as a necessary response. Gandhi in Ahmedabad, on the day after the massacre in Amritsar, did not criticise the British and instead criticised his fellow countrymen for not exclusively using 'love' to deal with the 'hate' of the British government. Gandhi demanded that the Indian people stop all violence, stop all property destruction, and went on fast-to-death to pressure Indians to stop their rioting. The massacre and Gandhi's non-violent response to it moved many, but also made some Sikhs and Hindus upset that Dyer was getting away with murder. Investigation committees were formed by the British, which Gandhi asked Indians to boycott. The unfolding events, the massacre and the British response, led Gandhi to the belief that Indians will never get a fair equal treatment under British rulers, and he shifted his attention to swaraj and political independence for India. In 1921, Gandhi was the leader of the Indian National Congress. He reorganised the Congress. With Congress now behind Gandhi, and Muslim support triggered by his backing the Khilafat movement to restore the Caliph in Turkey, Gandhi had the political support and the attention of the British Raj. Gandhi expanded his nonviolent non-co-operation platform to include the swadeshi policy – the boycott of foreign-made goods, especially British goods. Linked to this was his advocacy that khadi (homespun cloth) be worn by all Indians instead of British-made textiles. Gandhi exhorted Indian men and women, rich or poor, to spend time each day spinning khadi in support of the independence movement. In addition to boycotting British products, Gandhi urged the people to boycott British institutions and law courts, to resign from government employment, and to forsake British titles and honours. Gandhi thus began his journey aimed at crippling the British India government economically, politically and administratively. The appeal of "Non-cooperation" grew, its social popularity drew participation from all strata of Indian society. Gandhi was arrested on 10 March 1922, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years' imprisonment. He began his sentence on 18 March 1922. With Gandhi isolated in prison, the Indian National Congress split into two factions, one led by Chitta Ranjan Das and Motilal Nehru favouring party participation in the legislatures, and the other led by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, opposing this move. Furthermore, co-operation among Hindus and Muslims ended as Khilafat movement collapsed with the rise of Atatürk in Turkey. Muslim leaders left the Congress and began forming Muslim organisations. The political base behind Gandhi had broken into factions. He was released in February 1924 for an appendicitis operation, having served only two years. Salt Satyagraha (Salt March/Civil Disobedience Movement) After his early release from prison for political crimes in 1924, Gandhi continued to pursue swaraj over the second half of the 1920s. He pushed through a resolution at the Calcutta Congress in December 1928 calling on the British government to grant India dominion status or face a new campaign of non-cooperation with complete independence for the country as its goal. After Gandhi's support for World War I with Indian combat troops, and the failure of Khilafat movement in preserving the rule of Caliph in Turkey, followed by a collapse in Muslim support for his leadership, some such as Subhas Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh questioned his values and non-violent approach. While many Hindu leaders championed a demand for immediate independence, Gandhi revised his own call to a one-year wait, instead of two. The British did not respond favourably to Gandhi's proposal. British political leaders such as Lord Birkenhead and Winston Churchill announced opposition to "the appeasers of Gandhi" in their discussions with European diplomats who sympathised with Indian demands. On 31 December 1929, an Indian flag was unfurled in Lahore. Gandhi led Congress in a celebration on 26 January 1930 of India's Independence Day in Lahore. This day was commemorated by almost every other Indian organisation. Gandhi then launched a new Satyagraha against the British salt tax in March 1930. He sent an ultimatum in the form of a letter personally addressed to Lord Irwin, the viceroy of India, on 2 March. Gandhi condemned British rule in the letter, describing it as "a curse" that "has impoverished the dumb millions by a system of progressive exploitation and by a ruinously expensive military and civil administration... It has reduced us politically to serfdom." Gandhi also mentioned in the letter that the viceroy received a salary "over five thousand times India's average income." In the letter, Gandhi also stressed his continued adherence to non-violent forms of protest. This was highlighted by the Salt March to Dandi from 12 March to 6 April, where, together with 78 volunteers, Gandhi marched 388 kilometres (241 mi) from Ahmedabad to Dandi, Gujarat to make salt himself, with the declared intention of breaking the salt laws. The march took 25 days to cover 240 miles with Gandhi speaking to often huge crowds along the way. Thousands of Indians joined him in Dandi. According to Sarma, Gandhi recruited women to participate in the salt tax campaigns and the boycott of foreign products, which gave many women a new self-confidence and dignity in the mainstream of Indian public life. However, other scholars such as Marilyn French state that Gandhi barred women from joining his civil disobedience movement because Gandhi feared he would be accused of using women as a political shield. When women insisted on joining the movement and participating in public demonstrations, Gandhi asked the volunteers to get permissions of their guardians and only those women who can arrange child-care should join him. Regardless of Gandhi's apprehensions and views, Indian women joined the Salt March by the thousands to defy the British salt taxes and monopoly on salt mining. On 5 May, Gandhi was interned under a regulation dating from 1827 in anticipation of a protest that he had planned. The protest at Dharasana salt works on 21 May went ahead without Gandhi. A horrified American journalist, Webb Miller, described the British response thus: In complete silence the Gandhi men drew up and halted a hundred yards from the stockade. A picked column advanced from the crowd, waded the ditches and approached the barbed wire stockade... at a word of command, scores of native policemen rushed upon the advancing marchers and rained blows on their heads with their steel-shot lathis [long bamboo sticks]. Not one of the marchers even raised an arm to fend off blows. They went down like ninepins. From where I stood I heard the sickening whack of the clubs on unprotected skulls... Those struck down fell sprawling, unconscious or writhing with fractured skulls or broken shoulders. This went on for hours until some 300 or more protesters had been beaten, many seriously injured and two killed. At no time did they offer any resistance. After Gandhi's arrest, the women marched and picketed shops on their own, accepting violence and verbal abuse from British authorities for the cause in the manner Gandhi inspired. This campaign was one of Gandhi's most successful at upsetting British hold on India; Britain responded by imprisoning over 60,000 people. However, Congress estimates put the figure at 90,000. Among them was one of Gandhi's lieutenants, Jawaharlal Nehru. Gandhi as folk hero Indian Congress in the 1920s appealed to Andhra Pradesh peasants by creating Telugu language plays that combined Indian mythology and legends, linked them to Gandhi's ideas, and portrayed Gandhi as a messiah, a reincarnation of ancient and medieval Indian nationalist leaders and saints. The plays built support among peasants steeped in traditional Hindu culture, according to Murali, and this effort made Gandhi a folk hero in Telugu speaking villages, a sacred messiah-like figure. According to Dennis Dalton, it was Gandhi's ideas that were responsible for his wide following. Gandhi criticised Western civilisation as one driven by "brute force and immorality", contrasting it with his categorisation of Indian civilisation as one driven by "soul force and morality." Gandhi captured the imagination of the people of his heritage with his ideas about winning "hate with love." These ideas are evidenced in his pamphlets from the 1890s, in South Africa, where too Gandhi was popular among the Indian indentured workers. After he returned to India, people flocked to Gandhi because he reflected their values. Gandhi also campaigned hard going from one rural corner of the Indian subcontinent to another. He used terminology and phrases such as Rama-rajya from Ramayana, Prahlada as a paradigmatic icon, and such cultural symbols as another facet of swaraj and satyagraha. During Gandhi's lifetime, these ideas sounded strange outside India, but they readily and deeply resonated with the culture and historic values of his people. Negotiations The government, represented by Lord Irwin, decided to negotiate with Gandhi. The Gandhi–Irwin Pact was signed in March 1931. The British Government agreed to free all political prisoners, in return for the suspension of the civil disobedience movement. According to the pact, Gandhi was invited to attend the Round Table Conference in London for discussions and as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. The conference was a disappointment to Gandhi and the nationalists. Gandhi expected to discuss India's independence, while the British side focused on the Indian princes and Indian minorities rather than on a transfer of power. Lord Irwin's successor, Lord Willingdon, took a hard line against India as an independent nation, began a new campaign of controlling and subduing the nationalist movement. Gandhi was again arrested, and the government tried and failed to negate his influence by completely isolating him from his followers. In Britain, Winston Churchill, a prominent Conservative politician who was then out of office but later became its prime minister, became a vigorous and articulate critic of Gandhi and opponent of his long-term plans. Churchill often ridiculed Gandhi, saying in a widely reported 1931 speech: It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Vice-regal palace....to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor. Churchill's bitterness against Gandhi grew in the 1930s. He called Gandhi as the one who was "seditious in aim" whose evil genius and multiform menace was attacking the British empire. Churchill called him a dictator, a "Hindu Mussolini", fomenting a race war, trying to replace the Raj with Brahmin cronies, playing on the ignorance of Indian masses, all for selfish gain. Churchill attempted to isolate Gandhi, and his criticism of Gandhi was widely covered by European and American press. It gained Churchill sympathetic support, but it also increased support for Gandhi among Europeans. The developments heightened Churchill's anxiety that the "British themselves would give up out of pacifism and misplaced conscience." Round Table Conferences During the discussions between Gandhi and the British government over 1931–32 at the Round Table Conferences, Gandhi, now aged about 62, sought constitutional reforms as a preparation to the end of colonial British rule, and begin the self-rule by Indians. The British side sought reforms that would keep the Indian subcontinent as a colony. The British negotiators proposed constitutional reforms on a British Dominion model that established separate electorates based on religious and social divisions. The British questioned the Congress party and Gandhi's authority to speak for all of India. They invited Indian religious leaders, such as Muslims and Sikhs, to press their demands along religious lines, as well as B. R. Ambedkar as the representative leader of the untouchables. Gandhi vehemently opposed a constitution that enshrined rights or representations based on communal divisions, because he feared that it would not bring people together but divide them, perpetuate their status, and divert the attention from India's struggle to end the colonial rule. The Second Round Table conference was the only time Gandhi left India between 1914 and his death in 1948. Gandhi declined the government's offer of accommodation in an expensive West End hotel, preferring to stay in the East End, to live among working-class people, as he did in India. Gandhi based himself in a small cell-bedroom at Kingsley Hall for the three-month duration of his stay and was enthusiastically received by East Enders. During this time, Gandhi renewed his links with the British vegetarian movement. After Gandhi returned from the Second Round Table conference, he started a new satyagraha. Gandhi was arrested and imprisoned at the Yerwada Jail, Pune. While he was in prison, the British government enacted a new law that granted untouchables a separate electorate. It came to be known as the Communal Award. In protest, Gandhi started a fast-unto-death, while he was held in prison. The resulting public outcry forced the government, in consultations with Ambedkar, to replace the Communal Award with a compromise Poona Pact. Congress politics In 1934, Gandhi resigned from Congress party membership. He did not disagree with the party's position, but felt that if he resigned, Gandhi's popularity with Indians would cease to stifle the party's membership, which actually varied, including communists, socialists, trade unionists, students, religious conservatives, and those with pro-business convictions, and that these various voices would get a chance to make themselves heard. Gandhi also wanted to avoid being a target for Raj propaganda by leading a party that had temporarily accepted political accommodation with the Raj. In 1936, Gandhi returned to active politics again with the Nehru presidency and the Lucknow session of the Congress. Although Gandhi wanted a total focus on the task of winning independence and not speculation about India's future, he did not restrain the Congress from adopting socialism as its goal. Gandhi had a clash with Subhas Chandra Bose, who had been elected president in 1938, and who had previously expressed a lack of faith in nonviolence as a means of protest. Despite Gandhi's opposition, Bose won a second term as Congress President, against Gandhi's nominee, Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya. Gandhi declared that Sitaramayya's defeat was his defeat. Bose later left the Congress when the All-India leaders resigned en masse in protest of his abandonment of the principles introduced by Gandhi. World War II and Quit India movement Gandhi opposed providing any help to the British war effort and he campaigned against any Indian participation in World War II. The British government responded with the arrests of Gandhi and many other Congress leaders and killed over 1,000 Indians who participated in this movement. A number of violent attacks were also carried out by the nationalists against the British government. While Gandhi's campaign did not enjoy the support of a number of Indian leaders, and over 2.5 million Indians volunteered and joined the British military to fight on various fronts of the Allied Forces, the movement played a role in weakening the control over the South Asian region by the British regime and it ultimately paved the way for Indian independence. Gandhi's opposition to the Indian participation in World War II was motivated by his belief that India could not be party to a war ostensibly being fought for democratic freedom while that freedom was denied to India itself. Gandhi also condemned Nazism and Fascism, a view which won endorsement of other Indian leaders. As the war progressed, Gandhi intensified his demand for independence, calling for the British to Quit India in a 1942 speech in Mumbai. This was Gandhi's and the Congress Party's most definitive revolt aimed at securing the British exit from India. The British government responded quickly to the Quit India speech, and within hours after Gandhi's speech arrested Gandhi and all the members of the Congress Working Committee. His countrymen retaliated the arrests by damaging or burning down hundreds of government owned railway stations, police stations, and cutting down telegraph wires. In 1942, Gandhi now nearing age 73, urged his people to completely stop co-operating with the imperial government. In this effort, Gandhi urged that they neither kill nor injure British people but be willing to suffer and die if violence is initiated by the British officials. He clarified that the movement would not be stopped because of any individual acts of violence, saying that the "ordered anarchy" of "the present system of administration" was "worse than real anarchy." Gandhi urged Indians to karo ya maro ("do or die") in the cause of their rights and freedoms. Gandhi's arrest lasted two years, as he was held in the Aga Khan Palace in Pune. During this period, Gandhi's longtime secretary Mahadev Desai died of a heart attack, his wife Kasturba died after 18 months' imprisonment on 22 February 1944, and Gandhi suffered a severe malaria attack. While in jail, he agreed to an interview with Stuart Gelder, a British journalist. Gelder then composed and released an interview summary, cabled it to the mainstream press, that announced sudden concessions Gandhi was willing to make, comments that shocked his countrymen, the Congress workers and even Gandhi. The latter two claimed that it distorted what Gandhi actually said on a range of topics and falsely repudiated the Quit India movement. Gandhi was released before the end of the war on 6 May 1944 because of his failing health and necessary surgery; the Raj did not want him to die in prison and enrage the nation. Gandhi came out of detention to an altered political scene – the Muslim League for example, which a few years earlier had appeared marginal, "now occupied the centre of the political stage" and the topic of Jinnah's campaign for Pakistan was a major talking point. Gandhi and Jinnah had extensive correspondence and the two men met several times over a period of two weeks in September 1944 at Jinnah's house in Bombay, where Gandhi insisted on a united religiously plural and independent India which included Muslims and non-Muslims of the Indian subcontinent coexisting. Jinnah rejected this proposal and insisted instead for partitioning the subcontinent on religious lines to create a separate Muslim homeland (later Pakistan). These discussions continued through 1947. While the leaders of Congress languished in jail, the other parties supported the war and gained organisational strength. Underground publications flailed at the ruthless suppression of Congress, but it had little control over events. At the end of the war, the British gave clear indications that power would be transferred to Indian hands. At this point, Gandhi called off the struggle, and around 100,000 political prisoners were released, including the Congress's leadership. Partition and independence Gandhi opposed the partition of the Indian subcontinent along religious lines. The Indian National Congress and Gandhi called for the British to Quit India. However, the All-India Muslim League demanded "Divide and Quit India." Gandhi suggested an agreement which required the Congress and the Muslim League to co-operate and attain independence under a provisional government, thereafter, the question of partition could be resolved by a plebiscite in the districts with a Muslim majority. Jinnah rejected Gandhi's proposal and called for Direct Action Day, on 16 August 1946, to press Muslims to publicly gather in cities and support his proposal for the partition of the Indian subcontinent into a Muslim state and non-Muslim state. Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, the Muslim League Chief Minister of Bengal – now Bangladesh and West Bengal (excluding Cooch Behar), gave Calcutta's police special holiday to celebrate the Direct Action Day. The Direct Action Day triggered a mass murder of Calcutta Hindus and the torching of their property, and holidaying police were missing to contain or stop the conflict. The British government did not order its army to move in to contain the violence. The violence on Direct Action Day led to retaliatory violence against Muslims across India. Thousands of Hindus and Muslims were murdered, and tens of thousands were injured in the cycle of violence in the days that followed. Gandhi visited the most riot-prone areas to appeal a stop to the massacres. Archibald Wavell, the Viceroy and Governor-General of British India for three years through February 1947, had worked with Gandhi and Jinnah to find a common ground, before and after accepting Indian independence in principle. Wavell condemned Gandhi's character and motives as well as his ideas. Wavell accused Gandhi of harbouring the single-minded idea to "overthrow British rule and influence and to establish a Hindu raj", and called Gandhi a "malignant, malevolent, exceedingly shrewd" politician. Wavell feared a civil war on the Indian subcontinent, and doubted Gandhi would be able to stop it. The British reluctantly agreed to grant independence to the people of the Indian subcontinent, but accepted Jinnah's proposal of partitioning the land into Pakistan and India. Gandhi was involved in the final negotiations, but Stanley Wolpert states the "plan to carve up British India was never approved of or accepted by Gandhi". The partition was controversial and violently disputed. More than half a million were killed in religious riots as 10 million to 12 million non-Muslims (Hindus and Sikhs mostly) migrated from Pakistan into India, and Muslims migrated from India into Pakistan, across the newly created borders of India, West Pakistan and East Pakistan. Gandhi spent the day of independence not celebrating the end of the British rule, but appealing for peace among his countrymen by fasting and spinning in Calcutta on 15 August 1947. The partition had gripped the Indian subcontinent with religious violence and the streets were filled with corpses. Gandhi's fasting and protests are credited for stopping the religious riots and communal violence. Death At 5:17 p.m. on 30 January 1948, Gandhi was with his grandnieces in the garden of Birla House (now Gandhi Smriti), on his way to address a prayer meeting, when Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist, fired three bullets into Gandhi's chest from a pistol at close range. According to some accounts, Gandhi died instantly. In other accounts, such as one prepared by an eyewitness journalist, Gandhi was carried into the Birla House, into a bedroom. There, he died about 30 minutes later as one of Gandhi's family members read verses from Hindu scriptures. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru addressed his countrymen over the All-India Radio saying: Friends and comrades, the light has gone out of our lives, and there is darkness everywhere, and I do not quite know what to tell you or how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the father of the nation, is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to say that; nevertheless, we will not see him again, as we have seen him for these many years, we will not run to him for advice or seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not only for me, but for millions and millions in this country. Godse, a Hindu nationalist, with links to the Hindu Mahasabha and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, made no attempt to escape; several other conspirators were soon arrested as well. The accused were Nathuram Vinayak Godse, Narayan Apte, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Shankar Kistayya, Dattatraya Parchure, Vishnu Karkare, Madanlal Pahwa, and Gopal Godse. The trial began on 27 May 1948 and ran for eight months before Justice Atma Charan passed his final order on 10 February 1949. The prosecution called 149 witnesses, the defence none. The court found all of the defendants except one guilty as charged. Eight men were convicted for the murder conspiracy, and others were convicted for violation of the Explosive Substances Act. Savarkar was acquitted and set free. Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte were sentenced to death by hanging while the remaining six (including Godse's brother, Gopal) were sentenced to life imprisonment. Funeral and memorials Gandhi's death was mourned nationwide. Over a million people joined the five-mile-long funeral procession that took over five hours to reach Raj Ghat from Birla house, where Gandhi was assassinated, and another million watched the procession pass by. His body was transported on a weapons carrier, whose chassis was dismantled overnight to allow a high-floor to be installed so that people could catch a glimpse of Gandhi's body. The engine of the vehicle was not used; instead, four drag-ropes held by 50 people each pulled the vehicle. All Indian-owned establishments in London remained closed in mourning as thousands of people from all faiths and denominations and Indians from all over Britain converged at India House in London. Gandhi was cremated in accordance with Hindu tradition. His ashes were poured into urns which were sent across India for memorial services. Most of the ashes were immersed at the Sangam at Allahabad on 12 February 1948, but some were secretly taken away. In 1997, Tushar Gandhi immersed the contents of one urn, found in a bank vault and reclaimed through the courts, at the Sangam at Allahabad. Some of Gandhi's ashes were scattered at the source of the Nile River near Jinja, Uganda, and a memorial plaque marks the event. On 30 January 2008, the contents of another urn were immersed at Girgaum Chowpatty. Another urn is at the palace of the Aga Khan in Pune (where Gandhi was held as a political prisoner from 1942 to 1944) and another in the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine in Los Angeles. The Birla House site where Gandhi was assassinated is now a memorial called Gandhi Smriti. The place near Yamuna River where he was cremated is the Rāj Ghāt memorial in New Delhi. A black marble platform, it bears the epigraph "Hē Rāma" (Devanagari: हे ! राम or, Hey Raam). These are said to be Gandhi's last words after he was shot. Principles, practices, and beliefs Gandhi's spirituality was greatly based on his embracement of the five great vows of Jainism and Hindu Yoga philosophy, viz. Satya (truth), ahimsa (nonviolence), brahmacharya (celibacy), asteya (non-stealing), and aparigraha (non-attachment). He stated that "Unless you impose on yourselves the five vows you may not embark on the experiment at all." Gandhi's statements, letters and life have attracted much political and scholarly analysis of his principles, practices and beliefs, including what influenced him. Some writers present Gandhi as a paragon of ethical living and pacifism, while others present him as a more complex, contradictory and evolving character influenced by his culture and circumstances. Truth and Satyagraha Gandhi dedicated his life to discovering and pursuing truth, or Satya, and called his movement satyagraha, which means "appeal to, insistence on, or reliance on the Truth." The first formulation of the satyagraha as a political movement and principle occurred in 1920, which Gandhi tabled as "Resolution on Non-cooperation" in September that year before a session of the Indian Congress. It was the satyagraha formulation and step, states Dennis Dalton, that deeply resonated with beliefs and culture of his people, embedded him into the popular consciousness, transforming him quickly into Mahatma. Gandhi based Satyagraha on the Vedantic ideal of self-realisation, ahimsa (nonviolence), vegetarianism, and universal love. William Borman states that the key to his satyagraha is rooted in the Hindu Upanishadic texts. According to Indira Carr, Gandhi's ideas on ahimsa and satyagraha were founded on the philosophical foundations of Advaita Vedanta. I. Bruce Watson states that some of these ideas are found not only in traditions within Hinduism, but also in Jainism or Buddhism, particularly those about non-violence, vegetarianism and universal love, but Gandhi's synthesis was to politicise these ideas. His concept of satya as a civil movement, states Glyn Richards, are best understood in the context of the Hindu terminology of Dharma and Ṛta. Gandhi stated that the most important battle to fight was overcoming his own demons, fears, and insecurities. Gandhi summarised his beliefs first when he said, "God is Truth." Gandhi would later change this statement to "Truth is God." Thus, satya (truth) in Gandhi's philosophy is "God". Gandhi, states Richards, described the term "God" not as a separate power, but as the Being (Brahman, Atman) of the Advaita Vedanta tradition, a nondual universal that pervades in all things, in each person and all life. According to Nicholas Gier, this to Gandhi meant the unity of God and humans, that all beings have the same one soul and therefore equality, that atman exists and is same as everything in the universe, ahimsa (non-violence) is the very nature of this atman. The essence of Satyagraha is "soul force" as a political means, refusing to use brute force against the oppressor, seeking to eliminate antagonisms between the oppressor and the oppressed, aiming to transform or "purify" the oppressor. It is not inaction but determined passive resistance and non-co-operation where, states Arthur Herman, "love conquers hate". A euphemism sometimes used for Satyagraha is that it is a "silent force" or a "soul force" (a term also used by Martin Luther King Jr. during his "I Have a Dream" speech). It arms the individual with moral power rather than physical power. Satyagraha is also termed a "universal force", as it essentially "makes no distinction between kinsmen and strangers, young and old, man and woman, friend and foe." Gandhi wrote: "There must be no impatience, no barbarity, no insolence, no undue pressure. If we want to cultivate a true spirit of democracy, we cannot afford to be intolerant. Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause." Civil disobedience and non-co-operation as practised under Satyagraha are based on the "law of suffering", a doctrine that the endurance of suffering is a means to an end. This end usually implies a moral upliftment or progress of an individual or society. Therefore, non-co-operation in Satyagraha is in fact a means to secure the co-operation of the opponent consistently with truth and justice. While Gandhi's idea of satyagraha as a political means attracted a widespread following among Indians, the support was not universal. For example, Muslim leaders such as Jinnah opposed the satyagraha idea, accused Gandhi to be reviving Hinduism through political activism, and began effort to counter Gandhi with Muslim nationalism and a demand for Muslim homeland. The untouchability leader Ambedkar, in June 1945, after his decision to convert to Buddhism and the first Law and Justice minister of modern India, dismissed Gandhi's ideas as loved by "blind Hindu devotees", primitive, influenced by spurious brew of Tolstoy and Ruskin, and "there is always some simpleton to preach them". Winston Churchill caricatured Gandhi as a "cunning huckster" seeking selfish gain, an "aspiring dictator", and an "atavistic spokesman of a pagan Hinduism." Churchill stated that the civil disobedience movement spectacle of Gandhi only increased "the danger to which white people there [British India] are exposed." Nonviolence Although Gandhi was not the originator of the principle of nonviolence, he was the first to apply it in the political field on a large scale. The concept of nonviolence (ahimsa) has a long history in Indian religious thought, and is considered the highest dharma (ethical value/virtue), a precept to be observed towards all living beings (sarvbhuta), at all times (sarvada), in all respects (sarvatha), in action, words and thought. Gandhi explains his philosophy and ideas about ahimsa as a political means in his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Although Gandhi considered non-violence to be "infinitely superior to violence", he preferred violence to cowardice. Gandhi added that he "would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honor than that she should in a cowardly manner become or remain a helpless witness to her own dishonor." Literary works Gandhi was a prolific writer. His signature style was simple, precise, clear and as devoid of artificialities. One of Gandhi's earliest publications, Hind Swaraj, published in Gujarati in 1909, became "the intellectual blueprint" for India's independence movement. The book was translated into English the next year, with a copyright legend that read "No Rights Reserved". For decades, Gandhi edited several newspapers including Harijan in Gujarati, in Hindi and in the English language; Indian Opinion while in South Africa and, Young India, in English, and Navajivan, a Gujarati monthly, on his return to India. Later, Navajivan was also published in Hindi. Gandhi also wrote letters almost every day to individuals and newspapers. Gandhi also wrote several books, including his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth (Gujarātī "સત્યના પ્રયોગો અથવા આત્મકથા"), of which Gandhi bought the entire first edition to make sure it was reprinted. His other autobiographies included: Satyagraha in South Africa about his struggle there, Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule, a political pamphlet, and a paraphrase in Gujarati of John Ruskin's Unto This Last which was an early critique of political economy. This last essay can be considered his programme on economics. Gandhi also wrote extensively on vegetarianism, diet and health, religion, social reforms, etc. Gandhi usually wrote in Gujarati, though he also revised the Hindi and English translations of his books. In 1934, Gandhi wrote Songs from Prison while prisoned in Yerawada jail in Maharashtra. Gandhi's complete works were published by the Indian government under the name The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi in the 1960s. The writings comprise about 50,000 pages published in about 100 volumes. In 2000, a revised edition of the complete works sparked a controversy, as it contained a large number of errors and omissions. The Indian government later withdrew the revised edition. Legacy Gandhi is noted as the greatest figure of the successful Indian independence movement against the British rule. He is also hailed as the greatest figure of modern India. American historian Stanley Wolpert described Gandhi as "India's greatest revolutionary nationalist leader" and the greatest Indian since the Buddha. In 1999, Gandhi was named "Asian of the century" by Asiaweek. In a 2000 BBC poll, he was voted as the greatest man of the millennium. The word Mahatma, while often mistaken for Gandhi's given name in the West, is taken from the Sanskrit words maha (meaning Great) and atma (meaning Soul). He was publicly bestowed with the honorific title "Mahatma" in July 1914 at farewell meeting in Town Hall, Durban. Rabindranath Tagore is said to have accorded the title to Gandhi by 1915. In his autobiography, Gandhi nevertheless explains that he never valued the title, and was often pained by it. Innumerable streets, roads, and localities in India are named after Gandhi. These include M.G.Road (the main street of a number of Indian cities including Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Lucknow, Kanpur, Gangtok and Indore), Gandhi Market (near Sion, Mumbai) and Gandhinagar (the capital of the state of Gujarat, Gandhi's birthplace). As of 2008, over 150 countries have released stamps on Gandhi. In October 2019, about 87 countries including Turkey, the United States, Russia, Iran, Uzbekistan, and Palestine released commemorative Gandhi stamps on the 150th anniversary of his birth. In 2014, Brisbane's Indian community commissioned a statue of Gandhi, created by Ram V. Sutar and Anil Sutar in the Roma Street Parkland, It was unveiled by Narendra Modi, then Prime Minister of India. Florian asteroid 120461 Gandhi was named in his honour in September 2020. In October 2022, a statue of Gandhi was installed in Astana on the embankment of the rowing canal, opposite the cult monument to the defenders of Kazakhstan. On 15 December 2022, the United Nations headquarters in New York unveiled the statue of Gandhi. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called Gandhi an "uncompromising advocate for peaceful co-existence." Followers and international influence Gandhi influenced important leaders and political movements. Leaders of the civil rights movement in the United States, including Martin Luther King Jr., James Lawson, and James Bevel, drew from the writings of Gandhi in the development of their own theories about nonviolence. King said, "Christ gave us the goals and Mahatma Gandhi the tactics." King sometimes referred to Gandhi as "the little brown saint." Anti-apartheid activist and former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, was inspired by Gandhi. Others include Steve Biko, Václav Havel, and Aung San Suu Kyi. In his early years, the former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela was a follower of the nonviolent resistance philosophy of Gandhi. Bhana and Vahed commented on these events as "Gandhi inspired succeeding generations of South African activists seeking to end White rule. This legacy connects him to Nelson Mandela...in a sense, Mandela completed what Gandhi started." Gandhi's life and teachings inspired many who specifically referred to Gandhi as their mentor or who dedicated their lives to spreading his ideas. In Europe, Romain Rolland was the first to discuss Gandhi in his 1924 book Mahatma Gandhi, and Brazilian anarchist and feminist Maria Lacerda de Moura wrote about Gandhi in her work on pacifism. In 1931, physicist Albert Einstein exchanged letters with Gandhi and called him "a role model for the generations to come" in a letter writing about him. Einstein said of Gandhi: Mahatma Gandhi's life achievement stands unique in political history. He has invented a completely new and humane means for the liberation war of an oppressed country, and practised it with greatest energy and devotion. The moral influence he had on the consciously thinking human being of the entire civilised world will probably be much more lasting than it seems in our time with its overestimation of brutal violent forces. Because lasting will only be the work of such statesmen who wake up and strengthen the moral power of their people through their example and educational works. We may all be happy and grateful that destiny gifted us with such an enlightened contemporary, a role model for the generations to come. Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood. Farah Omar, a political activist from Somaliland, visited India in 1930, where he met Gandhi and was influenced by Gandhi's non-violent philosophy, which he adopted in his campaign in British Somaliland. Lanza del Vasto went to India in 1936 intending to live with Gandhi; he later returned to Europe to spread Gandhi's philosophy and founded the Community of the Ark in 1948 (modelled after Gandhi's ashrams). Madeleine Slade (known as "Mirabehn") was the daughter of a British admiral who spent much of her adult life in India as a devotee of Gandhi. In addition, the British musician John Lennon referred to Gandhi when discussing his views on nonviolence. In 2007, former US Vice-President and environmentalist Al Gore drew upon Gandhi's idea of satyagraha in a speech on climate change. 44th President of the United States Barack Obama said in September 2009 that his biggest inspiration came from Gandhi. His reply was in response to the question: "Who was the one person, dead or live, that you would choose to dine with?" Obama added, "He's somebody I find a lot of inspiration in. He inspired Dr. King with his message of nonviolence. He ended up doing so much and changed the world just by the power of his ethics." Time magazine named The 14th Dalai Lama, Lech Wałęsa, Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, Aung San Suu Kyi, Benigno Aquino Jr., Desmond Tutu, and Nelson Mandela as Children of Gandhi and his spiritual heirs to nonviolence. The Mahatma Gandhi District in Houston, Texas, United States, an ethnic Indian enclave, is officially named after Gandhi. Gandhi's ideas had a significant influence on 20th-century philosophy. It began with his engagement with Romain Rolland and Martin Buber. Jean-Luc Nancy said that the French philosopher Maurice Blanchot engaged critically with Gandhi from the point of view of "European spirituality." Since then philosophers including Hannah Arendt, Etienne Balibar and Slavoj Žižek found that Gandhi was a necessary reference to discuss morality in politics. American political scientist Gene Sharp wrote an analytical text, Gandhi as a political strategist, on the significance of Gandhi's ideas, for creating nonviolent social change. Recently, in the light of climate change, Gandhi's views on technology are gaining importance in the fields of environmental philosophy and philosophy of technology. Global days that celebrate Gandhi In 2007, the United Nations General Assembly declared Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, as "the International Day of Nonviolence." First proposed by UNESCO in 1948, as the School Day of Nonviolence and Peace (DENIP in Spanish), 30 January is observed as the School Day of Nonviolence and Peace in schools of many countries. In countries with a Southern Hemisphere school calendar, it is observed on 30 March. Awards Time magazine named Gandhi the Man of the Year in 1930. In the same magazine's 1999 list of The Most Important People of the Century, Gandhi was second only to Albert Einstein, who had called Gandhi "the greatest man of our age." The University of Nagpur awarded him an LL.D. in 1937. The Government of India awarded the annual Gandhi Peace Prize to distinguished social workers, world leaders and citizens. Nelson Mandela, the leader of South Africa's struggle to eradicate racial discrimination and segregation, was a prominent non-Indian recipient. In 2003, Gandhi was posthumously awarded with the World Peace Prize. Two years later, he was posthumously awarded with the Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo. In 2011, Gandhi topped the TIME's list of top 25 political icons of all time. Gandhi did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize, although he was nominated five times between 1937 and 1948, including the first-ever nomination by the American Friends Service Committee, though Gandhi made the short list only twice, in 1937 and 1947. Decades later, the Nobel Committee publicly declared its regret for the omission and admitted to deeply divided nationalistic opinion denying the award. Gandhi was nominated in 1948 but was assassinated before nominations closed. That year, the committee chose not to award the peace prize stating that "there was no suitable living candidate", and later research shows that the possibility of awarding the prize posthumously to Gandhi was discussed and that the reference to no suitable living candidate was to Gandhi. Geir Lundestad, Secretary of Norwegian Nobel Committee in 2006 said, "The greatest omission in our 106-year history is undoubtedly that Mahatma Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace prize. Gandhi could do without the Nobel Peace prize, whether Nobel committee can do without Gandhi is the question." When the 14th Dalai Lama was awarded the Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi." In the summer of 1995, the North American Vegetarian Society inducted Gandhi posthumously into the Vegetarian Hall of Fame. Father of the Nation Indians widely describe Gandhi as the Father of the Nation. Origin of this title is traced back to a radio address (on Singapore radio) on 6 July 1944 by Subhash Chandra Bose where Bose addressed Gandhi as "The Father of the Nation". On 28 April 1947, Sarojini Naidu during a conference also referred Gandhi as "Father of the Nation". He is also conferred the title "Bapu" (Gujarati: endearment for father, papa). Film, theatre, and literature A five-hour, nine-minute long biographical documentary film, Mahatma: Life of Gandhi, 1869–1948, made by Vithalbhai Jhaveri in 1968, quoting Gandhi's words and using black and white archival footage and photographs, captures the history of those times. Ben Kingsley portrayed him in Richard Attenborough's 1982 film Gandhi, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. It was based on the biography by Louis Fischer. The 1996 film The Making of the Mahatma documented Gandhi's time in South Africa and his transformation from an inexperienced barrister to recognised political leader. Gandhi was a central figure in the 2006 comedy film Lage Raho Munna Bhai. Jahnu Barua's Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara (I did not kill Gandhi), places contemporary society as a backdrop with its vanishing memory of Gandhi's values as a metaphor for the senile forgetfulness of the protagonist of his 2005 film, writes Vinay Lal. In the tale Le Jour du Jugement Dernier, in the collection Les Mémoires de Satan et autres contes loufoques, by Pierre Cormon, God tries to judge Gandhi at the Last Judgement but realises that the character is more complex than he appears. In 1967, Gandhi was set to be featured on the album cover of one of the best selling albums of The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, however this idea was later cancelled due to respect for Gandhi. The 1979 opera Satyagraha by American composer Philip Glass is loosely based on Gandhi's life. The opera's libretto, taken from the Bhagavad Gita, is sung in the original Sanskrit. The 1995 Marathi play Gandhi Virudh Gandhi explored the relationship between Gandhi and his son Harilal. The 2007 film, Gandhi, My Father was inspired on the same theme. The 1989 Marathi play Me Nathuram Godse Boltoy and the 1997 Hindi play Gandhi Ambedkar criticised Gandhi and his principles. Several biographers have undertaken the task of describing Gandhi's life. Among them are D. G. Tendulkar with his Mahatma. Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in eight volumes, Chaman Nahal's Gandhi Quartet, and Pyarelal and Sushila Nayyar with their Mahatma Gandhi in 10 volumes. The 2010 biography, Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India by Joseph Lelyveld contained controversial material speculating about Gandhi's sexual life. Lelyveld, however, stated that the press coverage "grossly distort[s]" the overall message of the book. The 2014 film Welcome Back Gandhi takes a fictionalised look at how Gandhi might react to modern day India. The 2019 play Bharat Bhagya Vidhata, inspired by Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshbhai and produced by Sangeet Natak Akademi and Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur takes a look at how Gandhi cultivated the values of truth and non-violence. "Mahatma Gandhi" is used by Cole Porter in his lyrics for the song "You're the Top" which is included in the 1934 musical Anything Goes. In the song, Porter rhymes 'Mahatma Gandhi' with 'Napoleon Brandy.' Gandhi is mentioned in the Kris Kristofferson song "They Killed Him". Current impact within India India, with its rapid economic modernisation and urbanisation, has rejected Gandhi's economics but accepted much of his politics and continues to revere his memory. Reporter Jim Yardley notes that "modern India is hardly a Gandhian nation, if it ever was one. His vision of a village-dominated economy was shunted aside during his lifetime as rural romanticism, and his call for a national ethos of personal austerity and nonviolence has proved antithetical to the goals of an aspiring economic and military power." By contrast, Gandhi is "given full credit for India's political identity as a tolerant, secular democracy." Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is a national holiday in India, Gandhi Jayanti. His image also appears on paper currency of all denominations issued by Reserve Bank of India, except for the one rupee note. Gandhi's date of death, 30 January, is commemorated as a Martyrs' Day in India. There are three temples in India dedicated to Gandhi. One is located at Sambalpur in Odisha, the second at Nidaghatta village near Kadur in Chikmagalur district of Karnataka, and the third at Chityal in the district of Nalgonda, Telangana. The Gandhi Memorial in Kanyakumari resembles central Indian Hindu temples and the Tamukkam or Summer Palace in Madurai now houses the Mahatma Gandhi Museum. Descendants Gandhi's children and grandchildren live in India and other countries. Grandson Rajmohan Gandhi is a professor in Illinois and an author of Gandhi's biography titled Mohandas, while another, Tarun Gandhi, has authored several authoritative books on his grandfather. Another grandson, Kanu Ramdas Gandhi (the son of Gandhi's third son Ramdas), was found living at an old age home in Delhi despite having taught earlier in the United States. See also Gandhian socialism Gandhi cap Gandhi Teerth – Gandhi International Research Institute and Museum for Gandhian study, research on Mahatma Gandhi and dialogue Inclusive Christianity List of civil rights leaders List of peace activists Seven Social Sins (a.k.a. Seven Blunders of the World) Trikaranasuddhi Composite nationalism Abdul Ghaffar Khan Notes Explanatory notes Citations General and cited references Books Primary sources External links Gandhi's correspondence with the Indian government 1942–1944 About Mahatma Gandhi Gandhi at Sabarmati Ashram Works by Mahatma Gandhi at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Mahatma Gandhi at the Internet Archive Works by Mahatma Gandhi at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Newspaper clippings about Mahatma Gandhi in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW

Giorgio_Rognoni

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Rognoni

Giorgio Rognoni (26 October 1946 in Modena, Italy on 20 March 1986 in Pistoia from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) was an Italian professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Career Born in Modena, Rognoni began playing football with local side Modena. In 1967, he signed with Milan, where he would make his Serie A debut against Mantova on 11 February 1968. He played for 9 seasons (193 games, 13 goals) in the Serie A for A.C. Milan, U.S. Foggia, A.C. Cesena and A.C. Pistoiese. Honours Milan Serie A champion: 1967–68. European Cup winner: 1968–69. UEFA Cup Winners' Cup winner: 1967–68. Intercontinental Cup winner: 1969. == References ==

1996%E2%80%9397_AC_Milan_season

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996%E2%80%9397_AC_Milan_season

During the 1996–97 season Milan Associazione Calcio competed in Serie A, Coppa Italia, UEFA Champions League and Supercoppa. Summary Milan Associazione Calcio fell into pieces once Fabio Capello left his job to join Real Madrid. The new organisation with Óscar Tabárez as technical director completely miscued its signings, with neither Jesper Blomqvist, Edgar Davids, Christophe Dugarry or Michael Reiziger being successful. After a Supercoppa Italiana defeat against Fiorentina at home at the San Siro, a 2–3 loss at Piacenza for the league cost the Uruguayan his position. Tabarez was replaced by former championship winning coach Arrigo Sacchi, the change did not happen and days later due to a 2–1 defeat to Rosenborg at home in the Champions League the team was not qualified to Quarterfinals. The Rossoneri eventually finished 11th managed to save the reigning champions' contract in Serie A by just six points. The miserable season also prompted captain Franco Baresi to end his active career, with Milan retiring the #6 shirt in his honour. Squad Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality. Transfers Winter Kits Results Pre-season and friendlies Friendlies Costantino Rozzi Memorial Trofeo de Navarra Opel Masters Cup Amsterdam Arena Cup Luigi Berlusconi Trophy Competitions Serie A League table Results summary Results by round Matches Coppa Italia Second Round Eightfinals Quarterfinals Supercoppa UEFA Champions League Group stage Statistics Appearances and goals Clean sheets Disciplinary record Players in italics left the team during the season. References External links RSSSF – Italy 1996/97

Demetrio_Albertini

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demetrio_Albertini

Demetrio Albertini (Italian pronunciation: [deˈmɛːtrjo alberˈtiːni]; born 23 August 1971) is the sporting director of Parma and a former professional Italian football midfielder and vice-president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC). He is widely considered one of the legends of the AC Milan side of the 90s and a fundamental player for the Italy national team of the same period. He spent most of his career with Milan of Italy's Serie A, winning many trophies, including five Serie A titles and two UEFA Champions League titles with the club. He also played his final season for Barcelona, winning the Spanish League before retiring that year. A vital member of the Italy national team, Albertini was part of the squads that competed at the World Cups of 1994 and 1998, as well as the 1996 and 2000 European Championships, reaching the finals of the 1994 World Cup and Euro 2000. Club career Albertini, born in Besana in Brianza, province of Monza e Brianza near Milan, emerged as a product of AC Milan's youth system, and went on to spend 14 highly successful years with the senior club after debuting in Serie A as a 17-year-old during the 1988–89 season under Arrigo Sacchi, on 15 January 1989, in a 4–0 home win over Como. He spent part of the 1990–91 season on loan at Padova Calcio in Serie B, collecting 28 appearances and 5 goals, in order to gain experience, and was subsequently awarded a prize by Diadora as one of the most promising young Italian stars. After a successful season with Padova, he soon established himself in the starting lineup of the AC Milan senior side during the 1991–92 season under Fabio Capello, wearing the number 4 shirt, and helping Milan to win the title undefeated that season; he would go on to make almost 300 Serie A appearances for the club (293 in total, scoring 21 goals), and 406 total career appearances for Milan, scoring 28 goals in all competitions. Albertini won many titles during his years at Milan, and claimed three successive Serie A titles in 1992, 1993 and 1994, and he also managed to capture two further scudetti in 1996 and 1999. In addition, he made 41 Champions League appearances, helping the Rossoneri to reach three consecutive finals between 1993 and 1995, lifting the trophy in 1994. He also won two UEFA Super Cups, three Italian Super Cups, and an Intercontinental Cup during his time at the club. Albertini remained at Milan until 2002, when his manager and former mentor Carlo Ancelotti preferred to play the emerging Andrea Pirlo in his position. During his time at the club, he managed 28 goals in 406 appearances; he also scored a personal record of 8 goals during the 1996–97 season. After leaving Milan, Albertini bounced around different teams. He spent the 2002–03 season on loan to Atlético Madrid, scoring 2 goals in 28 caps for the Spanish club. He was eventually traded to Lazio in exchange for Giuseppe Pancaro during the 2003–04 season, with great bitterness, where he finally won the Coppa Italia which had eluded him at Milan, scoring 2 goals in 23 appearances for the club. He started the 2004–05 season with Atalanta, playing 14 matches and scoring a goal on his debut, before transferring to FC Barcelona in January, where he joined his former midfield mentor, now manager Frank Rijkaard, and was able to capture La Liga during the final season of his career, with five appearances. International career For the Italy national team, Albertini has been capped 79 times between 1991 and 2002, scoring 3 goals. He made his debut on 21 December 1991, at the age of 20, in a 2–0 win against Cyprus in Foggia. In 1992, he competed with the national squad at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, and he won the 1992 UEFA European Under-21 Championship with the Italian Under-21 side. He played for his country at the 1994 and 1998 World Cups, Euro 96, and Euro 2000. Although he was still an Italy regular at the time, he was unable to participate in the 2002 World Cup due to an injury to his Achille's tendon a few months before the competition. His final international appearance came in a 2–1 away win over England in Leeds, in an international friendly match on the March 2002, with Albertini coming on during the second half. Albertini captained Italy on 6 occasions. World Cup 1994 Albertini's first major tournament for Italy came at the 1994 FIFA World Cup in USA, under manager Arrigo Sacchi. Alongside Milan teammate Roberto Donadoni, as well as Dino Baggio, Albertini formed the "engine room" of the Italian midfield throughout the World Cup. In the last group game against Mexico, Albertini assisted a crucial goal for Daniele Massaro, which allowed Italy to qualify for the second round as the best third placed team. In the semifinal against Bulgaria, Albertini gave a dominant performance, taking several shots on goal and even hitting the post. Albertini also created several chances during the match, dictating the tempo of his team's play; he notably helped to set up Roberto Baggio's second goal of the match, with a lobbed throughball, which allowed Italy to progress to the final with a 2–1 victory. In the final against Brazil, a balanced, scoreless game after extra-time led to a penalty shoot-out; Albertini scored his penalty, but his effort did not prove to be sufficient, as his teammates Franco Baresi, Daniele Massaro, and Roberto Baggio missed their penalties. Euro 1996 Italy went to the European championship in England and many saw Sacchi's team as the key contender for the title along with Germany, and saw Albertini as Italy's key player, wearing the number 10 shirt. However, the tournament ended in frustration for the Italians, as they suffered a first-round elimination. Arrigo Sacchi's team selection for the second group game against Czech Republic was based on the presumption that, after the opening 2–1 victory over Russia and in the light of the upcoming clash with Germany, Italy could afford playing without a series of key players. Italy lost 2–1 to the eventual runners-up Czech Republic, however, and then were knocked out of the tournament following a 0–0 draw with future champions Germany in their final group game, a match the "Azurri" dominated thanks to Albertini's presence in midfield, with Gianfranco Zola missing a potentially match-winning penalty. Sacchi in one of his interviews admitted the early departure was due to his mistakes and the 1996 squad was his best Italy team, even better than the one that got the second place in USA 1994. World Cup 1998 Albertini played a key role in helping Italy to qualify for the 1998 World Cup: during the first leg of the 1998 World Cup qualification play-off against Russia, in Moscow, on 29 October 1997, he set up Christian Vieri's goal in a 1–1 draw; he also set up Pierluigi Casiraghi's goal in the second leg in Naples, which allowed Italy to qualify for the World Cup 2–1 on aggregate. At the 1998 World Cup, Albertini's presence was not as central or explicit as it was in the previous major tournaments, but Cesare Maldini relied on him as one of the team's key central midfielders and creative players. Out of the games that Italy played in France, Albertini was not involved only when Italy faced Austria in the final match of the group stage. In the quarter-final clash, a Zidane-led France managed to overcome the masters of insurmountable defence only on penalties, during which Albertini's surprising failure did induce the tides to turn against la "Squadra Azzurra". Ironically, the midfielder could have been the creator of Italy's golden goal; during extra-time, his superb delivery into the area to Roberto Baggio, from a lobbed pass, left the latter alone in front of French keeper Fabien Barthez, but the volley went just inches wide. Having won the most difficult match of the tournament, France went on to claim the nation's first World Cup title on home soil. Euro 2000 In Dino Zoff's formation at Euro 2000, Albertini was the unquestionable leader of Italy's midfield, starting alongside Di Biagio, behind either Stefano Fiore or Francesco Totti. His pace-setting and creative role in creating chances and controlling the Italian midfield was paramount to Italy's successful run in the tournament, as he provided two assists for his team (one for Totti's goal against Belgium, and the other for Inzaghi's goal against Romania), finishing the tournament as his country's top creator, although the Italians ultimately missed out on the trophy. The azzurri progressed to the final undefeated, winning all three of their group matches against Turkey, co-hosts Belgium, and Sweden. Italy went on to defeat Romania 2–0 in the quarterfinal, and overcame co-hosts the Netherlands in the semi-final on penalties after a 0–0 draw following extra time. Italy eventually lost out once again to the 1998 World Champions France 2–1 in the final, on a golden goal in extra-time. Albertini was chosen to be part of the Team of the Tournament due to his performances throughout the Cup. Missed World Cup 2002 and retirement Despite being a key part of Giovanni Trapattoni's Italy squad, Albertini missed the 2002 World Cup due to an injury sustained on 14 April 2002, less than two months before the tournament, in the away Serie A game for Milan against Juventus, effectively putting an end to his international career at the age of 30. Coincidentally, this game also turned out to be his last for AC Milan as well. After retirement On 5 December 2005, Albertini announced his retirement from professional football and expressed his desire to one day become a full-time football manager. On 15 March 2006, a Milan vs Barcelona celebration match was organised in Albertini's honour, featuring great footballing names from both past and present (such as Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, and Franco Baresi). Milan won the match 3–2 at the San Siro, with Albertini scoring the first goal from a textbook swerving free kick. Following the match, a visibly emotional Albertini was given a standing ovation from the fans. In 2006, Albertini was involved in a project to create a Footballing Academy in his name, “Scuola calcio Demetrio Albertini", in Selvino (Bg), which took place in Milan and Lecchese, involving over 1000 young players. Sporting director with FIGC On 18 May 2006, following the Italian football Calciopoli scandal involving Juventus and Luciano Moggi, among others, which led to the resignation of Franco Carraro from the Italian Football Federation presidency and the appointment of a temporary commissioner, Guido Rossi, by the National Olympic Committee, Albertini was named vice-commissioner of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC). On 19 September, following the resignation of Rossi, who was in the meanwhile appointed as chairman of Telecom Italia, Albertini also announced his resignation. He was later appointed vice-president of the FIGC in 2007, under Giancarlo Abete, and was re-elected in 2013. On 27 July 2014, Albertini nominated himself for the position of the president of the FIGC, but ultimately lost controversially to his former co-vice-president Carlo Tavecchio on 11 August, despite having the support of the A.I.C. (the Italian Footballers' Association). Parma board member Following the bankruptcy of Parma FC, Demetrio Albertini was appointed to the club's board as a football advisor for the club’s administrators. Researcher for Football Manager Albertini is a researcher for Football Manager, the football management simulation game franchise. Style of play Albertini was a complete, experienced and composed midfielder, who was gifted with stamina, power, technique, and class, which allowed him to be regarded as one of the best midfielders of his generation. His key strengths as a player were his mentality, his excellent vision, tactical knowledge, ability to read the game, and ball control, but above all, his brilliant passing range, which made him a key member of the Milan and the Italy national sides of the 90s and early 2000s; he was also known for his powerful and accurate shots from distance, which also enabled him to contribute to his team's offensive play with goals as well as assists. Few players were able to replicate Albertini's precise long passing and powerful distance shooting adeptness, and many have likened his abilities in these areas to those of Ronald Koeman. Albertini was also an accurate penalty kick and set piece taker, who could curl the ball well, but also kick with power, and was known for often striking the ball without a run-up during dead ball situations. Although he was fundamentally a hardworking, intelligent, and creative central midfielder or deep-lying playmaker with excellent technical ability, he was able to complete himself tactically and improve upon the defensive and offensive aspect of his game play throughout his career, demonstrating his adeptness as a ball-winner; his wide range of skills made him a versatile player, allowed him to play in several other midfield positions, including out on the wing, due to his crossing ability. In the Milan side and Italy side, he was seen as the heir to Carlo Ancelotti, and later also as the predecessor to Andrea Pirlo as the playmaking pivot of the teams' midfield, due to his ability to create goalscoring opportunities or control the game in midfield and set the tempo of his team's play with his distribution, and he was often regarded as the "creative brain" and "metronome" of his teams. Many football experts draw parallels between Albertini and Pirlo, the midfield ace of European and world football, who emerged as his heir in Italian football, both for Milan and for the Italy national side. Like Albertini, Pirlo is a deep-lying playmaker who also possesses excellent technique, ball skills, vision and passing range, and who is also a set-piece specialist and a goal threat from distance. In addition his footballing skills, Albertini was also known for his correct behaviour on the pitch, and was seen as a symbol and leader for both his club and national sides. Personal life Albertini is a practising Roman Catholic. He married to Uriana Capone in 1996 in Oria, Italy. He has a son named Guillermo who is born in Den Bosch, Holland. Career statistics Club *European competitions include the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup, and UEFA Super Cup International Honours Club AC Milan Serie A: 1991–92, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1995–96, 1998–99 Supercoppa Italiana: 1992, 1993, 1994 UEFA Champions League: 1993–94 UEFA Super Cup: 1989, 1994 Lazio Coppa Italia: 2003–04 Barcelona La Liga: 2004–05 International Italy UEFA European Under-21 Championship: 1992 FIFA World Cup runner-up: 1994 UEFA European Championship runner-up: 2000 Individual UEFA European Championship Team of the Tournament: 2000 AC Milan Hall of Fame Orders 4th Class / Officer: Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana: 2006 5th Class / Knight: Cavaliere Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana: 2000 References External links Statistics at FIGC official site (in Italian) Biografia di Demetrio Albertini (in Italian)

Tyson_Fury

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyson_Fury

Tyson Luke Fury (born 12 August 1988) is a British professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in the heavyweight division, including unified titles from 2015 to 2016, the Ring magazine title twice between 2015 and 2022, and the World Boxing Council (WBC) title from 2020 to 2024. He also held the International Boxing Organization (IBO) title during his first reign as champion. As an amateur, he won a bronze medal at the 2006 World Junior Championships; gold at the 2007 EU Junior Championships; silver at the 2007 European Junior Championships; and won the ABA super-heavyweight title in 2008. At regional level, he has held multiple heavyweight championships, including the British title twice between 2011 and 2015; the European title from 2014 to 2015; and the Commonwealth title from 2011 to 2012. In 2015, his victorious fight against Wladimir Klitschko was named Upset of the Year and earned him Fighter of the Year by The Ring. In 2018, his drawn fight against Deontay Wilder was named Round of the Year and earned him Comeback of the Year by The Ring. In 2020, with his defeat of Deontay Wilder, Fury became the third heavyweight, after Floyd Patterson and Muhammad Ali, to hold The Ring magazine title twice, and was widely considered by media outlets to be the lineal heavyweight champion. In 2021, his trilogy fight against Wilder was named Fight of the Year by The Ring. Early life Tyson Luke Fury was born in the Wythenshawe area of Manchester on 12 August 1988, the son of Irish Traveller parents Amber and John Fury. He was born three months premature and weighed just 1 pound (450 g). His father named him after Mike Tyson, who was the reigning undisputed heavyweight world champion, and later explained, "The doctors told me there was not much chance of him living. I had lost two daughters in the same way who had been born prematurely." He decided on the name "Tyson" as Fury was "a fighter" and survived the premature birth. Fury grew up in Styal, Cheshire, and later often mentioned his love for both Styal and his birthplace of Manchester. His paternal grandfather was from Tuam, which is also the birthplace of his father. The Furys are of Irish origin, deriving their present surname from Ó Fiodhabhra. His maternal grandmother is from County Tipperary and his mother was born in Belfast. Despite strongly identifying with his Irish heritage, Fury has had problems in gaining dual citizenship because his father's birth in County Galway was not recorded civilly in the 1960s, as Irish Travellers at the time only recorded births through baptism with the church rather than officially with the state. After defeating Wladimir Klitschko, Fury would quip that "becoming the heavyweight champion of the world is not as hard a fight as proving [his] Irishness". Fury left school when he was 11, and joined his father and three brothers tarmacking roads. His mother Amber had 14 pregnancies but only four of the children survived. A daughter, Ramona, was born in December 1997 but died within days. This experience has stayed with Fury, who was nine years old at the time. Fury began boxing at the age of 10. His father, John, trained him until 2011, when he was jailed for gouging out the eye of another Traveller due to a long-standing feud. Fury's uncle Hughie Fury trained him until he died in 2014, after which Fury's other uncle Peter Fury (trainer of son Hughie Fury) trained him in preparation for his fight against Klitschko. The Fury family has a long history in boxing. Fury's father competed in the 1980s as "Gypsy" John Fury, initially as a bare-knuckle and unlicensed boxer, and then as a professional boxer. John had a professional record of 8–4–1, with one of his losses being to future WBO heavyweight world champion Henry Akinwande. Tyson's half-brother Tommy made his professional debut on 22 December 2018 under the tutelage of two-weight world champion Ricky Hatton. Fury is also a cousin of several professional boxers, including heavyweights Hughie Fury and Nathan Gorman, former WBO middleweight world champion Andy Lee and light heavyweight contender Hosea Burton. Fury's distant relatives include the bare-knuckle boxers Uriah Burton and Bartley Gorman, both considered "King of the Gypsies", hence Fury's own nickname of "Gypsy King". He has also styled himself as "The Furious One" and "2 Fast" Fury. Amateur career As an amateur, Fury represented both England and Ireland. Fury represented Ireland three times at international level. He was based out of the Holy Family Boxing Club in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and later switched to the Smithboro Club in County Monaghan, Ireland. In a double international match against an experienced Polish team in 2007, the Irish team lost 12–6 overall; Fury, however, was victorious in both his fights in Rzeszów and Białystok. In another Irish match against the US, Fury won his bout by knockout. He won bronze at the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships in 2006. In England, while representing Jimmy Egan's Boxing Academy in Wythenshawe, Manchester, he participated in the senior national championships in 2006 but was beaten by David Price 22–8. In May 2007, he won the EU Junior Championship, defeating Istvan Bernath in the final. In July 2007 he won silver at the European Junior Championship, losing to Maxim Babanin in the final. As a junior, Fury was ranked number three in the world behind the Russians Maxim Babanin and Andrey Volkov, but did not get the chance to represent Great Britain at the 2008 Olympics because each country is restricted to one boxer per weight division and David Price was selected. Price came up through the amateur Olympic programme. Fury also unsuccessfully tried to qualify for Ireland. Speaking in 2011, Fury said "I should have gone to the Olympic games in 2008 and won a gold medal for Ireland, but I was denied the chance to go and do it" He was also forced to withdraw from the Irish national championships after officials from the Holy Trinity Boxing Club in West Belfast, the club of the then Irish amateur heavyweight champion, submitted a protest regarding his eligibility as he was not born in Ireland. Fury won the ABA super-heavyweight title in 2008 by defeating Damien Campbell 19:1. He turned professional later that year. Feeling disillusioned with amateur boxing, he decided not to wait for the 2012 Olympics. He finished with an amateur record of 31–4 (26 KOs). Professional career Early career Fury made his professional debut at the age of 20 on 6 December 2008 in Nottingham, on the undercard of Carl Froch vs. Jean Pascal against Hungarian fighter Bela Gyongyosi (3–9–2), who Fury defeated via TKO in the first round with a combination to head and body. He then had six more fights in the space of seven months, defeating Marcel Zeller (21–3), Daniil Peretyatko (15–20), Lee Swaby (23–22–2), Matthew Ellis (20–6–1), Scott Belshaw (10–1) and Aleksandrs Selezens (3–6) all via knockout within 4 rounds. On 11 September 2009, Fury fought John McDermott (25–5, 16 KOs) for the English heavyweight title, and won via a points decision. Fury came in as a 1–6 favourite but produced a poor display, and the 98–92 decision by the referee Terry O'Connor was criticised as a "travesty". The decision led the British Boxing Board of Control to mandate three judges for all English titles, and the board ordered a rematch. Fury scored two more victories against Tomas Mrazek (4–22–5) and Hans-Joerg Blasko (9–3) before facing McDermott in a rematch on 25 June 2010. Fury settled the controversy of the first fight, as he knocked down McDermott three times, first in the 8th round then twice in the 9th round to win by TKO. Fury won the English heavyweight title for a second time in the process. Another three wins followed: points decisions over American fighters Rich Power (12–0) and Zack Page (21–32–2) in two 8-round matches, and a knockout of the Brazilian Marcelo Luiz Nascimento (13–0) in the 5th round. British and Commonwealth champion Fury vs. Chisora On 23 July 2011, Fury faced undefeated heavyweight Derek Chisora for the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles at Wembley Arena in London. Although Chisora was aged 27 and Fury 22 years old, both men went into the fight with a record of 14–0. Despite Fury's superior size and reach, Chisora was the favourite. After 12 hard-fought rounds Fury won via unanimous decision 117–112, 117–112, and 118–111, with the fight shown live on free-to-air Channel 5. Promoter Mick Hennessy said the fight peaked at around 3 million viewers. On 17 September 2011, Fury fought 32-year-old fringe contender Nicolai Firtha (20–8–1, 8 KOs) in a non-title bout at the King's Hall, Belfast. Firtha took the fight on two weeks' notice. The opening two rounds were dominated by Fury. In round 3, Firtha landed a big punch which looked to trouble Fury. Fury regained control of the fight by the next round and forced the referee to stop the fight at 2 minutes, 19 seconds on round 5. Fury admitted he got caught flush, "He caught me with a good punch and I had to come back from it." The fight averaged 1.03 million viewers on Channel 5. Fury returned to the ring on 12 November at the Event City in Trafford Park, Manchester to defend his Commonwealth heavyweight title against undefeated Canadian heavyweight champion Neven Pajkic (16–0, 5 KOs). Fury had an early scare after being knocked down in round 2 following a big right hand. Although Pajkic hobbled Fury again at the outset of round 3, Fury came back to knock down Pajkic twice during that round. The referee stopped the fight after the last knockdown, causing Pajkic to protest, who declared himself ready to fight on. Many at ringside thought the stoppage premature. The fight averaged 1.72 million viewers on Channel 5. Fury vacated his British and Commonwealth belts in order to pursue a future world title match. He said to the media of his decision to vacate the belts, "I vacated the British and Commonwealth titles, which some people say are more prestigious than the Irish title, but not to me. I vacated those belts for an Irish title shot because it meant more to me. All my people are from Ireland. I was born in Manchester but I am Irish." On 14 April 2012, Fury travelled to Belfast to fight at the Odyssey Arena for the vacant Irish heavyweight title. His opponent was veteran Martin Rogan (14–2, 7 KOs). Rogan had not fought in 18 months and had not beaten an opponent with a winning record since 2009. At 245+3⁄4 pounds (111.5 kg), Fury was fighting at the lightest weight of his professional career to date. Fury put Rogan on the canvas with a left hook in the third round. Rogan went down again in round 5 from a body shot. Rogan made it to his feet, but the bout was stopped at the request of his corner. The fight averaged 1.33 million viewers on Channel 5. On 7 July, Fury fought for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental heavyweight title against American boxer Vinny Maddalone (35–7, 26 KOs) at the Hand Arena in Clevedon, Somerset. Fury weighed 245.5 pounds (111.4 kg), marginally lighter than the Rogan fight. Maddalone entered with a record of 4–3 in his previous seven bouts. Fury improved his record to 19–0 with 14 stoppage wins, with a fifth-round technical knockout over Maddalone. Fury controlled the fight from the onset and stunned Maddalone with a combination in the opening round. Fury continued to land heavy punches and opened a cut under his opponent's left eye in the fourth. In round 5, with Maddalone taking punches, the referee stepped in and called an end to the bout with blood streaming out of the cut under the veteran's left eye. It was the fifth knockout loss of Maddalone's professional career. In the post-fight interviews, Fury said, "I knew it was a matter of time. I actually called the referee over, he was taking some big shots. I'm still undefeated. I would like to say I'm ready for anyone in the world. Klitschkos, bring them on. Americans, bring them on. Bring on Tomasz Adamek. He's too small for me and I see an early win for me." Promoter Mick Hennessy also stated a world title fight was "two or three fights away", targeting Adamek next. The fight averaged 1.05 million viewers on Channel 5. Rise up the ranks Fury vs. Johnson On 12 November 2012, it was announced that Fury would fight American world title contender Kevin Johnson (28–3–1, 13 KOs) in a WBC title eliminator at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast on 1 December. Fury said, "Johnson is just the kind of opponent that I want at this stage of my career. We needed a world class fighter and we have got one." Fury won via unanimous decision over Johnson. After 12 rounds, the judges scored it 119–110, 119–108, and 119–108 in favour of Fury. Many media outlets including the BBC and ESPN dubbed the fight as a poor showing. Fury claimed he would score a good win, just as rival David Price did when he stopped Matt Skelton a night earlier, but instead eased to a decision victory. Fury, with the win, was in line to challenge for the WBC title, held at the time by Vitali Klitschko. The fight averaged 1.37 million viewers on Channel 5. Fury vs. Cunningham On 20 February 2013, it was reported that Fury would fight highly ranked American former cruiserweight world champion Steve Cunningham (25–5, 12 KOs) in his United States debut at Madison Square Garden Theater on 20 April. The bout was an IBF title eliminator to determine the number 2 world ranking, with the winner then needing to fight unbeaten Bulgarian heavyweight Kubrat Pulev for the mandatory position for a shot at the long reigning world champion Wladimir Klitschko. Cunningham came into the fight on the rebound from a controversial split decision loss to Tomasz Adamek. At the weigh in, Cunningham was 44 pounds (20 kg) lighter, at 210 pounds (95 kg) to Fury's 254 pounds (115 kg). Fury fought wildly in the first two rounds of the bout, and was floored heavily by Cunningham in the 2nd round. Cunningham continued to land heavy punches on Fury for the next few rounds, until being worn down by Fury's size advantage and power punches. By round seven, Fury had fully rebounded and handed Cunningham the first knockout defeat of his career with a cuffing right hand against the rope. Earlier, in round five, Fury was docked a point following a headbutt. At the time of the stoppage, Fury was behind on two judges' scorecards 57–55, while the other judge had it 56–56 (even). A week after the fight, Cunningham spoke to ATG Radio, claiming that Fury used an illegal manoeuvre to knock him out, "He held me with his forearm. He pushed me in the corner twice – which is illegal – and then he pushed me with his forearm, cocked my head to the left and threw a right hook." The fight card aired on NBC in the late afternoon and averaged 1.2 million viewers, peaking at 1.7 million. In the UK, the fight aired on Channel 5 and averaged 1.54 million viewers. The win over Cunningham gave Fury a world ranking of 7 according to BoxRec, a number 2 ranking according to the IBF, 6th with the WBC, and 5th with the WBO. Fury was due to fight David Haye (26–2, 24 KOs) on 28 September 2013, in a fight which would have seen Fury fight on a pay-per-view platform for the first time. However, Haye pulled out of the fight on 21 September, after sustaining a cut, which required six stitches, above the eye during training. The fight was originally postponed to 8 February 2014. Haye pulled out of the fight a second time on 17 November, stating that he had a career-threatening shoulder injury which required surgery, and hinted at his retirement. Fury believed that Haye was making excuses because he did not want the fight, saying "I'm absolutely furious but in all honesty this is exactly what I expected. Everyone knows I was very suspicious when he pulled out the first time and this confirms to me that he's always been afraid of me and never wanted this fight." Aside from training camp expenses, Haye also cost Fury his positions in the world rankings including an IBF final eliminator bout which would have made him mandatory for a shot at the world title. Fury vs. Abell On 24 January 2014, it was announced that Fury would fight at the Copper Box Arena against Argentine veteran Gonzalo Omar Basile (61–8, 27 KOs) on 15 February. On 5 February, Basile pulled out of the fight due to a lung infection. He was replaced by American journeyman Joey Abell (29–7, 28 KOs). Fury won the fight via 4th-round TKO, which set up a rematch with Chisora in the summer. Ring rust showed in the opening two rounds with Abell connecting with left hands, which had Fury against the ropes. But Fury managed to compose himself and get behind the jab. In the third round, Fury floored Abell with a right hand. Abell beat the count but was floored again, this time being saved by the bell. Two more knockdowns followed in round 4 ending the fight. After the fight, Fury took to the microphone, "Tyson too fast Fury, that's the name, fighting's the game and these are bums compared to me. I want Wladimir Klitschko, he's avoiding me, let's get it on Wlad." European champion Fury vs. Chisora II Fury was due to fight rival and heavyweight contender Derek Chisora for the second time on 26 July 2014, for the European and once again the British heavyweight title. On 21 July, Chisora was forced to pull out after sustaining a fractured hand in training. Russian Alexander Ustinov was lined up as Chisora's replacement in the bout scheduled to take place at the Manchester Arena, Fury pulled out of the fight after his uncle and former trainer Hughie Fury was taken seriously ill. However, Fury and Chisora rescheduled the rematch for 29 November 2014 at ExCeL London. The bout was also a WBO title eliminator and shown live on BoxNation. Fury was victorious again after dominating the fight up until Chisora's corner pulled him out at the end of the 10th round. Fury also used a southpaw stance for the majority of the fight, despite the traditional right-handed orthodox stance being his preference. Fury used his jab to trouble Chisora and stayed on the outside with his longer reach to dominate the fight. Chisora failed to land any telling punches, and due to Fury's awkward fighting style, ended up hitting him below the belt. Chisora was warned by referee Marcus McDonnell in the first round. After the fight, Fury said, "Wladimir Klitschko, I'm coming for you, baby. I'm coming. No retreat, no surrender." Promoter Mick Hennessy said Fury would likely fight once more before challenging for the world title. Fury vs. Hammer On 26 December 2014, Sky Sports News announced that Fury would fight once more before challenging Klitschko for his world titles. His opponent was Christian Hammer (17–3, 10 KOs) and the fight took place on 28 February 2015 at the O2 Arena in London. Fury said he went for an opponent that would give him a challenge rather than an "easier" opponent, before challenging Klitschko. Fury went on to win the fight when it came to a halt in the 8th round via corner stoppage. Fury dominated the fight from the opening bell and dropped Hammer in round 5 with a short right hook. After the fight, Fury called out Wladimir Klitschko again, stating he was ready for his world title shot. Unified heavyweight world champion Fury vs. Klitschko In July 2015, it was confirmed that Fury would fight Wladimir Klitschko in a world heavyweight title showdown, for the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO, Lineal and The Ring heavyweight titles. Initially scheduled for 24 October 2015, the fight was postponed to 28 November 2015 after Klitschko sustained a calf injury. For this match, Fury trained with the highest ranked heavyweight kickboxers in GLORY, Rico Verhoeven and Benjamin Adegbuyi. The fight took place at Esprit Arena in Düsseldorf, Germany. On fight night, there was controversy with the gloves, then a complaint about the ring canvas. Klitschko reportedly had his hands wrapped without the presence of a Fury representative, so had to do them again. Fury won after 12 rounds by a unanimous decision. The judges scored the fight 115–112, 115–112, and 116–111. Klitschko and Fury showed little offence during the 12 rounds, but Fury was more active and did enough each round to take the decision. Klitschko landed 52 of 231 punches thrown (23%) and Fury landed 86 of 371 thrown (23%). In the post-fight interview, an emotional Fury said, "This is a dream come true. We worked so hard for this. I've done it. It's hard to come to foreign countries and get decisions. It just means so much to me to come here and get the decision." He then took the microphone and thanked Klitschko, "I'd like to say to Wladimir, you're a great champion. And thanks very much for having me. It was all fun and games during the buildup." Klitschko failed to throw his well-known right hand, mostly due to Fury's constant movement and mocking. He said, "Tyson was the faster and better man tonight. I felt quite comfortable in the first six rounds, but I was astonished that Tyson was so fast in the second half as well. I couldn't throw my right hand because the advantage was the longer distance he had." Klitschko had a rematch clause in place. On 8 December 2015, the IBF stripped Fury of its title, as the contract for the fight against Klitschko included a rematch clause, precluding Fury from facing the IBF's mandatory challenger Vyacheslav Glazkov. Fury had held the IBF belt for only 10 days. Relinquishing world titles Following months of negotiation, the rematch with Klitschko was announced on 8 April 2016, this time with the fight scheduled to take place in Fury's hometown of Manchester at the Manchester Arena on 9 July 2016. Despite agreeing terms for the rematch, Fury said he had "no motivation" and had gained an extreme amount of weight after the first fight, as he weighed over 24 stone (330 lb or 150 kg) by April 2016. On 24 June 2016, it was announced that this fight would be postponed to a later date due to Fury sustaining a sprained ankle in training. On the same day, Fury and his cousin, Hughie Fury, were charged by UK Anti-Doping "with presence of a prohibited substance", namely nandrolone, from a sample taken 16 months previously in February 2015. Tyson and Hughie said that they "strenuously deny" the charge. On 23 September, Fury again postponed the fight after being declared "medically unfit". ESPN reported that Fury had failed a drug test for cocaine a day before the second postponement. Fury cited problems with depression after the positive test for cocaine. Fury's mental health deteriorated after winning the world titles. On 4 October 2016, in an interview with Rolling Stone, Fury said "I'm going through a lot of personal demons, trying to shake them off, this has got nothing to do with my fighting – what I'm going through right now is my personal life. I've not been in a gym for months. I've been going through depression. I just don't want to live anymore, if you know what I'm saying. I've had total enough of it. Never mind cocaine. I just didn't care. I don't want to live anymore. So cocaine is a little minor thing compared to not wanting to live anymore. I am seeing help, but they can't do nothing for me. What I've got is incurable. I don't want to live. All the money in the world, fame and glory, means nothing if you're not happy. I'm seeing psychiatrists. They say I've got a version of bipolar. I'm a manic depressive. I don't even want to wake up. I hope I die every day. And that's a bad thing to say when I've got three children and a lovely wife isn't it? But I don't want to live anymore. And if I could take me own life – and I wasn't a Christian – I'd take it in a second. I just hope someone kills me before I kill me self. I'll have to spend eternity in hell. I've been out drinking, Monday to Friday to Sunday, and taking cocaine. I can't deal with it and the only thing that helps me is when I get drunk out of me mind." On 12 October 2016, pending investigation on an anti-doping case about his cocaine use, nandrolone findings, and being deemed medically unfit to fight, Fury decided to vacate the WBA (Unified), WBO, IBO heavyweight titles. He said "I won the titles in the ring and I believe that they should be lost in the ring, but I'm unable to defend at this time and I have taken the hard and emotional decision to now officially vacate my treasured world titles and wish the next in-line contenders all the very best as I now enter another big challenge in my life which I know, like against Klitschko, I will conquer." Fury's promoter Mick Hennessy added: "Tyson will still be the lineal world heavyweight champion in everyone's eyes. He beat the most dominant champion in the modern era of boxing on an amazing night in Germany to earn that accolade and that will never change. Whilst it's heartbreaking to see Tyson vacate the world titles that he worked so long and hard for all his life, what's paramount now is that he receives the medical treatment along with the love of his family and friends and the support of the boxing world to make a full recovery." Fury's decision was based on not having to put himself under constant media pressure, allowing him time to recover and receive professional medical help for his mental health problems, and spend time with his family. On 13 October, the British Boxing Board of Control decided to suspend Fury's boxing licence. On 1 February 2018, Fury was stripped of his last remaining title, The Ring magazine's heavyweight championship. Issues with UKAD and BBBofC In December 2016, Fury's uncle Peter announced that Fury would be returning around spring in 2017 and would aim for a fight against WBC champion Deontay Wilder. On 23 December, Fury tweeted that he was back in training ahead of a ring return around April or May 2017. His tweet read, "I've had a nightmare 2016, done a lot of stuff I'm not proud of, but my promise to you is I'll return in 2017." On 6 March 2017, Fury tweeted that his return fight would take place on 13 May 2017 and he was speaking to promoter Frank Warren about possible opponents. Warren had become Fury's promoter after Fury dropped his long-time promoter Mick Hennessy. The date set for the return would mean Fury would be fighting on the undercard of Josh Warrington defending his WBC International featherweight title against Kiko Martinez at the First Direct Arena in Leeds. Shortly after Fury announced a comeback date, the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) publicly announced that Fury was still suspended and would not be fighting in May. This was confirmed by their general secretary Robert Smith. He also mentioned that there had been no contact from Fury or his representatives since the ban started in October 2016. Warren told Reuters on 7 March, "I want to see him back in the ring as soon as possible but before that happens he's got a couple of issues to sort out." Warren said that along with the dispute with the BBBofC there would need to be a court hearing with UK Anti-Doping (UKAD). Robert Smith, general secretary of the BBBofC, said in May 2017 that Fury's case was "complex" and it had been adjourned. In September 2017, Fury challenged UKAD to give him a reply, and either ban him or reinstate his boxing licence. He believed he was being treated unfairly as it had taken over a year for them to reply, stating that usually the problem would be dealt with within a matter of months. Fury tweeted, "How long must I be held up and kept out of action? It's been 15 months since I've been under investigation, you're keeping an innocent man from fulfilling his destiny and from providing for his family." UKAD stated there was no particular timescale involved, but denied claims that they were prolonging the hearing. Instead they said they were trying to resolve the matter as soon as possible. On 8 November 2017, BBC Sport reported that a National Anti-Doping Panel hearing was due to take place in December. Due to the legal battle between Fury and UKAD, it was believed that UKAD could potentially become insolvent or would need a government bail out. UKAD reportedly have an annual budget of £8 million, and the fact that Fury had not fought for two years would have caused potential loss of earnings, possibly over £10 million. UKAD asked the government if they could underwrite the case. On 23 November, according to Robert Smith of the BBBofC, a hearing was set for a date in December 2017. On 25 November 2017, Fury announced his comeback after signing with managerial group MTK Global. A hearing start date of 11 December was set, with a potential outcome being Fury facing a four-year ban. Fury did not attend the hearing and had reporters waiting outside the location for six hours before leaving. Mick Hennessy later stated that Fury was not required at the hearing. On 7 February 2018, UKAD revealed they spent £585,659 on the Fury case. £576,587 was paid to London law firm Bird & Bird, barrister fees came to £1,130 and around £8,000 was paid for laboratory work. UKAD believed they could regain £250,000 through legal insurance. On 12 December, UKAD announced they had agreed with the Furys and the BBBoC to resolve the charges. "Taking into account the delays in results management that meant charges were not brought in respect of the nandrolone findings until June 2016, and the provisional suspensions that Tyson and Hughie Fury have already effectively served, the two year period of ineligibility is backdated to 13 December 2015, and therefore expires at midnight on 12 December 2017." Tyson's February 2015 win over Christian Hammer was disqualified but his Klitschko triumph was not. Tyson blamed the elevated nandrolone levels on eating uncastrated wild boar and declared his and Hughie's innocence, "Hughie and I have maintained our innocence from day one and we're now happy that it has finally been settled with UKAD and that we can move forward knowing that we'll not be labelled drug cheats." The BBBofC said they would consider the renewal of Fury's boxing licence in January 2018. In relation to the news, Fury wrote on Twitter, "Guess who's back?" Return to the ring On 10 January 2018, Fury announced he would be re-applying for his boxing licence through the BBBofC. An interview took place between Fury and BBBofC on 19 January, where the latter agreed to re-instate Fury as long as he sent them up-to-date medical records after visiting a psychologist. Fury said a motivation on his return was Deontay Wilder. "He said I couldn't do it, he said definitely not Tyson Fury. He's done." At a press conference in London on 12 April 2018, Fury announced he had signed a multi-fight deal with Frank Warren's Queensberry Promotions. He stated that he intended to fight at least three times before 2019, starting on 9 June at the Manchester Arena. After weeks of speculation, it was confirmed the fight would be shown exclusively on BT Sport. Fury vs. Seferi On 20 May 39-year-old Albanian Sefer Seferi (23–1, 21 KOs) was announced as Fury's opponent in a 10-round bout. Seferi was a career cruiserweight, having fought once at heavyweight, when he lost to Manuel Charr in 2016. Fury weighed 276 pounds (125 kg) at the weigh-in, 66 pounds (30 kg) heavier than Seferi. Fury had lost 112 pounds (51 kg) for the fight, having experienced extreme weight gain due to his mental health problems. Fury won the fight after Seferi quit on his stool after round 4. The opening couple of rounds had little to no action as Fury was showboating, which referee Phil Edwards warned him for in round 2. A brawl also broke out in the crowd during the fight, but order was restored before the fight came to an end. Fury began to unload heavy shots in round 4 and it appeared many of the shots landed and hurt Seferi, hence he retired on his stool. After the fight, Warren confirmed Fury would next return on the Carl Frampton undercard on 18 August at Windsor Park in Belfast. It was revealed the fight, which aired exclusively on BT Sport 1, peaked at 814,000 live viewers. Fury vs. Pianeta On 12 July 2018, it was announced that Fury would fight former two-time world title challenger Francesco Pianeta (35–4–1, 21 KOs) on 18 August. Fury weighed in at 258 pounds (117 kg), 18 pounds (8.2 kg) lighter than he weighed against Seferi. Pianeta came in at 254.7 pounds (115.5 kg). On 30 July, it was reported that there was ongoing negotiations for a fight to take place in either November or December 2018 between Fury and Wilder (40–0, 39 KOs). On 31 July, Fury stated the fight against Wilder was 99% a done deal, with only a location and date to be confirmed. Fury also had to come through in his bout against Pianeta. Wilder was scheduled to be in Belfast to further promote the fight. Fury went the full 10 rounds, defeating Pianeta via a points decision. Referee Steve Gray scored the fight 100–90 in favour of Fury. Fury later stated he had no intention of trying to end the fight early. He said, "I think it was a calculated boxing performance. I got 10 rounds with a very tough man under my belt. I was working on my jab, slipping his punches. I thought that was a step up with the opponent and display. I needed the rounds, and I had plenty left in the tank." According to CompuBox, Fury landed 107 of 620 punches thrown (17%). This included 100 power punches landed of 226 thrown (44%). Pianeta landed only 37 of his 228 punches thrown (16%). During the post-fight interviews, promoter Warren confirmed the Fury vs. Wilder fight was on. The fight would take place in either Las Vegas or New York in November 2018. The fight would be aired on PPV in the United States on Showtime and in the UK on BT Sports Box Office. Talking about how the fight came together, Fury said, "We have two men who will fight anyone. This man has been trying to make a fight with another chump. They called, I answered. I said: 'Send me the contract.' They sent it. I said 'yes'." Warren later told BBC Radio 5 live, "[It's a] 50–50 [purse split], quick and smooth negotiations. He was the world heavyweight champion. He's undefeated. [Wilder and his team] understand that. All of the terms are agreed." By the end of August, contracts for the fight to take place had been signed. WBC heavyweight title challenge Fury vs. Wilder On 22 September, both Fury and Wilder confirmed they had signed the contract and the fight would take place on 1 December 2018. According to the California State Athletic Commission, Wilder would earn a guaranteed base purse of $4 million and Fury would take home a guaranteed purse of $3 million. Despite Frank Warren's original claim that the revenue would be split 50–50, it was revealed that Wilder could make $14 million (£11 million) and Fury would earn around $10.25 million (£8 million). Both boxers would see this increase to their base purses after receiving their percentages from pay-per-view revenue. The weigh-in took place on 30 November, outside the Los Angeles Convention Center. Fury stepped on the scale first and weighed in at 256+1⁄2 pounds (116.3 kg). This was only 2 pounds (0.91 kg) lighter than his weigh-in against Francisco Pianeta in August 2018, but he looked leaner. Wilder was next to step on and came in at 212+1⁄2 pounds (96.4 kg), his lowest since his debut in 2008 when he weighed 207+1⁄4 pounds (94.0 kg). For his last bout, Wilder weighed 214 pounds (97 kg), however, it was cited that Wilder became ill during his training camp. In front of a crowd of 17,698 at the Staples Center, Wilder and Fury fought a 12-round split decision draw, meaning Wilder retained his WBC title. Mexican judge Alejandro Rochin scored the fight 115–111 for Wilder, Canadian judge Robert Tapper had it 114–112 for Fury and English judge Phil Edwards scored it a 113–113 draw. The crowd booed at the decision with many believing Fury did enough to dethrone Wilder. Fury, using his unorthodox stance, spent much of the fight using upper and lower-body movement to avoid Wilder big shots and stay out of range. There was not much action in round 1 as both boxers used the round to feel each other out. Wilder tried to trap Fury into the corner, but Fury made Wilder miss most of his big swings. In round 4, Wilder bloodied Fury's nose with his stiff jabs, but was unable to follow up on the attacks. In round 6, Fury switched to southpaw stance and had success backing Wilder against the ropes and at the same time stayed cautious of Wilder's power. In round 7, after trading jabs, which saw Fury come out on top, Fury landed a counter right hand, then quickly tied Wilder up before he could throw anything back. Round 8 saw back and forth action with both trying to land. Wilder threw a lot of power shots which Fury mostly evaded. In round 9, Wilder finally dropped Fury with a short left hook followed by an overhand right. Fury beat referee Jack Reiss' count and survived the round. Having expended a lot of energy trying to finish Fury in round 9, Wilder looked fatigued in round 10. This came to as an advantage for Fury as he landed two right hands. Fury also took advantage in round 11, landing enough shots and avoided anything Wilder could throw. In round 12, Wilder landed a right-left combination which put Fury down hard on his back. The crowd, commentary team and Wilder believed the fight was over. Reiss looked at Fury on the canvas and began giving him a count. To everyone's surprise, Fury beat the count. Reiss made Fury walk towards him and called for the action to continue. Wilder, fatigued again, was unable to land another power shot and Fury landed some right hands to finish the round and the fight on his feet. Both boxers embraced in a hug after the final bell sounded. According to CompuBox statistics, Wilder landed 71 punches of 430 thrown (17%), and Fury landed 84 of his 327 thrown (26%). Wilder was much less accurate in this fight than he usually had been in previous fights. Fury out-landed Wilder in 9 out of the 12 rounds. Both Wilder and Fury only landed double digits in 4 separate rounds. After the fight, both men gave in-ring interviews. Wilder stated, "I think with the two knockdowns, I definitely won the fight. We poured our hearts out tonight. We're both warriors. I rushed my punches. I didn't sit still. I was too hesitant. I started overthrowing the right hand, and I just couldn't adjust. I was rushing my punches. That's something I usually don't do." Fury said, "We're on away soil. I got knocked down twice, but I still believe I won that fight. I'm being a total professional here. God bless America. The 'Gypsy King' has returned. That man is a fearsome puncher, and I was able to avoid that. The world knows I won the fight. I hope I did you all proud after nearly three years out of the ring. I showed good heart to get up. I came here tonight, and I fought my heart out." Wilder and Fury both claimed to be the best heavyweights in the world and both called out unified world champion Anthony Joshua. Fury shouted, "Chicken! Chicken! Joshua, where are you?" Wilder then agreed to state the two best heavyweights got into the ring and fought. The event was both a critical and a commercial success. The fight sold approximately 325,000 pay-per-view buys on Showtime in the United States, grossing around $24 million, making it the most lucrative heavyweight fight in the country since 2003. Showtime's delayed broadcast a week later drew an average 488,000 viewers and peaked at 590,000 viewers. Despite the commercial success of the fight, promoter Bob Arum believes it was meagre in comparison to the bout's potential. Arum said Fury vs. Wilder II could surpass Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao, which grossed over $600 million, saying: "They were the little guys, here we have the biggest men in the sport." Establishing himself in Las Vegas Fury vs. Schwarz After the fight with Wilder, Fury secured a five-fight contract with ESPN and Top Rank worth £80 million ($100 million). He made his return to the ring at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas against the WBO Inter-Continental heavyweight champion Tom Schwarz (24–0, 16 KOs) on 15 June 2019. This was Fury's first fight in Las Vegas. Schwarz was ranked #2 by the WBO and #9 by the IBF at the time. Fury weighed 263 pounds (119 kg), compared to Schwarz's 235+1⁄2 pounds (106.8 kg). He was in complete control of the fight, peppering the undefeated Schwarz in round one before finishing him in the second round by TKO, to take Schwarz's WBO Inter-Continental title. During the fight, Fury purposely backed up against the ropes and let Schwarz unload, using head movement to evade the strikes and generating applause from the 9,000 people in attendance. Fury vs. Wallin Fury fought again in Las Vegas against former WBA Continental heavyweight champion Otto Wallin (20–0, 13 KOs) on 14 September, at the T-Mobile Arena. Promoter Frank Warren said: "It is another undefeated boxer he is facing and a contest where a victory will set up the Deontay Wilder rematch." Wallin was ranked #4 by the WBA and #12 by the IBF at heavyweight. Fury scaled at 254.4 pounds (115.4 kg), his lightest since facing Klitschko in 2015, when he weighed 247 pounds (112 kg). The Swedish southpaw Wallin came in at exactly 236 pounds (107 kg). Fury won by unanimous decision 116–112, 117–111, and 118–110. Fury suffered a serious cut above his right eye in the third round from a short left hook, as well as a cut over his right eyelid from an accidental clash of heads in the fifth which affected his vision for the rest of the fight and prompted a ringside doctor to be consulted in the sixth. After an examination, Fury said he was able to continue and the doctor agreed. In the second half of the fight, Fury repeatedly hit Wallin with solid shots. Wallin came back in the twelfth with his best punch of the fight, a clean left hand which momentarily troubled Fury. After tying Wallin up in a clinch, Fury saw out the round, receiving the decision victory and the WBC Mayan belt, a commemorative title awarded to the winner of a high-profile fight held during Mexican national holidays. According to CompuBox, Fury landed 179 of 651 total punches (27%) while Wallin connected with 127 of 334 total punches (38%). Of these total punches, Fury landed 127 power punches to Wallin's 84. In his in-ring interview, Fury praised the performance of Wallin, who was a more than 10–1 underdog, and expressed condolences as Wallin's father had recently died. Fury then called out Wilder for a rematch in February 2020. WBC and The Ring heavyweight champion Fury vs. Wilder II On 27 November 2019, ESPN announced that Fury would face Deontay Wilder on 22 February 2020, in a rematch of their bout in 2018, which resulted in a controversial draw. In the build-up to the rematch, Fury split with trainer Ben Davison, who had coached Fury since late 2017 and helped him lose the large amount of weight he had gained during his hiatus and restore him to fighting condition. Davison was nominated for 2018 Trainer of the Year due to his role in Fury's successful return to the ring. The split was described as amicable and Davison wished Fury good luck in the rematch against Wilder. Fury then announced he had partnered with SugarHill Steward, nephew of Hall-of-Fame trainer Emanuel Steward, and that he would return to Kronk Gym, where he briefly trained in 2010. The rematch was officially announced on 27 December 2019, and the venue was set as the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The fight contract included a clause in which the loser can invoke a trilogy fight if he chooses. Fury weighed in at 273 pounds (124 kg), the third heaviest weight of his professional career and 17 pounds (7.7 kg) heavier than his weight for the first Wilder bout. He stated in the lead-up to the fight that he wanted extra size and power to look for a knockout. Wilder weighed in at 231 pounds (105 kg), the heaviest of his career. Fury started the fight by taking the centre of the ring and establishing his jab. He looked for some big shots, while evading Wilder's swings. In the third round, Fury floored Wilder with a strong right hand to the temple. Wilder beat the count and survived the round but was visibly disoriented, as blood began to stream from his left ear. Wilder fell to the canvas twice more, but they were ruled as slips by the referee Kenny Bayless, before Fury knocked Wilder down again in the fifth round with a quick combination punctuated by a left hook to the body. Wilder made it to his feet again, but was unable to muster much in the way of a counterattack and he was now bleeding from the mouth as well as the ear. The fight was stopped midway through the seventh round after a flurry of hard-hitting shots from Fury caused Wilder's corner to throw in the towel to save him from further punishment. At the time of stoppage, Fury was ahead on all three judges' scorecards 59–52, 58–53, and 59–52, with the irregular scores due to Bayless deducting a point from Fury in the fifth for holding. According to CompuBox, Fury landed 82 of his 267 total punches (31%), including 58 out of 160 power punches (36%). Wilder landed 34 of his 141 total punches (24%), including 18 out of 55 power punches (33%). According to CompuBox, Fury landed 82 of his 267 total punches (31%), including 58 out of 160 power punches (36%). Wilder landed 34 of his 141 total punches (24%), including 18 out of 55 power punches (33%). Fury received widespread praise for his performance, with many believing that it established one of the best boxing comeback stories ever seen, and some stating that the victory placed him as one of the greatest heavyweight boxers in history. It made him the first man to defeat two champions who had 10 or more defences of their world championship (Klitschko with 18 defences, and Wilder with 10 defences). Fury also became the third heavyweight, after Muhammad Ali and Floyd Patterson, to hold The Ring magazine title twice, and the first heavyweight in history to have held the WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, WBO, and The Ring magazine titles. With a gate of $16,916,440, the fight broke the gate record for a heavyweight bout in Nevada set by Evander Holyfield vs. Lennox Lewis II in November 1999. Fury vs. Wilder III Deontay Wilder activated the clause for a second rematch fight with Tyson Fury after his loss to Fury in the first rematch. The trilogy fight was tentatively scheduled for July 2020, but this was later postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 11 June 2020, Anthony Joshua's promoter Eddie Hearn announced that Fury and Joshua had agreed a two-fight deal, provided that Fury defeated Wilder and Joshua defeated his mandatory challenger, Kubrat Pulev. Fury's promoter Bob Arum said in August 2020, "the WBC approved the trilogy contract and that provides for postponements. And certainly, if you can't do it with spectators, a reasonable postponement would be okay. It's a different kind of fight." On 12 October 2020, Fury announced that he was foregoing a trilogy fight with Wilder after organizers failed to deliver a date for the event in 2020. The Athletic reported "Fury had every intention of fighting Wilder in 2020 and made several concessions regarding rescheduled dates. However, he was unwilling to allow this situation to drag out, delaying a series of fights with Joshua while also keeping him out of the ring for an extended period of time." On 17 May 2021, the proposed unification fight between Fury and Joshua was thrown into serious doubt when arbitration judge Daniel Weinstein ruled that Fury will have to honour a contractual clause which mandates a third fight with Wilder. Subsequently, Bob Arum claimed that the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas had been reserved for 24 July in anticipation of Fury's trilogy fight with Wilder. On 22 May 2021, Fury announced during the broadcast of José Ramírez vs. Josh Taylor on ESPN that he had signed the contract for the Wilder trilogy fight, which ESPN showed footage of Fury signing. It was also confirmed by Wilder's manager Shelly Finkel that his fighter had signed the contract, and that the fight was on. Ahead of their pre-fight press conference on 15 June, the venue was officially confirmed as T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where Fury had previously defeated Otto Wallin by unanimous decision on 14 September 2019. The bout was postponed from the original date of 24 July until 9 October, after Fury's camp had an outbreak of COVID-19. At the pre-fight weigh-in on 8 October, both men weighed in at their respective career-heaviest weights, with the champion Fury weighing in at 277 lbs (19 st 11 lb), and the challenger Wilder at 238 lbs (17 st). On the night, both men exchanged a total of five knockdowns as Fury won the bout via eleventh-round knockout. Wilder had started the first round well, jabbing the champion to the body and landing several clean right hands to his chest and stomach, doing enough to win the first round on all three judges' scorecards. In the second, Fury landed some good shots in the clinch. Midway through the third, Fury sent Wilder to the canvas with a series of hard right hands, and continued to pummel him as Wilder was effectively saved by the bell. Wilder came back in the fourth with a vicious short right hand that put Fury down on the canvas. Wilder continued coming forwards, and sent the champion down again towards the end of the round. In the middle rounds, Fury recovered and started landing with more regularity, racking up a commanding lead on the cards and marking up Wilder's face badly, with the latter now visibly exhausted as a result of all of the punishment he had taken. In the tenth, Wilder was decked by a huge right hook, but came back yet again with a huge series of wild swings that caught Fury at the bell. With Wilder badly hurt and bleeding, Fury managed to finish his opponent in the eleventh round with a clean right hook thrown from the clinch. Referee Robert Mora waved the contest off with Wilder face-down on the canvas. After the fight, Fury praised his opponent, calling Wilder a "top fighter", but criticised him for being a "sore loser" and refusing to "show any sportsmanship or respect". In his post-fight interview, Fury stated "I'm a sportsman. I went over to him to show some love and respect and he didn't show it back. I will pray for him so that God will soften his heart." Fury then added that it "was a great fight tonight, worthy of the best of trilogies." Fury asserted his view that he is the best boxer in his division, stating "I'm now the greatest heavyweight of my era, without a doubt." At the time of the stoppage, Fury was winning the bout on all three scorecards with 95–91, 94–92, and 95–92. According to CompuBox, Fury landed 150 of 385 punches (39%), while Wilder connected with 72 of 355 punches (20%). The 150 punches landed on Wilder is the most ever landed by an opponent. Despite the back and forth nature of the bout, CompuBox calculated Fury as having outlanded Wilder in every single round of the fight, including the fourth round in which Fury was knocked down twice. The fight was widely acclaimed by observers and pundits for its action and high-level intensity: hall-of-fame promoter Bob Arum said, "I've been in this business 57 years promoting fights and I have to say I've truly never seen a heavyweight fight as magnificent as this", while the Ring magazine described it as "the obvious fight of the year so far" and "a rare and historic heavyweight championship trilogy". Fury vs. Whyte On 30 December 2021, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman, who had ordered Fury to defend his WBC title against mandatory challenger Dillian Whyte, ruled that Fury as the reigning champion would be entitled to 80% of the purse, compared to Whyte's 20% as the challenger. Sulaiman had set a deadline of 11 January 2022 for purse bids, as the two fighters' camps could not agree to terms. However, this deadline was pushed back multiple times, in part due to ongoing negotiations from Fury's team who were trying to secure the fight for the undisputed heavyweight championship against undefeated WBA (Super), IBF and WBO heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk. A fight between Fury and Usyk did not materialise, as deposed former champion Anthony Joshua was unwilling to step aside to allow the two champions to fight. The deadline for the Fury-Whyte purse bids was ultimately scheduled for 28 January 2022, when it was announced that Frank Warren's Queensberry Promotions had won the rights to promote the fight, with a winning bid of $41,025,000 (£31 million), beating out the $32,222,222 (£24 million) bid submitted by Eddie Hearn's Matchroom. Warren's bid was reported to be the highest successful purse bid in boxing history. Fury reacted to the news, stating on social media that he is "coming home", suggesting that the fight against Whyte would be the first time he would box on U.K. soil since his August 2018 win against Francesco Pianeta. On 25 February, it was officially announced that the fight would be taking place at Wembley Stadium in London, England on 23 April. The first press conference for the fight took place on 1 March at Wembley Stadium, with Whyte absent. Whyte's lawyer stated that his client would not be partaking in promoting the fight, as "we still do not have things resolved". Despite his opponent's non-attendance, Fury as usual was "in full showman mode", declaring, "Even Tyson Fury versus his own shadow sells", and promising that the fight "is going to be a Ferrari racing a Vauxhall Corsa". When asked about Whyte's no-show, Fury opined, "He's definitely shown the white flag in my estimation." In addition, he stated that his bout against Whyte would be the final fight of his professional career, promising to retire after the fight: "I'm a two-time undisputed world champion. [I have] £150m in the bank and nothing to prove to anybody." Tickets for the fight went on sale on 2 March. 85,000 of the 90,000 available tickets were sold within the first 3 hours, prompting Fury's promoter Frank Warren to begin the process of applying to the local authorities to expand the capacity to 100,000 fans, which would make Fury-Whyte the largest post-war boxing attendance in the history of the United Kingdom. The contest ultimately took place in front of a record-breaking crowd of 94,000 fans: 4,000 more than the attendance of Anthony Joshua vs. Wladimir Klitschko which also took place at Wembley Stadium in 2017, thus setting a new attendance record for a boxing match in Europe. Fury was given a rousing reception by the crowd as he made his way to the ring in an attire of red and white, paying homage to Saint George's Day to the backdrop of "Juicy" by The Notorious B.I.G. and "Sex on Fire" by Kings of Leon, in contrast to the boos received by his opponent Whyte during his own ring-walk. Whyte unexpectedly boxed the first round in the southpaw stance, which was unusual for the primarily orthodox fighter. After a cautious first three minutes, Fury returned the favour at the start of the second round by switching between the southpaw and orthodox stances. The champion found success with the jab and check hook. In the fourth round, Whyte was cut over his right eye after a clash of heads. Fury continued to dominate the fight, landing a straight right in the fifth round which appeared to momentarily stun the challenger. With around ten seconds left of the sixth round, Fury landed a left jab, followed by a right uppercut which sent Whyte sprawling to the canvas. Although Whyte was able to beat the count and rise to his feet, the referee deemed it unsafe for him to continue, halting the fight after two minutes and fifty-nine seconds of the sixth round, declaring Fury the winner by sixth-round technical knockout. At the time of the stoppage, Fury was winning the bout on all three scorecards with 49–46, 48–47, and 50–45. In his post-fight ring interview, Fury claimed that the fight against Whyte was the last of his professional boxing career: "I've been in this game 20 years, I'm 34 in a few months. I said the third Wilder fight would be my last but I felt I owed the fans one last homecoming. This is definitely the end of the Gypsy King and I went out with a bang. Tonight was amazing but this is the end." Fury appeared to have no regrets, stating, "I fulfilled everything I've ever wanted to fulfil. I will retire as only the second heavyweight in history, after Rocky Marciano, to retire undefeated. I was unbeatable at this game." He announced his retirement on 12 August 2022 and relinquished his Ring title. Fury vs. Chisora III On 20 October 2022, it was announced that Fury would return from his short-lived retirement to defend his WBC title against Derek Chisora in a trilogy bout on 3 December at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, live on BT Sport Box Office. On the night of the fight, Fury defeated Chisora via 10th-round TKO in front of a crowd of 60,000 fans, in a dominant performance. After the fight, Fury called on fellow undefeated heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk, who was seated ringside at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, to join him between the ropes. Fury indicated his preference to face Usyk as his next opponent to determine the undisputed heavyweight champion. Fury added he would be happy to face WBO interim champion Joe Joyce, who had also joined Fury and Usyk ringside post-fight. Fury vs. Ngannou Fury faced former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on 28 October 2023, in what was Ngannou's professional boxing debut. WBC officials confirmed the fight would be ten rounds and count as an official bout, although Fury's title would not be at stake. Fury entered the fight as a 14–1 favourite, but he was knocked down in the third round. He went on to win the bout via controversial split decision. One judge scored the bout 95–94 to Ngannou, while the other two judges had it 96–93 and 95–94 in Fury's favour. According to CompuBox, Fury outlanded Ngannou 71 to 59 in total punches, while Ngannou outlanded Fury 37 to 32 in power punches. When asked in his in-ring interview about the fight, Fury said "[Ngannou] is a lot better of a boxer than we thought he’d be. He’s a very awkward man, and he’s a good puncher, and I respect him a lot. [...] I don’t know how close [the fight] was, but I got the win and that’s what it is." Oleksandr Usyk, who was in attendance, then entered the ring and faced off with Fury to promote their scheduled bout for the undisputed heavyweight championship. Undisputed heavyweight championship challenge Fury vs. Usyk On 29 September 2023, it was announced Fury had signed a contract to face the unified WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight title in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The fight was originally scheduled for 23 December but was delayed to 17 February 2024 after Fury's bout with Francis Ngannou in October 2023. On 2 February, it was announced the fight had been postponed again after Fury suffered a cut in sparring above his right eye that required "urgent medical attention" and "significant stitching". The fight was rescheduled for 18 May 2024 and would crown the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the four belt era, as well as the first undisputed heavyweight champion in nearly 25 years. Fury lost the bout via split decision, the first loss in his professional boxing career. The opening rounds of the fight were closely contested, with Usyk applying constant pressure and landing power punches, while Fury found success with his jab, fighting off the back foot. From round 4, Fury became increasingly dominant, appearing to hurt Usyk with uppercuts in round 6. However, in the later rounds Usyk began to mount a comeback, particularly in a dramatic ninth round where he was able to badly hurt Fury with a series of punches, scoring a knockdown near the end of the round as Fury fell into the ropes. Although Fury was able to recover and attempted to rally, the judges ultimately awarded Usyk the victory. One judge had it 114–113 for Fury, while the other two scored it 115–112 and 114–113 in Usyk's favour. CompuBox suggested Fury had landed 157 of 496 punches (31.7%) whilst Usyk landed 170 of 407 (41.8%). Fury vs. Usyk II Fury and Usyk were expected to meet in a rematch in October 2024 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. On 29 May 2024 it was announced that the rematch was rescheduled for 21 December 2024. Professional wrestling Fury made an appearance in an angle on WWE's debut of SmackDown on Fox on 4 October 2019. Appearing as a fan, he stared down Braun Strowman during his match, and Strowman later threw one of his opponents, Dolph Ziggler, at Fury. After the match, Fury jumped the barricade, but was stopped by security. On 11 October, it was confirmed that Fury and Strowman would have a match at WWE Crown Jewel. At Crown Jewel on 31 October, Fury defeated Strowman via countout. Fury reportedly earned £11.9 million ($15 million) for his participation. Fury later made an appearance on 8 November episode of SmackDown at the Manchester Arena, shaking hands with Strowman and suggesting they form a tag team together before both being challenged by the B-Team (Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel), who they left laying in the ring. Other ventures In September 2019, Penguin Random House imprint Century secured the publishing rights to Fury's autobiography, titled Behind the Mask: My Autobiography. It was released on 14 November 2019 and reached the number-one bestseller position on Amazon with 24 hours of its release. His second book, entitled The Furious Method, was published in 2020. A self-help book, it is "full of inspirational advice for readers on how we can all improve our physical and mental health". The book was a commercial success, and is a Sunday Times bestseller. Fury appeared in a four-part ITV documentary named Meet the Furys, which followed the Fury family while Tyson was preparing to fight in Las Vegas for the first time. ITV later commissioned another documentary about Fury, titled Tyson Fury: The Gypsy King, which showed Fury and his family during the build-up to the Wilder rematch. A Netflix series about Fury and his family, At Home with the Furys, was released on 16 August 2023. Known for his habit of impromptu singing, Fury regularly gained media attention for singing songs in the boxing ring after matches and during promotional events. In 2019, Fury appeared as a guest vocalist on English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams' studio album The Christmas Present, for the song "Bad Sharon". On 11 November 2022, Fury released a cover of "Sweet Caroline" as a single to raise money for the men's mental health charity, Talk Club. Fury has expressed an interest in competing in mixed martial arts. In November 2019, he had a training session with Darren Till, who said there is a 70% chance that Fury will compete in MMA. Fury also mentioned that Conor McGregor has offered to train him should he crossover to MMA. On 16 February 2022, Fury launched a new range of energy drinks named Furocity Energy to rival market leaders Red Bull and Monster Energy. He has since released Furocity ice lollies, energy gum, and protein bars. Fury signed a sponsorship deal with local club Morecambe FC before their 2022-23 League One campaign, with the Gypsy King brand appearing on the team's shorts. Fury has displayed interest in purchasing the team. In the north east corner of the team's main stadium is a two-storey building which houses the Tyson Fury Foundation, and a gym which Fury purchased in August 2020. Fury said of the foundation (which houses boxing, football and rugby facilities) that "It’s giving the next Tyson Fury or the next Wayne Rooney the chance that we had." He also owns the fenced-off 3G pitches neighbouring the stadium. Public image After Fury became world champion in 2015, the British media began to scrutinise what he had said in the past. He received criticism for having said that he would "hang" his sister if she was promiscuous, as well as comments made in an interview before the Klitschko fight in which he denounced abortion, paedophilia, and homosexuality, saying that the legalisation of these behaviours would bring forth a Biblical reckoning. Fury was nominated for the 2015 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award but around 140,000 people signed a petition claiming that his equation of homosexuality with paedophilia should disqualify him. When asked about the petition by a BBC journalist, Fury quoted religious phrases, including "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved," along with John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life and shall not perish." Fury ultimately came fourth in the SPOTY award and said at the ceremony, "I've said a lot of stuff in the past and none of it is with intentions to hurt anybody. I apologise to anyone that's been hurt by it." Fury was later criticised for comments on transgender people and "Zionist Jewish people who own all the banks, all the papers, all the TV stations" in a May 2016 interview. The interview was later deleted and Fury apologised: "I said some things which may have hurt some people, which as a Christian man is not something I would ever want to do. Though it is not an excuse, sometimes the heightened media scrutiny has caused me to act out in public and then my words can get taken out of context. I mean no harm or disrespect to anyone and I know more is expected of me as an ambassador of British boxing and I promise in future to hold myself up to the highest possible standard." Fury was formerly known for his attention-grabbing antics, such as arriving at a press conference in a Lamborghini and wearing a Batman costume. After his hiatus, he has said that he does not want to "play a character anymore". He stated in November 2017, "I feel I have a story to tell, a massive one. The stuff I've been through, depression, mental health problems. It can help and inspire others. From 18 stone to 27. From a clean living man to drugs and alcohol and back to the heavyweight world champion again. I hope the legacy and story I leave behind will help others in the future of what to do and not to do." Although Fury has vowed to rein in his entertaining behaviour, he is still known for his vibrant personality, with promoter Bob Arum stating that he "hasn't seen a fighter with that much charisma since Muhammad Ali". Since his return to the ring and his strong performance against Wilder, Fury has been dubbed "The People's Champion" due to his open and honest discussion about his mental health struggles. He is currently an ambassador for the former British world champion Frank Bruno's mental health charity, The Frank Bruno Foundation. In June 2020, Fury publicly thanked Daniel Kinahan for his role in brokering a potential Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua fight. In 2018, an Irish High Court judge stated that Kinahan, who has no previous criminal convictions, is a senior figure in organised crime on a global scale. The Irish government expressed its "outrage" over the involvement of Kinahan in the brokering of the proposed fight. On 24 June 2020, it was announced that Fury had parted ways with Kinahan as an advisor. Fury was photographed alongside Kinahan in Dubai in February 2022. Fury was refused entry to the United States in June 2022, reportedly as a result of his links with Kinahan, who is subject to sanctions by the U.S. government's Office of Foreign Assets Control. Personal life Fury met his wife Paris (née Mullroy) when she was 15 and he was 17. They began dating the year after they met, and married in 2008 at St. Peter in Chains Catholic Church in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. The couple have seven children together: four sons (all named Prince) and three daughters. When Fury was asked why all of his sons had the first name Prince, he said, "I'm a king and they're princes until they earn their rightful name." He named his first son Prince after Prince Naseem, his favourite British fighter. Paris suffered a miscarriage before Fury's cancelled bout with Ustinov in 2014, and lost another child on the day of his comeback fight against Seferi in 2018. Fury's mother was a Protestant and his father is a Catholic, though neither actively practised their religions; he was instead introduced to religion by his uncle, a born-again Christian and Pentecostal preacher in the Irish Traveller community. The Guardian described Fury's beliefs as "a mixture of traditional Roman Catholic ... and a particularly literal interpretation of evangelical Christianity". His wife is a practising Catholic and was also raised in an Irish Traveller family. Fury and his family reside in Morecambe, Lancashire. He also owns a home in Las Vegas, but decided to let his boxing trainer live there because he is unsure about spending more time in the US. In September 2015, he expressed an interest in running to be an independent MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, stating that the government was too focused on providing services for immigrants and not enough on homeless people and those with drug and alcohol problems. In April 2016, Fury spoke about the racial abuse he receives as an Irish Traveller, stating that "no one wants to see a Gypsy do well". He stated, "I am a Gypsy and that's it. I will always be a Gypsy, I'll never change. I will always be fat and white and that's it. I am the champion yet I am thought of as a bum." Since his return from his hiatus, Fury has stated that he still feels bias against his community. Fury is a fan of Manchester United and attends football matches at their home ground Old Trafford. He also supports the England national team. Professional boxing record Viewership International Pay-per-view bouts Filmography Television Discography Singles Sweet Caroline (2022) Bibliography Non-fiction Behind the Mask: My Autobiography (2019) The Furious Method (2020) Gloves Off (2022) See also Notes References External links Official website Tyson Fury on Instagram Tyson Fury on X (formerly Twitter) Tyson Fury on Facebook Tyson Fury at BoxRec (registration required) Tyson Fury at Tapology.com

Mike_Tyson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Tyson

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

Mike_Tyson_vs._Buster_Douglas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Tyson_vs._Buster_Douglas

Mike Tyson vs. Buster Douglas, billed as Tyson is Back!, was a professional boxing match that occurred at the Tokyo Dome on February 11, 1990. The then-undefeated, undisputed heavyweight champion Tyson lost by knockout to the 42-1 underdog Douglas. The fight is widely regarded as one of the biggest upsets in sports history. Background Going into the fight, Mike Tyson was the undefeated and undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and was very popular at the time. He held the WBC, WBA, and IBF titles. Despite several controversies that marred Tyson's profile at the time, such as his allegedly abusive relationship with Robin Givens, contractual battles between longtime manager Bill Cayton and promoter Don King, and Tyson's departure from longtime trainer Kevin Rooney, Tyson was still dominant in the ring. He scored a 93-second knockout against Carl "The Truth" Williams in his previous fight. Most considered this fight to be a warm-up bout for Tyson before meeting up with then-undefeated number-one heavyweight contender Evander Holyfield (who was ringside for the fight). Tyson was viewed as such a dominant champion that he was often considered the number-one fighter in the world pound-for-pound (including by Ring Magazine), a rarity for heavyweights. Buster Douglas was ranked as the #7 heavyweight contender by Ring Magazine and had met with mixed success in his professional career up to that point. His previous title fight was against Tony Tucker in 1987, in which he was TKO'd in the 10th round. However, six consecutive wins since the Tucker fight—including victories over former world champion Trevor Berbick and future world champion Oliver McCall—gave him the opportunity to fight Tyson. In the time leading up to the fight, Douglas faced a number of personal setbacks, including the death of his mother, Lula Pearl, 23 days before the fight. Additionally, the mother of his son had a severe kidney ailment, and he had contracted the flu on the day before the fight. HBO boxing analysts Larry Merchant and Jim Lampley expected to see "another 90-second annihilation." (When asked by a Japanese customs official how long he expected to be working in Japan, Ed Schuyler of the Associated Press replied, "Oh, about ninety seconds.") Instead of discussing Douglas's chances against Tyson, Merchant and Lampley compared their pets: Tyson had a white pitbull named "Duran" (after his idol Roberto Durán) while Douglas had a beagle named "Shakespeare." Merchant, after saying that "this fight is over before it begins or soon thereafter" and describing Douglas as "just another frozen tuna" from the Tokyo fish market, opined that "any prizefighter with a dog named Shakespeare can't be all-bad." In an interview given to HBO prior to the fight, Douglas told reporters that his favorite Shakespeare play was the romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Lampley suggested that if Tyson were asked the same question (assuming he had read Shakespeare), he would choose something more bloody and violent, such as Henry the Fifth or Macbeth. Singer Bobby Brown wrote in his autobiography that he met with Tyson in Tokyo and the two partied extensively the night before the fight. Brown claims Tyson refused to go to sleep early for the fight, deeming Douglas "an amateur" he could beat "if I didn't sleep for five weeks". Fight From the beginning of the fight, it was apparent that Douglas was not afraid. Douglas displayed a lot of spring in his body movement and was not cautious in letting his punches fly whenever he saw the opportunity to attack Tyson. He used his quick and accurate jab to prevent Tyson from getting inside, where Tyson was most dangerous. When Tyson tried to get inside, Douglas tied him up, moved away, or would immediately hit Tyson with multiple punches as Tyson came within Douglas' range. Early on, Douglas was more agile than Tyson and outlanded Tyson in exchanges. Douglas finished the second round with a snappy uppercut to Tyson's chin. Seeming to regain his form, Tyson landed a punishing left to the body that had Douglas look at his corner. After an ineffectual and lackluster third round, Tyson cornerman Jay Bright screamed at his fighter "Don't just stand there and look at him, you've gotta work!" Boxer "Sugar" Ray Leonard, at ringside doing commentary for HBO, noted Douglas' dominance with the jab and right hand and said Tyson was having one of those occasional days in the ring where "you just don't have it...things just don't click in". Douglas would still dominate the middle rounds, although Tyson managed to land a few of his signature uppercuts. Tyson was wobbled by a chopping right during the fifth round. Soon, Tyson's left eye began to swell from Douglas' right jabs, preventing him from seeing his opponent's punches well. Tyson's cornermen were caught unprepared; they were so confident Tyson would easily beat Douglas that they had not brought an endswell or ice packs, usually standard equipment for a fight. Instead, they filled a latex glove with ice water and held it on Tyson's eye between rounds. Aaron Snowell, Tyson's primary cornerman, at one point caught the chain from the identification badge hanging from his neck between the iced glove and Tyson's eye. Tyson winced in pain as Snowell moved dragging the chain from one side of his injured eye to the other. Confusion and panic grew in his corner as the fight went on. Despite Tyson's inability to execute an effective fight plan, his corner continued to give him the same advice between rounds to move his head, jab his way inside and deliver a right hand. In the eighth round -- a round Douglas dominated until the last few seconds -- HBO's Larry Merchant noted, "Douglas is asking of Tyson some questions he hasn't been asked before...in the last few rounds of a fight, you have to come back and win it." Within the last ten seconds of the eighth round, Tyson, who had been backed onto the ropes, landed a big right uppercut that sent Douglas to the canvas. Although the knockdown timekeeper began when Douglas's backside touched the ring's surface, the referee was said to have started his own count behind by two beats. Douglas rose as the referee signaled nine, but the bell ended the round. In obvious annoyance at his own lapse, Douglas pounded his left fist on the mat. Tyson promoter Don King would later argue the validity of the referee count in vain. In the ninth round, Tyson came out aggressively to try to end the fight and save his title, hoping that Douglas was still hurt from the knockdown. Douglas was able to fight off Tyson's attack and was able to close Tyson's eye completely. Both men traded punches before Douglas connected on a four-punch combination that staggered Tyson back to the ropes. With Tyson hurt along the ropes, Douglas closed in and unleashed a four-punch attack to try to knock Tyson out. Tyson withstood the punishment and barely survived the round. In the tenth round, Tyson pushed forward, but he was still hurting from the accumulation of punishment he had absorbed throughout the match. As Tyson advanced, Douglas measured him with a few jabs before landing an uppercut that snapped Tyson's head upward, stopping Tyson in his tracks. As Tyson reeled back, Douglas immediately followed with four punches to the head, knocking Tyson down for the first time in his career. In a famous scene, Tyson fumbled for his mouthpiece on the canvas before sticking one end in his mouth with the other end hanging out. The champion attempted to make it back to his feet, but referee Octavio Meyran counted him out. Buster Douglas thus became the new undisputed heavyweight champion, engineering one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. The official scorecards through nine rounds were 87–86 for Tyson, 86–86, and 88–83 for Douglas. During the post-fight interview, Douglas broke down in tears when asked why he was able to win this fight when no one thought he could. "Because of my mother...God bless her heart," said the emotional new champion. Merchant concluded that it was the expulsion of Kevin Rooney, who still rooted for Tyson every time he watched him fight (despite their split), which led to the stunning knockout loss. Merchant said Tyson needed Rooney in much the same way that Muhammad Ali needed Angelo Dundee. Merchant speculated that with Rooney in his corner, Tyson would have managed to end the fight on his feet, and to change the tide of the fight, exactly as in the Tucker fight, after he was rocked in the first round but weathered the storm with Rooney's help and came back determined to win, outboxing his opponent. Butch Lewis shared the same opinion, believing that after he got rid of Rooney, Tyson found himself in a situation where there was no one to enforce compliance with the training regimen and a normal daily routine, and tell him "Back on track, Mike!" when needed. So did Jerry Izenberg, who commented: "They assemble a corner for that fight which looks like it was picked up out of the semi-finals of the Intercity Golden Gloves." Aftermath and legacy As a 42-1 underdog, Douglas earned $1.3 million from the fight while Tyson got $6 million. Tyson's camp, led by Don King, immediately protested the result, claiming that Douglas had been given a long count by referee Octavio Meyran. The WBA and WBC initially agreed and suspended recognition of Douglas as champion, although the IBF immediately accepted that the result was valid. After a public outcry and demands from boxing commissions around the world that they acknowledge Douglas as the champion, the protest was withdrawn and Douglas' win was recognised four days after the fight. In spite of Douglas' inspired and dominant performance, a sizable number of boxing fans viewed the fight outcome as an aberration, leading to interest in a rematch. In an HBO studio interview with Merchant the following week, Douglas stated the protest and post-fight confusion ruined what should have been the best time of his life. At the time of the fight, Don King was said to have been negotiating for Tyson's next fight to be in the fall in Berlin against former champion Greg Page, who had decked Tyson while sparring with him three weeks before the Douglas fight. A future Mike Tyson versus George Foreman fight to be promoted by the Sultan of Brunei was also shelved. Plans for a rematch fell through, so Douglas' first title defence was against No. 1 contender Evander Holyfield. An overweight Douglas, weighing 14.5 pounds (6.6 kg) more than in the Tyson fight, was knocked out by Holyfield in the third round. Douglas retired after the fight. Six years later, he launched a comeback after almost dying in a diabetic coma and won a few fights against journeyman opposition. He fought for the last time in 1999. Despite rumours of a rematch with Tyson throughout the 1990s, they never faced each other again. Tyson would fight four more times after the Douglas fight before being convicted of raping beauty pageant contestant Desiree Washington in 1991. Following his release from the Indiana Youth Center in 1995 he quickly regained the WBA and WBC world titles, before losing them to Holyfield and was never again a world champion. He fought on sporadically for another decade and lost in another title challenge against Lennox Lewis in 2002. He retired from boxing in 2005 after consecutive losses to journeymen. Buster Douglas went down in sports lore as a prize fighter who defied the odds to pull off one of the biggest upsets in sports history. Among the honors was a cover photo on an issue of Sports Illustrated with the title "Rocky Lives!," after the popular film series about a similarly underestimated boxing hero. For Tyson, though he retained a menacing aura for years afterwards, "the mystique of the untouchable, invincible 'Baddest Man on the Planet' had been shattered." Tyson himself knew as much, stating after he ended his career by losing to unheralded Kevin McBride in 2005, "My career has been over since 1990." The fight is often ranked among the biggest upsets in sports history. In popular culture The fight appeared in the Mike Tyson Mysteries episode "Help a Brother Out". Douglas's upset against Tyson is the inspiration for The Killers' song "Tyson vs Douglas" from their Wonderful Wonderful album. Singer songwriter Brandon Flowers used the childhood memory of watching the seemingly invincible Tyson lose as the motivation for a song that's about "me and my family, and the way I’m perceived by my kids. I don’t want them to see me go down like Tyson." The song also features audio of the commentators for the fight. The fight is referenced in a short film by Paradigm Studios when a boxer, who came out of retirement, made a promise to his dying son; the short film also references how Douglas made a promise to his dying mother that he would win. Undercard Confirmed bouts: Broadcasting References This was in 1992, as no award in 1991.

Tyson_Fury_vs_Oleksandr_Usyk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyson_Fury_vs_Oleksandr_Usyk

Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk, billed as Ring of Fire, was a heavyweight professional boxing match contested between WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury and unified WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO, and The Ring heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk for the undisputed heavyweight championship. It was scheduled to take place on 17 February 2024 at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, then postponed due to a facial injury sustained by Fury in training. It was rescheduled the next day and took place on 18 May 2024 at the same venue. Usyk won by split decision. Background and buildup The fight crowned the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 2000, as well as the first in the four-belt era. In addition to the four sanctioned belts, special commemorative belts were made specifically for the fight on 18 May 2024. Queensbury Promotions made a special edition belt for the undisputed heavyweight. Then, the WBC also made the Fury-Usyk belt, which was blessed by Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church. On 25 October 2023, Fury and Usyk took to social media to announce that they had signed for a bout, with a date of 23 December being reported but not officially announced. It was also reported that Anthony Joshua vs Deontay Wilder would serve as the co-feature. On 28 October, after Fury defeated former UFC Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou, he demanded that the bout with Usyk must be postponed because of injuries he sustained in the fight, despite Usyk stating that they were contracted for 23 December 2023. On 29 October, it was announced that the bout would take place in early 2024. On 16 November, the bout was officially announced to take place on 17 February 2024 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with a launch press conference in London. The fight was officially postponed on 2 February 2024, with the idea of rescheduling for 2024 once a doctor could determine the recovery time for a cut sustained by Tyson Fury in training. Fury's promoter Queensberry Promotions confirmed the injury. The whole card was rescheduled for 18 May 2024; the decision was made quickly by the event's organizer in Saudi Arabia, Turki Alalshikh. DAZN PPV covered the fight globally. Viewers in Middle East and North Africa countries could watch the event via Webook. In UK and Ireland, the fight was aired live on both PPV's Sky and TNT Sports Box Office channels. In Ukraine, the fight was streamed live on MEGOGO. In the US, the fight was streamed live via ESPN+ PPV. Fight Fury was described by BBC Sport as showboating during the first round, during which Usyk landed a left hook. The three judges all agreed that the first round was 10–9 in favour of Usyk. In the second and third round, Usyk was moving forward, while Fury was moving backwards, in a somewhat even bout. Fury established momentum in the fourth round, with multiple uppercuts. In the fifth round, Fury started moving forward and focused on punches to Usyk's body. In the sixth round, Fury uppercutted Usyk's body and nose. In the seventh round, Fury started dominant, but Usyk began to throw better punches to the head. The three judges all agreed that the fifth, sixth, and seventh rounds were 10–9 in Fury's favour. In the eighth round, Usyk landed a right punch that caused for Fury to touch his nose, then another Usyk right punch hurt Fury's right eye; Fury bled from the face at the end of the round, and this seemed to affect him in the next round. In the ninth round, Usyk landed an unanswered series of 14 punches, including several overhand lefts, during which and after Fury was wobbling and stumbling around into the ring ropes, which held him up. At this point, BBC Sport described Fury as being "seemingly out on his feet", while The Guardian reported that Fury's "eyes glazed", the "referee could have stopped the fight", and that "Fury has been down in the past but we've never seen him hurt this badly!" Referee Mark Nelson registered this as a knockdown of Fury (the ninth of Fury's career), and gave Fury a standing eight count, after which the round ended. Fury was "saved by the bell" in the ninth round, concurred Yahoo! Sports and the Associated Press. In the tenth round, Usyk did not rush his advantage, which allowed Fury to recover, but Usyk did continue to land occasional overhand lefts. The three judges all agreed that the eighth, ninth, and tenth rounds were 10–9, 10–8, and 10–9 respectively, in favour of Usyk. In the eleventh round, Usyk continued to land left hands, but Fury showed some recovery to fight back. In the twelfth and final round, Fury came back with some right punches, and the judges recorded that he won it unanimously 10–9. The fight went down to the judges' scorecards, with Usyk defeating Fury by split decision, with judge Manuel Oliver Palermo scoring it 115–112 for Usyk, judge Craig Metcalfe scoring it 114–113 for Fury, and judge Mike Fitzgerald scoring it 114–113 for Usyk. Statistics Card ^Note 1 For WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, WBO, IBO, and The Ring heavyweight titles ^Note 2 For The Ring and vacant IBF cruiserweight titles ^Note 3 For IBF and IBO super-featherweight titles Main event official scorecard Source: Yahoo! Sports Aftermath Usyk broke down in tears in the ring after his victory was announced and dedicated it to his family, his team, and the people of Ukraine. After the fight, Fury commented: "I believe he won a few of the rounds but I won the majority of them … His country's at war, so people are siding with the country at war, but make no mistake, I won that fight … I'll be back. I've got a rematch clause." Fury raised the possibility of a rematch "in October", and eventually declared: "Happy New Year!" Usyk responded to Fury, stating, "If he wants, I'm ready for a rematch." Usyk suffered a suspected broken jaw from the bout and went to the hospital after his press conference. Although, Usyk did not break his jaw. Fury was given a 1 week medical suspension following the fight. In its next update of the rankings, The Ring returned Usyk to the No.1 spot in the pound-for-pound rankings, which he had previously lost to Terence Crawford on 29 July. Along with Usyk's team, a few commentators, like TNT Sports' David Haye, felt Usyk was robbed by the referee of a win by technical knockout in the ninth round. Usyk's win made him the first new undisputed heavyweight champion in 24 years. Lennox Lewis held the title for five months after he defeated Evander Holyfield in November 1999. In a post-match analysis, analysts wrote that Usyk's hall of fame case is "beyond cemented" and that he is an all-time great after his win. Two-division undisputed champion Terence Crawford, ESPN's top-ranked pound for pound boxer, declared Usyk a candidate for the No. 1 position. The tentatively scheduled rematch is set for 12 October 2024. Main event unofficial scorecards Financial details The event reportedly sold over 1.5 million pay-per-view buys, mostly in the UK, and this generated over $50 million. The event also made $40 million in advertising and $3 million gate at the arena. However, according to ESPN, the revenue failed to cover total expenses. At least 20 million people watched the fight through piracy streams. Of those 20 million, approximately 45% were from the mainland Europe and 18% were from the UK. The financial loss from illegal streaming is estimated to be around $120 million. The total purse is reported to be worth around $150 million (£116 million), with Fury being guaranteed 70% of the purse, or £81.2 million (around $105 million). Usyk reportedly secured $45 million. With the UK tax rate in place for Fury, he will henceforth contribute a minimum of £45 million of his purse to the British government. Rematch On 29 May, Turki Alalshikh announced that the rematch is scheduled to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 21 December. References Burton, Harvey (17 November 2024). "Oleksandr Usyk's Weight Announced Incorrectly at the Final Weigh-In". NoSmokeSport.com. Retrieved 19 May 2024. Desai, Darshan (14 May 2024). "Fury vs Usyk UK Time, Fight Card, PPV Price, TV Channel, Ring Walks". NoSmokeSport.com. Retrieved 19 May 2024.

Blue_moon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_moon

A blue moon refers either to the presence of a second full moon in a calendar month, to the third full moon in a season containing four, or to a moon that appears blue due to atmospheric effects. The calendrical meaning of "blue moon" is unconnected to the other meanings. It is often referred to as “traditional”, but since no occurrences are known prior to 1937 it is better described as an invented tradition or “modern American folklore”. The practice of designating the second full moon in a month as "blue" originated with amateur astronomer James Hugh Pruett in 1946. It does not come from Native American lunar tradition, as is sometimes supposed. The moon - not necessarily full - can sometimes appear blue due to atmospheric emissions from large forest fires or volcanoes, though the phenomenon is rare and unpredictable (hence the saying “once in a blue moon”). A calendrical blue moon (by Pruett's definition) is predictable and relatively common, happening 7 times in every 19 years (i.e. once every 2 or 3 years). Calendrical blue moons occur because the time between successive full moons (approximately 29.5 days) is shorter than the average calendar month. They are of no astronomical or historical significance, and are not a product of actual lunisolar timekeeping or intercalation. Phrase origin A 1528 satire, Rede Me and Be Nott Wrothe, contained the lines, “Yf they saye the mone is belewe / We must beleve that it is true.” The intended sense was of an absurd belief, like the moon being made of cheese. There is nothing to connect it with the later metaphorical or calendrical meanings of “blue moon”. However, a confusion of belewe (Middle English, “blue”) with belǽwan (Old English “to betray”)) led to a false etymology for the calendrical term that remains widely circulated, despite its originator having acknowledged it as groundless. Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem "Alastor" (1816) mentioned an erupting volcano: 7  and a “blue moon / Low in the west.” : 14  It was written at a time when the eruption of Mount Tambora was causing global climate effects, and not long before the first recorded instances of “blue moon” as a metaphor. The OED cites Pierce Egan’s Real Life in London (1821) as the earliest known occurrence of “blue moon” in the metaphorical sense of a long time. (“How's Harry and Ben?—haven't seen you this blue moon.”) An 1823 revision of Francis Grose’s ‘’Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue’’, edited by Egan, included the definition: “Blue moon. In allusion to a long time before such a circumstance happens. ‘O yes, in a blue moon.’” An earlier (1811) version of the same dictionary had not included the phrase, so it was likely coined some time in the 1810s. "Once in a blue moon" is recorded from 1833. The use of blue moon to mean a specific calendrical event dates from 1937, when the Maine Farmers' Almanac used the term in a slightly different sense from the one now in common use. According to the OED, “Earlier occurrences of the sense given in the Maine Farmers' Almanac have not been traced, either in editions of the Almanac prior to 1937, or elsewhere; the source of this application of the term (if it is not a coinage by the editor, H. P. Trefethen) is unclear.” The conjecture of editorial invention is further supported by the spurious explanation the almanac gave: The Moon usually comes full twelve times in a year, three times in each season... However, occasionally the moon comes full thirteen times in a year. This was considered a very unfortunate circumstance, especially by the monks who had charge of the calendar. It became necessary for them to make a calendar of thirteen months, and it upset the regular arrangement of church festivals. For this reason thirteen came to be considered an unlucky number. Also, this extra moon had a way of coming in each of the seasons so that it could not be given a name appropriate to the time of year like the other moons. It was usually called the Blue Moon... In olden times the almanac makers had much difficulty calculating the occurrence of the Blue Moon and this uncertainty gave rise to the expression "Once in a Blue Moon". There is no evidence that an extra moon in a month, season or year was considered unlucky, or that it led to 13 being considered unlucky, or that the extra moon was called "blue", or that it led to the phrase "once in a blue moon". There is good reason to suspect that the 1937 article was a hoax, practical joke, or simply misinformed. It is however true that the date of the Christian festival of Easter depended on an accurate computation of full moon dates, and important work was done by the monks Dionysius Exiguus and Bede, explained by the latter in The Reckoning of Time, written c725 CE. According to Bede, “Whenever it was a common year, [the Anglo-Saxons] gave three lunar months to each season. When an embolismic year occurred (that is, one of 13 lunar months) they assigned the extra month to summer, so that three months together bore the name ‘‘Litha’’; hence they called [the embolismic] year ‘‘Thrilithi’’. It had four summer months, with the usual three for the other seasons.” The name Litha is now applied by some Neo-Pagans to midsummer. The 1937 Maine Farmers' Almanac article was misinterpreted by James Hugh Pruett in a 1946 Sky and Telescope article, leading to the calendrical definition of “blue moon” that is now most commonly used, i.e. the second full moon in a calendar month. “A blue moon in the original Maine Farmers' Almanac sense can only occur in the months of February, May, August, and November. In the later sense, one can occur in any month except February." This later sense gained currency from its use in a United States radio programme, StarDate on January 31, 1980 and in a question in the Trivial Pursuit game in 1986. Several songs have been titled "Blue Moon", seen as a "symbol of sadness and loneliness." Visually blue moon The moon (and sun) can appear blue under certain atmospheric conditions – for instance, if volcanic eruptions or large-scale fires release particles into the atmosphere of just the right size to preferentially scatter red light. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, scattering is the cause of “that epitome of rare occurrences, the blue Moon (seen when forest fires produce clouds composed of small droplets of organic compounds).” A Royal Society report on the 1883 Krakatoa eruption gave a detailed account of “blue, green, and other coloured appearances of the sun and moon” seen in many places for months afterwards.: xiii . The report mentioned that in February 1884 an observer in central America saw the crescent moon as “a magnificent emerald-green” while its ashen part was “pale green”. Venus, bright stars and a comet were also green.: 173  The report authors suspected that green moons were a contrast effect, since in those cases the surrounding sky was seen as red.: 203  People saw blue moons in 1983 after the eruption of the El Chichón volcano in Mexico, and there are reports of blue moons caused by Mount St. Helens in 1980 and Mount Pinatubo in 1991. The moon looked blue after forest fires in Sweden and Canada in 1950 and 1951, On September 23, 1950, several muskeg fires that had been smoldering for several years in Alberta, Canada, suddenly blew up into major—and very smoky—fires. Winds carried the smoke eastward and southward with unusual speed, and the conditions of the fire produced large quantities of oily droplets of just the right size (about 1 micrometre in diameter) to scatter red and yellow light. Wherever the smoke cleared enough so that the sun was visible, it was lavender or blue. Ontario, Canada, and much of the east coast of the United States were affected by the following day, and two days later, observers in Britain reported an indigo sun in smoke-dimmed skies, followed by an equally blue moon that evening. Ice particles might have a similar effect. The Antarctic diary of Robert Falcon Scott for July 11, 1911 mentioned "the air thick with snow, and the moon a vague blue". The key to a blue moon is having many particles slightly wider than the wavelength of red light (0.7 micrometer)—and no other sizes present. Ash and dust clouds thrown into the atmosphere by fires and storms usually contain a mixture of particles with a wide range of sizes, with most smaller than 1 micrometer, and they tend to scatter blue light. This kind of cloud makes the moon turn red; thus red moons are far more common than blue moons. Calendrical blue moon Blue moon as a calendrical term originated with the 1937 Maine Farmers’ Almanac, a provincial U.S. magazine that is not to be confused with the Farmers' Almanac, Old Farmer's Almanac, or other American almanacs. There is no evidence of “blue moon” having been used as a specific calendrical term before 1937, and it was possibly invented by the magazine’s editor, Henry Porter Trefethen (1887-1957). As a term for the second full moon in a calendar month it began to be widely known in the U.S. in the mid-1980s and became internationally known in the late 1990s when calendrical matters were of special interest given the approaching millennium. It created a misapprehension that the calendrical meaning of “blue moon” had preceded the metaphorical one, and inspired various folk etymologies, e.g. the “betrayer” speculation mentioned earlier, or that it came from a printing convention in calendars or a saying in Czech. A 1997 Taiwanese movie, Blue Moon, had the log line “There is usually only one full moon every month, but occasionally there are two – and that second full moon is called the Blue Moon. It is said that when a person sees a blue moon and makes a wish, he will be granted a second chance in things.” In 1999 folklorist Philip Hiscock presented a timeline for the calendrical term. First, the August page of the 1937 Maine Farmers' Almanac ran a sidebar claiming that the term was used “in olden times” for an extra full moon in a season, and gave some examples (21 November 1915, 22 August 1918, 21 May 1921, 20 February 1924, 21 November 1934, 22 August 1937, and 21 May 1940). Six years later, Laurence J. Lafleur (1907-66) quoted the almanac in the U.S. magazine Sky & Telescope (July 1943, page 17) in answer to a reader’s question about the meaning of “blue moon”. Then James Hugh Pruett (1886-1955) quoted it again in Sky & Telescope (March 1946, p3), saying “seven times in 19 years there were — and still are — 13 full moons in a year. This gives 11 months with one full moon each and one with two. This second in a month, so I interpret it, was called Blue Moon”. In 1980 the term was used (with Pruett’s definition) in a U.S. radio program, Star Date, and in 1985 it appeared in a U.S. children’s book, The Kids' World Almanac of Records and Facts (“What is a blue moon? When there are two full moons in a month, the second one is called a blue moon. It is a rare occurrence.”) In 1986 it was included as a question in Trivial Pursuit (likely taken from the children’s book), and in 1988 a forthcoming blue moon received widespread press coverage. In 1999 U.S. astronomer Donald W. Olson researched the original articles and published the results in a Sky & Telescope article co-authored with Richard T Fienberg and Roger W. Sinnott. From the examples given by Trefethen in the 1937 Maine Farmers’ Almanac they deduced a “rule” he must effectively have used. “Seasonal Moon names are assigned near the spring equinox in accordance with the ecclesiastical rules for determining the dates of Easter and Lent. The beginnings of summer, fall, and winter are determined by the dynamical mean Sun. When a season contains four full Moons, the third is called a Blue Moon.” They termed this the “Maine rule” for blue moons, as distinct from Pruett’s 1946 definition that was seen to have been a misinterpretation. In popular astronomy the Maine rule is sometimes called the “seasonal”, “true” or “traditional” rule (though of course no tradition of it exists prior to 1937). Blue moons by Pruett’s definition are sometimes called “calendar blue moons”. The "seasonal" blue moon rule is itself ambiguous since it depends which definition of season is used. The Maine rule used seasons of equal length with the ecclesiastical equinox (March 21). An alternative is to use the astronomical seasons, which are of unequal length. There is also reference in modern popular astrology to “zodiacal blue moons”. Blue moon dates The table below has blue moon dates and times (UTC) calculated according to Pruett’s “calendar” rule (second full moon in a calendar month) and two versions of the “seasonal” rule (third full moon in a season with four). The Maine rule uses equal-length seasons defined by the dynamical mean sun, and is presumed to have been the original rule of Trefethen. The “astro-seasonal” rule uses the unequal astronomical seasons defined by the apparent sun. All calculations are by David Harper. The fourth column shows blue moon dates that were actually printed in the Maine Farmers’ Almanac, as found by Olson, Fienberg and Sinnott in 1999. They studied issues published between 1819 and 1962, and found that all mentions occurred between 1937, when H.P. Trefethen introduced the term, and 1956, when Trefethen’s editorship ended (consistent with it being Trefethen’s own invention). Occasional discrepancies between the Maine rule and the almanac’s printed dates can be ascribed to clerical errors or miscalculation. In one case (August 1945) Trefethen appears to have used the apparent rather than mean sun. The table shows that in 200 years there are 187 full moons that could be called "blue" by some definition - an average of nearly one per year. Two Pruett blue moons can occur in a single year (1915, 1961, 1999, 2018, 2037, 2094). 1915 had four blue moons (two Pruett, one Maine, one astro-seasonal). 1934 and 2048 have three (one of each type). Despite the 187 blue moons appearing across the 200 years in this table, only 146 years have any of these 3 types of blue moons, leaving 54 years (thus averaging just over 1 year in every 4) which have none of the 3 rules represented in that calendar year. While not totally unexpected (given the overlapping frequencies of these 3 rules), it so happens there are not any 2 sequential years (at least within these 200) wherein none of the 3 types of blue moon occur. Conversely, despite the preponderance of years with blue moons (of at least 1 type) occurring in this 200-year range, there are no instances of more than 4 sequential years having a blue moon, of any of these 3 types -- i.e. at least 1 year out of every 5 sequential years has none of the 3 types appearing. Remarks One lunation (an average lunar cycle) is 29.53 days. There are about 365.24 days in a tropical year. Therefore, about 12.37 lunations (365.24 days divided by 29.53 days) occur in a tropical year. So the date of the full moon falls back by nearly one day every calendar month on average. Each calendar year contains roughly 11 days more than the number of days in 12 lunar cycles, so every two or three years (seven times in the 19 year Metonic cycle), there is an extra full moon in the year. The extra full moon necessarily falls in one of the four seasons (however defined), giving that season four full moons instead of the usual three. Given that a year is approximately 365.2425 days and a synodic orbit is 29.5309 days, then there are about 12.368 synodic months in a year. For this to add up to another full month would take 1/0.368 years. Thus it would take about 2.716 years, or 2 years, 8 months, and 18 days for another Pruett blue moon to occur. Or approximately once in 32.5 months on an average. When there are two Pruett blue moons in a single year, the first occurs in January and the second in March or April. The next time New Year's Eve falls on a Pruett blue moon (as occurred on December 31, 2009 in time zones west of UTC+05) is after one Metonic cycle, in 2028 in time zones west of UTC+08. At that time there will be a total lunar eclipse. See also Black moon – Second new moon in a calendar month Blood moon – reddish color a totally eclipsed Moon takes on to observers on Earth Wet moon – Horizontal (bowl appearance) crescent Super moon – Full or new moon which appears largerPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets References External links Upcoming blue moon dates (timeanddate.com). Blue moon calculator (obliquity.com)

World_War_I

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I

World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in Europe and the Middle East, as well as in parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific, and in Europe was characterised by trench warfare and the use of artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons (gas). World War I was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, resulting in an estimated 9 million military dead and 23 million wounded, plus up to 8 million civilian deaths from causes including genocide (including the Armenian genocide). The movement of large numbers of people was a major factor in the Spanish flu pandemic, which killed millions. The causes of World War I included the rise of Germany and decline of the Ottoman Empire, which disturbed the balance of power in Europe, as well as increased economic competition between nations triggered by new waves of industrialisation and imperialism. Growing tensions between the great powers and in the Balkans reached a breaking point on 28 June 1914, when a Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Austria-Hungary held Serbia responsible, and declared war on 28 July. Russia mobilised in Serbia's defence, and by 4 August, Germany, Russia, France, and the United Kingdom were drawn into the war, with the Ottomans joining in November of the same year. Germany's strategy in 1914 was to quickly defeat France, then to transfer its forces to the Russian front. However, this failed, and by the end of the year the Western Front consisted of a continuous line of trenches stretching from the English Channel to Switzerland. The Eastern Front was more dynamic, but neither side could gain a decisive advantage, despite costly offensives. Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and others joined in from 1915 onward. In April 1917, the United States entered the war on the Allied side following Germany's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare against Atlantic shipping. Later that year, the Bolsheviks seized power in the Russian October Revolution; Soviet Russia signed an armistice, followed by a separate peace in March 1918. That month, Germany launched an offensive in the west, which despite initial successes left the German Army exhausted and demoralised. A successful Allied counter-offensive from August 1918 caused a collapse of the German front line. By early November, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary had each signed armistices with the Allies, leaving Germany isolated. Facing a revolution at home, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated on 9 November, and the war ended with the Armistice of 11 November 1918. The Paris Peace Conference of 1919–1920 imposed settlements on the defeated powers, most notably the Treaty of Versailles, by which Germany lost significant territories, was disarmed, and was required to pay large war reparations to the Allies. The dissolution of the Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman Empires redrew national boundaries and resulted in the creation of new independent states, including Poland, Finland, the Baltic states, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. The League of Nations was established to maintain world peace, but its failure to manage instability during the interwar period contributed to the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Names Before World War II, the events of 1914–1918 were generally known as the Great War or simply the World War. In August 1914, the magazine The Independent wrote "This is the Great War. It names itself". In October 1914, the Canadian magazine Maclean's similarly wrote, "Some wars name themselves. This is the Great War." Contemporary Europeans also referred to it as "the war to end war" and it was also described as "the war to end all wars" due to their perception of its unparalleled scale, devastation, and loss of life. The first recorded use of the term First World War was in September 1914 by German biologist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel who stated, "There is no doubt that the course and character of the feared 'European War' ... will become the first world war in the full sense of the word." Background Political and military alliances For much of the 19th century, the major European powers maintained a tenuous balance of power, known as the Concert of Europe. After 1848, this was challenged by Britain's withdrawal into so-called splendid isolation, the decline of the Ottoman Empire, New Imperialism, and the rise of Prussia under Otto von Bismarck. Victory in the 1870–1871 Franco-Prussian War allowed Bismarck to consolidate a German Empire. Post-1871, the primary aim of French policy was to avenge this defeat, but by the early 1890s, this had switched to the expansion of the French colonial empire. In 1873, Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors, which included Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany. After the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War, the League was dissolved due to Austrian concerns over the expansion of Russian influence in the Balkans, an area they considered to be of vital strategic interest. Germany and Austria-Hungary then formed the 1879 Dual Alliance, which became the Triple Alliance when Italy joined in 1882. For Bismarck, the purpose of these agreements was to isolate France by ensuring the three Empires resolve any disputes between themselves. In 1887, Bismarck set up the Reinsurance Treaty, a secret agreement between Germany and Russia to remain neutral if either were attacked by France or Austria-Hungary. For Bismarck, peace with Russia was the foundation of German foreign policy but in 1890, he was forced to retire by Wilhelm II. The latter was persuaded not to renew the Reinsurance Treaty by his new Chancellor, Leo von Caprivi. This gave France an opening to agree the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1894, which was then followed by the 1904 Entente Cordiale with Britain. The Triple Entente was completed by the 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention. While not formal alliances, by settling long-standing colonial disputes in Asia and Africa, British support for France or Russia in any future conflict became a possibility. This was accentuated by British and Russian support for France against Germany during the 1911 Agadir Crisis. Arms race German economic and industrial strength continued to expand rapidly post-1871. Backed by Wilhelm II, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz sought to use this growth to build an Imperial German Navy, that could compete with the British Royal Navy. This policy was based on the work of US naval author Alfred Thayer Mahan, who argued that possession of a blue-water navy was vital for global power projection; Tirpitz had his books translated into German, while Wilhelm made them required reading for his advisors and senior military personnel. However, it was also an emotional decision, driven by Wilhelm's simultaneous admiration for the Royal Navy and desire to surpass it. Bismarck thought that the British would not interfere in Europe, as long as its maritime supremacy remained secure, but his dismissal in 1890 led to a change in policy and an Anglo-German naval arms race began. Despite the vast sums spent by Tirpitz, the launch of HMS Dreadnought in 1906 gave the British a technological advantage. Ultimately, the race diverted huge resources into creating a German navy large enough to antagonise Britain, but not defeat it; in 1911, Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg acknowledged defeat, leading to the Rüstungswende or 'armaments turning point', when he switched expenditure from the navy to the army. This decision was not driven by a reduction in political tensions but by German concern over Russia's quick recovery from its defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and subsequent 1905 Russian Revolution. Economic reforms led to a significant post-1908 expansion of railways and transportation infrastructure, particularly in its western border regions. Since Germany and Austria-Hungary relied on faster mobilisation to compensate for their numerical inferiority compared to Russia, the threat posed by the closing of this gap was more important than competing with the Royal Navy. After Germany expanded its standing army by 170,000 troops in 1913, France extended compulsory military service from two to three years; similar measures were taken by the Balkan powers and Italy, which led to increased expenditure by the Ottomans and Austria-Hungary. Absolute figures are difficult to calculate due to differences in categorising expenditure since they often omit civilian infrastructure projects like railways which had logistical importance and military use. It is known, however, that from 1908 to 1913, military spending by the six major European powers increased by over 50% in real terms. Conflicts in the Balkans The years before 1914 were marked by a series of crises in the Balkans, as other powers sought to benefit from the Ottoman decline. While Pan-Slavic and Orthodox Russia considered itself the protector of Serbia and other Slav states, they preferred the strategically vital Bosporus straits to be controlled by a weak Ottoman government, rather than an ambitious Slav power like Bulgaria. Russia had ambitions in northeastern Anatolia while its clients had overlapping claims in the Balkans. These competing interests divided Russian policy-makers and added to regional instability. Austrian statesmen viewed the Balkans as essential for the continued existence of their Empire and saw Serbian expansion as a direct threat. The 1908–1909 Bosnian Crisis began when Austria annexed the former Ottoman territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which it had occupied since 1878. Timed to coincide with the Bulgarian Declaration of Independence from the Ottoman Empire, this unilateral action was denounced by the European powers, but accepted as there was no consensus on how to resolve the situation. Some historians see this as a significant escalation, ending any chance of Austria cooperating with Russia in the Balkans, while also damaging diplomatic relations between Serbia and Italy. Tensions increased after the 1911–1912 Italo-Turkish War demonstrated Ottoman weakness and led to the formation of the Balkan League, an alliance of Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Greece. The League quickly overran most of the Ottomans' territory in the Balkans during the 1912–1913 First Balkan War, much to the surprise of outside observers. The Serbian capture of ports on the Adriatic resulted in partial Austrian mobilisation, starting on 21 November 1912, including units along the Russian border in Galicia. The Russian government decided not to mobilise in response, unprepared to precipitate a war. The Great Powers sought to re-assert control through the 1913 Treaty of London, which had created an independent Albania while enlarging the territories of Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and Greece. However, disputes between the victors sparked the 33-day Second Balkan War, when Bulgaria attacked Serbia and Greece on 16 June 1913; it was defeated, losing most of Macedonia to Serbia and Greece, and Southern Dobruja to Romania. The result was that even countries which benefited from the Balkan Wars, such as Serbia and Greece, felt cheated of their "rightful gains", while for Austria it demonstrated the apparent indifference with which other powers viewed their concerns, including Germany. This complex mix of resentment, nationalism and insecurity helps explain why the pre-1914 Balkans became known as the "powder keg of Europe". Prelude Sarajevo assassination On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, visited Sarajevo, the capital of the recently annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina. Cvjetko Popović, Gavrilo Princip, Nedeljko Čabrinović, Trifko Grabež, Vaso Čubrilović (Bosnian Serbs) and Muhamed Mehmedbašić (from the Bosniaks community), from the movement known as Young Bosnia, took up positions along the Archduke's motorcade route, to assassinate him. Supplied with arms by extremists within the Serbian Black Hand intelligence organisation, they hoped his death would free Bosnia from Austrian rule. Čabrinović threw a grenade at the Archduke's car and injured two of his aides. The other assassins were also unsuccessful. An hour later, as Ferdinand was returning from visiting the injured officers in hospital, his car took a wrong turn into a street where Gavrilo Princip was standing. He fired two pistol shots, fatally wounding Ferdinand and his wife Sophie. According to historian Zbyněk Zeman, in Vienna "the event almost failed to make any impression whatsoever. On 28 and 29 June, the crowds listened to music and drank wine, as if nothing had happened." Nevertheless, the impact of the murder of the heir to the throne was significant, and has been described by historian Christopher Clark as a "9/11 effect, a terrorist event charged with historic meaning, transforming the political chemistry in Vienna". Expansion of violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina Austro-Hungarian authorities encouraged subsequent anti-Serb riots in Sarajevo. Violent actions against ethnic Serbs were also organised outside Sarajevo, in other cities in Austro-Hungarian-controlled Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia. Austro-Hungarian authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina imprisoned approximately 5,500 prominent Serbs, 700 to 2,200 of whom died in prison. A further 460 Serbs were sentenced to death. A predominantly Bosniak special militia known as the Schutzkorps was established, and carried out the persecution of Serbs. July Crisis The assassination initiated the July Crisis, a month of diplomatic manoeuvring between Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, France and Britain. Believing that Serbian intelligence helped organise Franz Ferdinand's murder, Austrian officials wanted to use the opportunity to end their interference in Bosnia and saw war as the best way of achieving this. However, the Foreign Ministry had no solid proof of Serbian involvement. On 23 July, Austria delivered an ultimatum to Serbia, listing ten demands made intentionally unacceptable to provide an excuse for starting hostilities. Serbia ordered general mobilization on 25 July, but accepted all the terms, except for those empowering Austrian representatives to suppress "subversive elements" inside Serbia, and take part in the investigation and trial of Serbians linked to the assassination. Claiming this amounted to rejection, Austria broke off diplomatic relations and ordered partial mobilisation the next day; on 28 July, they declared war on Serbia and began shelling Belgrade. Russia ordered general mobilization in support of Serbia on 30 July. Anxious to ensure backing from the SPD political opposition by presenting Russia as the aggressor, German Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg delayed the commencement of war preparations until 31 July. That afternoon, the Russian government were handed a note requiring them to "cease all war measures against Germany and Austria-Hungary" within 12 hours. A further German demand for neutrality was refused by the French who ordered general mobilization but delayed declaring war. The German General Staff had long assumed they faced a war on two fronts; the Schlieffen Plan envisaged using 80% of the army to defeat France, then switching to Russia. Since this required them to move quickly, mobilization orders were issued that afternoon. Once the German ultimatum to Russia expired on the morning of 1 August, the two countries were at war. At a meeting on 29 July, the British cabinet had narrowly decided its obligations to Belgium under the 1839 Treaty of London did not require it to oppose a German invasion with military force; however, Prime Minister Asquith and his senior Cabinet ministers were already committed to supporting France, the Royal Navy had been mobilised, and public opinion was strongly in favour of intervention. On 31 July, Britain sent notes to Germany and France, asking them to respect Belgian neutrality; France pledged to do so, but Germany did not reply. Aware of German plans to attack through Belgium, French Commander-in-Chief Joseph Joffre asked his government for permission to cross the border and pre-empt such a move. To avoid violating Belgian neutrality, he was told any advance could come only after a German invasion. Instead, the French cabinet ordered its Army to withdraw 10 km behind the German frontier, to avoid provoking war. On 2 August, Germany occupied Luxembourg and exchanged fire with French units when German patrols entered French territory; on 3 August, they declared war on France and demanded free passage across Belgium, which was refused. Early on the morning of 4 August, the Germans invaded, and Albert I of Belgium called for assistance under the Treaty of London. Britain sent Germany an ultimatum demanding they withdraw from Belgium; when this expired at midnight, without a response, the two empires were at war. Progress of the war Opening hostilities Confusion among the Central Powers Germany promised to support Austria-Hungary's invasion of Serbia, but interpretations of what this meant differed. Previously tested deployment plans had been replaced early in 1914, but those had never been tested in exercises. Austro-Hungarian leaders believed Germany would cover its northern flank against Russia. Serbian campaign Beginning on 12 August, the Austrians and Serbs clashed at the battles of the Cer and Kolubara; over the next two weeks, Austrian attacks were repulsed with heavy losses. As a result, Austria had to keep sizeable forces on the Serbian front, weakening their efforts against Russia. Serbia's victory against Austria-Hungary in the 1914 invasion has been called one of the major upset victories of the twentieth century. In 1915, the campaign saw the first use of anti-aircraft warfare after an Austrian plane was shot down with ground-to-air fire, as well as the first medical evacuation by the Serbian army. German offensive in Belgium and France Upon mobilisation, in accordance with the Schlieffen Plan, 80% of the German Army was located on the Western Front, with the remainder acting as a screening force in the East. Rather than a direct attack across their shared frontier, the German right wing would sweep through the Netherlands and Belgium, then swing south, encircling Paris and trapping the French army against the Swiss border. The plan's creator, Alfred von Schlieffen, head of the German General Staff from 1891 to 1906, estimated that this would take six weeks, after which the German army would transfer to the East and defeat the Russians. The plan was substantially modified by his successor, Helmuth von Moltke the Younger. Under Schlieffen, 85% of German forces in the west were assigned to the right wing, with the remainder holding along the frontier. By keeping his left-wing deliberately weak, he hoped to lure the French into an offensive into the "lost provinces" of Alsace-Lorraine, which was the strategy envisaged by their Plan XVII. However, Moltke grew concerned that the French might push too hard on his left flank and as the German Army increased in size from 1908 to 1914, he changed the allocation of forces between the two wings to 70:30. He also considered Dutch neutrality essential for German trade and cancelled the incursion into the Netherlands, which meant any delays in Belgium threatened the viability of the plan. Historian Richard Holmes argues that these changes meant the right wing was not strong enough to achieve decisive success. The initial German advance in the West was very successful. By the end of August, the Allied left, which included the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), was in full retreat, and the French offensive in Alsace-Lorraine was a disastrous failure, with casualties exceeding 260,000. German planning provided broad strategic instructions while allowing army commanders considerable freedom in carrying them out at the front, but von Kluck used this freedom to disobey orders, opening a gap between the German armies as they closed on Paris. The French army, reinforced by the British expeditionary corps, seized this opportunity to counter-attack and pushed the German army 40 to 80 km back. Both armies were then so exhausted that no decisive move could be implemented, so they settled in trenches, with the vain hope of breaking through as soon as they could build local superiority. In 1911, the Russian Stavka agreed with the French to attack Germany within fifteen days of mobilisation, ten days before the Germans had anticipated, although it meant the two Russian armies that entered East Prussia on 17 August did so without many of their support elements. By the end of 1914, German troops held strong defensive positions inside France, controlled the bulk of France's domestic coalfields, and inflicted 230,000 more casualties than it lost itself. However, communications problems and questionable command decisions cost Germany the chance of a decisive outcome, while it had failed to achieve the primary objective of avoiding a long, two-front war. As was apparent to several German leaders, this amounted to a strategic defeat; shortly after the First Battle of the Marne, Crown Prince Wilhelm told an American reporter "We have lost the war. It will go on for a long time but lost it is already." Asia and the Pacific On 30 August 1914, New Zealand occupied German Samoa (now Samoa). On 11 September, the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force landed on the island of New Britain, then part of German New Guinea. On 28 October, the German cruiser SMS Emden sank the Russian cruiser Zhemchug in the Battle of Penang. Japan declared war on Germany before seizing territories in the Pacific, which later became the South Seas Mandate, as well as German Treaty ports on the Chinese Shandong peninsula at Tsingtao. After Vienna refused to withdraw its cruiser SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth from Tsingtao, Japan declared war on Austria-Hungary, and the ship was sunk in November 1914. Within a few months, Allied forces had seized all German territories in the Pacific, leaving only isolated commerce raiders and a few holdouts in New Guinea. African campaigns Some of the first clashes of the war involved British, French, and German colonial forces in Africa. On 6–7 August, French and British troops invaded the German protectorates of Togoland and Kamerun. On 10 August, German forces in South-West Africa attacked South Africa; sporadic and fierce fighting continued for the rest of the war. The German colonial forces in German East Africa, led by Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, fought a guerrilla warfare campaign and only surrendered two weeks after the armistice took effect in Europe. Indian support for the Allies Before the war, Germany had attempted to use Indian nationalism and pan-Islamism to its advantage, a policy continued post-1914 by instigating uprisings in India, while the Niedermayer–Hentig Expedition urged Afghanistan to join the war on the side of Central Powers. However, contrary to British fears of a revolt in India, the outbreak of the war saw a reduction in nationalist activity. Leaders from the Indian National Congress and other groups believed support for the British war effort would hasten Indian Home Rule, a promise allegedly made explicit in 1917 by Edwin Montagu, the Secretary of State for India. In 1914, the British Indian Army was larger than the British Army itself, and between 1914 and 1918 an estimated 1.3 million Indian soldiers and labourers served in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. In all, 140,000 soldiers served on the Western Front and nearly 700,000 in the Middle East, with 47,746 killed and 65,126 wounded. The suffering engendered by the war, as well as the failure of the British government to grant self-government to India afterward, bred disillusionment, resulting in the campaign for full independence led by Mahatma Gandhi. Western Front 1914 to 1916 Trench warfare begins Pre-war military tactics that had emphasised open warfare and individual riflemen proved obsolete when confronted with conditions prevailing in 1914. Technological advances allowed the creation of strong defensive systems largely impervious to massed infantry advances, such as barbed wire, machine guns and above all far more powerful artillery, which dominated the battlefield and made crossing open ground extremely difficult. Both sides struggled to develop tactics for breaching entrenched positions without heavy casualties. In time, technology enabled the production of new offensive weapons, such as gas warfare and the tank. After the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914, Allied and German forces unsuccessfully tried to outflank each other, a series of manoeuvres later known as the "Race to the Sea". By the end of 1914, the opposing forces confronted each other along an uninterrupted line of entrenched positions from the Channel to the Swiss border. Since the Germans were normally able to choose where to stand, they generally held the high ground, while their trenches tended to be better built; those constructed by the French and English were initially considered "temporary", only needed until an offensive would destroy the German defences. Both sides tried to break the stalemate using scientific and technological advances. On 22 April 1915, at the Second Battle of Ypres, the Germans (violating the Hague Convention) used chlorine gas for the first time on the Western Front. Several types of gas soon became widely used by both sides and though it never proved a decisive, battle-winning weapon, it became one of the most feared and best-remembered horrors of the war. Continuation of trench warfare In February 1916, the Germans attacked French defensive positions at the Battle of Verdun, lasting until December 1916. Casualties were greater for the French, but the Germans bled heavily as well, with anywhere from 700,000 to 975,000 casualties between the two combatants. Verdun became a symbol of French determination and self-sacrifice. The Battle of the Somme was an Anglo-French offensive from July to November 1916. The opening day on 1 July 1916 was the bloodiest single day in the history of the British Army, which suffered 57,500 casualties, including 19,200 dead. As a whole, the Somme offensive led to an estimated 420,000 British casualties, along with 200,000 French and 500,000 Germans. The diseases that emerged in the trenches were a major killer on both sides. The living conditions led to disease and infection, such as trench foot, lice, typhus, trench fever, and the 'Spanish flu'. Naval war At the start of the war, German cruisers were scattered across the globe, some of which were subsequently used to attack Allied merchant shipping. These were systematically hunted down by the Royal Navy, though not before causing considerable damage. One of the most successful was the SMS Emden, part of the German East Asia Squadron stationed at Qingdao, which seized or sank 15 merchantmen, a Russian cruiser and a French destroyer. Most of the squadron was returning to Germany when it sank two British armoured cruisers at the Battle of Coronel in November 1914, before being virtually destroyed at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December. The SMS Dresden escaped with a few auxiliaries, but after the Battle of Más a Tierra, these too were either destroyed or interned. Soon after the outbreak of hostilities, Britain began a naval blockade of Germany. This proved effective in cutting off vital supplies, though it violated accepted international law. Britain also mined international waters which closed off entire sections of the ocean, even to neutral ships. Since there was limited response to this tactic, Germany expected a similar response to its unrestricted submarine warfare. The Battle of Jutland in May/June 1916 was the only full-scale clash of battleships during the war, and one of the largest in history. The clash was indecisive, though the Germans inflicted more damage than they received; thereafter the bulk of the German High Seas Fleet was confined to port. German U-boats attempted to cut the supply lines between North America and Britain. The nature of submarine warfare meant that attacks often came without warning, giving the crews of the merchant ships little hope of survival. The United States launched a protest, and Germany changed its rules of engagement. After the sinking of the passenger ship RMS Lusitania in 1915, Germany promised not to target passenger liners, while Britain armed its merchant ships, placing them beyond the protection of the "cruiser rules", which demanded warning and movement of crews to "a place of safety" (a standard that lifeboats did not meet). Finally, in early 1917, Germany adopted a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, realising the Americans would eventually enter the war. Germany sought to strangle Allied sea lanes before the United States could transport a large army overseas, but, after initial successes, eventually failed to do so. The U-boat threat lessened in 1917, when merchant ships began travelling in convoys, escorted by destroyers. This tactic made it difficult for U-boats to find targets, which significantly lessened losses; after the hydrophone and depth charges were introduced, destroyers could potentially successfully attack a submerged submarine. Convoys slowed the flow of supplies since ships had to wait as convoys were assembled; the solution was an extensive program of building new freighters. Troopships were too fast for the submarines and did not travel the North Atlantic in convoys. The U-boats sunk more than 5,000 Allied ships, at the cost of 199 submarines. World War I also saw the first use of aircraft carriers in combat, with HMS Furious launching Sopwith Camels in a successful raid against the Zeppelin hangars at Tondern in July 1918, as well as blimps for antisubmarine patrol. Southern theatres War in the Balkans Faced with Russia in the east, Austria-Hungary could spare only one-third of its army to attack Serbia. After suffering heavy losses, the Austrians briefly occupied the Serbian capital, Belgrade. A Serbian counter-attack in the Battle of Kolubara succeeded in driving them from the country by the end of 1914. For the first 10 months of 1915, Austria-Hungary used most of its military reserves to fight Italy. German and Austro-Hungarian diplomats scored a coup by persuading Bulgaria to join the attack on Serbia. The Austro-Hungarian provinces of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia provided troops for Austria-Hungary. Montenegro allied itself with Serbia. Bulgaria declared war on Serbia on 14 October 1915 and joined in the attack by the Austro-Hungarian army under Mackensen's army of 250,000 that was already underway. Serbia was conquered in a little more than a month, as the Central Powers, now including Bulgaria, sent in 600,000 troops in total. The Serbian army, fighting on two fronts and facing certain defeat, retreated into northern Albania. The Serbs suffered defeat in the Battle of Kosovo. Montenegro covered the Serbian retreat toward the Adriatic coast in the Battle of Mojkovac on 6–7 January 1916, but ultimately the Austrians also conquered Montenegro. The surviving Serbian soldiers were evacuated to Greece. After the conquest, Serbia was divided between Austro-Hungary and Bulgaria. In late 1915, a Franco-British force landed at Salonica in Greece to offer assistance and to pressure its government to declare war against the Central Powers. However, the pro-German King Constantine I dismissed the pro-Allied government of Eleftherios Venizelos before the Allied expeditionary force arrived. The Macedonian front was at first mostly static. French and Serbian forces retook limited areas of Macedonia by recapturing Bitola on 19 November 1916 following the costly Monastir offensive, which brought stabilisation of the front. Serbian and French troops finally made a breakthrough in September 1918 in the Vardar offensive, after most German and Austro-Hungarian troops had been withdrawn. The Bulgarians were defeated at the Battle of Dobro Pole, and by 25 September British and French troops had crossed the border into Bulgaria proper as the Bulgarian army collapsed. Bulgaria capitulated four days later, on 29 September 1918. The German high command responded by despatching troops to hold the line, but these forces were too weak to re-establish a front. The disappearance of the Macedonian front meant that the road to Budapest and Vienna was now opened to Allied forces. Hindenburg and Ludendorff concluded that the strategic and operational balance had now shifted decidedly against the Central Powers and, a day after the Bulgarian collapse, insisted on an immediate peace settlement. Ottoman Empire The Ottomans threatened Russia's Caucasian territories and Britain's communications with India via the Suez Canal. The Ottoman Empire took advantage of the European powers' preoccupation with the war and conducted large-scale ethnic cleansing of the Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian Christian populations—the Armenian genocide, Greek genocide, and Sayfo respectively. The British and French opened overseas fronts with the Gallipoli (1915) and Mesopotamian campaigns (1914). In Gallipoli, the Ottoman Empire successfully repelled the British, French, and Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs). In Mesopotamia, by contrast, after the defeat of the British defenders in the siege of Kut by the Ottomans (1915–1916), British Imperial forces reorganised and captured Baghdad in March 1917. The British were aided in Mesopotamia by local Arab and Assyrian fighters, while the Ottomans employed local Kurdish and Turcoman tribes. The Suez Canal was defended from Ottoman attacks in 1915 and 1916; in August 1916, a German and Ottoman force was defeated at the Battle of Romani by the ANZAC Mounted Division and the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division. Following this victory, an Egyptian Expeditionary Force advanced across the Sinai Peninsula, pushing Ottoman forces back in the Battle of Magdhaba in December and the Battle of Rafa on the border between the Egyptian Sinai and Ottoman Palestine in January 1917. Russian armies generally had success in the Caucasus campaign. Enver Pasha, supreme commander of the Ottoman armed forces, dreamed of re-conquering central Asia and areas that had been previously lost to Russia. He was, however, a poor commander. He launched an offensive against the Russians in the Caucasus in December 1914 with 100,000 troops, insisting on a frontal attack against mountainous Russian positions in winter. He lost 86% of his force at the Battle of Sarikamish. General Yudenich, the Russian commander from 1915 to 1916, drove the Turks out of most of the southern Caucasus. The Ottoman Empire, with German support, invaded Persia (modern Iran) in December 1914 to cut off British and Russian access to petroleum reservoirs around Baku. Persia, ostensibly neutral, had long been under British and Russian influence. The Ottomans and Germans were aided by Kurdish and Azeri forces, together with a large number of major Iranian tribes, while the Russians and British had the support of Armenian and Assyrian forces. The Persian campaign lasted until 1918 and ended in failure for the Ottomans and their allies. However, the Russian withdrawal from the war in 1917 led Armenian and Assyrian forces to be cut off from supply lines, outnumbered, outgunned and isolated, forcing them to fight and flee towards British lines in northern Mesopotamia. The Arab Revolt, instigated by the British Foreign Office, started in June 1916 with the Battle of Mecca, led by Sharif Hussein. The Sharif declared the independence of the Kingdom of Hejaz and, with British assistance, conquered much of Ottoman-held Arabia, resulting finally in the Ottoman surrender of Damascus. Fakhri Pasha, the Ottoman commander of Medina, resisted for more than 2+1⁄2 years during the siege of Medina before surrendering in January 1919. The Senussi tribe, along the border of Italian Libya and British Egypt, incited and armed by the Turks, waged a small-scale guerrilla war against Allied troops. The British were forced to dispatch 12,000 troops to oppose them in the Senussi campaign. Their rebellion was finally crushed in mid-1916. Total Allied casualties on the Ottoman fronts amounted to 650,000 men. Total Ottoman casualties were 725,000, with 325,000 dead and 400,000 wounded. Italian Front Though Italy joined the Triple Alliance in 1882, a treaty with its traditional Austrian enemy was so controversial that subsequent governments denied its existence and the terms were only made public in 1915. This arose from nationalist designs on Austro-Hungarian territory in Trentino, the Austrian Littoral, Rijeka and Dalmatia, considered vital to secure the borders established in 1866. In 1902, Rome secretly had agreed with France to remain neutral if the latter was attacked by Germany, effectively nullifying its role in the Triple Alliance. When the war began in 1914, Italy argued the Triple Alliance was defensive and it was not obliged to support an Austrian attack on Serbia. Opposition to joining the Central Powers increased when Turkey became a member in September, since in 1911 Italy had occupied Ottoman possessions in Libya and the Dodecanese islands. To secure Italian neutrality, the Central Powers offered them Tunisia, while in return for an immediate entry into the war, the Allies agreed to their demands for Austrian territory and sovereignty over the Dodecanese. Although they remained secret, these provisions were incorporated into the April 1915 Treaty of London; Italy joined the Triple Entente and, on 23 May, declared war on Austria-Hungary, followed by Germany fifteen months later. The pre-1914 Italian army was short of officers, trained men, adequate transport and modern weapons; by April 1915, some of these deficiencies had been remedied but it was still unprepared for the major offensive required by the Treaty of London. The advantage of superior numbers was offset by the difficult terrain; much of the fighting took place high in the Alps and Dolomites, where trench lines had to be cut through rock and ice and keeping troops supplied was a major challenge. These issues were exacerbated by unimaginative strategies and tactics. Between 1915 and 1917, the Italian commander, Luigi Cadorna, undertook a series of frontal assaults along the Isonzo, which made little progress and cost many lives; by the end of the war, Italian combat deaths totalled around 548,000. In the spring of 1916, the Austro-Hungarians counterattacked in Asiago in the Strafexpedition, but made little progress and were pushed by the Italians back to Tyrol. Although Italy occupied southern Albania in May 1916, their main focus was the Isonzo front which, after the capture of Gorizia in August 1916, remained static until October 1917. After a combined Austro-German force won a major victory at Caporetto, Cadorna was replaced by Armando Diaz who retreated more than 100 kilometres (62 mi) before holding positions along the Piave River. A second Austrian offensive was repulsed in June 1918. On 24 October, Diaz launched the Battle of Vittorio Veneto and initially met stubborn resistance, but with Austria-Hungary collapsing, Hungarian divisions in Italy demanded they be sent home. When this was granted, many others followed and the Imperial army disintegrated, the Italians taking over 300,000 prisoners. On 3 November, the Armistice of Villa Giusti ended hostilities between Austria-Hungary and Italy which occupied Trieste and areas along the Adriatic Sea awarded to it in 1915. Eastern Front Initial actions As previously agreed with French president Raymond Poincaré, Russian plans at the start of the war were to simultaneously advance into Austrian Galicia and East Prussia as soon as possible. Although their attack on Galicia was largely successful, and the invasions achieved their aim of forcing Germany to divert troops from the Western Front, the speed of mobilisation meant they did so without much of their heavy equipment and support functions. These weaknesses contributed to Russian defeats at Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes in August and September 1914, forcing them to withdraw from East Prussia with heavy losses. By spring 1915, they had also retreated from Galicia, and the May 1915 Gorlice–Tarnów offensive allowed the Central Powers to invade Russian-occupied Poland. Despite the successful June 1916 Brusilov offensive against the Austrians in eastern Galicia, shortages of supplies, heavy losses and command failures prevented the Russians from fully exploiting their victory. However, it was one of the most significant offensives of the war, diverting German resources from Verdun, relieving Austro-Hungarian pressure on the Italians, and convincing Romania to enter the war on the side of the Allies on 27 August. It also fatally weakened both the Austrian and Russian armies, whose offensive capabilities were badly affected by their losses and increased disillusion with the war that ultimately led to the Russian revolutions. Meanwhile, unrest grew in Russia as the Tsar remained at the front, with the home front controlled by Empress Alexandra. Her increasingly incompetent rule and food shortages in urban areas led to widespread protests and the murder of her favourite, Grigori Rasputin, at the end of 1916. Romanian participation Despite secretly agreeing to support the Triple Alliance in 1883, Romania increasingly found itself at odds with the Central Powers over their support for Bulgaria in the Balkan Wars and the status of ethnic Romanian communities in Hungarian-controlled Transylvania, which comprised an estimated 2.8 million of the 5.0 million population. With the ruling elite split into pro-German and pro-Entente factions, Romania remained neutral for two years while allowing Germany and Austria to transport military supplies and advisors across Romanian territory. In September 1914, Russia acknowledged Romanian rights to Austro-Hungarian territories including Transylvania and Banat, whose acquisition had widespread popular support, and Russian success against Austria led Romania to join the Entente in the August 1916 Treaty of Bucharest. Under the strategic plan known as Hypothesis Z, the Romanian army planned an offensive into Transylvania, while defending Southern Dobruja and Giurgiu against a possible Bulgarian counterattack. On 27 August 1916, they attacked Transylvania and occupied substantial parts of the province before being driven back by the recently formed German 9th Army, led by former Chief of Staff Erich von Falkenhayn. A combined German-Bulgarian-Turkish offensive captured Dobruja and Giurgiu, although the bulk of the Romanian army managed to escape encirclement and retreated to Bucharest, which surrendered to the Central Powers on 6 December 1916. In the summer of 1917, a Central Powers offensive began in Romania under the command of August von Mackensen to knock Romania out of the war, resulting in the battles of Oituz, Mărăști and Mărășești where up to 1,000,000 Central Powers troops were present. The battles lasted from 22 July to 3 September and eventually, the Romanian army was victorious advancing 500 km2. August von Mackensen could not plan for another offensive as he had to transfer troops to the Italian Front. Following the Russian revolution, Romania found itself alone on the Eastern Front and signed the Treaty of Bucharest with the Central Powers, which recognised Romanian sovereignty over Bessarabia in return for ceding control of passes in the Carpathian Mountains to Austria-Hungary and leasing its oil wells to Germany. Although approved by Parliament, King Ferdinand I refused to sign it, hoping for an Allied victory in the west. Romania re-entered the war on 10 November 1918 on the side of the Allies and the Treaty of Bucharest was formally annulled by the Armistice of 11 November 1918. Central Powers peace overtures On 12 December 1916, after ten brutal months of the Battle of Verdun and a successful offensive against Romania, Germany attempted to negotiate a peace with the Allies. However, this attempt was rejected out of hand as a "duplicitous war ruse". US president Woodrow Wilson attempted to intervene as a peacemaker, asking for both sides to state their demands. Lloyd George's War Cabinet considered the German offer to be a ploy to create divisions among the Allies. After initial outrage and much deliberation, they took Wilson's note as a separate effort, signalling that the US was on the verge of entering the war against Germany following the "submarine outrages". While the Allies debated a response to Wilson's offer, the Germans chose to rebuff it in favour of "a direct exchange of views". Learning of the German response, the Allied governments were free to make clear demands in their response of 14 January. They sought restoration of damages, the evacuation of occupied territories, reparations for France, Russia and Romania, and a recognition of the principle of nationalities. The Allies sought guarantees that would prevent or limit future wars. The negotiations failed and the Entente powers rejected the German offer on the grounds of honour, and noted Germany had not put forward any specific proposals. Final years of the war Russian Revolution and withdrawal By the end of 1916, Russian casualties totalled nearly five million killed, wounded or captured, with major urban areas affected by food shortages and high prices. In March 1917, Tsar Nicholas ordered the military to forcibly suppress strikes in Petrograd but the troops refused to fire on the crowds. Revolutionaries set up the Petrograd Soviet and fearing a left-wing takeover, the State Duma forced Nicholas to abdicate and established the Russian Provisional Government, which confirmed Russia's willingness to continue the war. However, the Petrograd Soviet refused to disband, creating competing power centres and causing confusion and chaos, with frontline soldiers becoming increasingly demoralised. Following the Tsar's abdication, Vladimir Lenin—with the help of the German government—was ushered from Switzerland into Russia on 16 April 1917. Discontent and the weaknesses of the Provisional Government led to a rise in the popularity of the Bolshevik Party, led by Lenin, which demanded an immediate end to the war. The Revolution of November was followed in December by an armistice and negotiations with Germany. At first, the Bolsheviks refused the German terms, but when German troops began marching across Ukraine unopposed, they acceded to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918. The treaty ceded vast territories, including Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and parts of Poland and Ukraine to the Central Powers. With the Russian Empire out of the war, Romania found itself alone on the Eastern Front and signed the Treaty of Bucharest with the Central Powers in May 1918. Under the terms of the treaty, Romania ceded territory to Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria and leased its oil reserves to Germany. However, the terms also included the Central Powers' recognition of the union of Bessarabia with Romania. United States enters the war The United States was a major supplier of war material to the Allies but remained neutral in 1914, in large part due to domestic opposition. The most significant factor in creating the support Wilson needed was the German submarine offensive, which not only cost American lives but paralysed trade as ships were reluctant to put to sea. On 6 April 1917, Congress declared war on Germany as an "Associated Power" of the Allies. The US Navy sent a battleship group to Scapa Flow to join the Grand Fleet, and provided convoy escorts. In April 1917, the US Army had fewer than 300,000 men, including National Guard units, compared to British and French armies of 4.1 and 8.3 million respectively. The Selective Service Act of 1917 drafted 2.8 million men, though training and equipping such numbers was a huge logistical challenge. By June 1918, over 667,000 members of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) were transported to France, a figure which reached 2 million by the end of November. Despite his conviction that Germany must be defeated, Wilson went to war to ensure the US played a leading role in shaping the peace, which meant preserving the AEF as a separate military force, rather than being absorbed into British or French units as his Allies wanted. He was strongly supported by AEF commander General John J. Pershing, a proponent of pre-1914 "open warfare" who considered the French and British emphasis on artillery misguided and incompatible with American "offensive spirit". Much to the frustration of his Allies, who had suffered heavy losses in 1917, he insisted on retaining control of American troops, and refused to commit them to the front line until able to operate as independent units. As a result, the first significant US involvement was the Meuse–Argonne offensive in late September 1918. Nivelle Offensive (April–May 1917) In December 1916, Robert Nivelle replaced Pétain as commander of French armies on the Western Front and began planning a spring attack in Champagne, part of a joint Franco-British operation. Poor security meant German intelligence was well informed on tactics and timetables, but despite this, when the attack began on 16 April the French made substantial gains, before being brought to a halt by the newly built and extremely strong defences of the Hindenburg Line. Nivelle persisted with frontal assaults and, by 25 April, the French had suffered nearly 135,000 casualties, including 30,000 dead, most incurred in the first two days. Concurrent British attacks at Arras were more successful, though ultimately of little strategic value. Operating as a separate unit for the first time, the Canadian Corps' capture of Vimy Ridge is viewed by many Canadians as a defining moment in creating a sense of national identity. Though Nivelle continued the offensive, on 3 May the 21st Division, which had been involved in some of the heaviest fighting at Verdun, refused orders to go into battle, initiating the French Army mutinies; within days, "collective indiscipline" had spread to 54 divisions, while over 20,000 deserted. Sinai and Palestine campaign (1917–1918) In March and April 1917, at the First and Second Battles of Gaza, German and Ottoman forces stopped the advance of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, which had begun in August 1916 at the Battle of Romani. At the end of October 1917, the Sinai and Palestine campaign resumed, when General Edmund Allenby's XXth Corps, XXI Corps and Desert Mounted Corps won the Battle of Beersheba. Two Ottoman armies were defeated a few weeks later at the Battle of Mughar Ridge and, early in December, Jerusalem had been captured following another Ottoman defeat at the Battle of Jerusalem. About this time, Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein was relieved of his duties as the Eighth Army's commander, replaced by Djevad Pasha, and a few months later the commander of the Ottoman Army in Palestine, Erich von Falkenhayn, was replaced by Otto Liman von Sanders. In early 1918, the front line was extended and the Jordan Valley was occupied, following the First Transjordan and the Second Transjordan attacks by British Empire forces in March and April 1918. German offensive and Allied counter-offensive (March–November 1918) In December 1917, the Central Powers signed an armistice with Russia, thus freeing large numbers of German troops for use in the West. With German reinforcements and new American troops pouring in, the outcome was to be decided on the Western Front. The Central Powers knew that they could not win a protracted war, but they held high hopes for success in a final quick offensive. Ludendorff drew up plans (Operation Michael) for the 1918 offensive on the Western Front. The operation commenced on 21 March 1918, with an attack on British forces near Saint-Quentin. German forces achieved an unprecedented advance of 60 kilometres (37 mi). The initial offensive was a success; after heavy fighting, however, the offensive was halted. Lacking tanks or motorised artillery, the Germans were unable to consolidate their gains. The problems of re-supply were also exacerbated by increasing distances that now stretched over terrain that was shell-torn and often impassable to traffic. Germany launched Operation Georgette against the northern English Channel ports. The Allies halted the drive after limited territorial gains by Germany. The German Army to the south then conducted Operations Blücher and Yorck, pushing broadly towards Paris. Germany launched Operation Marne (Second Battle of the Marne) on 15 July, in an attempt to encircle Reims. The resulting counter-attack, which started the Hundred Days Offensive on 8 August, led to a marked collapse in German morale. Allied advance to the Hindenburg Line By September, the Germans had fallen back to the Hindenburg Line. The Allies had advanced to the Hindenburg Line in the north and centre. German forces launched numerous counterattacks, but positions and outposts of the Line continued falling, with the BEF alone taking 30,441 prisoners in the last week of September. On 24 September, the Supreme Army Command informed the leaders in Berlin that armistice talks were inevitable. The final assault on the Hindenburg Line began with the Meuse-Argonne offensive, launched by American and French troops on 26 September. Two days later the Belgians, French and British attacked around Ypres, and the day after the British at St Quentin in the centre of the line. The following week, cooperating American and French units broke through in Champagne at the Battle of Blanc Mont Ridge (3–27 October), forcing the Germans off the commanding heights, and closing towards the Belgian frontier. On 8 October, the Hindenburg Line was pierced by British and Dominion troops of the First and Third British Armies at the Second Battle of Cambrai. Breakthrough of Macedonian front (September 1918) Allied forces started the Vardar offensive on 15 September at two key points: Dobro Pole and near Dojran Lake. In the Battle of Dobro Pole, the Serbian and French armies had success after a three-day-long battle with relatively small casualties, and subsequently made a breakthrough in the front, something which was rarely seen in World War I. After the front was broken, Allied forces started to liberate Serbia and reached Skopje at 29 September, after which Bulgaria signed an armistice with the Allies on 30 September. Armistices and capitulations The collapse of the Central Powers came swiftly. Bulgaria was the first to sign an armistice, the Armistice of Salonica on 29 September 1918. German Emperor Wilhelm II in a telegram to Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand I described the situation thus: "Disgraceful! 62,000 Serbs decided the war!". On the same day, the German Supreme Army Command informed Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Imperial Chancellor Count Georg von Hertling, that the military situation facing Germany was hopeless. On 24 October, the Italians began a push that rapidly recovered territory lost after the Battle of Caporetto. This culminated in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, marking the end of the Austro-Hungarian Army as an effective fighting force. The offensive also triggered the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. During the last week of October, declarations of independence were made in Budapest, Prague, and Zagreb. On 29 October, the imperial authorities asked Italy for an armistice, but the Italians continued advancing, reaching Trento, Udine, and Trieste. On 3 November, Austria-Hungary sent a flag of truce and accepted the Armistice of Villa Giusti, arranged with the Allied Authorities in Paris. Austria and Hungary signed separate armistices following the overthrow of the Habsburg monarchy. In the following days, the Italian Army occupied Innsbruck and all Tyrol, with over 20,000 soldiers. On 30 October, the Ottoman Empire capitulated, and signed the Armistice of Mudros. German government surrenders With the military faltering and with widespread loss of confidence in the Kaiser leading to his abdication and fleeing of the country, Germany moved towards surrender. Prince Maximilian of Baden took charge on October 3 as Chancellor of Germany. Negotiations with President Wilson began immediately, in the hope that he would offer better terms than the British and French. Wilson demanded a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary control over the German military. The German Revolution of 1918–1919 began at the end of October 1918. Units of the German Navy refused to set sail for a last, large-scale operation in a war they believed to be as good as lost. The sailors' revolt, which then ensued in the naval ports of Wilhelmshaven and Kiel, spread across the whole country within days and led to the proclamation of a republic on 9 November 1918, shortly thereafter to the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and German surrender. Aftermath In the aftermath of the war, the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian empires disappeared. Numerous nations regained their former independence, and new ones were created. Four dynasties fell as a result of the war: the Romanovs, the Hohenzollerns, the Habsburgs, and the Ottomans. Belgium and Serbia were badly damaged, as was France, with 1.4 million soldiers dead, not counting other casualties. Germany and Russia were similarly affected. Formal end of the war A formal state of war between the two sides persisted for another seven months, until the signing of the Treaty of Versailles with Germany on 28 June 1919. The US Senate did not ratify the treaty despite public support for it, and did not formally end its involvement in the war until the Knox–Porter Resolution was signed on 2 July 1921 by President Warren G. Harding. For the British Empire, the state of war ceased under the provisions of the Termination of the Present War (Definition) Act 1918 concerning: Germany on 10 January 1920. Austria on 16 July 1920. Bulgaria on 9 August 1920. Hungary on 26 July 1921. Turkey on 6 August 1924. Some war memorials date the end of the war as being when the Versailles Treaty was signed in 1919, which was when many of the troops serving abroad finally returned home; by contrast, most commemorations of the war's end concentrate on the armistice of 11 November 1918. Peace treaties and national boundaries The Paris Peace Conference imposed a series of peace treaties on the Central Powers officially ending the war. The 1919 Treaty of Versailles dealt with Germany and, building on Wilson's 14th point, established the League of Nations on 28 June 1919. The Central Powers had to acknowledge responsibility for "all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by" their aggression. In the Treaty of Versailles, this statement was Article 231. This article became known as the "War Guilt Clause", as the majority of Germans felt humiliated and resentful. The Germans felt they had been unjustly dealt with by what they called the "diktat of Versailles". German historian Hagen Schulze said the Treaty placed Germany "under legal sanctions, deprived of military power, economically ruined, and politically humiliated." Belgian historian Laurence Van Ypersele emphasises the central role played by memory of the war and the Versailles Treaty in German politics in the 1920s and 1930s: Active denial of war guilt in Germany and German resentment at both reparations and continued Allied occupation of the Rhineland made widespread revision of the meaning and memory of the war problematic. The legend of the "stab in the back" and the wish to revise the "Versailles diktat", and the belief in an international threat aimed at the elimination of the German nation persisted at the heart of German politics. Even a man of peace such as [Gustav] Stresemann publicly rejected German guilt. As for the Nazis, they waved the banners of domestic treason and international conspiracy in an attempt to galvanise the German nation into a spirit of revenge. Like a Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany sought to redirect the memory of the war to the benefit of its policies. Meanwhile, new nations liberated from German rule viewed the treaty as a recognition of wrongs committed against small nations by much larger aggressive neighbours.Austria-Hungary was partitioned into several successor states, largely but not entirely along ethnic lines. Apart from Austria and Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Poland, Romania and Yugoslavia received territories from the Dual Monarchy (the formerly separate and autonomous Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia was incorporated into Yugoslavia). The details were contained in the treaties of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Trianon. As a result, Hungary lost 64% of its total population, decreasing from 20.9 million to 7.6 million, and losing 31% (3.3 out of 10.7 million) of its ethnic Hungarians. According to the 1910 census, speakers of the Hungarian language included approximately 54% of the entire population of the Kingdom of Hungary. Within the country, numerous ethnic minorities were present: 16.1% Romanians, 10.5% Slovaks, 10.4% Germans, 2.5% Ruthenians, 2.5% Serbs and 8% others. Between 1920 and 1924, 354,000 Hungarians fled former Hungarian territories attached to Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. The Russian Empire lost much of its western frontier as the newly independent nations of Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland were carved from it. Romania took control of Bessarabia in April 1918. National identities After 123 years, Poland re-emerged as an independent country. The Kingdom of Serbia and its dynasty, as a "minor Entente nation" and the country with the most casualties per capita, became the backbone of a new multinational state, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later renamed Yugoslavia. Czechoslovakia, combining the Kingdom of Bohemia with parts of the Kingdom of Hungary, became a new nation. Romania would unite all Romanian-speaking people under a single state, leading to Greater Romania. In Australia and New Zealand, the Battle of Gallipoli became known as those nations' "Baptism of Fire". It was the first major war in which the newly established countries fought, and it was one of the first times that Australian troops fought as Australians, not just subjects of the British Crown, and independent national identities for these nations took hold. Anzac Day, commemorating the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), celebrates this defining moment. In the aftermath of World War I, Greece fought against Turkish nationalists led by Mustafa Kemal, a war that eventually resulted in a massive population exchange between the two countries under the Treaty of Lausanne. According to various sources, several hundred thousand Greeks died during this period, which was tied in with the Greek genocide. Casualties Of the 60 million European military personnel who were mobilised from 1914 to 1918, an estimated 8 million were killed, 7 million were permanently disabled, and 15 million were seriously injured. Germany lost 15.1% of its active male population, Austria-Hungary lost 17.1%, and France lost 10.5%. France mobilised 7.8 million men, of which 1.4 million died and 3.2 million were injured. Approximately 15,000 deployed men sustained gruesome facial injuries, causing social stigma and marginalisation; they were called the gueules cassées (broken faces). In Germany, civilian deaths were 474,000 higher than in peacetime, due in large part to food shortages and malnutrition that had weakened disease resistance. These excess deaths are estimated as 271,000 in 1918, plus another 71,000 in the first half of 1919 when the blockade was still in effect. Starvation caused by famine killed approximately 100,000 people in Lebanon. Diseases flourished in the chaotic wartime conditions. In 1914 alone, louse-borne epidemic typhus killed 200,000 in Serbia. Starting in early 1918, a major influenza epidemic known as Spanish flu spread across the world, accelerated by the movement of large numbers of soldiers, often crammed together in camps and transport ships with poor sanitation. The Spanish flu killed at least 17 to 25 million people, including an estimated 2.64 million Europeans and as many as 675,000 Americans. Between 1915 and 1926, an epidemic of encephalitis lethargica affected nearly five million people worldwide. Eight million equines mostly horses, donkeys and mules died, three-quarters of them from the extreme conditions they worked in. War crimes Chemical weapons in warfare The German army was the first to successfully deploy chemical weapons during the Second Battle of Ypres (April–May 1915), after German scientists under the direction of Fritz Haber at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute developed a method to weaponize chlorine. The use of chemical weapons had been sanctioned by the German High Command to force Allied soldiers out of their entrenched positions, complementing rather than supplanting more lethal conventional weapons. Chemical weapons were deployed by all major belligerents throughout the war, inflicting approximately 1.3 million casualties, of which about 90,000 were fatal. The use of chemical weapons in warfare was a direct violation of the 1899 Hague Declaration Concerning Asphyxiating Gases and the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare, which prohibited their use. Genocides by the Ottoman Empire The ethnic cleansing of the Ottoman Empire's Armenian population, including mass deportations and executions, during the final years of the Ottoman Empire is considered genocide. The Ottomans carried out organised and systematic massacres of the Armenian population at the beginning of the war and manipulated acts of Armenian resistance by portraying them as rebellions to justify further extermination. In early 1915, several Armenians volunteered to join the Russian forces and the Ottoman government used this as a pretext to issue the Tehcir Law (Law on Deportation), which authorised the deportation of Armenians from the Empire's eastern provinces to Syria between 1915 and 1918. The Armenians were intentionally marched to death and a number were attacked by Ottoman brigands. While the exact number of deaths is unknown, the International Association of Genocide Scholars estimates around 1.5 million. The government of Turkey continues to deny the genocide to the present day, arguing that those who died were victims of inter-ethnic fighting, famine, or disease during World War I; these claims are rejected by most historians. Other ethnic groups were similarly attacked by the Ottoman Empire during this period, including Assyrians and Greeks, and some scholars consider those events to be part of the same policy of extermination. At least 250,000 Assyrian Christians, about half of the population, and 350,000–750,000 Anatolian and Pontic Greeks were killed between 1915 and 1922. Prisoners of war About 8 million soldiers surrendered and were held in POW camps during the war. All nations pledged to follow the Hague Conventions on fair treatment of prisoners of war, and the survival rate for POWs was generally much higher than that of combatants at the front. Around 25–31% of Russian losses (as a proportion of those captured, wounded, or killed) were to prisoner status; for Austria-Hungary 32%; for Italy 26%; for France 12%; for Germany 9%; for Britain 7%. Prisoners from the Allied armies totalled about 1.4 million (not including Russia, which lost 2.5–3.5 million soldiers as prisoners). From the Central Powers, about 3.3 million soldiers became prisoners; most of them surrendered to Russians. Soldiers' experiences Allied personnel was around 42,928,000, while Central personnel was near 25,248,000. British soldiers of the war were initially volunteers but were increasingly conscripted. Surviving veterans returning home often found they could discuss their experiences only among themselves, so formed "veterans' associations" or "Legions". Conscription Conscription was common in most European countries. However, it was controversial in English-speaking countries, It was especially unpopular among minority ethnicities—especially the Irish Catholics in Ireland, Australia, and the French Catholics in Canada. In the US, conscription began in 1917 and was generally well-received, with a few pockets of opposition in isolated rural areas. The administration decided to rely primarily on conscription, rather than voluntary enlistment, to raise military manpower after only 73,000 volunteers enlisted out of the initial 1 million target in the first six weeks of war. Military attachés and war correspondents Military and civilian observers from every major power closely followed the course of the war. Many were able to report on events from a perspective somewhat akin to modern "embedded" positions within the opposing land and naval forces. Economic effects Macro- and micro-economic consequences devolved from the war. Families were altered by the departure of many men. With the death or absence of the primary wage earner, women were forced into the workforce in unprecedented numbers. At the same time, the industry needed to replace the lost labourers sent to war. This aided the struggle for voting rights for women. In all nations, the government's share of GDP increased, surpassing 50% in both Germany and France and nearly reaching that level in Britain. To pay for purchases in the US, Britain cashed in its extensive investments in American railroads and then began borrowing heavily from Wall Street. President Wilson was on the verge of cutting off the loans in late 1916 but allowed a great increase in US government lending to the Allies. After 1919, the US demanded repayment of these loans. The repayments were, in part, funded by German reparations that, in turn, were supported by American loans to Germany. This circular system collapsed in 1931 and some loans were never repaid. Britain still owed the United States $4.4 billion of World War I debt in 1934; the last installment was finally paid in 2015. Britain turned to her colonies for help in obtaining essential war materials whose supply from traditional sources had become difficult. Geologists such as Albert Kitson were called on to find new resources of precious minerals in the African colonies. Kitson discovered important new deposits of manganese, used in munitions production, in the Gold Coast. Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles (the so-called "war guilt" clause) stated Germany accepted responsibility for "all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies." It was worded as such to lay a legal basis for reparations, and a similar clause was inserted in the treaties with Austria and Hungary. However, neither of them interpreted it as an admission of war guilt. In 1921, the total reparation sum was placed at 132 billion gold marks. However, "Allied experts knew that Germany could not pay" this sum. The total sum was divided into three categories, with the third being "deliberately designed to be chimerical" and its "primary function was to mislead public opinion ... into believing the 'total sum was being maintained.'" Thus, 50 billion gold marks (12.5 billion dollars) "represented the actual Allied assessment of German capacity to pay" and "therefore ... represented the total German reparations" figure that had to be paid. This figure could be paid in cash or in-kind (coal, timber, chemical dyes, etc.). Some of the territory lost—via the Treaty of Versailles—was credited towards the reparation figure as were other acts such as helping to restore the Library of Louvain. By 1929, the Great Depression caused political chaos throughout the world. In 1932 the payment of reparations was suspended by the international community, by which point Germany had paid only the equivalent of 20.598 billion gold marks. With the rise of Adolf Hitler, all bonds and loans that had been issued and taken out during the 1920s and early 1930s were cancelled. David Andelman notes "Refusing to pay doesn't make an agreement null and void. The bonds, the agreement, still exist." Thus, following the Second World War, at the London Conference in 1953, Germany agreed to resume payment on the money borrowed. On 3 October 2010, Germany made the final payment on these bonds. The Australian prime minister, Billy Hughes, wrote to the British prime minister, David Lloyd George, "You have assured us that you cannot get better terms. I much regret it, and hope even now that some way may be found of securing agreement for demanding reparation commensurate with the tremendous sacrifices made by the British Empire and her Allies." Australia received £5,571,720 in war reparations, but the direct cost of the war to Australia had been £376,993,052, and, by the mid-1930s, repatriation pensions, war gratuities, interest and sinking fund charges were £831,280,947. Support and opposition for the war Support In the Balkans, Yugoslav nationalists such as the leader, Ante Trumbić, strongly supported the war, desiring the freedom of Yugoslavs from Austria-Hungary and other foreign powers and the creation of an independent Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav Committee, led by Trumbić, was formed in Paris on 30 April 1915 but shortly moved its office to London. In April 1918, the Rome Congress of Oppressed Nationalities met, including Czechoslovak, Italian, Polish, Transylvanian, and Yugoslav representatives who urged the Allies to support national self-determination for the peoples residing within Austria-Hungary. In the Middle East, Arab nationalism soared in Ottoman territories in response to the rise of Turkish nationalism during the war, with Arab nationalist leaders advocating the creation of a pan-Arab state. In 1916, the Arab Revolt began in Ottoman-controlled territories of the Middle East to achieve independence. In East Africa, Iyasu V of Ethiopia was supporting the Dervish state who were at war with the British in the Somaliland campaign. Von Syburg, the German envoy in Addis Ababa, said, "now the time has come for Ethiopia to regain the coast of the Red Sea driving the Italians home, to restore the Empire to its ancient size." The Ethiopian Empire was on the verge of entering World War I on the side of the Central Powers before Iyasu's overthrow at the Battle of Segale due to Allied pressure on the Ethiopian aristocracy. Several socialist parties initially supported the war when it began in August 1914. But European socialists split on national lines, with the concept of class conflict held by radical socialists such as Marxists and syndicalists being overborne by their patriotic support for the war. Once the war began, Austrian, British, French, German, and Russian socialists followed the rising nationalist current by supporting their countries' intervention in the war. Italian nationalism was stirred by the outbreak of the war and was initially strongly supported by a variety of political factions. One of the most prominent and popular Italian nationalist supporters of the war was Gabriele D'Annunzio, who promoted Italian irredentism and helped sway the Italian public to support intervention in the war. The Italian Liberal Party, under the leadership of Paolo Boselli, promoted intervention in the war on the side of the Allies and used the Dante Alighieri Society to promote Italian nationalism. Italian socialists were divided on whether to support the war or oppose it; some were militant supporters of the war, including Benito Mussolini and Leonida Bissolati. However, the Italian Socialist Party decided to oppose the war after anti-militarist protestors were killed, resulting in a general strike called Red Week. The Italian Socialist Party purged itself of pro-war nationalist members, including Mussolini. Mussolini formed the pro-interventionist Il Popolo d'Italia and the Fasci Rivoluzionario d'Azione Internazionalista ("Revolutionary Fasci for International Action") in October 1914 that later developed into the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento in 1919, the origin of fascism. Mussolini's nationalism enabled him to raise funds from Ansaldo (an armaments firm) and other companies to create Il Popolo d'Italia to convince socialists and revolutionaries to support the war. Patriotic funds On both sides, there was large-scale fundraising for soldiers' welfare, their dependents and those injured. The Nail Men were a German example. Around the British Empire, there were many patriotic funds, including the Royal Patriotic Fund Corporation, Canadian Patriotic Fund, Queensland Patriotic Fund and, by 1919, there were 983 funds in New Zealand. At the start of the next world war the New Zealand funds were reformed, having been criticised as overlapping, wasteful and abused, but 11 were still functioning in 2002. Opposition Many countries jailed those who spoke out against the conflict. These included Eugene Debs in the US and Bertrand Russell in Britain. In the US, the Espionage Act of 1917 and Sedition Act of 1918 made it a federal crime to oppose military recruitment or make any statements deemed "disloyal". Publications at all critical of the government were removed from circulation by postal censors, and many served long prison sentences for statements of fact deemed unpatriotic. Several nationalists opposed intervention, particularly within states that the nationalists were hostile to. Although the vast majority of Irish people consented to participate in the war in 1914 and 1915, a minority of advanced Irish nationalists had staunchly opposed taking part. The war began amid the Home Rule crisis in Ireland that had resurfaced in 1912, and by July 1914 there was a serious possibility of an outbreak of civil war in Ireland. Irish nationalists and Marxists attempted to pursue Irish independence, culminating in the Easter Rising of 1916, with Germany sending 20,000 rifles to Ireland to stir unrest in Britain. The British government placed Ireland under martial law in response to the Easter Rising, though once the immediate threat of revolution had dissipated, the authorities did try to make concessions to nationalist feeling. However, opposition to involvement in the war increased in Ireland, resulting in the Conscription Crisis of 1918. Other opposition came from conscientious objectors—some socialist, some religious—who had refused to fight. In Britain, 16,000 people asked for conscientious objector status. Some of them, most notably prominent peace activist Stephen Hobhouse, refused both military and alternative service. Many suffered years of prison, including solitary confinement. Even after the war, in Britain, many job advertisements were marked "No conscientious objectors need to apply". On 1–4 May 1917, about 100,000 workers and soldiers of Petrograd, and after them, the workers and soldiers of other Russian cities, led by the Bolsheviks, demonstrated under banners reading "Down with the war!" and "all power to the Soviets!". The mass demonstrations resulted in a crisis for the Russian Provisional Government. In Milan, in May 1917, Bolshevik revolutionaries organised and engaged in rioting calling for an end to the war, and managed to close down factories and stop public transportation. The Italian army was forced to enter Milan with tanks and machine guns to face Bolsheviks and anarchists, who fought violently until May 23 when the army gained control of the city. Almost 50 people (including three Italian soldiers) were killed and over 800 people were arrested. Technology World War I began as a clash of 20th-century technology and 19th-century tactics, with the inevitably large ensuing casualties. By the end of 1917, however, the major armies had modernised and were making use of telephone, wireless communication, armoured cars, tanks (especially with the advent of the prototype tank, Little Willie), and aircraft. Artillery also underwent a revolution. In 1914, cannons were positioned in the front line and fired directly at their targets. By 1917, indirect fire with guns (as well as mortars and even machine guns) was commonplace, using new techniques for spotting and ranging, notably, aircraft and the field telephone. Fixed-wing aircraft were initially used for reconnaissance and ground attack. To shoot down enemy planes, anti-aircraft guns and fighter aircraft were developed. Strategic bombers were created, principally by the Germans and British, though the former used Zeppelins as well. Towards the end of the conflict, aircraft carriers were used for the first time, with HMS Furious launching Sopwith Camels in a raid to destroy the Zeppelin hangars at Tønder in 1918. Diplomacy The non-military diplomatic and propaganda interactions among the nations were designed to build support for the cause or to undermine support for the enemy. For the most part, wartime diplomacy focused on five issues: propaganda campaigns; defining and redefining the war goals, which became harsher as the war went on; luring neutral nations (Italy, Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria, Romania) into the coalition by offering slices of enemy territory; and encouragement by the Allies of nationalistic minority movements inside the Central Powers, especially among Czechs, Poles, and Arabs. In addition, multiple peace proposals were coming from neutrals, or one side or the other; none of them progressed very far. Legacy and memory Memorials Memorials were built in thousands of villages and towns. Close to battlefields, those buried in improvised burial grounds were gradually moved to formal graveyards under the care of organisations such as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the American Battle Monuments Commission, the German War Graves Commission, and Le Souvenir français. Many of these graveyards also have monuments to the missing or unidentified dead, such as the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing and the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme. In 1915, John McCrae, a Canadian army doctor, wrote the poem In Flanders Fields as a salute to those who perished in the war. It is still recited today, especially on Remembrance Day and Memorial Day. National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, is a memorial dedicated to all Americans who served in World War I. The Liberty Memorial was dedicated on 1 November 1921. The British government budgeted substantial resources to the commemoration of the war during the period 2014 to 2018. The lead body is the Imperial War Museum. On 3 August 2014, French President François Hollande and German President Joachim Gauck together marked the centenary of Germany's declaration of war on France by laying the first stone of a memorial in Vieil Armand, known in German as Hartmannswillerkopf, for French and German soldiers killed in the war. As part of commemorations for the centenary of the 1918 Armistice, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the site of the signing of the Armistice of Compiègne and unveiled a plaque to reconciliation. Historiography The first efforts to comprehend the meaning and consequences of modern warfare began during the initial phases of the war and are still underway more than a century later. Teaching World War I has presented special challenges. When compared with World War II, the First World War is often thought to be "a wrong war fought for the wrong reasons"; it lacks the metanarrative of good versus evil that characterizes retellings of the Second World War. Lacking recognizable heroes and villains, it is often taught thematically, invoking simplified tropes that obscure the complexity of the conflict. Historian Heather Jones argues that the historiography has been reinvigorated by a cultural turn in the 21st century. Scholars have raised entirely new questions regarding military occupation, radicalisation of politics, race, medical science, gender and mental health. Among the major subjects that historians have long debated regarding the war include: Why the war began; why the Allies won; whether generals were responsible for high casualty rates; how soldiers endured the poor conditions of trench warfare; and to what extent the civilian home front accepted and endorsed the war effort. Unexploded ordnance As late as 2007, unexploded ordnance at battlefield sites like Verdun and Somme continued to pose a danger. In France and Belgium, locals who discover caches of unexploded munitions are assisted by weapons disposal units. In some places, plant life has still not recovered from the effects of the war. See also Lists of World War I topics List of military engagements of World War I Outline of World War I World war World War II Footnotes References Bibliography External links Links to other WWI Sites, worldwide links from Brigham Young U. The World War One Document Archive, from Brigham Young U. International Encyclopedia of the First World War Records on the outbreak of World War I from the UK Parliamentary Collections The Heritage of the Great War / First World War. Graphic colour photos, pictures and music A multimedia history of World War I European Newspapers from the start of the First World War and the end of the war WWI Films on the European Film Gateway The British Pathé WW1 Film Archive Archived 24 March 2019 at the Wayback Machine World War I British press photograph collection – A sampling of images distributed by the British government during the war to diplomats overseas, from the UBC Library Digital Collections Personal accounts of American World War I veterans, Veterans History Project, Library of Congress Who is at fault for World War I? (YouTube Premium): Link Library guides National Library of New Zealand State Library of New South Wales US Library of Congress Indiana University Bloomington Archived 5 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine New York University Archived 5 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine University of Alberta California State Library, California History Room. Collection: California. State Council of Defense. California War History Committee. Records of Californians who served in World War I, 1918–1922.

World_War_II

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II

World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers. Nearly all the world's countries—including all the great powers—participated, with many investing all available economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities in pursuit of total war, blurring the distinction between military and civilian resources. Tanks and aircraft played major roles, with the latter enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and delivery of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, resulting in 70 to 85 million fatalities, more than half of which were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust of European Jews, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. Following the Allied powers' victory, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea were occupied, and war crimes tribunals were conducted against German and Japanese leaders. The causes of World War II included unresolved tensions in the aftermath of World War I and the rises of fascism in Europe and militarism in Japan, and it was preceded by events including the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, Spanish Civil War, outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and German annexations of Austria and the Sudetenland. World War II is generally considered to have begun on 1 September 1939, when Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland. The United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany on 3 September. Under their Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Germany and the Soviet Union had partitioned Poland and marked out "spheres of influence" across Eastern Europe; in 1940, the Soviets annexed the Baltic states and parts of Finland and Romania. After the fall of France in June 1940, the war continued primarily between Germany and the British Empire, with campaigns in North and East Africa and the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain and the Blitz of the UK, and the naval Battle of the Atlantic. By mid-1941, through a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany occupied or controlled much of continental Europe and had formed the Axis alliance with Italy, Japan, and other countries. In June 1941, Germany led the European Axis in an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the Eastern Front. Japan aimed to dominate East Asia and the Asia-Pacific, and by 1937 was at war with the Republic of China. In December 1941, Japan attacked American and British territories in Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific, including an attack on Pearl Harbor, which resulted in the United States and the United Kingdom declaring war against Japan. The European Axis powers declared war on the US in solidarity. Japan soon conquered much of the western Pacific, but its advances were halted in 1942 after its defeat in the naval Battle of Midway; Germany and Italy were defeated in North Africa and at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. Key setbacks in 1943—including German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and the Italian mainland, and Allied offensives in the Pacific—cost the Axis powers their initiative and forced them into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France at Normandy, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and pushed Germany and its allies westward. In 1944 and 1945, Japan suffered reversals in mainland Asia, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key western Pacific islands. The war in Europe concluded with the liberation of German-occupied territories; the invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the fall of Berlin to Soviet troops; Hitler's suicide; and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945. Following the refusal of Japan to surrender on the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, the US dropped the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima on 6 August and Nagasaki on 9 August. Faced with imminent invasion of the Japanese archipelago, the possibility of more atomic bombings, and the Soviet declaration of war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria, Japan announced its unconditional surrender on 15 August and signed a surrender document on 2 September 1945, marking the end of the conflict. World War II changed the political alignment and social structure of the world, and it set the foundation of international relations for the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st century. The United Nations was established to foster international cooperation and prevent conflicts, with the victorious great powers—China, France, the Soviet Union, the UK, and the US—becoming the permanent members of its security council. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia. Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery and expansion. Start and end dates World War II began in Europe on 1 September 1939 with the German invasion of Poland and the United Kingdom and France's declaration of war on Germany two days later on 3 September 1939. Dates for the beginning of the Pacific War include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the earlier Japanese invasion of Manchuria, on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who stated that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously, and the two wars became World War II in 1941. Other proposed starting dates for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939. Others view the Spanish Civil War as the start or prelude to World War II. The exact date of the war's end also is not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 15 August 1945 (V-J Day), rather than with the formal surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945, which officially ended the war in Asia. A peace treaty between Japan and the Allies was signed in 1951. A 1990 treaty regarding Germany's future allowed the reunification of East and West Germany to take place and resolved most post–World War II issues. No formal peace treaty between Japan and the Soviet Union was ever signed, although the state of war between the two countries was terminated by the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956, which also restored full diplomatic relations between them. History Background Aftermath of World War I World War I had radically altered the political European map with the defeat of the Central Powers—including Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire—and the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia, which led to the founding of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the victorious Allies of World War I, such as France, Belgium, Italy, Romania, and Greece, gained territory, and new nation-states were created out of the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires. To prevent a future world war, the League of Nations was established in 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference. The organisation's primary goals were to prevent armed conflict through collective security, military, and naval disarmament, as well as settling international disputes through peaceful negotiations and arbitration. Despite strong pacifist sentiment after World War I, irredentist and revanchist nationalism had emerged in several European states. These sentiments were especially marked in Germany because of the significant territorial, colonial, and financial losses imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. Under the treaty, Germany lost around 13 percent of its home territory and all its overseas possessions, while German annexation of other states was prohibited, reparations were imposed, and limits were placed on the size and capability of the country's armed forces. Germany and Italy The German Empire was dissolved in the German Revolution of 1918–1919, and a democratic government, later known as the Weimar Republic, was created. The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and hardline opponents on both the political right and left. Italy, as an Entente ally, had made some post-war territorial gains; however, Italian nationalists were angered that the promises made by the United Kingdom and France to secure Italian entrance into the war were not fulfilled in the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the Fascist movement led by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy with a nationalist, totalitarian, and class collaborationist agenda that abolished representative democracy, repressed socialist, left-wing, and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive expansionist foreign policy aimed at making Italy a world power, promising the creation of a "New Roman Empire". Adolf Hitler, after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government in 1923, eventually became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933 when Paul von Hindenburg and the Reichstag appointed him. Following Hindenburg's death in 1934, Hitler proclaimed himself Führer of Germany and abolished democracy, espousing a radical, racially motivated revision of the world order, and soon began a massive rearmament campaign. France, seeking to secure its alliance with Italy, allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia, which Italy desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the Territory of the Saar Basin was legally reunited with Germany, and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament programme, and introduced conscription. European treaties The United Kingdom, France and Italy formed the Stresa Front in April 1935 in order to contain Germany, a key step towards military globalisation; however, that June, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany, easing prior restrictions. The Soviet Union, concerned by Germany's goals of capturing vast areas of Eastern Europe, drafted a treaty of mutual assistance with France. Before taking effect, though, the Franco-Soviet pact was required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which rendered it essentially toothless. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August of the same year. Hitler defied the Versailles and Locarno Treaties by remilitarising the Rhineland in March 1936, encountering little opposition due to the policy of appeasement. In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed the Rome–Berlin Axis. A month later, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Italy joined the following year. Asia The Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allies and new regional warlords. In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Empire of Japan, which had long sought influence in China as the first step of what its government saw as the country's right to rule Asia, staged the Mukden incident as a pretext to invade Manchuria and establish the puppet state of Manchukuo. China appealed to the League of Nations to stop the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after being condemned for its incursion into Manchuria. The two nations then fought several battles, in Shanghai, Rehe and Hebei, until the Tanggu Truce was signed in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and Chahar and Suiyuan. After the 1936 Xi'an Incident, the Kuomintang and CCP forces agreed on a ceasefire to present a united front to oppose Japan. Pre-war events Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935) The Second Italo-Ethiopian War was a brief colonial war that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war began with the invasion of the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia) by the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy (Regno d'Italia), which was launched from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea. The war resulted in the military occupation of Ethiopia and its annexation into the newly created colony of Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana, or AOI); in addition it exposed the weakness of the League of Nations as a force to preserve peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia were member nations, but the League did little when the former clearly violated Article X of the League's Covenant. The United Kingdom and France supported imposing sanctions on Italy for the invasion, but the sanctions were not fully enforced and failed to end the Italian invasion. Italy subsequently dropped its objections to Germany's goal of absorbing Austria. Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) When civil war broke out in Spain, Hitler and Mussolini lent military support to the Nationalist rebels, led by General Francisco Franco. Italy supported the Nationalists to a greater extent than the Nazis: Mussolini sent more than 70,000 ground troops, 6,000 aviation personnel, and 720 aircraft to Spain. The Soviet Union supported the existing government of the Spanish Republic. More than 30,000 foreign volunteers, known as the International Brigades, also fought against the Nationalists. Both Germany and the Soviet Union used this proxy war as an opportunity to test in combat their most advanced weapons and tactics. The Nationalists won the civil war in April 1939; Franco, now dictator, remained officially neutral during World War II but generally favoured the Axis. His greatest collaboration with Germany was the sending of volunteers to fight on the Eastern Front. Japanese invasion of China (1937) In July 1937, Japan captured the former Chinese imperial capital of Peking after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge incident, which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China. The Soviets quickly signed a non-aggression pact with China to lend materiel support, effectively ending China's prior cooperation with Germany. From September to November, the Japanese attacked Taiyuan, engaged the Kuomintang Army around Xinkou, and fought Communist forces in Pingxingguan. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to defend Shanghai, but after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanking in December 1937. After the fall of Nanking, tens or hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were murdered by the Japanese. In March 1938, Nationalist Chinese forces won their first major victory at Taierzhuang, but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by the Japanese in May. In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding the Yellow River; this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defences at Wuhan, but the city was taken by October. Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve; instead, the Chinese government relocated inland to Chongqing and continued the war. Soviet–Japanese border conflicts In the mid-to-late 1930s, Japanese forces in Manchukuo had sporadic border clashes with the Soviet Union and Mongolia. The Japanese doctrine of Hokushin-ron, which emphasised Japan's expansion northward, was favoured by the Imperial Army during this time. This policy would prove difficult to maintain in light of the Japanese defeat at Khalkin Gol in 1939, the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War and ally Nazi Germany pursuing neutrality with the Soviets. Japan and the Soviet Union eventually signed a Neutrality Pact in April 1941, and Japan adopted the doctrine of Nanshin-ron, promoted by the Navy, which took its focus southward and eventually led to war with the United States and the Western Allies. European occupations and agreements In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming more aggressive. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, again provoking little response from other European powers. Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia with a predominantly ethnic German population. Soon the United Kingdom and France followed the appeasement policy of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and conceded this territory to Germany in the Munich Agreement, which was made against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands. Soon afterwards, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to cede additional territory to Hungary, and Poland annexed the Trans-Olza region of Czechoslovakia. Although all of Germany's stated demands had been satisfied by the agreement, privately Hitler was furious that British interference had prevented him from seizing all of Czechoslovakia in one operation. In subsequent speeches Hitler attacked British and Jewish "war-mongers" and in January 1939 secretly ordered a major build-up of the German navy to challenge British naval supremacy. In March 1939, Germany invaded the remainder of Czechoslovakia and subsequently split it into the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a pro-German client state, the Slovak Republic. Hitler also delivered an ultimatum to Lithuania on 20 March 1939, forcing the concession of the Klaipėda Region, formerly the German Memelland. Greatly alarmed and with Hitler making further demands on the Free City of Danzig, the United Kingdom and France guaranteed their support for Polish independence; when Italy conquered Albania in April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to the Kingdoms of Romania and Greece. Shortly after the Franco-British pledge to Poland, Germany and Italy formalised their own alliance with the Pact of Steel. Hitler accused the United Kingdom and Poland of trying to "encircle" Germany and renounced the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish declaration of non-aggression. The situation became a crisis in late August as German troops continued to mobilise against the Polish border. On 23 August the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Germany, after tripartite negotiations for a military alliance between France, the United Kingdom, and Soviet Union had stalled. This pact had a secret protocol that defined German and Soviet "spheres of influence" (western Poland and Lithuania for Germany; eastern Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Bessarabia for the Soviet Union), and raised the question of continuing Polish independence. The pact neutralised the possibility of Soviet opposition to a campaign against Poland and assured that Germany would not have to face the prospect of a two-front war, as it had in World War I. Immediately afterwards, Hitler ordered the attack to proceed on 26 August, but upon hearing that the United Kingdom had concluded a formal mutual assistance pact with Poland and that Italy would maintain neutrality, he decided to delay it. In response to British requests for direct negotiations to avoid war, Germany made demands on Poland, which served as a pretext to worsen relations. On 29 August, Hitler demanded that a Polish plenipotentiary immediately travel to Berlin to negotiate the handover of Danzig, and to allow a plebiscite in the Polish Corridor in which the German minority would vote on secession. The Poles refused to comply with the German demands, and on the night of 30–31 August in a confrontational meeting with the British ambassador Nevile Henderson, Ribbentrop declared that Germany considered its claims rejected. Course of the war War breaks out in Europe (1939–1940) On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland after having staged several false flag border incidents as a pretext to initiate the invasion. The first German attack of the war came against the Polish defenses at Westerplatte. The United Kingdom responded with an ultimatum for Germany to cease military operations, and on 3 September, after the ultimatum was ignored, Britain and France declared war on Germany. During the Phoney War period, the alliance provided no direct military support to Poland, outside of a cautious French probe into the Saarland. The Western Allies also began a naval blockade of Germany, which aimed to damage the country's economy and war effort. Germany responded by ordering U-boat warfare against Allied merchant and warships, which would later escalate into the Battle of the Atlantic. On 8 September, German troops reached the suburbs of Warsaw. The Polish counter-offensive to the west halted the German advance for several days, but it was outflanked and encircled by the Wehrmacht. Remnants of the Polish army broke through to besieged Warsaw. On 17 September 1939, two days after signing a cease-fire with Japan, the Soviet Union invaded Poland under the supposed pretext that the Polish state had ceased to exist. On 27 September, the Warsaw garrison surrendered to the Germans, and the last large operational unit of the Polish Army surrendered on 6 October. Despite the military defeat, Poland never surrendered; instead, it formed the Polish government-in-exile and a clandestine state apparatus remained in occupied Poland. A significant part of Polish military personnel evacuated to Romania and Latvia; many of them later fought against the Axis in other theatres of the war. Germany annexed western Poland and occupied central Poland; the Soviet Union annexed eastern Poland; small shares of Polish territory were transferred to Lithuania and Slovakia. On 6 October, Hitler made a public peace overture to the United Kingdom and France but said that the future of Poland was to be determined exclusively by Germany and the Soviet Union. The proposal was rejected and Hitler ordered an immediate offensive against France, which was postponed until the spring of 1940 due to bad weather. After the outbreak of war in Poland, Stalin threatened Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania with military invasion, forcing the three Baltic countries to sign pacts allowing the creation of Soviet military bases in these countries; in October 1939, significant Soviet military contingents were moved there. Finland refused to sign a similar pact and rejected ceding part of its territory to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union invaded Finland in November 1939, and was subsequently expelled from the League of Nations for this crime of aggression. Despite overwhelming numerical superiority, Soviet military success during the Winter War was modest, and the Finno-Soviet war ended in March 1940 with some Finnish concessions of territory. In June 1940, the Soviet Union occupied the entire territories of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as the Romanian regions of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertsa region. In August 1940, Hitler imposed the Second Vienna Award on Romania which led to the transfer of Northern Transylvania to Hungary. In September 1940, Bulgaria demanded Southern Dobruja from Romania with German and Italian support, leading to the Treaty of Craiova. The loss of one-third of Romania's 1939 territory caused a coup against King Carol II, turning Romania into a fascist dictatorship under Marshal Ion Antonescu, with a course set towards the Axis in the hopes of a German guarantee. Meanwhile, German-Soviet political relations and economic co-operation gradually stalled, and both states began preparations for war. Western Europe (1940–1941) In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect shipments of iron ore from Sweden, which the Allies were attempting to cut off. Denmark capitulated after six hours, and despite Allied support, Norway was conquered within two months. British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the resignation of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who was replaced by Winston Churchill on 10 May 1940. On the same day, Germany launched an offensive against France. To circumvent the strong Maginot Line fortifications on the Franco-German border, Germany directed its attack at the neutral nations of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The Germans carried out a flanking manoeuvre through the Ardennes region, which was mistakenly perceived by the Allies as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles. By successfully implementing new Blitzkrieg tactics, the Wehrmacht rapidly advanced to the Channel and cut off the Allied forces in Belgium, trapping the bulk of the Allied armies in a cauldron on the Franco-Belgian border near Lille. The United Kingdom was able to evacuate a significant number of Allied troops from the continent by early June, although they had to abandon almost all their equipment. On 10 June, Italy invaded France, declaring war on both France and the United Kingdom. The Germans turned south against the weakened French army, and Paris fell to them on 14 June. Eight days later France signed an armistice with Germany; it was divided into German and Italian occupation zones, and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime, which, though officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. France kept its fleet, which the United Kingdom attacked on 3 July in an attempt to prevent its seizure by Germany. The air Battle of Britain began in early July with Luftwaffe attacks on shipping and harbours. The German campaign for air superiority started in August but its failure to defeat RAF Fighter Command forced the indefinite postponement of the proposed German invasion of Britain. The German strategic bombing offensive intensified with night attacks on London and other cities in the Blitz, but largely ended in May 1941 after failing to significantly disrupt the British war effort. Using newly captured French ports, the German Navy enjoyed success against an over-extended Royal Navy, using U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic. The British Home Fleet scored a significant victory on 27 May 1941 by sinking the German battleship Bismarck. In November 1939, the United States was assisting China and the Western Allies, and had amended the Neutrality Act to allow "cash and carry" purchases by the Allies. In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the United States Navy was significantly increased. In September the United States further agreed to a trade of American destroyers for British bases. Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention in the conflict well into 1941. In December 1940, Roosevelt accused Hitler of planning world conquest and ruled out any negotiations as useless, calling for the United States to become an "arsenal of democracy" and promoting Lend-Lease programmes of military and humanitarian aid to support the British war effort; Lend-Lease was later extended to the other Allies, including the Soviet Union after it was invaded by Germany. The United States started strategic planning to prepare for a full-scale offensive against Germany. At the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact formally united Japan, Italy, and Germany as the Axis powers. The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country—with the exception of the Soviet Union—that attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three. The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania joined. Romania and Hungary later made major contributions to the Axis war against the Soviet Union, in Romania's case partially to recapture territory ceded to the Soviet Union. Mediterranean (1940–1941) In early June 1940, the Italian Regia Aeronautica attacked and besieged Malta, a British possession. From late summer to early autumn, Italy conquered British Somaliland and made an incursion into British-held Egypt. In October, Italy attacked Greece, but the attack was repulsed with heavy Italian casualties; the campaign ended within months with minor territorial changes. To assist Italy and prevent Britain from gaining a foothold, Germany prepared to invade the Balkans, which would threaten Romanian oil fields and strike against British dominance of the Mediterranean. In December 1940, British Empire forces began counter-offensives against Italian forces in Egypt and Italian East Africa. The offensives were successful; by early February 1941, Italy had lost control of eastern Libya, and large numbers of Italian troops had been taken prisoner. The Italian Navy also suffered significant defeats, with the Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission after a carrier attack at Taranto, and neutralising several more warships at the Battle of Cape Matapan. Italian defeats prompted Germany to deploy an expeditionary force to North Africa; at the end of March 1941, Rommel's Afrika Korps launched an offensive which drove back Commonwealth forces. In less than a month, Axis forces advanced to western Egypt and besieged the port of Tobruk. By late March 1941, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact; however, the Yugoslav government was overthrown two days later by pro-British nationalists. Germany and Italy responded with simultaneous invasions of both Yugoslavia and Greece, commencing on 6 April 1941; both nations were forced to surrender within the month. The airborne invasion of the Greek island of Crete at the end of May completed the German conquest of the Balkans. Partisan warfare subsequently broke out against the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, which continued until the end of the war. In the Middle East in May, Commonwealth forces quashed an uprising in Iraq which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled Syria. Between June and July, British-led forces invaded and occupied the French possessions of Syria and Lebanon, assisted by the Free French. Axis attack on the Soviet Union (1941) With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations for war. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany, and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing resource-rich European possessions in Southeast Asia, the two powers signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941. By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on the Soviet border. Hitler believed that the United Kingdom's refusal to end the war was based on the hope that the United States and the Soviet Union would enter the war against Germany sooner or later. On 31 July 1940, Hitler decided that the Soviet Union should be eliminated and aimed for the conquest of Ukraine, the Baltic states and Byelorussia. However, other senior German officials like Ribbentrop saw an opportunity to create a Euro-Asian bloc against the British Empire by inviting the Soviet Union into the Tripartite Pact. In November 1940, negotiations took place to determine if the Soviet Union would join the pact. The Soviets showed some interest but asked for concessions from Finland, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Japan that Germany considered unacceptable. On 18 December 1940, Hitler issued the directive to prepare for an invasion of the Soviet Union. On 22 June 1941, Germany, supported by Italy and Romania, invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, with Germany accusing the Soviets of plotting against them; they were joined shortly by Finland and Hungary. The primary targets of this surprise offensive were the Baltic region, Moscow and Ukraine, with the ultimate goal of ending the 1941 campaign near the Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line—from the Caspian to the White Seas. Hitler's objectives were to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminate Communism, generate Lebensraum ("living space") by dispossessing the native population, and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed to defeat Germany's remaining rivals. Although the Red Army was preparing for strategic counter-offensives before the war, Operation Barbarossa forced the Soviet supreme command to adopt strategic defence. During the summer, the Axis made significant gains into Soviet territory, inflicting immense losses in both personnel and materiel. By mid-August, however, the German Army High Command decided to suspend the offensive of a considerably depleted Army Group Centre, and to divert the 2nd Panzer Group to reinforce troops advancing towards central Ukraine and Leningrad. The Kiev offensive was overwhelmingly successful, resulting in encirclement and elimination of four Soviet armies, and made possible further advance into Crimea and industrially-developed Eastern Ukraine (the First Battle of Kharkov). The diversion of three-quarters of the Axis troops and the majority of their air forces from France and the central Mediterranean to the Eastern Front prompted the United Kingdom to reconsider its grand strategy. In July, the UK and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance against Germany and in August, the United Kingdom and the United States jointly issued the Atlantic Charter, which outlined British and American goals for the post-war world. In late August the British and Soviets invaded neutral Iran to secure the Persian Corridor, Iran's oil fields, and preempt any Axis advances through Iran toward the Baku oil fields or India. By October, Axis powers had achieved operational objectives in Ukraine and the Baltic region, with only the sieges of Leningrad and Sevastopol continuing. A major offensive against Moscow was renewed; after two months of fierce battles in increasingly harsh weather, the German army almost reached the outer suburbs of Moscow, where the exhausted troops were forced to suspend the offensive. Large territorial gains were made by Axis forces, but their campaign had failed to achieve its main objectives: two key cities remained in Soviet hands, the Soviet capability to resist was not broken, and the Soviet Union retained a considerable part of its military potential. The blitzkrieg phase of the war in Europe had ended. By early December, freshly mobilised reserves allowed the Soviets to achieve numerical parity with Axis troops. This, as well as intelligence data which established that a minimal number of Soviet troops in the East would be sufficient to deter any attack by the Japanese Kwantung Army, allowed the Soviets to begin a massive counter-offensive that started on 5 December all along the front and pushed German troops 100–250 kilometres (62–155 mi) west. War breaks out in the Pacific (1941) Following the Japanese false flag Mukden incident in 1931, the Japanese shelling of the American gunboat USS Panay in 1937, and the 1937–1938 Nanjing Massacre, Japanese-American relations deteriorated. In 1939, the United States notified Japan that it would not be extending its trade treaty and American public opinion opposing Japanese expansionism led to a series of economic sanctions—the Export Control Acts—which banned U.S. exports of chemicals, minerals and military parts to Japan, and increased economic pressure on the Japanese regime. During 1939 Japan launched its first attack against Changsha, but was repulsed by late September. Despite several offensives by both sides, by 1940 the war between China and Japan was at a stalemate. To increase pressure on China by blocking supply routes, and to better position Japanese forces in the event of a war with the Western powers, Japan invaded and occupied northern Indochina in September 1940. Chinese nationalist forces launched a large-scale counter-offensive in early 1940. In August, Chinese communists launched an offensive in Central China; in retaliation, Japan instituted harsh measures in occupied areas to reduce human and material resources for the communists. Continued antipathy between Chinese communist and nationalist forces culminated in armed clashes in January 1941, effectively ending their co-operation. In March, the Japanese 11th army attacked the headquarters of the Chinese 19th army but was repulsed during Battle of Shanggao. In September, Japan attempted to take the city of Changsha again and clashed with Chinese nationalist forces. German successes in Europe prompted Japan to increase pressure on European governments in Southeast Asia. The Dutch government agreed to provide Japan with oil supplies from the Dutch East Indies, but negotiations for additional access to their resources ended in failure in June 1941. In July 1941 Japan sent troops to southern Indochina, thus threatening British and Dutch possessions in the Far East. The United States, the United Kingdom, and other Western governments reacted to this move with a freeze on Japanese assets and a total oil embargo. At the same time, Japan was planning an invasion of the Soviet Far East, intending to take advantage of the German invasion in the west, but abandoned the operation after the sanctions. Since early 1941, the United States and Japan had been engaged in negotiations in an attempt to improve their strained relations and end the war in China. During these negotiations, Japan advanced a number of proposals which were dismissed by the Americans as inadequate. At the same time the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands engaged in secret discussions for the joint defence of their territories, in the event of a Japanese attack against any of them. Roosevelt reinforced the Philippines (an American protectorate scheduled for independence in 1946) and warned Japan that the United States would react to Japanese attacks against any "neighboring countries". Frustrated at the lack of progress and feeling the pinch of the American–British–Dutch sanctions, Japan prepared for war. Emperor Hirohito, after initial hesitation about Japan's chances of victory, began to favour Japan's entry into the war. As a result, Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe resigned. Hirohito refused the recommendation to appoint Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni in his place, choosing War Minister Hideki Tojo instead. On 3 November, Nagano explained in detail the plan of the attack on Pearl Harbor to the Emperor. On 5 November, Hirohito approved in imperial conference the operations plan for the war. On 20 November, the new government presented an interim proposal as its final offer. It called for the end of American aid to China and for lifting the embargo on the supply of oil and other resources to Japan. In exchange, Japan promised not to launch any attacks in Southeast Asia and to withdraw its forces from southern Indochina. The American counter-proposal of 26 November required that Japan evacuate all of China without conditions and conclude non-aggression pacts with all Pacific powers. That meant Japan was essentially forced to choose between abandoning its ambitions in China, or seizing the natural resources it needed in the Dutch East Indies by force; the Japanese military did not consider the former an option, and many officers considered the oil embargo an unspoken declaration of war. Japan planned to seize European colonies in Asia to create a large defensive perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific. The Japanese would then be free to exploit the resources of Southeast Asia while exhausting the over-stretched Allies by fighting a defensive war. To prevent American intervention while securing the perimeter, it was further planned to neutralise the United States Pacific Fleet and the American military presence in the Philippines from the outset. On 7 December 1941 (8 December in Asian time zones), Japan attacked British and American holdings with near-simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific. These included an attack on the American fleets at Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, as well as invasions of Guam, Wake Island, Malaya, Thailand, and Hong Kong. These attacks led the United States, United Kingdom, China, Australia, and several other states to formally declare war on Japan, whereas the Soviet Union, being heavily involved in large-scale hostilities with European Axis countries, maintained its neutrality agreement with Japan. Germany, followed by the other Axis states, declared war on the United States in solidarity with Japan, citing as justification the American attacks on German war vessels that had been ordered by Roosevelt. Axis advance stalls (1942–1943) On 1 January 1942, the Allied Big Four—the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, and the United States—and 22 smaller or exiled governments issued the Declaration by United Nations, thereby affirming the Atlantic Charter and agreeing not to sign a separate peace with the Axis powers. During 1942, Allied officials debated on the appropriate grand strategy to pursue. All agreed that defeating Germany was the primary objective. The Americans favoured a straightforward, large-scale attack on Germany through France. The Soviets demanded a second front. The British argued that military operations should target peripheral areas to wear out German strength, leading to increasing demoralisation, and bolstering resistance forces; Germany itself would be subject to a heavy bombing campaign. An offensive against Germany would then be launched primarily by Allied armour, without using large-scale armies. Eventually, the British persuaded the Americans that a landing in France was infeasible in 1942 and they should instead focus on driving the Axis out of North Africa. At the Casablanca Conference in early 1943, the Allies reiterated the statements issued in the 1942 Declaration and demanded the unconditional surrender of their enemies. The British and Americans agreed to continue to press the initiative in the Mediterranean by invading Sicily to fully secure the Mediterranean supply routes. Although the British argued for further operations in the Balkans to bring Turkey into the war, in May 1943, the Americans extracted a British commitment to limit Allied operations in the Mediterranean to an invasion of the Italian mainland, and to invade France in 1944. Pacific (1942–1943) By the end of April 1942, Japan and its ally Thailand had almost conquered Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, Singapore, and Rabaul, inflicting severe losses on Allied troops and taking a large number of prisoners. Despite stubborn resistance by Filipino and U.S. forces, the Philippine Commonwealth was eventually captured in May 1942, forcing its government into exile. On 16 April, in Burma, 7,000 British soldiers were encircled by the Japanese 33rd Division during the Battle of Yenangyaung and rescued by the Chinese 38th Division. Japanese forces also achieved naval victories in the South China Sea, Java Sea, and Indian Ocean, and bombed the Allied naval base at Darwin, Australia. In January 1942, the only Allied success against Japan was a Chinese victory at Changsha. These easy victories over the unprepared U.S. and European opponents left Japan overconfident, and overextended. In early May 1942, Japan initiated operations to capture Port Moresby by amphibious assault and thus sever communications and supply lines between the United States and Australia. The planned invasion was thwarted when an Allied task force, centred on two American fleet carriers, fought Japanese naval forces to a draw in the Battle of the Coral Sea. Japan's next plan, motivated by the earlier Doolittle Raid, was to seize Midway Atoll and lure American carriers into battle to be eliminated; as a diversion, Japan would also send forces to occupy the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. In mid-May, Japan started the Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign in China, with the goal of inflicting retribution on the Chinese who aided the surviving American airmen in the Doolittle Raid by destroying Chinese air bases and fighting against the Chinese 23rd and 32nd Army Groups. In early June, Japan put its operations into action, but the Americans had broken Japanese naval codes in late May and were fully aware of the plans and order of battle, and used this knowledge to achieve a decisive victory at Midway over the Imperial Japanese Navy. With its capacity for aggressive action greatly diminished as a result of the Midway battle, Japan attempted to capture Port Moresby by an overland campaign in the Territory of Papua. The Americans planned a counterattack against Japanese positions in the southern Solomon Islands, primarily Guadalcanal, as a first step towards capturing Rabaul, the main Japanese base in Southeast Asia. Both plans started in July, but by mid-September, the Battle for Guadalcanal took priority for the Japanese, and troops in New Guinea were ordered to withdraw from the Port Moresby area to the northern part of the island, where they faced Australian and United States troops in the Battle of Buna–Gona. Guadalcanal soon became a focal point for both sides with heavy commitments of troops and ships in the battle for Guadalcanal. By the start of 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the island and withdrew their troops. In Burma, Commonwealth forces mounted two operations. The first was a disastrous offensive into the Arakan region in late 1942 that forced a retreat back to India by May 1943. The second was the insertion of irregular forces behind Japanese frontlines in February which, by the end of April, had achieved mixed results. Eastern Front (1942–1943) Despite considerable losses, in early 1942 Germany and its allies stopped a major Soviet offensive in central and southern Russia, keeping most territorial gains they had achieved during the previous year. In May, the Germans defeated Soviet offensives in the Kerch Peninsula and at Kharkov, and then in June 1942 launched their main summer offensive against southern Russia, to seize the oil fields of the Caucasus and occupy the Kuban steppe, while maintaining positions on the northern and central areas of the front. The Germans split Army Group South into two groups: Army Group A advanced to the lower Don River and struck south-east to the Caucasus, while Army Group B headed towards the Volga River. The Soviets decided to make their stand at Stalingrad on the Volga. By mid-November, the Germans had nearly taken Stalingrad in bitter street fighting. The Soviets began their second winter counter-offensive, starting with an encirclement of German forces at Stalingrad, and an assault on the Rzhev salient near Moscow, though the latter failed disastrously. By early February 1943, the German Army had taken tremendous losses; German troops at Stalingrad had been defeated, and the front-line had been pushed back beyond its position before the summer offensive. In mid-February, after the Soviet push had tapered off, the Germans launched another attack on Kharkov, creating a salient in their front line around the Soviet city of Kursk. Western Europe/Atlantic and Mediterranean (1942–1943) Exploiting poor American naval command decisions, the German navy ravaged Allied shipping off the American Atlantic coast. By November 1941, Commonwealth forces had launched a counter-offensive in North Africa, Operation Crusader, and reclaimed all the gains the Germans and Italians had made. The Germans also launched a North African offensive in January, pushing the British back to positions at the Gazala line by early February, followed by a temporary lull in combat which Germany used to prepare for their upcoming offensives. Concerns that the Japanese might use bases in Vichy-held Madagascar caused the British to invade the island in early May 1942. An Axis offensive in Libya forced an Allied retreat deep inside Egypt until Axis forces were stopped at El Alamein. On the Continent, raids of Allied commandos on strategic targets, culminating in the failed Dieppe Raid, demonstrated the Western Allies' inability to launch an invasion of continental Europe without much better preparation, equipment, and operational security. In August 1942, the Allies succeeded in repelling a second attack against El Alamein and, at a high cost, managed to deliver desperately needed supplies to the besieged Malta. A few months later, the Allies commenced an attack of their own in Egypt, dislodging the Axis forces and beginning a drive west across Libya. This attack was followed up shortly after by Anglo-American landings in French North Africa, which resulted in the region joining the Allies. Hitler responded to the French colony's defection by ordering the occupation of Vichy France; although Vichy forces did not resist this violation of the armistice, they managed to scuttle their fleet to prevent its capture by German forces. Axis forces in Africa withdrew into Tunisia, which was conquered by the Allies in May 1943. In June 1943, the British and Americans began a strategic bombing campaign against Germany with a goal to disrupt the war economy, reduce morale, and "de-house" the civilian population. The firebombing of Hamburg was among the first attacks in this campaign, inflicting significant casualties and considerable losses on infrastructure of this important industrial centre. Allies gain momentum (1943–1944) After the Guadalcanal campaign, the Allies initiated several operations against Japan in the Pacific. In May 1943, Canadian and U.S. forces were sent to eliminate Japanese forces from the Aleutians. Soon after, the United States, with support from Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islander forces, began major ground, sea and air operations to isolate Rabaul by capturing surrounding islands, and breach the Japanese Central Pacific perimeter at the Gilbert and Marshall Islands. By the end of March 1944, the Allies had completed both of these objectives and had also neutralised the major Japanese base at Truk in the Caroline Islands. In April, the Allies launched an operation to retake Western New Guinea. In the Soviet Union, both the Germans and the Soviets spent the spring and early summer of 1943 preparing for large offensives in central Russia. On 5 July 1943, Germany attacked Soviet forces around the Kursk Bulge. Within a week, German forces had exhausted themselves against the Soviets' well-constructed defences, and for the first time in the war, Hitler cancelled an operation before it had achieved tactical or operational success. This decision was partially affected by the Western Allies' invasion of Sicily launched on 9 July, which, combined with previous Italian failures, resulted in the ousting and arrest of Mussolini later that month. On 12 July 1943, the Soviets launched their own counter-offensives, thereby dispelling any chance of German victory or even stalemate in the east. The Soviet victory at Kursk marked the end of German superiority, giving the Soviet Union the initiative on the Eastern Front. The Germans tried to stabilise their eastern front along the hastily fortified Panther–Wotan line, but the Soviets broke through it at Smolensk and the Lower Dnieper Offensive. On 3 September 1943, the Western Allies invaded the Italian mainland, following Italy's armistice with the Allies and the ensuing German occupation of Italy. Germany, with the help of fascists, responded to the armistice by disarming Italian forces that were in many places without superior orders, seizing military control of Italian areas, and creating a series of defensive lines. German special forces then rescued Mussolini, who then soon established a new client state in German-occupied Italy named the Italian Social Republic, causing an Italian civil war. The Western Allies fought through several lines until reaching the main German defensive line in mid-November. German operations in the Atlantic also suffered. By May 1943, as Allied counter-measures became increasingly effective, the resulting sizeable German submarine losses forced a temporary halt of the German Atlantic naval campaign. In November 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met with Chiang Kai-shek in Cairo and then with Joseph Stalin in Tehran. The former conference determined the post-war return of Japanese territory and the military planning for the Burma campaign, while the latter included agreement that the Western Allies would invade Europe in 1944 and that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan within three months of Germany's defeat. From November 1943, during the seven-week Battle of Changde, the Chinese awaited allied relief as they forced Japan to fight a costly war of attrition. In January 1944, the Allies launched a series of attacks in Italy against the line at Monte Cassino and tried to outflank it with landings at Anzio. On 27 January 1944, Soviet troops launched a major offensive that expelled German forces from the Leningrad region, thereby ending the most lethal siege in history. The following Soviet offensive was halted on the pre-war Estonian border by the German Army Group North aided by Estonians hoping to re-establish national independence. This delay slowed subsequent Soviet operations in the Baltic Sea region. By late May 1944, the Soviets had liberated Crimea, largely expelled Axis forces from Ukraine, and made incursions into Romania, which were repulsed by the Axis troops. The Allied offensives in Italy had succeeded and, at the expense of allowing several German divisions to retreat, Rome was captured on 4 June. The Allies had mixed success in mainland Asia. In March 1944, the Japanese launched the first of two invasions, an operation against Allied positions in Assam, India, and soon besieged Commonwealth positions at Imphal and Kohima. In May 1944, British and Indian forces mounted a counter-offensive that drove Japanese troops back to Burma by July, and Chinese forces that had invaded northern Burma in late 1943 besieged Japanese troops in Myitkyina. The second Japanese invasion of China aimed to destroy China's main fighting forces, secure railways between Japanese-held territory and capture Allied airfields. By June, the Japanese had conquered the province of Henan and begun a new attack on Changsha. Allies close in (1944) On 6 June 1944 (commonly known as D-Day), after three years of Soviet pressure, the Western Allies invaded northern France. After reassigning several Allied divisions from Italy, they also attacked southern France. These landings were successful and led to the defeat of the German Army units in France. Paris was liberated on 25 August by the local resistance assisted by the Free French Forces, both led by General Charles de Gaulle, and the Western Allies continued to push back German forces in western Europe during the latter part of the year. An attempt to advance into northern Germany spearheaded by a major airborne operation in the Netherlands failed. After that, the Western Allies slowly pushed into Germany, but failed to cross the Rur river. In Italy, the Allied advance slowed due to the last major German defensive line. On 22 June, the Soviets launched a strategic offensive in Belarus ("Operation Bagration") that nearly destroyed the German Army Group Centre. Soon after that, another Soviet strategic offensive forced German troops from Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland. The Soviets formed the Polish Committee of National Liberation to control territory in Poland and combat the Polish Armia Krajowa; the Soviet Red Army remained in the Praga district on the other side of the Vistula and watched passively as the Germans quelled the Warsaw Uprising initiated by the Armia Krajowa. The national uprising in Slovakia was also quelled by the Germans. The Soviet Red Army's strategic offensive in eastern Romania cut off and destroyed the considerable German troops there and triggered a successful coup d'état in Romania and in Bulgaria, followed by those countries' shift to the Allied side. In September 1944, Soviet troops advanced into Yugoslavia and forced the rapid withdrawal of German Army Groups E and F in Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia to rescue them from being cut off. By this point, the communist-led Partisans under Marshal Josip Broz Tito, who had led an increasingly successful guerrilla campaign against the occupation since 1941, controlled much of the territory of Yugoslavia and engaged in delaying efforts against German forces further south. In northern Serbia, the Soviet Red Army, with limited support from Bulgarian forces, assisted the Partisans in a joint liberation of the capital city of Belgrade on 20 October. A few days later, the Soviets launched a massive assault against German-occupied Hungary that lasted until the fall of Budapest in February 1945. Unlike impressive Soviet victories in the Balkans, bitter Finnish resistance to the Soviet offensive in the Karelian Isthmus denied the Soviets occupation of Finland and led to a Soviet-Finnish armistice on relatively mild conditions, although Finland was forced to fight their former German allies. By the start of July 1944, Commonwealth forces in Southeast Asia had repelled the Japanese sieges in Assam, pushing the Japanese back to the Chindwin River while the Chinese captured Myitkyina. In September 1944, Chinese forces captured Mount Song and reopened the Burma Road. In China, the Japanese had more successes, having finally captured Changsha in mid-June and the city of Hengyang by early August. Soon after, they invaded the province of Guangxi, winning major engagements against Chinese forces at Guilin and Liuzhou by the end of November and successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by mid-December. In the Pacific, U.S. forces continued to push back the Japanese perimeter. In mid-June 1944, they began their offensive against the Mariana and Palau islands and decisively defeated Japanese forces in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. These defeats led to the resignation of the Japanese Prime Minister, Hideki Tojo, and provided the United States with air bases to launch intensive heavy bomber attacks on the Japanese home islands. In late October, American forces invaded the Filipino island of Leyte; soon after, Allied naval forces scored another large victory in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history. Axis collapse and Allied victory (1944–1945) On 16 December 1944, Germany made a last attempt to split the Allies on the Western Front by using most of its remaining reserves to launch a massive counter-offensive in the Ardennes and along the French-German border, hoping to encircle large portions of Western Allied troops and prompt a political settlement after capturing their primary supply port at Antwerp. By 16 January 1945, this offensive had been repulsed with no strategic objectives fulfilled. In Italy, the Western Allies remained stalemated at the German defensive line. In mid-January 1945, the Red Army attacked in Poland, pushing from the Vistula to the Oder river in Germany, and overran East Prussia. On 4 February Soviet, British, and U.S. leaders met for the Yalta Conference. They agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany, and on when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan. In February, the Soviets entered Silesia and Pomerania, while the Western Allies entered western Germany and closed to the Rhine river. By March, the Western Allies crossed the Rhine north and south of the Ruhr, encircling the German Army Group B. In early March, in an attempt to protect its last oil reserves in Hungary and retake Budapest, Germany launched its last major offensive against Soviet troops near Lake Balaton. Within two weeks, the offensive had been repulsed, the Soviets advanced to Vienna, and captured the city. In early April, Soviet troops captured Königsberg, while the Western Allies finally pushed forward in Italy and swept across western Germany capturing Hamburg and Nuremberg. American and Soviet forces met at the Elbe river on 25 April, leaving unoccupied pockets in southern Germany and around Berlin. Soviet troops stormed and captured Berlin in late April. In Italy, German forces surrendered on 29 April, while the Italian Social Republic capitulated two days later. On 30 April, the Reichstag was captured, signalling the military defeat of Nazi Germany. Major changes in leadership occurred on both sides during this period. On 12 April, President Roosevelt died and was succeeded by his vice president, Harry S. Truman. Benito Mussolini was killed by Italian partisans on 28 April. On 30 April, Hitler committed suicide in his headquarters, and was succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz (as President of the Reich) and Joseph Goebbels (as Chancellor of the Reich); Goebbels also committed suicide on the following day and was replaced by Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, in what would later be known as the Flensburg Government. Total and unconditional surrender in Europe was signed on 7 and 8 May, to be effective by the end of 8 May. German Army Group Centre resisted in Prague until 11 May. On 23 May all remaining members of the German government were arrested by the Allied Forces in Flensburg, while on 5 June all German political and military institutions were transferred under the control of the Allies through the Berlin Declaration. In the Pacific theatre, American forces accompanied by the forces of the Philippine Commonwealth advanced in the Philippines, clearing Leyte by the end of April 1945. They landed on Luzon in January 1945 and recaptured Manila in March. Fighting continued on Luzon, Mindanao, and other islands of the Philippines until the end of the war. Meanwhile, the United States Army Air Forces launched a massive firebombing campaign of strategic cities in Japan in an effort to destroy Japanese war industry and civilian morale. A devastating bombing raid on Tokyo of 9–10 March was the deadliest conventional bombing raid in history. In May 1945, Australian troops landed in Borneo, overrunning the oilfields there. British, American, and Chinese forces defeated the Japanese in northern Burma in March, and the British pushed on to reach Rangoon by 3 May. Chinese forces started a counterattack in the Battle of West Hunan that occurred between 6 April and 7 June 1945. American naval and amphibious forces also moved towards Japan, taking Iwo Jima by March, and Okinawa by the end of June. At the same time, a naval blockade by submarines was strangling Japan's economy and drastically reducing its ability to supply overseas forces. On 11 July, Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany. They confirmed earlier agreements about Germany, and the American, British and Chinese governments reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender of Japan, specifically stating that "the alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction". During this conference, the United Kingdom held its general election, and Clement Attlee replaced Churchill as Prime Minister. The call for unconditional surrender was rejected by the Japanese government, which believed it would be capable of negotiating for more favourable surrender terms. In early August, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Between the two bombings, the Soviets, pursuant to the Yalta agreement, declared war on Japan, invaded Japanese-held Manchuria and quickly defeated the Kwantung Army, which was the largest Japanese fighting force. These two events persuaded previously adamant Imperial Army leaders to accept surrender terms. The Red Army also captured the southern part of Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. On the night of 9–10 August 1945, Emperor Hirohito announced his decision to accept the terms demanded by the Allies in the Potsdam Declaration. On 15 August, the Emperor communicated this decision to the Japanese people through a speech broadcast on the radio (Gyokuon-hōsō, literally "broadcast in the Emperor's voice"). On 15 August 1945, Japan surrendered, with the surrender documents finally signed at Tokyo Bay on the deck of the American battleship USS Missouri on 2 September 1945, ending the war. Aftermath The Allies established occupation administrations in Austria and Germany, both initially divided between western and eastern occupation zones controlled by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, respectively. However, their paths soon diverged. In Germany, the western and eastern occupation zones controlled by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union officially ended in 1949, with the respective zones becoming separate countries, West Germany and East Germany. In Austria, however, occupation continued until 1955, when a joint settlement between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union permitted the reunification of Austria as a democratic state officially non-aligned with any political bloc (although in practice having better relations with the Western Allies). A denazification program in Germany led to the prosecution of Nazi war criminals in the Nuremberg trials and the removal of ex-Nazis from power, although this policy moved towards amnesty and re-integration of ex-Nazis into West German society. Germany lost a quarter of its pre-war (1937) territory. Among the eastern territories, Silesia, Neumark and most of Pomerania were taken over by Poland, and East Prussia was divided between Poland and the Soviet Union, followed by the expulsion to Germany of the nine million Germans from these provinces, as well as three million Germans from the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. By the 1950s, one-fifth of West Germans were refugees from the east. The Soviet Union also took over the Polish provinces east of the Curzon Line, from which 2 million Poles were expelled; north-east Romania, parts of eastern Finland, and the Baltic states were annexed into the Soviet Union. Italy lost its monarchy, colonial empire and some European territories. In an effort to maintain world peace, the Allies formed the United Nations, which officially came into existence on 24 October 1945, and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 as a common standard for all member nations. The great powers that were the victors of the war—France, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States—became the permanent members of the UN's Security Council. The five permanent members remain so to the present, although there have been two seat changes, between the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China in 1971, and between the Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Federation, following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. The alliance between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union had begun to deteriorate even before the war was over. Besides Germany, the rest of Europe was also divided into Western and Soviet spheres of influence. Most eastern and central European countries fell into the Soviet sphere, which led to establishment of Communist-led regimes, with full or partial support of the Soviet occupation authorities. As a result, East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Albania became Soviet satellite states. Communist Yugoslavia conducted a fully independent policy, causing tension with the Soviet Union. A Communist uprising in Greece was put down with Anglo-American support and the country remained aligned with the West. Post-war division of the world was formalised by two international military alliances, the United States-led NATO and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. The long period of political tensions and military competition between them—the Cold War—would be accompanied by an unprecedented arms race and number of proxy wars throughout the world. In Asia, the United States led the occupation of Japan and administered Japan's former islands in the Western Pacific, while the Soviets annexed South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Korea, formerly under Japanese colonial rule, was divided and occupied by the Soviet Union in the North and the United States in the South between 1945 and 1948. Separate republics emerged on both sides of the 38th parallel in 1948, each claiming to be the legitimate government for all of Korea, which led ultimately to the Korean War. In China, nationalist and communist forces resumed the civil war in June 1946. Communist forces were victorious and established the People's Republic of China on the mainland, while nationalist forces retreated to Taiwan in 1949. In the Middle East, the Arab rejection of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine and the creation of Israel marked the escalation of the Arab–Israeli conflict. While European powers attempted to retain some or all of their colonial empires, their losses of prestige and resources during the war rendered this unsuccessful, leading to decolonisation. The global economy suffered heavily from the war, although participating nations were affected differently. The United States emerged much richer than any other nation, leading to a baby boom, and by 1950 its gross domestic product per person was much higher than that of any of the other powers, and it dominated the world economy. The Allied occupational authorities pursued a policy of industrial disarmament in Western Germany from 1945 to 1948. Due to international trade interdependencies, this policy led to an economic stagnation in Europe and delayed European recovery from the war for several years. At the Bretton Woods Conference in July 1944, the Allied nations drew up an economic framework for the post-war world. The agreement created the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), which later became part of the World Bank Group. The Bretton Woods system lasted until 1973. Recovery began with the mid-1948 currency reform in Western Germany, and was sped up by the liberalisation of European economic policy that the U.S. Marshall Plan economic aid (1948–1951) both directly and indirectly caused. The post-1948 West German recovery has been called the German economic miracle. Italy also experienced an economic boom and the French economy rebounded. By contrast, the United Kingdom was in a state of economic ruin, and although receiving a quarter of the total Marshall Plan assistance, more than any other European country, it continued in relative economic decline for decades. The Soviet Union, despite enormous human and material losses, also experienced rapid increase in production in the immediate post-war era, having seized and transferred most of Germany's industrial plants and exacted war reparations from its satellite states. Japan recovered much later. China returned to its pre-war industrial production by 1952. Impact Casualties and war crimes Estimates for the total number of casualties in the war vary, because many deaths went unrecorded. Most suggest that some 60 million people died in the war, including about 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians. The Soviet Union alone lost around 27 million people during the war, including 8.7 million military and 19 million civilian deaths. A quarter of the total people in the Soviet Union were wounded or killed. Germany sustained 5.3 million military losses, mostly on the Eastern Front and during the final battles in Germany. An estimated 11 to 17 million civilians died as a direct or as an indirect result of Hitler's racist policies, including mass killing of around 6 million Jews, along with Roma, homosexuals, at least 1.9 million ethnic Poles and millions of other Slavs (including Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians), and other ethnic and minority groups. Between 1941 and 1945, more than 200,000 ethnic Serbs, along with Roma and Jews, were persecuted and murdered by the Axis-aligned Croatian Ustaše in Yugoslavia. Concurrently, Muslims and Croats were persecuted and killed by Serb nationalist Chetniks, with an estimated 50,000–68,000 victims (of which 41,000 were civilians). Also, more than 100,000 Poles were massacred by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the Volhynia massacres, between 1943 and 1945. At the same time, about 10,000–15,000 Ukrainians were killed by the Polish Home Army and other Polish units, in reprisal attacks. In Asia and the Pacific, the number of people killed by Japanese troops remains contested. According to R.J. Rummel, the Japanese killed between 3 million and more than 10 million people, with the most probable case of almost 6,000,000 people. According to the British historian M. R. D. Foot, civilian deaths are between 10 million and 20 million, whereas Chinese military casualties (killed and wounded) are estimated to be over five million. Other estimates say that up to 30 million people, most of them civilians, were killed. The most infamous Japanese atrocity was the Nanjing Massacre, in which fifty to three hundred thousand Chinese civilians were raped and murdered. Mitsuyoshi Himeta reported that 2.7 million casualties occurred during the Three Alls policy. General Yasuji Okamura implemented the policy in Hebei and Shandong. Axis forces employed biological and chemical weapons. The Imperial Japanese Army used a variety of such weapons during its invasion and occupation of China (see Unit 731) and in early conflicts against the Soviets. Both the Germans and the Japanese tested such weapons against civilians, and sometimes on prisoners of war. The Soviet Union was responsible for the Katyn massacre of 22,000 Polish officers, and the imprisonment or execution of hundreds of thousands of political prisoners by the NKVD secret police, along with mass civilian deportations to Siberia, in the Baltic states and eastern Poland annexed by the Red Army. Soviet soldiers committed mass rapes in occupied territories, especially in Germany. The exact number of German women and girls raped by Soviet troops during the war and occupation is uncertain, but historians estimate their numbers are likely in the hundreds of thousands, and possibly as many as two million, while figures for women raped by German soldiers in the Soviet Union go as far as ten million. The mass bombing of cities in Europe and Asia has often been called a war crime, although no positive or specific customary international humanitarian law with respect to aerial warfare existed before or during World War II. The USAAF bombed a total of 67 Japanese cities, killing 393,000 civilians, including the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and destroying 65% of built-up areas. Genocide, concentration camps, and slave labour Nazi Germany, under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, was responsible for murdering about 6 million Jews in what is now known as the Holocaust. They also murdered an additional 4 million others who were deemed "unworthy of life" (including the disabled and mentally ill, Soviet prisoners of war, Romani, homosexuals, Freemasons, and Jehovah's Witnesses) as part of a program of deliberate extermination, in effect becoming a "genocidal state". Soviet POWs were kept in especially unbearable conditions, and 3.6 million Soviet POWs out of 5.7 million died in Nazi camps during the war. In addition to concentration camps, death camps were created in Nazi Germany to exterminate people on an industrial scale. Nazi Germany extensively used forced labourers; about 12 million Europeans from German-occupied countries were abducted and used as a slave work force in German industry, agriculture and war economy. The Soviet Gulag became a de facto system of deadly camps during 1942–43, when wartime privation and hunger caused numerous deaths of inmates, including foreign citizens of Poland and other countries occupied in 1939–40 by the Soviet Union, as well as Axis POWs. By the end of the war, most Soviet POWs liberated from Nazi camps and many repatriated civilians were detained in special filtration camps where they were subjected to NKVD evaluation, and 226,127 were sent to the Gulag as real or perceived Nazi collaborators. Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, many of which were used as labour camps, also had high death rates. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East found the death rate of Western prisoners was 27 percent (for American POWs, 37 percent), seven times that of POWs under the Germans and Italians. While 37,583 prisoners from the UK, 28,500 from the Netherlands, and 14,473 from the United States were released after the surrender of Japan, the number of Chinese released was only 56. At least five million Chinese civilians from northern China and Manchukuo were enslaved between 1935 and 1941 by the East Asia Development Board, or Kōain, for work in mines and war industries. After 1942, the number reached 10 million. In Java, between 4 and 10 million rōmusha (Japanese: "manual labourers"), were forced to work by the Japanese military. About 270,000 of these Javanese labourers were sent to other Japanese-held areas in Southeast Asia, and only 52,000 were repatriated to Java. Occupation In Europe, occupation came under two forms. In Western, Northern, and Central Europe (France, Norway, Denmark, the Low Countries, and the annexed portions of Czechoslovakia) Germany established economic policies through which it collected roughly 69.5 billion reichsmarks (27.8 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of the war; this figure does not include the plunder of industrial products, military equipment, raw materials and other goods. Thus, the income from occupied nations was over 40 percent of the income Germany collected from taxation, a figure which increased to nearly 40 percent of total German income as the war went on. In the East, the intended gains of Lebensraum were never attained as fluctuating front-lines and Soviet scorched earth policies denied resources to the German invaders. Unlike in the West, the Nazi racial policy encouraged extreme brutality against what it considered to be the "inferior people" of Slavic descent; most German advances were thus followed by mass atrocities and war crimes. The Nazis killed an estimated 2.77 million ethnic Poles during the war in addition to Polish-Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Although resistance groups formed in most occupied territories, they did not significantly hamper German operations in either the East or the West until late 1943. In Asia, Japan termed nations under its occupation as being part of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, essentially a Japanese hegemony which it claimed was for purposes of liberating colonised peoples. Although Japanese forces were sometimes welcomed as liberators from European domination, Japanese war crimes frequently turned local public opinion against them. During Japan's initial conquest, it captured 4,000,000 barrels (640,000 m3) of oil (~550,000 tonnes) left behind by retreating Allied forces; and by 1943, was able to get production in the Dutch East Indies up to 50 million barrels (7,900,000 m3) of oil (~6.8 million tonnes), 76 percent of its 1940 output rate. Home fronts and production In the 1930s Britain and the United States of America together controlled almost 75% of world mineral output—essential for projecting military power. In Europe, before the outbreak of the war, the Allies had significant advantages in both population and economics. In 1938, the Western Allies (United Kingdom, France, Poland and the British Dominions) had a 30 percent larger population and a 30 percent higher gross domestic product than the European Axis powers (Germany and Italy); including colonies, the Allies had more than a 5:1 advantage in population and a nearly 2:1 advantage in GDP. In Asia at the same time, China had roughly six times the population of Japan but only an 89 percent higher GDP; this reduces to three times the population and only a 38 percent higher GDP if Japanese colonies are included. The United States produced about two-thirds of all munitions used by the Allies in World War II, including warships, transports, warplanes, artillery, tanks, trucks, and ammunition. Although the Allies' economic and population advantages were largely mitigated during the initial rapid blitzkrieg attacks of Germany and Japan, they became the decisive factor by 1942, after the United States and Soviet Union joined the Allies and the war evolved into one of attrition. While the Allies' ability to out-produce the Axis was partly due to more access to natural resources, other factors, such as Germany and Japan's reluctance to employ women in the labour force, Allied strategic bombing, and Germany's late shift to a war economy contributed significantly. Additionally, neither Germany nor Japan planned to fight a protracted war, and had not equipped themselves to do so. To improve their production, Germany and Japan used millions of slave labourers; Germany enslaved about 12 million people, mostly from Eastern Europe, while Japan used more than 18 million people in Far East Asia. Advances in technology and its application Aircraft were used for reconnaissance, as fighters, bombers, and ground-support, and each role developed considerably. Innovations included airlift (the capability to quickly move limited high-priority supplies, equipment, and personnel); and strategic bombing (the bombing of enemy industrial and population centres to destroy the enemy's ability to wage war). Anti-aircraft weaponry also advanced, including defences such as radar and surface-to-air artillery, in particular the introduction of the proximity fuze. The use of the jet aircraft was pioneered and led to jets becoming standard in air forces worldwide. Advances were made in nearly every aspect of naval warfare, most notably with aircraft carriers and submarines. Although aeronautical warfare had relatively little success at the start of the war, actions at Taranto, Pearl Harbor, and the Coral Sea established the carrier as the dominant capital ship (in place of the battleship). In the Atlantic, escort carriers became a vital part of Allied convoys, increasing the effective protection radius and helping to close the Mid-Atlantic gap. Carriers were also more economical than battleships due to the relatively low cost of aircraft and because they are not required to be as heavily armoured. Submarines, which had proved to be an effective weapon during the First World War, were expected by all combatants to be important in the second. The British focused development on anti-submarine weaponry and tactics, such as sonar and convoys, while Germany focused on improving its offensive capability, with designs such as the Type VII submarine and wolfpack tactics. Gradually, improving Allied technologies such as the Leigh Light, Hedgehog, Squid, and homing torpedoes proved effective against German submarines. Land warfare changed from the static frontlines of trench warfare of World War I, which had relied on improved artillery that outmatched the speed of both infantry and cavalry, to increased mobility and combined arms. The tank, which had been used predominantly for infantry support in the First World War, had evolved into the primary weapon. In the late 1930s, tank design was considerably more advanced than it had been during World War I, and advances continued throughout the war with increases in speed, armour and firepower. At the start of the war, most commanders thought enemy tanks should be met by tanks with superior specifications. This idea was challenged by the poor performance of the relatively light early tank guns against armour, and German doctrine of avoiding tank-versus-tank combat. This, along with Germany's use of combined arms, were among the key elements of their highly successful blitzkrieg tactics across Poland and France. Many means of destroying tanks, including indirect artillery, anti-tank guns (both towed and self-propelled), mines, short-ranged infantry antitank weapons, and other tanks were used. Even with large-scale mechanisation, infantry remained the backbone of all forces, and throughout the war, most infantry were equipped similarly to World War I. The portable machine gun spread, a notable example being the German MG 34, and various submachine guns which were suited to close combat in urban and jungle settings. The assault rifle, a late war development incorporating many features of the rifle and submachine gun, became the standard post-war infantry weapon for most armed forces. Most major belligerents attempted to solve the problems of complexity and security involved in using large codebooks for cryptography by designing ciphering machines, the most well-known being the German Enigma machine. Development of SIGINT (signals intelligence) and cryptanalysis enabled the countering process of decryption. Notable examples were the Allied decryption of Japanese naval codes and British Ultra, a pioneering method for decoding Enigma that benefited from information given to the United Kingdom by the Polish Cipher Bureau, which had been decoding early versions of Enigma before the war. Another component of military intelligence was deception, which the Allies used to great effect in operations such as Mincemeat and Bodyguard. Other technological and engineering feats achieved during, or as a result of, the war include the world's first programmable computers (Z3, Colossus, and ENIAC), guided missiles and modern rockets, the Manhattan Project's development of nuclear weapons, operations research, the development of artificial harbours, and oil pipelines under the English Channel. Penicillin was first developed, mass-produced, and used during the war. See also Opposition to World War II World War I World War III Notes Citations References External links West Point Maps of the European War. Archived 23 March 2019 at the Wayback Machine. West Point Maps of the Asian-Pacific War. Archived 23 March 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Atlas of the World Battle Fronts (July 1943 – August 1945)