question
stringlengths 18
1.2k
| facts
stringlengths 44
500k
| answer
stringlengths 1
147
|
|---|---|---|
Voted the greatest female athlete of the 20th century by 'Sports Illustrated for Women', which American athlete won gold medals in both the Heptathlon and Long Jump in 1988? | Greatest Women Athletes of All Time
track & field, golf, basketball.
USA
At the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, she won gold in both the 80-meter hurdles and javelin throw, and took silver in the high jump. She won the British Ladies' Amateur golf tournament. She was the first (and still the only) woman in history to make the cut in a regular PGA Tour event. She achieved All-American status in basketball
Lottie Dod
tennis, hockey, archery, golf
UK
At age 15, she became the youngest woman ever to win the Wimbledon Ladies' Singles Championship, and went on to win it 4 more times. Played field hockey for England national two years after taking up the sport. She won the British Ladies' Amateur golf tournament in 1904. Won the silver medal in archery at the 1908 Olympics in London.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
track & field
USA
4-time Olympian and 6-time Olympic medalist who twice won gold in the Heptathlon. Sports Illustrated voted her the greatest female athlete of the 20th century.
Fanny Blankers-Koen
track & field
The Netherlands
sprinter and hurdler who won 4 gold medals in the 1948 London Olympics. In the post-war years she set or equalled 12 world records in events as diverse as the long jump, the high jump, sprint and hurdling events and the Pentathlon. In 1999 the IAAF voted her the greatest female athlete of the 20th century.
Clara Hughes
cycling / speed skating
Canada
a 6-time Olympian and the only person (man or woman) to win multiple medals in both summer and winter Olympics
Mia Hamm
Soccer
USA
She appeared in the first four Women's World Cups (winning two of them). She also won gold in the 1996 and 2004 Summer Olympics. She has 158 career goals in international competition, more than any other man or woman. Was also named Women's FIFA World Player of the Year the first two times the award was issued
Larissa Latynina
| Jackie Joyner-Kersee |
What has been made by the Chicago manufacturer R.S. Owens & Company since 1983? | Jackie Joyner-Kersee Bio, Stats, and Results | Olympics at Sports-Reference.com
Related Olympians: Sister-in-law of Florence Griffith Joyner ; Sister of Al Joyner .
Medals: 3 Gold, 1 Silver, 2 Bronze (6 Total)
Biography
In any discussion of the greatest ever female athletes, Jackie Joyner-Kersee is on the list. In fact, Sports Illustrated voted her the greatest female athlete of the 20th century, just ahead of [Babe Didrikson]. JJK attended UCLA where she played basketball and competed in track & field. She represented the United States at four consecutive Olympics (1984-96) in the long jump and heptathlon, winning six Olympic medals, including three golds, with back-to-back golds in the hep in 1988-92, and a long jump gold in 1988. At the World Championships she was heptathlon champion in 1987 and 1993 and long jump champion in 1987 and 1991. In 1986, at the Goodwill Games, JJK won the heptathlon title, scoring 7,148 points, the first time any woman had scored over 7,000 points. It was the first of four world records Joyner-Kersee would set in the event, as she scored 7,161 points later in 1986 in Houston, and in 1988 set a mark of 7,215 at the Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, and recorded 7,291 to win the 1988 Olympic gold medal, a world record that still stands as of January 2012.
Joyner-Kersee also excelled individually in other events. She set a long jump world record with 7.45 done in Indianapolis in August 1987. In the 100 hurdles, she set two American records, her best being 12.61 set in 1988. She was voted Female Athlete of the Year by Track & Field News in 1986, 1987, and 1994, and only [Florence Griffith Joyner]'s (her sister-in-law) stunning season kept her from a three-peat in 1988. In the world rankings, JJK was #1 in the heptathlon in 1986-90 and 1992-93, #1 in the long jump in 1987-88 and 1994, and was ranked in the top 10 in the 100 hurdles in 1987-88 and 1994.
Joyner-Kersee married her coach, Bob Kersee. Her brother, [Al Joyner], won the 1984 Olympic triple jump gold medal, and her sister-in-law was the great sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner. Since her retirement from competition, JJK has devoted herself to charitable works through both the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation and Athletes for Hope.
Personal Bests: 100H – 12.61 (1988); LJ – 7.49 (1992 [twice]); Hep – 7291 (1988).
Results
| i don't know |
The International Airport at the Cretan capital of Heraklion is named after which writer? | Heraklion, the Capital of Crete in the Greek Islands
Contact Us
Heraklion – an important port and point of entry for many visitors to Crete...
Sometimes spelt as Heraklio, Iraklion or Iraklio! the capital of Crete lies centrally on the north coast of the Greek Island of Crete in the Prefecture of Heraklion. It has a nice international airport, named after the writer Nikos Kazantzakis.
Heraklion is for many the gateway to the Greek island of Crete. It's here most will fly or sail to.
It's here at these resorts east of the Town you'll find some of Crete's best beaches, which are included in our Best Beaches Guide .
Heraklion has it's own attractions though, and is certainly worth a visit during your stay on Crete.
Getting there and getting around
The major ferry companies in Greece operate daily services from mainland Greece to Heraklion port – arriving early morning every day from Piraeus.
The major players are:
Cyprus Airways
There exists other Itineraries from many European cities both scheduled and chartered services. Check out our Flights to Crete page.
The brilliant and cheap Crete bus service, KTEL, connects the town with many of the villages and towns of eastern Crete and there's a local bus service which will take you around the Town and out to Knossos, for example.
Sightseeing in Heraklion
In recent times a lot of effort has gone into making Heraklion a pleasant place for people, whether drivers or pedestrians.
Large car parks have been set up on the outskirts of the town and there have been some efforts to pedestrianise certain streets in the town centre.
THE VENETIAN FORTRESS OR KOULES
Look out for the Koules at the fishing harbour near the modern port. As you can imagine, this formidable Venetian fortress helped protect the ancient city from invaders and sets off the great city walls, among the longest in Europe, helping to provide an impressive and effective defence.
Off the coast and to the north is the small island of Dia. Here it was that famed nautical explorer Jacques Cousteau found evidence of ancient Minoan settlements. You can book trips to the island of Dia at travel shops in the town and near the harbour.
The Loggia is a fantastic example of Venetian architecture and is a 16th Century building with semi-circular arches, decorated with trophies and coats of arms. It was awarded the Europa Nostra First Prize in 1987 for being the best preserved and renovated monument in Europe for that year.
St. Mark's Basilica, almost next door to the Loggia, is now the Municipal Art Gallery and is often used for public art and crafts exhibitions. Built in 1239 in the spectacularly named Square of Blades (Piazza delle Biade), it was once Crete's Cathedral.
Lion's Square is the heart of Heraklion. The decorated fountain in the centre of the square comprises eight cisterns and is decorated with stone figures from Greek mythology, including nymphs, tritons, and monsters, together with a less fantastical creature, namely dolphins!
No square named Lion's Square would be worth it's salt without some lions, and here you'll find four of them, supporting the main basin of the fountain with their heads.
After soaking up the atmosphere and dunking your head in the water on a hot day, you can set yourself down in one of the eateries around the Square. Enjoy the bougatsas, or vanilla cream pies, or have a crepe or a savoury souvlaki, if that takes your fancy.
After your rest, you can walk down Handakos Street for shopping – it's closed to traffic so you can window shop in peace.
In recent times a lot of effort has gone into making Heraklion a pleasant place for people, whether drivers or pedestrians.
Large car parks have been set up on the outskirts of the town and there have been some efforts to pedestrianise certain streets in the town centre.
You'll see that here's a few streets named after numbers running off the square. Not like in New York though. These streets are named after dates of significance.
Look out for the Market that runs along 1866 Street (Odos 1866), commemorating the date of a Cretan Uprising, probably against the Turks.
The market has a long history and sells many Cretan local products as well as socks and shirts too! As always in a Cretan Market, look out for thyme honey, cheese, and (Graham's favourite) raki!
The side streets off 1866 are a good place to find small eateries such as cafes, ouzeries and fish tavernas – excellent, simple food well priced.
The town is close to the ruins of the palace of Knossos, which in Minoan times was the biggest centre of population on Crete. It has been assumed that there was a port here as long ago as 2000 BC, and today it remains an important shipping port and ferry dock.
Knossos
AN ARTIST'S IMPRESSION OF THE MINOAN PALACE AT KNOSSOS
As the most popular tourist attraction on the Greek island of Crete, a visit to Knossos is a must. The imposing Palace of King Minos in Knossos lies just 5km from Iraklion. The site itself includes the Palace of Knossos, The Minoan Houses, the Little Palace, the Royal Villa, the villa Dionysos with famous Roman mosaics, the south Royal Temple – Tomb and the Caravanserai.
Archaeological Museum
Found in the town centre of Heraklion the Archaeological Museum is a definite must see for all who are interested in Minoan art and culture. It is one the great museums of Greece and certainly the most important institution housing Minoan artifacts for all the world.
It houses ancient objects discovered at the most important archaeological sites in Crete: Knossos, Phaestos, Malia, Tylissos, Gortys, Agia Triada, Mohlos, Gournia and Zakros. Other periods of Cretan history are covered too including artifacts from the Greco-Roman and Neolithic periods.
Contact details:
e-mail: [email protected]
Recommended Restaurants
We don’t have much experience of eateries in Heraklion Town, so we would appreciate your views on the matter.
Let us know of your experience eating in Heraklion by submitting your own restaurant review. Click here to fill in some simple details, and let us know what you think (we'll include it on the website).
We've heard some good reports about the eateries in and around Lion's Square, where there are lots of souvlaki shops.
Try Thraka especially. The brothers who own this (and at least 2 others) are very dedicated and provide a sumptuous alternative to the traditional Gyros.
The psomaki me souvlaki or a psomaki me gyro is a small loaf with souvlaki or gyros. They scrape out the bread from the middle to make some room, and after toasting it, fill it with pork, tomatoes, onions, chips, and (Alison's favourite) a dash of Greek Yoghurt. Delicious!
Vegetarians wanting to avoid the meat can go two doors down where you can buy a spinach pie, cheese pie - or a crepe.
Wine Tasting
It's not surprising that many visitors want to sample the delicious wines of Crete and to visit the key wineries in the region. Here are a few places you might want to try.
Fantaxometoho Boutaris Winery
The Boutari winery and wine tasting hall is inside an estate vineyard called Fantaxometocho just 8km outside Heraklion.
Minos Wines
Located on the right side of the road close to the exit from the Peza village is the Milliarakis Winery of Minos Wines. Wine tasting combined with an exhibition of old winery machines (pumps, bottling machines), as well as of an old traditional stone-made winepress makes for an interesting and informative day out.
Peza Union Winery
The Peza Agricultural Union is located on either side of the main road passing through the upland valley in the heart of the Peza appellation district a couple of kilometres past the Peza village. Free entry to the exhibition centre which is open from 9.00am - 3.00 pm Monday to Saturday includes wine tasting of 3 different kinds of wine along with traditional meze with olive oil .
Heraklion Nightlife
The nightlife in Crete is understandably vibrant as Heraklion is the capital city of Crete. Lots of ultra modern bars, cocktail bars and nightclubs can be found so you can dance the night away. The culture is Greek rather than UK/USA here in Heraklion (unlike Malia), with dance music and Greek pop the most populars themes.
Where to stay
As you might expect, there's a wide range of accommodation options in Crete's Capital from luxury hotels to basic apartments.
THE ATLANTIS LUXURY HOTEL
The Atlantis Hotel is a good example of a hotel at the upper end of the market. It is located in a quiet central area, near the Archeological Museum, and close to the commercial center of Town. It has some of the best views of the sea and the harbour.
It has 160 rooms including an executive and even a presidential suite!
The Megaron Luxury Hotel boast it's "the only luxury hotel in the city", and who are we to argue! With 5 stars it is planted in the heart of the shopping district, again within walking distance of the Archaelogical and Historical museums and overlooking the old harbour.
"The hotel's unique architecture and modern interior achieve a subtle blend of luxury and intimacy not easily forgotten".
THE CASTELLO CITY HOTEL
The City Hotel Castello is less up-up-market but still a good choice for location, amenities and price.
It's located conveniently or the airport, port, and close to the shopping streets of Heraklion.
Just some of the reasons we love Crete...
Scenic Views
| Nikos Kazantzakis |
Which 18th century Staffordshire-born potter, and grandfather of Charles Darwin, first developed Jasperware and Basaltware? | Car Rental in Heraklion Crete | Rent A Car From Chania and all the airports in Crete | Car Hire
Crete: the island of the Minoans
Are you planning a trip on Crete?
Before you get a car, get more Information!
Have you worked for months and now it is time for vacations? The best place to provide you the maximum of the relaxation should absolutely have warm sun, clean seas, surreal landscape and of course good nightlife. There is no better option for all that except the wonderful island of Crete in Greece!
Crete is the biggest island on the Greeks seas and the most favorite destination for the tourists. Natural beauty, such as mountains and crystal sea combined with the rich history will surely amaze you.
Crete is quite long and you will not be able to see the entire island easily (unless you spend way more days on your vacation than your boss gave). To make your stay easier and enjoy your trip, get a car rental from Crete Heraklion airport, as soon as you arrive there. The use of the public transportation may you think will help. But actually is more complicate to use it as you think and if you make the mistake and stay only on the City’s area or nearby you will miss many beauties and even more you will spend a lot more money to find a way to go where you want.
The cities of Crete offer cheap but yet still good quality holidays. Always and everywhere there are places that can be a little more expensive but this island it is one of the cheapest islands of the Aegean Sea.
Wonderful images from Heraklion, Chania and the rest Crete!
About Heraklion
Heraklion is the largest city of Crete and one of the most important urban centers of Greece. Began to develop after the 9th century B.C.( in ancient times, the downtown area was Knossos and Gortyn later ), and later successively conquered by the Arabs, Venetians and Ottomans, who gave the alternative name Candia.
During the Olympic Games in 2004, was one of the Olympic Cities and hosted matches of the soccer tournament. The city of Heraklion clearly reflects the different cultures that have flourished over the centuries: Byzantine buildings stand next to Venetian public and private buildings and Ottoman structures.
Heraklion is a wonderful city, but avoid to use the car for short distances in the center of the city. With the car is most likely to need more time to go to your destination than if you prefer to take a walk. The car is absolutely useful but just to explore the beauties of the Crete outside the city.
The Airport of Heraklion
Heraklion International Airport, “Nikos Kazantzakis” is the primary airport on the island of Crete and the country’s second busiest airport after Athens International Airport. It is located about 4-5 km east of the main city center, near of the Alikarnassos. It is a shared civil/military facility. The airport is named after Heraklion native Nikos Kazantzakis, a Greek writer and philosopher.
About Chania
The region of Chania (Haniá), on the western side of the island, is dominated by the impressive White Mountains (in Greek: Lefká Óri) and its famous National Park, which occupy the largest part of the region.The Prefecture of Chania provides tourist services and activities of all kinds, satisfying all the choices. The city of Chania maintains unaltered all of its characteristics, from the time of the Venetian Rule up until today.
The Airport of Chania
Chania International Airport, "Ioannis Daskalogiannis" is an international airport located 14km east from Hani. It is named after Ioannis Daskalogiannis, a Cretan revolutionary against Ottoman rule in the 18th century and is a joint civil - military airport (Souda Air Base). You can use a public bus to go to the airport or rent a Taxi(~16 euros)
About Rethymnon
Rethymno is the heart of Crete and one of the most beautiful places in Greece. Blue sea and rich natural life, mountains as Psiloritis make Rethymno one place full of surprises. There are many sightseeing you can visit, such as numerous Byzantine churches and monasteries, Venetian monuments.
You can enjoy with many field trips and discover magical caves, canyons and the villages around the city. Taste the local kitchen and hear the sound of the Cretan Lyra while you are drinking Raki! It is a strong drink but is worldwide famous and you must try it. The people of the villages are more than pleased to have you as their guests. They are the reason of the famous Greek hospitality. They always are welcome you as honorable quest and offer you food a drink. This place is the birthplace of Zeus, the god of the Greek mythology and the god of hospitality.
Rent a Car Rental in Heraklion Airport
Car Rentals is interesting for the quality of your vacations. We are trying our best to get you more and more informations to every single place you want to visite and. One way is to check the TripAdvisor widget to see were to go in Crete, what to do and where to eat.
Pick up:
| i don't know |
Which mathematician, whose ideas were important to the development of modern computer circuits, wrote the 1854 work 'Laws Of Thought'? | The 100 Greatest Mathematicians
Early Vedic mathematicians
The greatest mathematics before the Golden Age of Greece was in India's early Vedic (Hindu) civilization. The Vedics understood relationships between geometry and arithmetic, developed astronomy, astrology, calendars, and used mathematical forms in some religious rituals.
The earliest mathematician to whom definite teachings can be ascribed was Lagadha, who apparently lived about 1300 BC and used geometry and elementary trigonometry for his astronomy. Baudhayana lived about 800 BC and also wrote on algebra and geometry; Yajnavalkya lived about the same time and is credited with the then-best approximation to π. Apastambha did work summarized below; other early Vedic mathematicians solved quadratic and simultaneous equations.
Other early cultures also developed some mathematics. The ancient Mayans apparently had a place-value system with zero before the Hindus did; Aztec architecture implies practical geometry skills. Ancient China certainly developed mathematics, though little written evidence survives prior to Chang Tshang's famous book.
Thales of Miletus (ca 624 - 546 BC) Greek domain
Thales was the Chief of the "Seven Sages" of ancient Greece, and has been called the "Father of Science," the "Founder of Abstract Geometry," and the "First Philosopher." Thales is believed to have studied mathematics under Egyptians, who in turn were aware of much older mathematics from Mesopotamia. Thales may have invented the notion of compass-and-straightedge construction. Several fundamental theorems about triangles are attributed to Thales, including the law of similar triangles (which Thales used famously to calculate the height of the Great Pyramid) and "Thales' Theorem" itself: the fact that any angle inscribed in a semicircle is a right angle. (The other "theorems" were probably more like well-known axioms, but Thales proved Thales' Theorem using two of his other theorems; it is said that Thales then sacrificed an ox to celebrate what might have been the very first mathematical proof!) Thales noted that, given a line segment of length x, a segment of length x/k can be constructed by first constructing a segment of length kx.
Thales was also an astronomer; he invented the 365-day calendar, introduced the use of Ursa Minor for finding North, invented the gnomonic map projection (the first of many methods known today to map (part of) the surface of a sphere to a plane, and is the first person believed to have correctly predicted a solar eclipse. His theories of physics would seem quaint today, but he seems to have been the first to describe magnetism and static electricity. Aristotle said, "To Thales the primary question was not what do we know, but how do we know it." Thales was also a politician, ethicist, and military strategist. It is said he once leased all available olive presses after predicting a good olive season; he did this not for the wealth itself, but as a demonstration of the use of intelligence in business. Thales' writings have not survived and are known only second-hand. Since his famous theorems of geometry were probably already known in ancient Babylon, his importance derives from imparting the notions of mathematical proof and the scientific method to ancient Greeks.
Thales' student and successor was Anaximander, who is often called the "First Scientist" instead of Thales: his theories were more firmly based on experimentation and logic, while Thales still relied on some animistic interpretations. Anaximander is famous for astronomy, cartography and sundials, and also enunciated a theory of evolution, that land species somehow developed from primordial fish! Anaximander's most famous student, in turn, was Pythagoras. (The methods of Thales and Pythagoras led to the schools of Plato and Euclid, an intellectual blossoming unequaled until Europe's Renaissance. For this reason Thales may belong on this list for his historical importance despite his relative lack of mathematical achievements.)
Apastambha (ca 630-560 BC) India
The Dharmasutra composed by Apastambha contains mensuration techniques, novel geometric construction techniques, a method of elementary algebra, and what may be the first known proof of the Pythagorean Theorem. Apastambha's work uses the excellent (continued fraction) approximation √2 ≈ 577/408, a result probably derived with a geometric argument.
Apastambha built on the work of earlier Vedic scholars, especially Baudhayana, as well as Harappan and (probably) Mesopotamian mathematicians. His notation and proofs were primitive, and there is little certainty about his life. However similar comments apply to Thales of Miletus, so it seems fair to mention Apastambha (who was perhaps the most creative Vedic mathematician before Panini) along with Thales as one of the earliest mathematicians whose name is known.
Pythagoras of Samos (ca 578-505 BC) Greek domain
Pythagoras, who is sometimes called the "First Philosopher," studied under Anaximander, Egyptians, Babylonians, and the mystic Pherekydes (from whom Pythagoras acquired a belief in reincarnation); he became the most influential of early Greek mathematicians. He is credited with being first to use axioms and deductive proofs, so his influence on Plato and Euclid may be enormous. He and his students (the "Pythagoreans") were ascetic mystics for whom mathematics was partly a spiritual tool. (Some occultists treat Pythagoras as a wizard and founding mystic philosopher.) Pythagoras was very interested in astronomy and seems to have been the first man to realize that the Earth was a globe similar to the other planets. He and his followers began to study the question of planetary motions, which would not be resolved for more than two millenia. He believed thinking was located in the brain rather than heart. The words philosophy and mathematics are said to have been coined by Pythagoras.
Despite Pythagoras' historical importance I may have ranked him too high: many results of the Pythagoreans were due to his students; none of their writings survive; and what is known is reported second-hand, and possibly exaggerated, by Plato and others. Some ideas attributed to him were probably first enunciated by successors like Parmenides of Elea (ca 515-440 BC). Archaeologists now believe that he was not first to invent the diatonic scale: Here is a diatonic-scale song from Ugarit which predates Pythagoras by eight centuries.
Pythagoras' students included Hippasus of Metapontum, the famous anatomist and physician Alcmaeon, Milo of Croton, and Croton's daughter Theano (who may have been Pythagoras's wife). The term Pythagorean was also adopted by many disciples who lived later; these disciples include Philolaus of Croton, the natural philosopher Empedocles, and several other famous Greeks. Pythagoras' successor was apparently Theano herself: the Pythagoreans were one of the few ancient schools to practice gender equality.
Pythagoras discovered that harmonious intervals in music are based on simple rational numbers. This led to a fascination with integers and mystic numerology; he is sometimes called the "Father of Numbers" and once said "Number rules the universe." (About the mathematical basis of music, Leibniz later wrote, "Music is the pleasure the human soul experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting." Other mathematicians who investigated the arithmetic of music included Huygens, Euler and Simon Stevin.)
The Pythagorean Theorem was known long before Pythagoras, but he is often credited with the first proof. (Apastambha proved it in India at about the same time; some conjecture that Pythagoras journeyed to India and learned of the proof there.) He may have discovered the simple parametric form of primitive Pythagorean triplets (xx-yy, 2xy, xx+yy), although the first explicit mention of this may be in Euclid's Elements. Other discoveries of the Pythagorean school include the construction of the regular pentagon, concepts of perfect and amicable numbers, polygonal numbers, golden ratio (attributed to Theano), three of the five regular solids (attributed to Pythagoras himself), and irrational numbers (attributed to Hippasus). It is said that the discovery of irrational numbers upset the Pythagoreans so much they tossed Hippasus into the ocean! (Another version has Hippasus banished for revealing the secret for constructing the sphere which circumscribes a dodecahedron.)
In addition to Parmenides, the famous successors of Thales and Pythagoras include Zeno of Elea (see below), Hippocrates of Chios (see below), Plato of Athens (ca 428-348 BC), Theaetetus (see below), and Archytas (see below). These early Greeks ushered in a Golden Age of Mathematics and Philosophy unequaled in Europe until the Renaissance. The emphasis was on pure, rather than practical, mathematics. Plato (who ranks #40 on Michael Hart's famous list of the Most Influential Persons in History) decreed that his scholars should do geometric construction solely with compass and straight-edge rather than with "carpenter's tools" like rulers and protractors.
Panini (of Shalatula) (ca 520-460 BC) Gandhara (India)
Panini's great accomplishment was his study of the Sanskrit language, especially in his text Ashtadhyayi. Although this work might be considered the very first study of linguistics or grammar, it used a non-obvious elegance that would not be equaled in the West until the 20th century. Linguistics may seem an unlikely qualification for a "great mathematician," but language theory is a field of mathematics. The works of eminent 20th-century linguists and computer scientists like Chomsky, Backus, Post and Church are seen to resemble Panini's work 25 centuries earlier. Panini's systematic study of Sanskrit may have inspired the development of Indian science and algebra. Panini has been called "the Indian Euclid" since the rigor of his grammar is comparable to Euclid's geometry.
Although his great texts have been preserved, little else is known about Panini. Some scholars would place his dates a century later than shown here; he may or may not have been the same person as the famous poet Panini. In any case, he was the very last Vedic Sanskrit scholar by definition: his text formed the transition to the Classic Sanskrit period. Panini has been called "one of the most innovative people in the whole development of knowledge;" his grammar "one of the greatest monuments of human intelligence."
Zeno of Elea (ca 495-435 BC) Greek domain
Zeno, a student of Parmenides, had great fame in ancient Greece. This fame, which continues to the present-day, is largely due to his paradoxes of infinitesimals, e.g. his argument that Achilles can never catch the tortoise (whenever Achilles arrives at the tortoise's last position, the tortoise has moved on). Although some regard these paradoxes as simple fallacies, they have been contemplated for many centuries. It is due to these paradoxes that the use of infinitesimals, which provides the basis for mathematical analysis, has been regarded as a non-rigorous heuristic and is finally viewed as sound only after the work of the great 19th-century rigorists, Dedekind and Weierstrass. (Eubulides was another ancient Greek famous for paradoxes, e.g. "This statement is a lie" -- the sort of inconsistency later used in proofs by Gödel and Turing.)
Zeno's Arrow Paradox (at any single instant an arrow is at a fixed position, so where does its motion come from?) has lent its name to to the Quantum Zeno Effect, a paradox of quantum physics.
Hippocrates of Chios (ca 470-410 BC) Greek domain
Hippocrates (no known relation to Hippocrates of Cos, the famous physician) wrote his own Elements more than a century before Euclid. Only fragments survive but it apparently used axiomatic-based proofs similar to Euclid's and contains many of the same theorems. Hippocrates is said to have invented the reductio ad absurdem proof method. Hippocrates is most famous for his work on the three ancient geometric quandaries: his work on cube-doubling (the Delian Problem) laid the groundwork for successful efforts by Archytas and others; his circle quadrature was of course ultimately unsuccessful but he did prove ingenious theorems about "lunes" (certain circle fragments); and some claim Hippocrates was first to trisect the general angle. Hippocrates also did work in algebra and rudimentary analysis.
(Doubling the cube and angle trisection are often called "impossible," but they are impossible only when restricted to collapsing compass and unmarkable straightedge. There are ingenious solutions available with other tools. Construction of the regular heptagon is another such task, with solutions published by four of the men on this List: Thabit, Alhazen, Vieta, Conway.)
Archytas of Tarentum (ca 420-350 BC) Greek domain
Archytas was an important statesman as well as philosopher. He studied under Philolaus of Croton, was a friend of Plato, and tutored Eudoxus and Menaechmus. In addition to discoveries always attributed to him, he may be the source of several of Euclid's theorems, and some works attributed to Eudoxus and perhaps Pythagoras. Recently it has been shown that the magnificent Mechanical Problems attributed to (pseudo-)Aristotle were probably actually written by Archytas, making him one of the greatest mathematicians of antiquity.
Archytas introduced "motion" to geometry, rotating curves to produce solids. If his writings had survived he'd surely be considered one of the most brilliant and innovative geometers of antiquity; he already appears on Cardano's List of 12 Greatest Geniuses. Archytas' most famous mathematical achievement was "doubling the cube" (constructing a line segment larger than another by the factor cube-root of two). Although others solved the problem with other techniques, Archytas' solution for cube doubling was astounding because it wasn't achieved in the plane, but involved the intersection of three-dimensional bodies. This construction (which introduced the Archytas Curve) has been called "a tour de force of the spatial imagination." He invented the term harmonic mean and worked with geometric means as well (proving that consecutive integers never have rational geometric mean). He was a true polymath: he advanced the theory of music far beyond Pythagoras; studied sound, optics and cosmology; invented the pulley (and a rattle to occupy infants); wrote about the lever; developed the curriculum called quadrivium; and is supposed to have built a steam-powered wooden bird which flew for 200 meters. Archytas is sometimes called the "Father of Mathematical Mechanics."
Some scholars think Pythagoras and Thales are partly mythical. If we take that view, Archytas (and Hippocrates) should be promoted in this list.
Theaetetus of Athens (417-369 BC) Greece
Theaetetus is presumed to be the true author of Books X and XIII of Euclid's Elements, as well as some work attributed to Eudoxus. He was considered one of the brightest of Greek mathematicians, and is the central character in two of Plato's Dialogs. It was Theaetetus who discovered the final two of the five "Platonic solids" and proved that there were no more. He may have been first to note that the square root of any integer, if not itself an integer, must be irrational. (The case √2 is attributed to a student of Pythagoras.)
Eudoxus of Cnidus (408-355 BC) Greek domain
Eudoxus journeyed widely for his education, despite that he was not wealthy, studying mathematics with Archytas in Tarentum, medicine with Philiston in Sicily, philosophy with Plato in Athens, continuing his mathematics study in Egypt, touring the Eastern Mediterranean with his own students and finally returned to Cnidus where he established himself as astronomer, physician, and ethicist. What is known of him is second-hand, through the writings of Euclid and others, but he was one of the most creative mathematicians of the ancient world.
Many of the theorems in Euclid's Elements were first proved by Eudoxus. While Pythagoras had been horrified by the discovery of irrational numbers, Eudoxus is famous for incorporating them into arithmetic. He also developed the earliest techniques of the infinitesimal calculus; Archimedes credits Eudoxus with inventing a principle eventually called the Axiom of Archimedes: it avoids Zeno's paradoxes by, in effect, forbidding infinities and infinitesimals. Eudoxus' work with irrational numbers, infinitesimals and limits eventually inspired masters like Dedekind. Eudoxus also introduced an Axiom of Continuity; he was a pioneer in solid geometry; and he developed his own solution to the Delian cube-doubling problem. Eudoxus was the first great mathematical astronomer; he developed the complicated ancient theory of planetary orbits; and may have invented the astrolabe. He may have invented the 365.25-day calendar based on leap years, though it remained for Julius Caesar to popularize it. (It is sometimes said that he knew that the Earth rotates around the Sun, but that appears to be false; it is instead Aristarchus of Samos, as cited by Archimedes, who may be the first "heliocentrist.")
Four of Eudoxus' most famous discoveries were the volume of a cone, extension of arithmetic to the irrationals, summing formula for geometric series, and viewing π as the limit of polygonal perimeters. None of these seems difficult today, but it does seem remarkable that they were all first achieved by the same man. Eudoxus has been quoted as saying "Willingly would I burn to death like Phaeton, were this the price for reaching the sun and learning its shape, its size and its substance."
Aristotle of Stagira (384-322 BC) Macedonia
Aristotle is considered the greatest scientist of the ancient world, and the most influential philosopher and logician ever; he ranks #13 on Michael Hart's list of the Most Influential Persons in History. His science was a standard curriculum for almost 2000 years. Although the physical sciences couldn't advance until the discoveries by great men like Newton and Lavoisier, Aristotle's biology and anatomy were superb, serving as paradigm until modern times.
Aristotle was personal tutor to the young Alexander the Great. Aristotle's writings on definitions, axioms and proofs may have influenced Euclid. He was also the first mathematician to write on the subject of infinity. His writings include geometric theorems, some with proofs different from Euclid's or missing from Euclid altogether; one of these (which is seen only in Aristotle's work prior to Apollonius) is that a circle is the locus of points whose distances from two given points are in constant ratio. Even if, as is widely agreed, Aristotle's geometric theorems were not his own work, his status as the most influential logician and philosopher makes him a candidate for the List.
Euclid of Alexandria (ca 322-275 BC) Greece/Egypt
Euclid of Alexandria (not to be confused with Socrates' student, Euclid of Megara, who lived a century earlier), directed the school of mathematics at the great university of Alexandria. Little else is known for certain about his life, but several very important mathematical achievements are credited to him. He was the first to prove that there are infinitely many prime numbers; he stated and proved the Unique Factorization Theorem; and he devised Euclid's algorithm for computing gcd. He introduced the Mersenne primes and observed that (M2+M)/2 is always perfect (in the sense of Pythagoras) if M is Mersenne. (The converse, that any even perfect number has such a corresponding Mersenne prime, was tackled by Alhazen and proven by Euler.) His books contain many famous theorems, though many were due to predecessors like Hippocrates, Theodorus, Eudoxus, Archytas and Theaetetus. He may have proved that rigid-compass constructions can be implemented with collapsing-compass constructions. Although notions of trigonometry were not in use, Euclid's theorems include some closely related to the Laws of Sines and Cosines. Among several books attributed to Euclid are The Division of the Scale (a mathematical discussion of music), The Optics, The Cartoptrics (a treatise on the theory of mirrors), a book on spherical geometry, a book on logic fallacies, and his comprehensive math textbook The Elements. Several of his masterpieces have been lost, including works on conic sections and other advanced geometric topics. Apparently Desargues' Homology Theorem (a pair of triangles is coaxial if and only if it is copolar) was proved in one of these lost works; this is the fundamental theorem which initiated the study of projective geometry. Euclid ranks #14 on Michael Hart's famous list of the Most Influential Persons in History. The Elements introduced the notions of axiom and theorem; was used as a textbook for 2000 years; and in fact is still the basis for high school geometry, making Euclid the leading mathematics teacher of all time. Some think his best inspiration was recognizing that the Parallel Postulate must be an axiom rather than a theorem.
There are many famous quotations about Euclid and his books. Abraham Lincoln abandoned his law studies when he didn't know what "demonstrate" meant and "went home to my father's house [to read Euclid], and stayed there till I could give any proposition in the six books of Euclid at sight. I then found out what demonstrate means, and went back to my law studies."
Archimedes of Syracuse (287-212 BC) Greek domain
Archimedes is universally acknowledged to be the greatest of ancient mathematicians. He studied at Euclid's school (probably after Euclid's death), but his work far surpassed, and even leapfrogged, the works of Euclid. (For example, some of Euclid's more difficult theorems are easy analytic consequences of Archimedes' Lemma of Centroids.) His achievements are particularly impressive given the lack of good mathematical notation in his day. His proofs are noted not only for brilliance but for unequaled clarity, with a modern biographer (Heath) describing Archimedes' treatises as "without exception monuments of mathematical exposition ... so impressive in their perfection as to create a feeling akin to awe in the mind of the reader." Archimedes made advances in number theory, algebra, and analysis, but is most renowned for his many theorems of plane and solid geometry. He was first to prove Heron's formula for the area of a triangle. His excellent approximation to √3 indicates that he'd partially anticipated the method of continued fractions. He developed a recursive method of representing large integers, and was first to note the law of exponents, 10a·10b = 10a+b. He found a method to trisect an arbitrary angle (using a markable straightedge — the construction is impossible using strictly Platonic rules). One of his most remarkable and famous geometric results was determining the area of a parabolic section, for which he offered two independent proofs, one using his Principle of the Lever, the other using a geometric series. Some of Archimedes' work survives only because Thabit ibn Qurra translated the otherwise-lost Book of Lemmas; it contains the angle-trisection method and several ingenious theorems about inscribed circles. (Thabit shows how to construct a regular heptagon; it may not be clear whether this came from Archimedes, or was fashioned by Thabit by studying Archimedes' angle-trisection method.) Other discoveries known only second-hand include the Archimedean semiregular solids reported by Pappus, and the Broken-Chord Theorem reported by Alberuni.
Archimedes and Newton might be the two best geometers ever, but although each produced ingenious geometric proofs, often they used non-rigorous calculus to discover results, and then devised rigorous geometric proofs for publication. He used integral calculus to determine the centers of mass of hemisphere and cylindrical wedge, and the volume of two cylinders' intersection. Although Archimedes didn't develop differentiation (integration's inverse), Michel Chasles credits him (along with Kepler, Cavalieri, and Fermat, who all lived more than 18 centuries later) as one of the four who developed calculus before Newton and Leibniz. He was one of the greatest mechanists ever: he laid a mathematical foundation for the principles of leverage; discovered the first law of hydrostatics; and invented the compound pulley, the hydraulic screwpump (called Archimedes' screw), a miniature planetarium, and war machines (e.g. catapult and ship-burning mirrors). (Some of these inventions may predate Archimedes. On the other hand, some scholars attribute the Antikythera mechanism to Archimedes or his inspiration.) His books include Floating Bodies, Spirals, The Sand Reckoner, Measurement of the Circle, Sphere and Cylinder, Plane Equilibriums, Conoids and Spheroids, Quadrature of Parabola, various now-lost works cited by Pappus or others, possibly The Book of Lemmas, and (discovered only recently, and often called his most important work) The Method. He developed the Stomachion puzzle (and solved a difficult enumeration problem involving it); other famous gems include The Cattle-Problem. The Book of Lemmas contains various geometric gems ("the Salinon," "the Shoemaker's Knife", etc.) and is credited to Archimedes by Thabit ibn Qurra but the attribution is disputed.
Archimedes discovered formulae for the volume and surface area of a sphere, and may even have been first to notice and prove the simple relationship between a circle's circumference and area. For these reasons, π is often called Archimedes' constant. His approximation 223/71 < π < 22/7 was the best of his day. (Apollonius soon surpassed it, but by using Archimedes' method.) Archimedes' Equiarea Map Theorem asserts that a sphere and its enclosing cylinder have equal surface area (as do the figures' truncations). Archimedes also proved that the volume of that sphere is two-thirds the volume of the cylinder. He requested that a representation of such a sphere and cylinder be inscribed on his tomb.
That Archimedes shared the attitude of later mathematicians like Hardy and Brouwer is suggested by Plutarch's comment that Archimedes regarded applied mathematics "as ignoble and sordid ... and did not deign to [write about his mechanical inventions; instead] he placed his whole ambition in those speculations the beauty and subtlety of which are untainted by any admixture of the common needs of life."
Some of Archimedes' greatest writings (including The Method and Floating Bodies) are preserved only on a palimpsest rediscovered in 1906 and mostly deciphered only after 1998. Ideas unique to that work are an anticipation of Riemann integration, calculating the volume of a cylindrical wedge (previously first attributed to Kepler); along with Oresme and Galileo he was among the few to comment on the "equinumerosity paradox" (the fact that are as many perfect squares as integers). Although Euler and Newton may have been the most important mathematicians, and Gauss, Weierstrass and Riemann the greatest theorem provers, it is widely accepted that Archimedes was the greatest genius who ever lived. Yet, Hart omits him altogether from his list of Most Influential Persons: Archimedes was simply too far ahead of his time to have great historical significance. (Some think the Scientific Revolution would have begun sooner had The Method been discovered four or five centuries earlier. You can read a 1912 translation of parts of The Method on-line .)
Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276-194 BC) Greek domain
Eratosthenes was one of the greatest polymaths; he is called the Father of Geography, was Chief Librarian at Alexandria, was a poet, music theorist, astronomer (e.g. calculating the Earth's diameter, distance to the Sun, etc.), mechanical engineer (anticipating laws of elasticity, etc.), and was an outstanding mathematician. He is famous for his prime number Sieve, but more impressive was his work on the cube-doubling problem which he related to the design of siege weapons (catapults) where a cube-root calculation is needed.
Eratosthenes had the nickname Beta; he was a master of several fields, but was only second-best of his time. His better was also his good friend: Archimedes of Syracuse dedicated The Method to Eratosthenes.
Apollonius of Perga (262-190 BC) Greek domain
Apollonius Pergaeus, called "The Great Geometer," is sometimes considered the second greatest of ancient Greek mathematicians. (Euclid, Eudoxus and Archytas are other candidates for this honor.) His writings on conic sections have been studied until modern times; he invented the names for parabola, hyperbola and ellipse; he developed methods for normals and curvature. Although astronomers eventually concluded it was not physically correct, Apollonius developed the "epicycle and deferent" model of planetary orbits, and proved important theorems in this area. He deliberately emphasized the beauty of pure, rather than applied, mathematics, saying his theorems were "worthy of acceptance for the sake of the demonstrations themselves." The following generalization of the Pythagorean Theorem, where M is the midpoint of BC, is called Apollonius' Theorem: AB 2 + AC 2 = 2(AM 2 + BM 2).
Many of his works have survived only in a fragmentary form, and the proofs were completely lost. Most famous was the Problem of Apollonius, which is to find a circle tangent to three objects, with the objects being points, lines, or circles, in any combination. Constructing the eight circles each tangent to three other circles is especially challenging, but just finding the two circles containing two given points and tangent to a given line is a serious challenge. Vieta was renowned for discovering methods for all ten cases of this Problem. Other great mathematicians who have enjoyed reconstructing Apollonius' lost theorems include Fermat, Pascal, Newton, Euler, Poncelet and Gauss.
In evaluating the genius of the ancient Greeks, it is well to remember that their achievements were made without the convenience of modern notation. It is clear from his writing that Apollonius almost developed the analytic geometry of Descartes, but failed due to the lack of such elementary concepts as negative numbers. Leibniz wrote "He who understands Archimedes and Apollonius will admire less the achievements of the foremost men of later times."
Chang Tshang (ca 200-142 BC) China
Chinese mathematicians excelled for thousands of years, and were first to discover various algebraic and geometric principles. There is some evidence that Chinese writings influenced India and the Islamic Empire, and thus, indirectly, Europe. Although there were great Chinese mathematicians a thousand years before the Han Dynasty, and innovations continued for centuries after Han, the textbook Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art has special importance. Nine Chapters (known in Chinese as Jiu Zhang Suan Shu or Chiu Chang Suan Shu) was apparently written during the early Han Dynasty (about 165 BC) by Chang Tshang (also spelled Zhang Cang).
Many of the mathematical concepts of the early Greeks were discovered independently in early China. Chang's book gives methods of arithmetic (including cube roots) and algebra, uses the decimal system (though zero was represented as just a space, rather than a discrete symbol), proves the Pythagorean Theorem, and includes a clever geometric proof that the perimeter of a right triangle times the radius of its inscribing circle equals the area of its circumscribing rectangle. (Some of this may have been added after the time of Chang; some additions attributed to Liu Hui are mentioned in his mini-bio; other famous contributors are Jing Fang and Zhang Heng.)
Nine Chapters was probably based on earlier books, lost during the great book burning of 212 BC, and Chang himself may have been a lord who commissioned others to prepare the book. Moreover, important revisions and commentaries were added after Chang, notably by Liu Hui (ca 220-280). Although Liu Hui mentions Chang's skill, it isn't clear Chang had the mathematical genius to qualify for this list, but he would still be a strong candidate due to his book's immense historical importance: It was the dominant Chinese mathematical text for centuries, and had great influence throughout the Far East. After Chang, Chinese mathematics continued to flourish, discovering trigonometry, matrix methods, the Binomial Theorem, etc. Some of the teachings made their way to India, and from there to the Islamic world and Europe. There is some evidence that the Hindus borrowed the decimal system itself from books like Nine Chapters.
No one person can be credited with the invention of the decimal system, but key roles were played by early Chinese (Chang Tshang and Liu Hui), Brahmagupta (and earlier Hindus including Aryabhata), and Leonardo Fibonacci. (After Fibonacci, Europe still did not embrace the decimal system until the works of Vieta, Stevin, and Napier.)
Hipparchus of Nicaea and Rhodes (ca 190-127 BC) Greek domain
Ptolemy may be the most famous astronomer before Copernicus, but he borrowed heavily from Hipparchus, who might be considered the greatest astronomer ever (ahead even of Galileo and Edwin Hubble). Careful study of the errors in the catalogs of Ptolemy and Hipparchus reveal both that Ptolemy borrowed his data from Hipparchus, and that Hipparchus used principles of spherical trig to simplify his work. Classical Hindu astronomers, including the 6th-century genius Aryabhata, borrow much from Ptolemy and Hipparchus.
Hipparchus is called the "Father of Trigonometry"; he developed spherical trigonometry, produced trig tables, and more. He produced at least fourteen texts of physics and mathematics nearly all of which have been lost, but which seem to have had great teachings, including much of Newton's Laws of Motion. In one obscure surviving work he demonstrates familiarity with the combinatorial enumeration method now called Schröder's Numbers. He invented the circle-conformal stereographic and orthographic map projections which carry his name. As an astronomer, Hipparchus is credited with the discovery of equinox precession, length of the year, thorough star catalogs, and invention of the armillary sphere and perhaps the astrolabe. He had great historical influence in Europe, India and Persia, at least if credited also with Ptolemy's influence. (Hipparchus himself was influenced by Chaldean astronomers.) Hipparchus' work implies a better approximation to π than that of Apollonius, perhaps it was π ≈ 377/120 as Ptolemy used.
The Antikythera mechanism is an astronomical clock considered amazing for its time. It was probably built about the time of Hipparchus' death, but lost after a few decades (remaining at the bottom of the sea for 2000 years). The mechanism implemented the complex orbits which Hipparchus had developed to explain irregular planetary motions; it's not unlikely the great genius helped design this intricate analog computer, which may have been built in Rhodes where Hipparchus spent his final decades. (Some attribute the mechanism to Archimedes.)
Menelaus of Alexandria (ca 70-135) Egypt, Rome
Menelaus wrote several books on geometry and trigonometry, mostly lost except for his works on solid geometry. His work was cited by Ptolemy, Pappus, and Thabit; especially the Theorem of Menelaus itself which is a fundamental and difficult theorem very useful in projective geometry. He also contributed much to spherical trigonometry. Disdaining indirect proofs (anticipating later-day constructivists) Menelaus found new, more fruitful proofs for several of Euclid's results.
Tiberius(?) Claudius Ptolemaeus of Alexandria (ca 90-168) Egypt (in Greco-Roman domain)
Ptolemy was one of the most famous of ancient Greek scientists. Among his mathematical results, most famous may be Ptolemy's Theorem (AC·BD = AB·CD + BC·AD if and only if ABCD is a cyclic quadrilateral). This theorem has many useful corollaries; it was frequently applied in Copernicus' work. Ptolemy also wrote on trigonometry, optics, geography, map projections, and astrology; but is most famous for his astronomy, where he perfected the geocentric model of planetary motions. For this work, Cardano included Ptolemy on his List of 12 Greatest Geniuses, but removed him from the list after learning of Copernicus' discovery. Interestingly, Ptolemy wrote that the fixed point in a model of planetary motion was arbitrary, but rejected the Earth spinning on its axis since he thought this would lead to powerful winds.
Geocentrism vs. Heliocentrism
The mystery of celestial motions directed scientific inquiry for thousands of years. With the notable exception of the Pythagorean Philolaus of Croton, thinkers generally assumed that the Earth was the center of the universe, but this made it very difficult to explain the orbits of the other planets. This problem had been considered by Eudoxus, Apollonius, and Hipparchus, who developed a very complicated geocentric model involving concentric spheres and epicyles. Ptolemy perfected (or, rather, complicated) this model even further, introducing 'equants' to further fine-tune the orbital speeds; this model was the standard for 14 centuries. While some Greeks, notably Aristarchus and Seleucus of Seleucia (and perhaps also Heraclides of Pontus or ancient Egyptians), proposed heliocentric models, these were rejected because there was no parallax among stars. (Aristarchus guessed that the stars were at an almost unimaginable distance, explaining the lack of parallax. Aristarchus would be almost unknown except that Archimedes mentions, and assumes, Aristarchus' heliocentrism in The Sand Reckoner. I suspect that Archimedes accepted heliocentrism, but thought saying so openly would distract from his work. Hipparchus was another ancient Greek who considered heliocentrism but, because he never guessed that orbits were ellipses rather than cascaded circles, was unable to come up with a heliocentric model that fit his data.) Aryabhata, Alhazen, Alberuni, Omar Khayyám, (perhaps some other Islamic mathematicians like al-Tusi), and Regiomontanus are other great pre-Copernican mathematicians who may have accepted the possibility of heliocentrism.
The great skill demonstrated by Ptolemy and his predecessors in developing their complex geocentric cosmology may have set back science since in fact the Earth rotates around the Sun. The geocentric models couldn't explain the observed changes in the brightness of Mars or Venus, but it was the phases of Venus, discovered by Galileo after the invention of the telescope, that finally led to general acceptance of heliocentrism. (Ptolemy's model predicted phases, but timed quite differently from Galileo's observations.)
Since the planets move without friction, their motions offer a pure view of the Laws of Motion; this is one reason that the heliocentric breakthroughs of Copernicus, Kepler and Newton triggered the advances in mathematical physics which led to the Scientific Revolution. Heliocentrism offered an even more key understanding that lead to massive change in scientific thought. For Ptolemy and other geocentrists, the "fixed" stars were just lights on a sphere rotating around the earth, but after the Copernican Revolution the "fixed" stars were understood to be actually fixed and immensely far away; this made it possible to imagine that they were themselves suns, perhaps with planets of their own. (Nicole Oresme and Nicholas of Cusa were pre-Copernican thinkers who wrote on both the geocentric question and the possibility of other worlds.) The Copernican perspective led Giordano Bruno and Galileo to posit a single common set of physical laws which ruled both on Earth and in the Heavens. (It was this, rather than just the happenstance of planetary orbits, that eventually most outraged the Roman Church.... And we're getting ahead of our story: Copernicus, Bruno, Galileo and Kepler lived 14 centuries after Ptolemy.)
Liu Hui (ca 220-280) China
Liu Hui made major improvements to Chang's influential textbook Nine Chapters, making him among the most important of Chinese mathematicians ever. (He seems to have been a much better mathematician than Chang, but just as Newton might have gotten nowhere without Kepler, Vieta, Huygens, Fermat, Wallis, Cavalieri, etc., so Liu Hui might have achieved little had Chang not preserved the ancient Chinese learnings.) Among Liu's achievements are an emphasis on generalizations and proofs, incorporation of negative numbers into arithmetic, an early recognition of the notions of infinitesimals and limits, the Gaussian elimination method of solving simultaneous linear equations, calculations of solid volumes (including the use of Cavalieri's Principle), anticipation of Horner's Method, and a new method to calculate square roots. Like Archimedes, Liu discovered the formula for a circle's area; however he failed to calculate a sphere's volume, writing "Let us leave this problem to whoever can tell the truth."
Although it was almost child's-play for any of them, Archimedes, Apollonius, and Hipparchus had all improved precision of π's estimate. It seems fitting that Liu Hui did join that select company of record setters: He developed a recurrence formula for regular polygons allowing arbitrarily-close approximations for π. He also devised an interpolation formula to simplify that calculation; this yielded the "good-enough" value 3.1416, which is still taught today in primary schools. (Liu's successors in China included Zu Chongzhi, who did determine sphere's volume, and whose approximation for π held the accuracy record for nine centuries.)
Diophantus of Alexandria (ca 250) Greece, Egypt
Diophantus was one of the most influential mathematicians of antiquity; he wrote several books on arithmetic and algebra, and explored number theory further than anyone earlier. He advanced a rudimentary arithmetic and algebraic notation, allowed rational-number solutions to his problems rather than just integers, and was aware of results like the Brahmagupta-Fibonacci Identity; for these reasons he is often called the "Father of Algebra." His work, however, may seem quite limited to a modern eye: his methods were not generalized, he knew nothing of negative numbers, and, though he often dealt with quadratic equations, never seems to have commented on their second solution. His notation, clumsy as it was, was used for many centuries. (The shorthand x3 for "x cubed" was not invented until Descartes.)
Very little is known about Diophantus (he might even have come from Babylonia, whose algebraic ideas he borrowed). Many of his works have been lost, including proofs for lemmas cited in the surviving work, some of which are so difficult it would almost stagger the imagination to believe Diophantus really had proofs. Among these are Fermat's conjecture (Lagrange's theorem) that every integer is the sum of four squares, and the following: "Given any positive rationals a, b with a>b, there exist positive rationals c, d such that a3-b3 = c3+d3." (This latter "lemma" was investigated by Vieta and Fermat and finally solved, with some difficulty, in the 19th century. It seems unlikely that Diophantus actually had proofs for such "lemmas.")
Pappus of Alexandria (ca 300) Egypt, Greece
Pappus, along with Diophantus, may have been one of the two greatest Western mathematicians during the 13 centuries that separated Hipparchus and Fibonacci. He wrote about arithmetic methods, plane and solid geometry, the axiomatic method, celestial motions and mechanics. In addition to his own original research, his texts are noteworthy for preserving works of earlier mathematicians that would otherwise have been lost.
Pappus' best and most original result, and the one which gave him most pride, may be the Pappus Centroid theorems (fundamental, difficult and powerful theorems of solid geometry later rediscovered by Paul Guldin). His other ingenious geometric theorems include Desargues' Homology Theorem (which Pappus attributes to Euclid), an early form of Pascal's Hexagram Theorem, called Pappus' Hexagon Theorem and related to a fundamental theorem: Two projective pencils can always be brought into a perspective position. For these theorems, Pappus is sometimes called the "Father of Projective Geometry." Pappus also demonstrated how to perform angle trisection and cube doubling if one can use mechanical curves like a conchoid or hyperbola. He stated (but didn't prove) the Isoperimetric Theorem, also writing "Bees know this fact which is useful to them, that the hexagon ... will hold more honey for the same material than [a square or triangle]." (That a honeycomb partition minimizes material for an equal-area partitioning was finally proved in 1999 by Thomas Hales, who also proved the related Kepler Conjecture.) Pappus stated, but did not fully solve, the Problem of Pappus which, given an arbitrary collection of lines in the plane, asks for the locus of points whose distances to the lines have a certain relationship. This problem was a major inspiration for Descartes and was finally fully solved by Newton.
For preserving the teachings of Euclid and Apollonius, as well as his own theorems of geometry, Pappus certainly belongs on a list of great ancient mathematicians. But these teachings lay dormant during Europe's Dark Ages, diminishing Pappus' historical significance.
Top
Mathematicians after Classical Greece
Alexander the Great spread Greek culture to Egypt and much of the Orient; thus even Hindu mathematics may owe something to the Greeks. Greece was eventually absorbed into the Roman Empire (with Archimedes himself famously killed by a Roman soldier). Rome did not pursue pure science as Greece had (as we've seen, the important mathematicians of the Roman era were based in the Hellenic East) and eventually Europe fell into a Dark Age. The Greek emphasis on pure mathematics and proofs was key to the future of mathematics, but they were missing an even more important catalyst: a decimal place-value system based on zero and nine other symbols.
Top
Decimal system -- from India? China?? Persia???
It's still hard to believe that the "obvious" and so-convenient decimal system didn't catch on in Europe until the late Renaissance. Ancient Greeks, by the way, did not use the unwieldy Roman numerals, but rather used 27 symbols, denoting 1 to 9, 10 to 90, and 100 to 900. Unlike our system, with ten digits separate from the alphabet, the 27 Greek number symbols were the same as their alphabet's letters; this might have hindered the development of "syncopated" notation. The most ancient Hindu records did not use the ten digits of Aryabhata, but rather a system similar to that of the ancient Greeks, suggesting that China, and not India, may indeed be the "ultimate" source of the modern decimal system.
The Chinese used a form of decimal abacus as early as 3000 BC; if it doesn't qualify, by itself, as a "decimal system" then pictorial depictions of its numbers would. Yet for thousands of years after its abacus, China had no zero symbol other than plain space; and apparently didn't have one until after the Hindus. Ancient Persians and Mayans did have place-value notation with zero symbols, but neither qualify as inventing a base-10 decimal system: Persia used the base-60 Babylonian system; Mayans used base-20. (Another difference is that the Hindus had nine distinct digit symbols to go with their zero, while earlier place-value systems built up from just two symbols: 1 and either 5 or 10.) The Old Kingdom Egyptians did use a base-ten system, but it was not place-value (1, 10, 100 were depicted as separate symbols).
Conclusion: The decimal place-value system with zero symbol seems to be an obvious invention that in fact was very hard to invent. If you insist on a single winner then India might be it. But China, Babylonia, Persia and even the Mayans deserve Honorable Mention!
Aryabhata (476-550) Ashmaka & Kusumapura (India)
Indian mathematicians excelled for thousands of years, and eventually even developed advanced techniques like Taylor series before Europeans did, but they are denied credit because of Western ascendancy. Among the Hindu mathematicians, Aryabhata (called Arjehir by Arabs) may be most famous.
While Europe was in its early "Dark Age," Aryabhata advanced arithmetic, algebra, elementary analysis, and especially plane and spherical trigonometry, using the decimal system. Aryabhata is sometimes called the "Father of Algebra" instead of al-Khowârizmi (who himself cites the work of Aryabhata). His most famous accomplishment in mathematics was the Aryabhata Algorithm (connected to continued fractions) for solving Diophantine equations. Aryabhata made several important discoveries in astronomy, e.g. the nature of moonlight, and concept of sidereal year; his estimate of the Earth's circumference was more accurate than any achieved in ancient Greece. He was among the very few ancient scholars who realized the Earth rotated daily on an axis; claims that he also espoused heliocentric orbits are controversial, but may be confirmed by the writings of al-Biruni. Aryabhata is said to have introduced the constant e. He used π ≈ 3.1416; it is unclear whether he discovered this independently or borrowed it from Liu Hui of China. Although it was first discovered by Nicomachus three centuries earlier, Aryabhata is famous for the identity
Σ (k3) = (Σ k)2
Some of Aryabhata's achievements, e.g. an excellent approximation to the sine function, are known only from the writing of Bhaskara I, (another early Hindu mathematician). Bhaskara I wrote: "Aryabhata is the master who, after reaching the furthest shores and plumbing the inmost depths of the sea of ultimate knowledge of mathematics, kinematics and spherics, handed over the three sciences to the learned world."
Muhammed `Abu Jafar' ibn Musâ al-Khowârizmi (ca 780-850) Khorasan (Uzbekistan), Iraq
Al-Khowârizmi (aka Mahomet ibn Moses) was a Persian who worked as a mathematician, astronomer and geographer early in the Golden Age of Islamic science. He introduced the Hindu decimal system to the Islamic world and Europe; invented the horary quadrant; improved the sundial; developed trigonometry tables; and improved on Ptolemy's astronomy and geography. He wrote the book Al-Jabr, which demonstrated simple algebra and geometry, and several other influential books. Unlike Diophantus' work, which dealt in specific examples, Al-Khowârizmi was the first algebra text to present general methods; he is often called the "Father of Algebra." (Diophantus did, however, use superior "syncopated" notation.) The word algorithm is borrowed from Al-Khowârizmi's name, and algebra is taken from the name of his book. He also coined the word cipher, which became English zero (although this was just a translation from the Sanskrit word for zero introduced by Aryabhata). He was an essential pioneer for Islamic science, and for the many Arab and Persian mathematicians who followed; and hence also for Europe's eventual Renaissance which was heavily dependent on Islamic teachings. Al-Khowârizmi's texts on algebra and decimal arithmetic are considered to be among the most influential writings ever.
Ya'qub `Abu Yusuf' ibn Ishaq al-Kindi (803-873) Iraq
Al-Kindi (called Alkindus in the West) wrote on diverse philosophical subjects, physics, optics, astronomy, music, psychology, medicine, chemistry, and more. He invented pharmaceutical methods, perfumes, and distilling of alcohol. In mathematics, he popularized the use of the decimal system, developed spherical geometry, wrote on many other topics and was a pioneer of cryptography (code-breaking). (Al-Kindi, called The Arab Philosopher, can not be considered among the greatest of mathematicians, but was one of the most influential general scientists between Aristotle and da Vinci.) He appears on Cardano's List of 12 Greatest Geniuses.
Al-Sabi Thabit ibn Qurra al-Harrani (836-901) Harran, Iraq
Thabit produced important books in philosophy (including perhaps the famous mystic work De Imaginibus), medicine, mechanics, astronomy, and especially several mathematical fields: analysis, non-Euclidean geometry, trigonometry, arithmetic, number theory. As well as being an original thinker, Thabit was a key translator of ancient Greek writings; he translated Archimedes' otherwise-lost Book of Lemmas and applied one of its methods to construct a regular heptagon. He developed an important new cosmology superior to Ptolemy's (and which, though it was not heliocentric, may have inspired Copernicus). He was perhaps the first great mathematician to take the important step of emphasizing real numbers rather than either rational numbers or geometric sizes. He worked in plane and spherical trigonometry, and with cubic equations. He was an earlier practitioner of calculus and seems to have been first to take the integral of √x. Like Archimedes, he was able to calculate the area of an ellipse, and to calculate the volume of a paraboloid. He produced an elegant generalization of the Pythagorean Theorem:
AC 2 + BC 2 = AB (AR + BS)
(Here the triangle ABC is not a right triangle, but R and S are located on AB to give the equal angles ACB = ARC = BSC.) Thabit also worked in number theory where he is especially famous for his theorem about amicable numbers. While many of his discoveries in geometry, plane and spherical trigonometry, and analysis (parabola quadrature, trigonometric law, principle of lever) duplicated work by Archimedes and Pappus, Thabit's list of novel achievements is impressive. Among the several great and famous Baghdad geometers, Thabit may have had the greatest genius.
Ibrahim ibn Sinan ibn Thabit ibn Qurra (908-946) Iraq
Ibn Sinan, grandson of Thabit ibn Qurra, was one of the greatest Islamic mathematicians and might have surpassed the great Thabit had he not died at a young age. He was an early pioneer of analytic geometry, advancing the theory of integration, applying algebra to synthetic geometry, and writing on the construction of conic sections. He produced a new proof of Archimedes' famous formula for the area of a parabolic section. He worked on the theory of area-preserving transformations, with applications to map-making. He also advanced astronomical theory, and wrote a treatise on sundials.
Mohammed ibn al-Hasn (Alhazen) `Abu Ali' ibn al-Haytham al-Basra (965-1039) Iraq, Egypt
Al-Hassan ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) made contributions to math, optics, and astronomy which eventually influenced Roger Bacon, Regiomontanus, da Vinci, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Huygens, Descartes and Wallis, thus affecting Europe's Scientific Revolution. He's been called the best scientist of the Middle Ages; his Book of Optics has been called the most important physics text prior to Newton; his writings in physics anticipate the Principle of Least Action, Newton's First Law of Motion, and the notion that white light is composed of the color spectrum. (Like Newton, he favored a particle theory of light over the wave theory of Aristotle.) His other achievements in optics include improved lens design, an analysis of the camera obscura, Snell's Law, an early explanation for the rainbow, a correct deduction from refraction of atmospheric thickness, and experiments on visual perception. He also did work in human anatomy and medicine. (In a famous leap of over-confidence he claimed he could control the Nile River; when the Caliph ordered him to do so, he then had to feign madness!) Alhazen has been called the "Father of Modern Optics," the "Founder of Experimental Psychology" (mainly for his work with optical illusions), and, because he emphasized hypotheses and experiments, "The First Scientist."
In number theory, Alhazen worked with perfect numbers, Mersenne primes, the Chinese Remainder Theorem; and stated Wilson's Conjecture (sometimes called Al-Haytham's Theorem though it was first proven by Lagrange). He introduced the Power Series Theorem (later attributed to Jacob Bernoulli). His best mathematical work was with plane and solid geometry, especially conic sections; he calculated the areas of lunes, volumes of paraboloids, and constructed a heptagon using intersecting parabolas. He solved Alhazen's Billiard Problem (originally posed as a problem in mirror design), a difficult construction which continued to intrigue several great mathematicians including Huygens. To solve it, Alhazen needed to anticipate Descartes' analytic geometry, anticipate Bézout's Theorem, tackle quartic equations and develop a rudimentary integral calculus. Alhazen's attempts to prove the Parallel Postulate make him (along with Thabit ibn Qurra) one of the earliest mathematicians to investigate non-Euclidean geometry.
Abu al-Rayhan Mohammed ibn Ahmad al-Biruni (973-1048) Khorasan (Uzbekistan)
Al-Biruni (Alberuni) was an extremely outstanding scholar, far ahead of his time, sometimes shown with Alkindus and Alhazen as one of the greatest Islamic polymaths, and sometimes compared to Leonardo da Vinci. He is less famous in part because he lived in a remote part of the Islamic empire. He was a great linguist; studied the original works of Greeks and Hindus; is famous for debates with his contemporary Avicenna; studied history, biology, mineralogy, philosophy, sociology, medicine and more; is called the Father of Geodesy and the Father of Arabic Pharmacy; and was one of the greatest astronomers. He was also noted for his poetry. He invented (but didn't build) a geared-astrolabe clock, and worked with springs and hydrostatics. He wrote prodigiously on all scientific topics (his writings are estimated to total 13,000 folios); he was especially noted for his comprehensive encyclopedia about India, and Shadows, which starts from notions about shadows but develops much astronomy and mathematics. He applied scientific methods; and anticipated future advances including Darwin's natural selection, Newton's Second Law, the immutability of elements, the nature of the Milky Way, and much modern geology. Among several novel achievements in astronomy, he used observations of lunar eclipse to deduce relative longitude, estimated Earth's radius most accurately, believed the Earth rotated on its axis and accepted heliocentrism as a possibility. In mathematics, he was first to apply the Law of Sines to astronomy, geodesy, and cartography; anticipated the notion of polar coordinates; invented the azimuthal equidistant map projection in common use today; found trigonometric solutions to polynomial equations; did geometric constructions including angle trisection; and wrote on arithmetic, algebra, and combinatorics as well as plane and spherical trigonometry and geometry. (Al-Biruni's contemporary Avicenna was not particularly a mathematician but deserves mention as an advancing scientist, as does Avicenna's disciple Abu'l-Barakat al-Baghdada, who lived about a century later.)
Al-Biruni has left us what seems to be the oldest surviving mention of the Broken Chord Theorem (if M is the midpoint of circular arc ABMC, and T the midpoint of "broken chord" ABC, then MT is perpendicular to BC). Although he himself attributed the theorem to Archimedes, Al-Biruni provided several novel proofs for, and useful corollaries of, this famous geometric gem. While Al-Biruni may lack the influence and mathematical brilliance to qualify for the Top 100, he deserves recognition as one of the greatest applied mathematicians before the modern era.
Omar al-Khayyám (1048-1123) Persia
Omar Khayyám (aka Ghiyas od-Din Abol-Fath Omar ibn Ebrahim Khayyam Neyshaburi) is sometimes called the greatest Islamic mathematician. He did clever work with geometry, developing an alternate to Euclid's Parallel Postulate and then deriving the parallel result using theorems based on the Khayyam-Saccheri quadrilateral. He derived solutions to cubic equations using the intersection of conic sections with circles. Remarkably, he stated that the cubic solution could not be achieved with straightedge and compass, a fact that wouldn't be proved until the 19th century. Khayyám did even more important work in algebra, writing an influential textbook, and developing new solutions for various higher-degree equations. He may have been first to develop Pascal's Triangle (which is still called Khayyám's Triangle in Persia), along with the essential Binomial Theorem (Al-Khayyám's Formula): (x+y)n = n!
Σ
xkyn-k / k!(n-k)!
Khayyám was also an important astronomer; he measured the year far more accurately than ever before, improved the Persian calendar, and built a famous star map. He emphasized science over religion and proved that the Earth rotates around the Sun. His symbol ('shay') for an unknown in an algebraic equation might have been transliterated to become our 'x'. He also wrote treatises on philosophy, music, mechanics and natural science. Despite his great achievements in algebra, geometry, and astronomy, today Omar al-Khayyám is most famous for his rich poetry (The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám).
Bháscara Áchárya (1114-1185) India
Bháscara (also called Bhaskara II or Bhaskaracharya) may have been the greatest of the Hindu mathematicians. He made achievements in several fields of mathematics including some Europe wouldn't learn until the time of Euler. His textbooks dealt with many matters, including solid geometry, combinations, and advanced arithmetic methods. He was also an astronomer. (It is sometimes claimed that his equations for planetary motions anticipated the Laws of Motion discovered by Kepler and Newton, but this claim is doubtful.) In algebra, he solved various equations including 2nd-order Diophantine, quartic, Brouncker's and Pell's equations. His Chakravala method, an early application of mathematical induction to solve 2nd-order equations, has been called "the finest thing achieved in the theory of numbers before Lagrange" (although a similar statement was made about one of Fibonacci's theorems). (Earlier Hindus, including Brahmagupta, contributed to this method.) In several ways he anticipated calculus: he used Rolle's Theorem; he may have been first to use the fact that dsin x = cos x · dx; and he once wrote that multiplication by 0/0 could be "useful in astronomy." In trigonometry, which he valued for its own beauty as well as practical applications, he developed spherical trig and was first to present the identity
sin a+b = sin a · cos b + sin b · cos a
Bháscara's achievements came centuries before similar discoveries in Europe. It is an open riddle of history whether any of Bháscara's teachings trickled into Europe in time to influence its Scientific Renaissance. (Another mathematician, Bháscara I who lived five centuries before Bháscara II, was also outstanding. He was famous for advancing the positional decimal number notation, for a formula giving an excellent approximation to the sin function, and for being first to state Wilson's Conjecture.)
Leonardo `Bigollo' Pisano (Fibonacci) (ca 1170-1245) Italy
Leonardo (known today as Fibonacci) introduced the decimal system and other new methods of arithmetic to Europe, and relayed the mathematics of the Hindus, Persians, and Arabs. Others, especially Gherard of Cremona, had translated Islamic mathematics, e.g. the works of al-Khowârizmi, into Latin, but Leonardo was the influential teacher. He also re-introduced older Greek ideas like Mersenne numbers and Diophantine equations. Leonardo's writings cover a very broad range including new theorems of geometry, methods to construct and convert Egyptian fractions (which were still in wide use), irrational numbers, the Chinese Remainder Theorem, theorems about Pythagorean triplets, and the series 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, .... which is now linked with the name Fibonacci. In addition to his great historic importance and fame (he was a favorite of Emperor Frederick II), Leonardo `Fibonacci' is called "the greatest number theorist between Diophantus and Fermat" and "the most talented mathematician of the Middle Ages."
Leonardo is most famous for his book Liber Abaci, but his Liber Quadratorum provides the best demonstration of his skill. He defined congruums and proved theorems about them, including a theorem establishing the conditions for three square numbers to be in consecutive arithmetic series; this has been called the finest work in number theory prior to Fermat (although a similar statement was made about one of Bhaskara's theorems). Although often overlooked, this work includes a proof of the n = 4 case of Fermat's Last Theorem. (Leonardo's proof of FLT4 is widely ignored or considered incomplete. I'm preparing a page to consider that question. ) Another of Leonardo's noteworthy achievements was proving that the roots of a certain cubic equation could not have any of the constructible forms Euclid had outlined in Book 10 of his Elements.
Leonardo provided Europe with the decimal system, algebra and the 'lattice' method of multiplication, all far superior to the methods then in use. He introduced notation like 3/5; his clever extension of this for quantities like 5 yards, 2 feet, and 3 inches is more efficient than today's notation. It seems hard to believe but before the decimal system, mathematicians had no notation for zero. Referring to this system, Gauss was later to exclaim "To what heights would science now be raised if Archimedes had made that discovery!"
Some histories describe him as bringing Islamic mathematics to Europe, but in Fibonacci's own preface to Liber Abaci, he specifically credits the Hindus:
... as a consequence of marvelous instruction in the art, to the nine digits of the Hindus, the knowledge of the art very much appealed to me before all others, and for it I realized that all its aspects were studied in Egypt, Syria, Greece, Sicily, and Provence, with their varying methods;
... But all this even, and the algorism, as well as the art of Pythagoras, I considered as almost a mistake in respect to the method of the Hindus. Therefore, embracing more stringently that method of the Hindus, and taking stricter pains in its study, while adding certain things from my own understanding and inserting also certain things from the niceties of Euclid's geometric art, I have striven to compose this book in its entirety as understandably as I could, ...
Had the Scientific Renaissance begun in the Islamic Empire, someone like al-Khowârizmi would have greater historic significance than Fibonacci, but the Renaissance did happen in Europe. Liber Abaci's summary of the decimal system has been called "the most important sentence ever written." Even granting this to be an exaggeration, there is no doubt that the Scientific Revolution owes a huge debt to Leonardo `Fibonacci' Pisano.
Abu Jafar Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-1274) Persia
Tusi was one of the greatest Islamic polymaths, working in theology, ethics, logic, astronomy, and other fields of science. He was a famous scholar and prolific writer, describing evolution of species, stating that the Milky Way was composed of stars, and mentioning conservation of mass in his writings on chemistry. He made a wide range of contributions to astronomy, and (along with Omar Khayyám) was one of the most significant astronomers between Ptolemy and Copernicus. He improved on the Ptolemaic model of planetary orbits, and even wrote about (though rejecting) the possibility of heliocentrism.
Tusi is most famous for his mathematics. He advanced algebra, arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, and even foundations, working with real numbers and lengths of curves. For his texts and theorems, he may be called the "Father of Trigonometry;" he was first to properly state and prove several theorems of planar and spherical trigonometry including the Law of Sines, and the (spherical) Law of Tangents. He wrote important commentaries on works of earlier Greek and Islamic mathematicians; he attempted to prove Euclid's Parallel Postulate. Tusi's writings influenced European mathematicians including Wallis; his revisions of the Ptolemaic model led him to the Tusi-couple, a special case of trochoids usually called Copernicus' Theorem, though historians have concluded Copernicus discovered this theorem by reading Tusi.
Qin Jiushao (1202-1261) China
There were several important Chinese mathematicians in the 13th century, of whom Qin Jiushao (Ch'in Chiu-Shao) may have had particularly outstanding breadth and genius. Qin's textbook discusses various algebraic procedures, includes word problems requiring quartic or quintic equations, explains a version of Horner's Method for finding solutions to such equations, includes Heron's Formula for a triangle's area, and introduces the zero symbol and decimal fractions. Qin's work on the Chinese Remainder Theorem was very impressive, finding solutions in cases which later stumped Euler.
Other great Chinese mathematicians of that era are Li Zhi, Yang Hui (Pascal's Triangle is still called Yang Hui's Triangle in China), and Zhu Shiejie. Their teachings did not make their way to Europe, but were read by the Japanese mathematician Seki, and possibly by Islamic mathematicians like Al-Kashi. Although Qin was a soldier and governor noted for corruption, with mathematics just a hobby, I've chosen him to represent this group because of the key advances which appear first in his writings. The Young People Essay Writing Institute may improve your own writing.
Zhu Shiejie (ca 1265-1303+) China
Zhu Shiejie was more famous and influential than Qin; historian George Sarton called him "one of the greatest mathematicians ... of all time." Zhu is especially famous for his work with multivariate polynomials; he anticipated the Sylvester matrix method for solving simultaneous polynomial equations.
Levi ben Gerson `Gersonides' (1288-1344?) France
Gersonides (aka Leo de Bagnols, aka RaLBaG) was a Jewish scholar of great renown, preferring science and reason over religious orthodoxy. He wrote important commentaries on Aristotle, Euclid, the Talmud, and the Bible; he is most famous for his book MilHamot Adonai ("The Wars of the Lord") which touches on many theological questions. He was likely the most talented scientist of his time: he invented the "Jacob's Staff" which became an important navigation tool; described the principles of the camera obscura; etc. In mathematics, Gersonides wrote texts on trigonometry, calculation of cube roots, rules of arithmetic, etc.; and gave rigorous derivations of rules of combinatorics. He was first to make explicit use of mathematical induction. At that time, "harmonic numbers" referred to integers with only 2 and 3 as prime factors; Gersonides solved a problem of music theory with an ingenious proof that there were no consecutive harmonic numbers larger than (8,9). Levi ben Gerson published only in Hebrew so, although some of his work was translated into Latin during his lifetime, his influence was limited; much of his work was re-invented three centuries later; and many histories of math overlook him altogether.
Gersonides was also an outstanding astronomer. He proved that the fixed stars were at a huge distance, and found other flaws in the Ptolemaic model. But he specifically rejected heliocentrism, noteworthy since it implies that heliocentrism was under consideration at the time.
Nicole Oresme (ca 1322-1382) France
Oresme was of lowly birth but excelled at school (where he was taught by the famous Jean Buridan), became a young professor, and soon personal chaplain to King Charles V. The King commissioned him to translate the works of Aristotle into French (with Oresme thus playing key roles in the development of both French science and French language), and rewarded him by making him a Bishop. He wrote several books; was a renowned philosopher and natural scientist (challenging several of Aristotle's ideas); contributed to economics (e.g. anticipating Gresham's Law) and to optics (he was first to posit curved refraction). Although the Earth's annual orbit around the Sun was left to Copernicus, Oresme was among the pre-Copernican thinkers to claim clearly that the Earth spun daily on its axis.
In mathematics, Oresme observed that the integers were equinumerous with the odd integers; was first to use fractional (and even irrational) exponents; introduced the symbol
+
for addition; was first to write about general curvature; and, most famously, first to prove the divergence of the harmonic series. Oresme used a graphical diagram to demonstrate the Merton College Theorem (a discovery related to Galileo's Law of Falling Bodies made by Thomas Bradwardine, et al); it is said this was the first abstract graph. (Some believe that this effort inspired Descartes' coordinate geometry and Galileo.) Oresme was aware of Gersonides' work on harmonic numbers and was among those who attempted to link music theory to the ratios of celestial orbits, writing "the heavens are like a man who sings a melody and at the same time dances, thus making music ... in song and in action." Oresme's work was influential; with several discoveries ahead of his time, Oresme deserves to be better known.
Madhava of Sangamagramma (1340-1425) India
Madhava, also known as Irinjaatappilly Madhavan Namboodiri, founded the important Kerala school of mathematics and astronomy. If everything credited to him was his own work, he was a truly great mathematician. His analytic geometry preceded and surpassed Descartes', and included differentiation and integration. Madhava also did work with continued fractions, trigonometry, and geometry. He has been called the "Founder of Mathematical Analysis." Madhava is most famous for his work with Taylor series, discovering identities like sin q = q - q3/3! + q5/5! - ... , formulae for π, including the one attributed to Leibniz, and the then-best known approximation π ≈ 104348 / 33215. If you're struggling with your math assignment, let our mentors and tutors help you: ask your question on LearnOk.com .
Despite the accomplishments of the Kerala school, Madhava probably does not deserve a place on our List. There were several other great mathematicians who contributed to Kerala's achievements, some of which were made 150 years after Madhava's death. More importantly, the work was not propagated outside Kerala, so had almost no effect on the development of mathematics.
Ghiyath al-Din Jamshid Mas'ud Al-Kashi (ca 1380-1429) Iran, Transoxania (Uzbekistan)
Al-Kashi was among the greatest calculaters in the ancient world; wrote important texts applying arithmetic and algebra to problems in astronomy, mensuration and accounting; and developed trig tables far more accurate than earlier tables. He worked with binomial coefficients, invented astronomical calculating machines, developed spherical trig, and is credited with various theorems of trigonometry including the Law of Cosines, which is sometimes called Al-Kashi's Theorem. He is sometimes credited with the invention of decimal fractions (though he worked mainly with sexagesimal fractions), and a method like Horner's to calculate roots. However decimal fractions had been used earlier, e.g. by Qin Jiushao; and Al-Kashi's root calculations may also have been derived from Chinese texts by Qin Jiushao or Zhu Shiejie.
Using his methods, al-Kashi calculated π correctly to 17 significant digits, breaking Madhava's record. (This record was subsequently broken by relative unknowns: a German ca. 1600, John Machin 1706. In 1949 the π calculation record was held briefly by John von Neumann and the ENIAC.)
Johannes Müller von Königsberg `Regiomontanus' (1436-1476) Bavaria, Italy
Regiomontanus was a prodigy who entered University at age eleven, studied under the influential Georg von Peuerbach, and eventually collaborated with him. He was an important astronomer; he found flaws in Ptolemy's system, realized lunar observations could be used to determine longitude, and may have believed in heliocentrism. His ephemeris was used by Columbus, when shipwrecked on Jamaica, to predict a lunar eclipse, thus dazzling the natives and perhaps saving his crew. More importantly, Regiomontanus was one of the most influential mathematicians of the Middle Ages; he published trigonometry textbooks and tables, as well as the best textbook on arithmetic and algebra of his time. Check out Accpcourseindonesia.com for free writing tips. (Regiomontanus lived shortly after Gutenberg, and founded the first scientific press.) He was a prodigious reader of Greek and Latin translations, and most of his results were copied from Greek or Arabic works; however he improved or reconstructed many of the proofs, and often presented solutions in both geometric and algebraic form. His algebra was more symbolic and general than his predecessors'; he solved cubic equations (though not the general case); applied Chinese remainder methods, and worked in number theory. He posed and solved a variety of clever geometric puzzles, including his famous angle maximization problem. Regiomontanus was also an instrument maker, astrologer, and Catholic bishop.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Italy
Leonardo da Vinci is most renowned for his paintings -- Mona Lisa and The Last Supper are among the most discussed and admired paintings ever -- but he did much other work and was probably the most talented, versatile and prolific polymath ever to live; his writings exceed 13,000 folios. He developed new techniques, and principles of perspective geometry, for drawing, painting and sculpture; he was also an expert architect and engineer; and surely the most prolific inventor of all time. Although most of his paper designs were never built, Leonardo's inventions include reflecting and refracting telescope, adding machine, parabolic compass, improved anemometer, parachute, helicopter, flying ornithopter, several war machines (multi-barreled gun, steam-driven cannon, tank, giant crossbow, finned mortar shells, portable bridge), pumps, an accurate spring-operated clock, bobbin winder, robots, scuba gear, an elaborate musical instrument he called the 'viola organista,' and more. (Some of his designs, including the viola organista and a large single-span bridge, were finally built five centuries later.) He developed the mechanical theory of the arch; made advances in anatomy, botany, and other fields of science; he was first to conceive of plate tectonics. He was also a poet and musician.
He had little formal training in mathematics until he was in his mid-40's, when he and Luca Pacioli (the other great Italian mathematician of that era) began tutoring each other. Despite this slow start, he did make novel achievements in mathematics: he was first to note the simple classification of symmetry groups on the plane, may have discovered a new elegant proof of the Pythagorean Theorem, achieved interesting bisections and mensurations, and developed an approximate solution to the circle-squaring problem. He was first to discover the 60-vertex shape now called "buckyball." Along with Archimedes, Alberuni, Leibniz, and J. W. von Goethe, Leonardo da Vinci was among the greatest geniuses ever; but none of these appears on Hart's List of the Most Influential Persons in History: genius doesn't imply influence. (However, M.I.T.'s Pantheon project prepared a list of the Twenty Most Influential Persons in History; their list includes three mathematicians missing from Hart's list: Leonardo, Archimedes, and Pythagoras.)
Leonardo was also a writer and philosopher. Among his notable adages are "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication," and "The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding," and "Human ingenuity ... will never discover any inventions more beautiful, more simple or more practical than those of nature."
Nicolaus Copernicus (1472-1543) Poland
The European Renaissance developed in 15th-century Italy, with the blossoming of great art, and as scholars read books by great Islamic scientists like Alhazen. The earliest of these great Italian polymaths were largely not noted for mathematics, and Leonardo da Vinci began serious math study only very late in life, so the best candidates for mathematical greatness in the Italian Renaissance were foreigners. Along with Regiomontanus from Bavaria, there was an even more famous man from Poland.
Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikolaj Kopernik) was a polymath; he started by studying law and medicine; later published poetry and contemplated astronomy, while working professionally as a church scholar/diplomat. He studied Islamic works on astronomy and geometry at the University of Bologna, and eventually wrote a book of great impact. Although his only famous theorem of mathematics (that certain trochoids are straight lines) may have been derived from Oresme's work, or copied from Nasir al-Tusi, it was mathematical thought that led Copernicus to the conclusion that the Earth rotates around the Sun. Despite opposition from the Roman church, this discovery led, via Galileo, Kepler and Newton, to the Scientific Revolution. For this revolution, Copernicus is ranked #19 on Hart's List of the Most Influential Persons in History; however I think there are several reasons why Copernicus' importance may be exaggerated: (1) Copernicus' system still used circles and epicycles, so it was left to Kepler to discover the facts of elliptical orbits; (2) Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), who built on Copernicus' discovery, was a better and more influential scientist, anticipating some of Galileo's concepts; and (3) the Scientific Revolution didn't really get underway until the invention of the telescope, which would have soon led to the discovery of heliocentrism in any event.
Until the Protestant Reformation, which began about the time of Copernicus' discovery, European scientists were reluctant to challenge the Catholic Church and its belief in geocentrism. Copernicus' book was published only posthumously. It remains controversial whether earlier Islamic or Hindu mathematicians (or even Archimedes with his The Sand Reckoner) believed in heliocentrism, but were also inhibited by religious orthodoxy.
Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576) Italy
Girolamo Cardano (or Jerome Cardan) was a highly respected physician and was first to describe typhoid fever. He was also an accomplished gambler and chess player and wrote an early book on probability. He was also a remarkable inventor: the combination lock, an advanced gimbal, a ciphering tool, and the Cardan shaft with universal joints are all his inventions and are in use to this day. (The U-joint is sometimes called the Cardan joint.) He also helped develop the camera obscura. Cardano made contributions to physics: he noted that projectile trajectories are parabolas, and may have been first to note the impossibility of perpetual motion machines. He did work in philosophy, geology, hydrodynamics, music; he wrote books on medicine and an encyclopedia of natural science.
But Cardano is most remembered for his achievements in mathematics. He was first to publish general solutions to cubic and quartic equations, and first to publish the use of complex numbers in calculations. (Cardano's Italian colleagues deserve much credit: Ferrari first solved the quartic, he or Tartaglia the cubic; and Bombelli first treated the complex numbers as numbers in their own right. Cardano may have been the last great mathematician unwilling to deal with negative numbers: his treatment of cubic equations had to deal with ax3 - bx + c = 0 and ax3 - bx = c as two different cases.) Cardano introduced binomial coefficients and the Binomial Theorem, and introduced and solved the geometric hypocyloid problem, as well as other geometric theorems (e.g. the theorem underlying the 2:1 spur wheel which converts circular to reciprocal rectilinear motion). Cardano is credited with Cardano's Ring Puzzle, still manufactured today and related to the Tower of Hanoi puzzle. (This puzzle may predate Cardano, and may even have been known in ancient China.) Da Vinci and Galileo may have been more influential than Cardano, but of the three great generalists in the century before Kepler, it seems clear that Cardano was the most accomplished mathematician.
Cardano's life had tragic elements. Throughout his life he was tormented that his father (a friend of Leonardo da Vinci) married his mother only after Cardano was born. (And his mother tried several times to abort him.) Cardano's reputation for gambling and aggression interfered with his career. He practiced astrology and was imprisoned for heresy when he cast a horoscope for Jesus. (This and other problems were due in part to revenge by Tartaglia for Cardano's revealing his secret algebra formulae.) His son apparently murdered his own wife. Leibniz wrote of Cardano: "Cardano was a great man with all his faults; without them, he would have been incomparable."
Rafael Bombelli (1526-1572) Italy
Bombelli was a talented engineer who wrote an algebra textbook sometimes considered one of the foremost achievements of the 16th century. Although incorporating work by Cardano, Diophantus and possibly Omar al-Khayyám, the textbook was highly original and extremely influential. Leibniz and Huygens were among many who praised his work. Although noted for his new ideas of arithmetic, Bombelli based much of his work on geometric ideas, and even pursued complex-number arithmetic to an angle-trisection method. In his textbook he introduced new symbolic notations, allowed negative and complex numbers, and gave the rules for manipulating these new kinds of numbers. Bombelli is often called the Inventor of Complex Numbers.
François Viète (1540-1603) France
François Viète (or Franciscus Vieta) was a French nobleman and lawyer who was a favorite of King Henry IV and eventually became a royal privy councillor. In one notable accomplishment he broke the Spanish diplomatic code, allowing the French government to read Spain's messages and publish a secret Spanish letter; this apparently led to the end of the Huguenot Wars of Religion.
More importantly, Vieta was certainly the best French mathematician prior to Descartes and Fermat. He laid the groundwork for modern mathematics; his works were the primary teaching for both Descartes and Fermat; Isaac Newton also studied Vieta. In his role as a young tutor Vieta used decimal numbers before they were popularized by Simon Stevin and may have guessed that planetary orbits were ellipses before Kepler. Vieta did work in geometry, reconstructing and publishing proofs for Apollonius' lost theorems, including all ten cases of the general Problem of Apollonius. Vieta also used his new algebraic techniques to construct a regular heptagon. He discovered several trigonometric identities including a generalization of Ptolemy's Formula, the latter (then called prosthaphaeresis) providing a calculation shortcut similar to logarithms in that multiplication is reduced to addition (or exponentiation reduced to multiplication). Vieta also used trigonometry to find real solutions to cubic equations for which the Italian methods had required complex-number arithmetic; he also used trigonometry to solve a particular 45th-degree equation that had been posed as a challenge. Such trigonometric formulae revolutionized calculations and may even have helped stimulate the development and use of logarithms by Napier and Kepler. He developed the first infinite-product formula for π. In addition to his geometry and trigonometry, he also found results in number theory, but Vieta is most famous for his systematic use of decimal notation and variable letters, for which he is sometimes called the "Father of Modern Algebra." (Vieta used A,E,I,O,U for unknowns and consonants for parameters; it was Descartes who first used X,Y,Z for unknowns and A,B,C for parameters.) In his works Vieta emphasized the relationships between algebraic expressions and geometric constructions. One key insight he had is that addends must be homogeneous (i.e., "apples shouldn't be added to oranges"), a seemingly trivial idea but which can aid intuition even today.
Descartes, who once wrote "I began where Vieta finished," is now extremely famous, while Vieta is much less known. (He isn't even mentioned once in Bell's famous Men of Mathematics.) Many would now agree this is due in large measure to Descartes' deliberate deprecations of competitors in his quest for personal glory. (Vieta wasn't particularly humble either, calling himself the "French Apollonius.")
PI := 2 Y := 0 LOOP: Y := SQRT(Y + 2) PI := PI * 2 / Y IF (more precision needed) GOTO LOOP
Vieta's formula for π is clumsy to express without trigonometry, even with modern notation. Easiest may be to consider it the result of the BASIC program above. Using this formula, Vieta constructed an approximation to π that was best-yet by a European, though not as accurate as al-Kashi's two centuries earlier.
Simon Stevin (1549-1620) Flanders, Holland
Stevin was one of the greatest practical scientists of the Late Middle Ages. He worked with Holland's dykes and windmills; as a military engineer he developed fortifications and systems of flooding; he invented a carriage with sails that traveled faster than with horses and used it to entertain his patron, the Prince of Orange. He discovered several laws of mechanics including those for energy conservation and hydrostatic pressure. He lived slightly before Galileo who is now much more famous, but Stevin discovered the equal rate of falling bodies before Galileo did, and correctly explained the influence of the moon on tides (which Galileo later got wrong). He was first to write on the concept of unstable equilibrium. He invented improved accounting methods, and (though also invented at about the same time by Chinese mathematician Zhu Zaiyu and anticipated by Galileo's father, Vincenzo Galilei) the equal-temperament music scale. He also did work in descriptive geometry, trigonometry, optics, geography, and astronomy.
In mathematics, Stevin is best known for the notion of real numbers (previously integers, rationals and irrationals were treated separately; negative numbers and even zero and one were often not considered numbers). He introduced (a clumsy form of) decimal fractions to Europe; suggested a decimal metric system, which was finally adopted 200 years later; invented other basic notation like the symbol
√
. Stevin proved several theorems about perspective geometry, an important result in mechanics, and the Intermediate Value Theorem attributed to Bolzano and Cauchy. Stevin's books, written in Dutch rather than Latin, were widely read and hugely influential. He was a very key figure in the development of modern European mathematics, and may belong on our List.
John Napier 8th of Merchistoun (1550-1617) Scotland
Napier was a Scottish Laird who was a noted theologian and thought by many to be a magician (his nickname was Marvellous Merchiston). Today, however, he is best known for his work with logarithms, a word he invented. (Several others, including Archimedes, had anticipated the use of logarithms.) He published the first large table of logarithms and also helped popularize usage of the decimal point and lattice multiplication. He invented Napier's Bones, a crude hand calculator which could be used for division and root extraction, as well as multiplication. He also had inventions outside mathematics, especially several different kinds of war machine.
Napier's noted textbooks also contain an exposition of spherical trigonometry. Although he was certainly very clever (and had novel mathematical insights not mentioned in this summary), Napier proved no deep theorem and may not belong in the Top 100. Nevertheless, his revolutionary methods of arithmetic had immense historical importance; his tables were used by Johannes Kepler himself, and led to the Scientific Revolution.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Italy
Galileo discovered the laws of inertia, falling bodies (including parabolic trajectories), and the pendulum; he also introduced the notion of relativity which Einstein later found so fruitful. He was a great inventor: in addition to being first to conceive of the pendulum clock, he developed a new type of pump, and the best telescope, thermometer, hydrostatic balance, and cannon sector of his day. As a famous astronomer, Galileo pointed out that Jupiter's Moons, which he discovered, provide a natural clock and allow a universal time to be determined by telescope anywhere on Earth. (This was of little use in ocean navigation since a ship's rocking prevents the required delicate observations.) His discovery that Venus, like the Moon, had phases was the critical fact which forced acceptance of Copernican heliocentrism. His contributions outside physics and astronomy were also enormous: He invented the compound microscope and made early discoveries with it. He also made very important contributions to the early development of biology; but perhaps Galileo's most important contribution was to postulate universal laws of mechanics, in contrast to Aristotelian and religious notions of separate laws for heaven and earth.
Galileo is often called the "Father of Modern Science" because of his emphasis on experimentation. He understood that results needed to be repeated and averaged (he used mean absolute difference as his curve-fitting criterion, two centuries before Gauss and Legendre introduced the mean squared-difference criterion). For his experimental methods and discoveries, his laws of motion, and for (eventually) helping to spread Copernicus' heliocentrism, Galileo may have been the most influential scientist ever; he ranks #12 on Hart's list of the Most Influential Persons in History. (Despite these comments, it does appear that Galileo ignored experimental results that conflicted with his theories. For example, the Law of the Pendulum, based on Galileo's incorrect belief that the tautochrone was the circle, conflicted with his own observations.) Despite his extreme importance to mathematical physics, Galileo doesn't usually appear on lists of greatest mathematicians. However, Galileo did do work in pure mathematics; he derived certain centroids using a rudimentary calculus before Cavalieri did; he named (and may have been first to discover) the cycloid curve. Moreover, Galileo was one of the first to write about infinite equinumerosity (the "Hilbert's Hotel Paradox"). Galileo once wrote "Mathematics is the language in which God has written the universe."
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) Germany
Kepler was interested in astronomy from an early age, studied to become a Lutheran minister, became a professor of mathematics instead, then Tycho Brahe's understudy, and, on Brahe's death, was appointed Imperial Mathematician at the age of twenty-nine. His observations of the planets with Brahe, along with his study of Apollonius' 1800-year old work, led to Kepler's three Laws of Planetary Motion, which in turn led directly to Newton's Laws of Motion. Beyond his discovery of these Laws (one of the most important achievements in all of science), Kepler is also sometimes called the "Founder of Modern Optics." He furthered the theory of the camera obscura, and was first to study the operation of the human eye, telescopes built from two convex lenses, and atmospheric refraction. Kepler was first to explain tides correctly. (Galileo dismissed this as well as Kepler's elliptical orbits, and later published his own incorrect explanation of tides.) Kepler ranks #75 on Michael Hart's famous list of the Most Influential Persons in History. This rank, much lower than that of Copernicus, Galileo or Newton, seems to me to underestimate Kepler's importance, since it was Kepler's Laws, rather than just heliocentrism, which were essential to the early development of mathematical physics.
According to Kepler's Laws, the planets move at variable speed along ellipses. (Even Copernicus thought the orbits could be described with only circles.) The Earth-bound observer is himself describing such an orbit and in almost the same plane as the planets; thus discovering the Laws would be a difficult challenge even for someone armed with computers and modern mathematics. (The very famous Kepler Equation relating a planet's eccentric and anomaly is just one tool Kepler needed to develop.) Kepler understood the importance of his remarkable discovery, even if contemporaries like Galileo did not, writing:
"I give myself up to divine ecstasy ... My book is written. It will be read either by my contemporaries or by posterity — I care not which. It may well wait a hundred years for a reader, as God has waited 6,000 years for someone to understand His work."
Besides the trigonometric results needed to discover his Laws, Kepler made other contributions to mathematics. He generalized Alhazen's Billiard Problem, developing the notion of curvature. He was first to notice that the set of Platonic regular solids was incomplete if concave solids are admitted, and first to prove that there were only 13 Archimedean solids. He proved theorems of solid geometry later discovered on the famous palimpsest of Archimedes. He rediscovered the Fibonacci series, applied it to botany, and noted that the ratio of Fibonacci numbers converges to the Golden Mean. He was a key early pioneer in calculus, and embraced the concept of continuity (which others avoided due to Zeno's paradoxes); his work was a direct inspiration for Cavalieri and others. He developed the theory of logarithms and improved on Napier's tables. He developed mensuration methods and anticipated Fermat's theorem (df(x)/dx = 0 at function extrema). Kepler once had an opportunity to buy wine, which merchants measured using a shortcut; with the famous Kepler's Wine Barrel Problem, he used his rudimentary calculus to deduce which barrel shape would be the best bargain.
Kepler reasoned that the structure of snowflakes was evidence for the then-novel atomic theory of matter. He noted that the obvious packing of cannonballs gave maximum density (this became known as Kepler's Conjecture; optimality was proved among regular packings by Gauss, but it wasn't until 1998 that the possibility of denser irregular packings was disproven). In addition to his physics and mathematics, Kepler wrote a science fiction novel, and was an astrologer and mystic. He had ideas similar to Pythagoras about numbers ruling the cosmos (writing that the purpose of studying the world "should be to discover the rational order and harmony which has been imposed on it by God and which He revealed to us in the language of mathematics"). Kepler's mystic beliefs even led to his own mother being imprisoned for witchcraft.
Johannes Kepler (along with Galileo, Fermat, Huygens, Wallis, Vieta and Descartes) is among the giants on whose shoulders Newton was proud to stand. Some historians place him ahead of Galileo and Copernicus as the single most important contributor to the early Scientific Revolution. Chasles includes Kepler on a list of the six responsible for conceiving and perfecting infinitesimal calculus (the other five are Archimedes, Cavalieri, Fermat, Leibniz and Newton). ( www.keplersdiscovery.com is a wonderful website devoted to Johannes Kepler's discoveries.)
Gérard Desargues (1591-1661) France
Desargues invented projective geometry and found the relationship among conic sections which inspired Blaise Pascal. Among several ingenious and rigorously proven theorems are Desargues' Involution Theorem and his Theorem of Homologous Triangles. Desargues was also a noted architect and inventor: he produced an elaborate spiral staircase, invented an ingenious new pump based on the epicycloid, and had the idea to use cycloid-shaped teeth in the design of gears.
Desargues' projective geometry may have been too creative for his time; Descartes admired Desargues but was disappointed his friend didn't apply algebra to his geometric results as Descartes did; Desargues' writing was poor; and one of his best pupils (Blaise Pascal himself) turned away from math, so Desargues' work was largely ignored (except by Philippe de La Hire, Desargues' other prize pupil) until Poncelet rediscovered it almost two centuries later. (Copies of Desargues' own works surfaced about the same time.) For this reason, Desargues may not be important enough to belong in the Top 100, despite that he may have been among the greatest natural geometers ever.
René Descartes (1596-1650) France
Descartes' early career was that of soldier-adventurer and he finished as tutor to royalty, but in between he achieved fame as the preeminent intellectual of his day. He is considered the inventor of both analytic geometry and symbolic algebraic notation and is therefore called the "Father of Modern Mathematics." His use of equations to partially solve the geometric Problem of Pappus revolutionized mathematics. Because of his famous philosophical writings ("Cogito ergo sum") he is considered, along with Aristotle, to be one of the most influential thinkers in history. He ranks #49 on Michael Hart's famous list of the Most Influential Persons in History. His famous mathematical theorems include the Rule of Signs (for determining the signs of polynomial roots), the elegant formula relating the radii of Soddy kissing circles, his theorem on total angular defect (an early form of the Gauss-Bonnet result so key to much mathematics), and an improved solution to the Delian problem (cube-doubling). He improved mathematical notation (e.g. the use of superscripts to denote exponents). He also discovered Euler's Polyhedral Theorem, F+V = E+2. Descartes was very influential in physics and biology as well, e.g. developing laws of motion which included a "vortex" theory of gravitation; but most of his scientific work outside mathematics was eventually found to be incorrect.
Descartes has an extremely high reputation and would be ranked even higher by many list makers, but whatever his historical importance his mathematical skill was not in the top rank. Some of his work was borrowed from others, e.g. from Thomas Harriot. He had only insulting things to say about Pascal and Fermat, each of whom was much more brilliant at mathematics than Descartes. (Some even suspect that Descartes arranged the destruction of Pascal's lost Essay on Conics.) And Descartes made numerous errors in his development of physics, perhaps even delaying science, with Huygens writing "in all of [Descartes'] physics, I find almost nothing to which I can subscribe as being correct." Even the historical importance of his mathematics may be somewhat exaggerated since others, e.g. Fermat, Wallis and Cavalieri, were making similar discoveries independently.
Francesco Bonaventura de Cavalieri (1598-1647) Italy
Cavalieri worked in analysis, geometry and trigonometry (e.g. discovering a formula for the area of a spherical triangle), but is most famous for publishing works on his "principle of indivisibles" (calculus); these were very influential and inspired further development by Huygens, Wallis and Barrow. (His calculus was partly anticipated by Galileo, Kepler and Luca Valerio, and developed independently, though left unpublished, by Fermat.) Among his theorems in this calculus was
lim (n→∞) (1m+2m+ ... +nm) / nm+1 = 1 / (m+1)
Cavalieri also worked in theology, astronomy, mechanics and optics; he was an inventor, and published logarithm tables. He wrote several books, the first one developing the properties of mirrors shaped as conic sections. His name is especially remembered for Cavalieri's Principle of Solid Geometry. Galileo said of Cavalieri, "Few, if any, since Archimedes, have delved as far and as deep into the science of geometry."
Pierre de Fermat (1601-1665) France
Pierre de Fermat was the most brilliant mathematician of his era and, along with Descartes, one of the most influential. Although mathematics was just his hobby (Fermat was a government lawyer), Fermat practically founded Number Theory, and also played key roles in the discoveries of Analytic Geometry and Calculus. Lagrange considered Fermat, rather than Newton or Leibniz, to be the inventor of calculus. Fermat was first to study certain interesting curves, e.g. the "Witch of Agnesi". He was also an excellent geometer (e.g. discovering a triangle's Fermat point), and (in collaboration with Blaise Pascal) discovered probability theory. Fellow geniuses are the best judges of genius, and Blaise Pascal had this to say of Fermat: "For my part, I confess that [Fermat's researches about numbers] are far beyond me, and I am competent only to admire them." E.T. Bell wrote "it can be argued that Fermat was at least Newton's equal as a pure mathematician."
Fermat's most famous discoveries in number theory include the ubiquitously-used Fermat's Little Theorem; the n = 4 case of his conjectured Fermat's Last Theorem (he may have proved the n = 3 case as well); and Fermat's Christmas Theorem (that any prime (4n+1) can be represented as the sum of two squares in exactly one way) which may be considered the most difficult theorem of arithmetic which had been proved up to that date. Fermat proved the Christmas Theorem with difficulty using "infinite descent," but details are unrecorded, so the theorem is often named the Fermat-Euler Prime Number Theorem, with the first published proof being by Euler more than a century after Fermat's claim. Another famous conjecture by Fermat is that every natural number is the sum of three triangle numbers, or more generally the sum of k k-gonal numbers. As with his "Last Theorem" he claimed to have a proof but didn't write it up. (This theorem was eventually proved by Lagrange for k=4, the very young Gauss for k=3, and Cauchy for general k. Diophantus claimed the k=4 case but any proof has been lost.) I think Fermat's conjectures were impressive even if unproven, and that this great mathematician is often underrated. (Recall that his so-called "Last Theorem" was actually just a private scribble.)
Fermat developed a system of analytic geometry which both preceded and surpassed that of Descartes; he developed methods of differential and integral calculus which Newton acknowledged as an inspiration. Solving df(x)/dx = 0 to find extrema of f(x) is perhaps the most useful idea in applied mathematics; this technique originated with Fermat. Fermat was also the first European to find the integration formula for the general polynomial; he used his calculus to find centers of gravity, etc.
Fermat's contemporaneous rival René Descartes is more famous than Fermat, and Descartes' writings were more influential. Whatever one thinks of Descartes as a philosopher, however, it seems clear that Fermat was the better mathematician. Fermat and Descartes did work in physics and independently discovered the (trigonometric) law of refraction, but Fermat gave the correct explanation, and used it remarkably to anticipate the Principle of Least Action later enunciated by Maupertuis (though Maupertuis himself, like Descartes, had an incorrect explanation of refraction). Fermat and Descartes independently discovered analytic geometry, but it was Fermat who extended it to more than two dimensions, and followed up by developing elementary calculus.
Gilles Personne de Roberval (1602-1675) France
Roberval was an eccentric genius, underappreciated because most of his work was published only long after his death. He did early work in integration, following Archimedes rather than Cavalieri; he worked on analytic geometry independently of Descartes. With his analysis he was able to solve several difficult geometric problems involving curved lines and solids, including results about the cycloid which were also credited to Pascal and Torricelli. Some of these methods, published posthumously, led to him being called the Founder of Kinematic Geometry. He excelled at mechanics, worked in cartography, helped Pascal with vacuum experiments, and invented the Roberval balance, still in use in weighing scales to this day. He opposed Huygens in the early debate about gravitation, though neither fully anticipated Newton's solution.
Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647) Italy
Torricelli was a disciple of Galileo (and succeeded him as grand-ducal mathematician of Tuscany). He was first to understand that a barometer measures atmospheric weight, and used this insight to invent the mercury barometer and to create a sustained vacuum (then thought impossible). He was a skilled craftsman who built the best telescopes and microscopes of his day. As mathematical physicist, he extended Galileo's results, was first to explain winds correctly, and discovered several key principles including Torricelli's Law (water drains through a small hole with rate proportional to the square root of water depth). In mathematics, he applied Cavalieri's methods to solve difficult mensuration problems; he also wrote on possible pitfalls in applying the new calculus. He discovered Gabriel's Horn with infinite surface area but finite volume; this "paradoxical" result provoked much discussion at the time. He also solved a problem due to Fermat by locating the isogonic center of a triangle. Torricelli was a significant influence on the early scientific revolution; had he lived longer, or published more, he would surely have become one of the greatest mathematicians of his era.
John Brehaut Wallis (1616-1703) England
Wallis began his life as a savant at arithmetic (it is said he once calculated the square root of a 53-digit number to help him sleep and remembered the result in the morning), a medical student (he may have contributed to the concept of blood circulation), and theologian, but went on to become perhaps the most brilliant and influential English mathematician before Newton. He made major advances in analytic geometry, but also contributions to algebra, geometry and trigonometry. Unlike his contemporary, Huygens who took inspiration from Euclid's rigorous geometry, Wallis embraced the new analytic methods of Descartes and Fermat. He is especially famous for using negative and fractional exponents (though Oresme had introduced fractional exponents three centuries earlier), taking the areas of curves, and treating inelastic collisions (he and Huygens were first to develop the law of momentum conservation). He was the first European to solve Pell's Equation. Like Vieta, Wallis was a code-breaker, helping the Commonwealth side (though he later petitioned against the beheading of King Charles I). He was the first great mathematician to consider complex numbers legitimate; and first to use the symbol ∞. Wallis coined several terms including continued fraction, induction, interpolation, mantissa, and hypergeometric series.
Also like Vieta, Wallis created an infinite product formula for pi, which might be (but isn't) written today as:
π = 2 ∏k=1,∞ 1+(4k2-1)-1
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) France
Pascal was an outstanding genius who studied geometry as a child. At the age of sixteen he stated and proved Pascal's Theorem, a fact relating any six points on any conic section. The Theorem is sometimes called the "Cat's Cradle" or the "Mystic Hexagram." Pascal followed up this result by showing that each of Apollonius' famous theorems about conic sections was a corollary of the Mystic Hexagram; along with Gérard Desargues (1591-1661), he was a key pioneer of projective geometry. He also made important early contributions to calculus; indeed it was his writings that inspired Leibniz. Returning to geometry late in life, Pascal advanced the theory of the cycloid. In addition to his work in geometry and calculus, he founded probability theory, and made contributions to axiomatic theory. His name is associated with the Pascal's Triangle of combinatorics and Pascal's Wager in theology.
Like most of the greatest mathematicians, Pascal was interested in physics and mechanics, studying fluids, explaining vacuum, and inventing the syringe and hydraulic press. At the age of eighteen he designed and built the world's first automatic adding machine. (Although he continued to refine this invention, it was never a commercial success.) He suffered poor health throughout his life, abandoned mathematics for religion at about age 23, wrote the philosophical treatise Pensées ("We arrive at truth, not by reason only, but also by the heart"), and died at an early age. Many think that had he devoted more years to mathematics, Pascal would have been one of the greatest mathematicians ever.
Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) Holland, France
Christiaan Huygens (or Hugens, Huyghens) was second only to Newton as the greatest mechanist of his era. Although an excellent mathematician, he is much more famous for his physical theories and inventions. He developed laws of motion before Newton, including the inverse-square law of gravitation, centripetal force, and treatment of solid bodies rather than point approximations; he (and Wallis) were first to state the law of momentum conservation correctly. He advanced the wave ("undulatory") theory of light, a key concept being Huygen's Principle, that each point on a wave front acts as a new source of radiation. His optical discoveries include explanations for polarization and phenomena like haloes. (Because of Newton's high reputation and corpuscular theory of light, Huygens' superior wave theory was largely ignored until the 19th-century work of Young, Fresnel, and Maxwell. Later, Planck, Einstein and Bohr, partly anticipated by Hamilton, developed the modern notion of wave-particle duality.)
Huygens is famous for his inventions of clocks and lenses. He invented the escapement and other mechanisms, leading to the first reliable pendulum clock; he built the first balance spring watch, which he presented to his patron, King Louis XIV of France. He invented superior lens grinding techniques, the achromatic eye-piece, and the best telescope of his day. He was himself a famous astronomer: he discovered Titan and was first to properly describe Saturn's rings and the Orion Nebula. He also designed, but never built, an internal combustion engine. He promoted the use of 31-tone music: a 31-tone organ was in use in Holland as late as the 20th century. Huygens was an excellent card player, billiard player, horse rider, and wrote a book speculating about extra-terrestrial life.
As a mathematician, Huygens did brilliant work in analysis; his calculus, along with that of Wallis, is considered the best prior to Newton and Leibniz. He also did brilliant work in geometry, proving theorems about conic sections, the cycloid and the catenary. He was first to show that the cycloid solves the tautochrone problem; he used this fact to design pendulum clocks that would be more accurate than ordinary pendulum clocks. He was first to find the flaw in Saint-Vincent's then-famous circle-squaring method; Huygens himself solved some related quadrature problems. He introduced the concepts of evolute and involute. His friendships with Descartes, Pascal, Mersenne and others helped inspire his mathematics; Huygens in turn was inspirational to the next generation. At Pascal's urging, Huygens published the first real textbook on probability theory; he also became the first practicing actuary.
Huygens had tremendous creativity, historical importance, and depth and breadth of genius, both in physics and mathematics. He also was important for serving as tutor to the otherwise self-taught Gottfried Leibniz (who'd "wasted his youth" without learning any math). Before agreeing to tutor him, Huygens tested the 25-year old Leibniz by asking him to sum the reciprocals of the triangle numbers.
James Gregory (1638-1675) Scotland
James Gregory (Gregorie) was the outstanding Scottish genius of his century. Had he not died at the age of 36, or if he had published more of his work, (or if Newton had never lived,) Gregory would surely be appreciated as one of the greatest mathematicians of the early Age of Science. Inspired by Kepler's work, he worked in mechanics and optics; invented a reflecting telescope; and is even credited with using a bird feather as the first diffraction grating. But James Gregory is most famous for his mathematics, making many of the same discoveries as Newton did: the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, interpolation method, and binomial theorem. He developed the concept of Taylor's series and used it to solve a famous semicircle division problem posed by Kepler and to develop trigonometric identities, including
tan-1x = x - x3/3 + x5/5 - x7/7 + ... (for |x| < 1)
Gregory anticipated Cauchy's convergence test, Newton's identities for the powers of roots, and Riemann integration. He may have been first to suspect that quintics generally lacked algebraic solutions, as well as that π and e were transcendental. He produced a partial proof that the ancient "Squaring the Circle" problem was impossible.
Gregory declined to publish much of his work, partly in deference to Isaac Newton who was making many of the same discoveries. Because the wide range of his mathematics wasn't appreciated until long after his death, Gregory lacks the historic importance to qualify for the Top 100.
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716) Germany
Leibniz was one of the most brilliant and prolific intellectuals ever; and his influence in mathematics (especially his co-invention of the infinitesimal calculus) was immense. His childhood IQ has been estimated as second-highest in all of history, behind only Goethe's. Descriptions which have been applied to Leibniz include "one of the two greatest universal geniuses" (da Vinci was the other); "the most important logician between Aristotle and Boole;" and the "Father of Applied Science." Leibniz described himself as "the most teachable of mortals."
Mathematics was just a self-taught sideline for Leibniz, who was a philosopher, lawyer, historian, diplomat and renowned inventor. Because he "wasted his youth" before learning mathematics, he probably ranked behind the Bernoullis as well as Newton in pure mathematical talent, and thus he may be the only mathematician among the Top Fifteen who was never the greatest living algorist or theorem prover. I won't try to summarize Leibniz' contributions to philosophy and diverse other fields including biology; as just three examples: he predicted the Earth's molten core, introduced the notion of subconscious mind, and built the first calculator that could do multiplication. Leibniz also had political influence: he consulted to both the Holy Roman and Russian Emperors; another of his patrons was Sophia Wittelsbach (Electress of Hanover), who was only distantly in line for the British throne, but was made Heir Presumptive. (Sophia died before Queen Anne, but her son was crowned King George I of England.)
Leibniz pioneered the common discourse of mathematics, including its continuous, discrete, and symbolic aspects. (His ideas on symbolic logic weren't pursued and it was left to Boole to reinvent this almost two centuries later.) Mathematical innovations attributed to Leibniz include the notations ∫f(x)dx, df(x)/dx, ∛x, and even the use of a·b (instead of a X b) for multiplication; the concepts of matrix determinant and Gaussian elimination; the theory of geometric envelopes; and the binary number system. He worked in number theory, discovering Wilson's Conjecture before Wilson did (though after Alhazen). He invented more mathematical terms than anyone, including function, analysis situ, variable, abscissa, parameter and coordinate. He also coined the word transcendental, proving that sin() was not an algebraic function. His works seem to anticipate cybernetics and information theory; and Mandelbrot acknowledged Leibniz' anticipation of self-similarity. Like Newton, Leibniz discovered The Fundamental Theorem of Calculus; his contribution to calculus was much more influential than Newton's, and his superior notation is used to this day. As Leibniz himself pointed out, since the concept of mathematical analysis was already known to ancient Greeks, the revolutionary invention was the notation ("calculus"), because with "symbols [which] express the exact nature of a thing briefly ... the labor of thought is wonderfully diminished."
Leibniz' thoughts on mathematical physics had some influence. He was one of the first to articulate the law of energy conservation; and developed laws of motion that gave different insights from those of Newton. His cosmology was opposed to that of Newton but, anticipating theories of Mach and Einstein, is more in accord with modern physics. Mathematical physicists influenced by Leibniz include not only Mach, but perhaps Hamilton and Poincaré themselves.
Although others found it independently (including perhaps Madhava three centuries earlier), Leibniz discovered and proved a striking identity for π:
π/4 = 1 - 1/3 + 1/5 - 1/7 + 1/9 - ...
Jacob Bernoulli (1654-1705) Switzerland
Jacob Bernoulli studied the works of Wallis and Barrow; he and Leibniz became friends and tutored each other. Jacob developed important methods for integral and differential equations, coining the word integral. He and his brother were the key pioneers in mathematics during the generations between the era of Newton-Leibniz and the rise of Leonhard Euler.
Jacob liked to pose and solve physical optimization problems. His "catenary" problem (what shape does a clothesline take?) became more famous than the "tautochrone" solved by Huygens. Perhaps the most famous of such problems was the brachistochrone, wherein Jacob recognized Newton's "lion's paw", and about which Johann Bernoulli wrote: "You will be petrified with astonishment [that] this same cycloid, the tautochrone of Huygens, is the brachistochrone we are seeking." Jacob did significant work outside calculus; in fact his most famous work was the Art of Conjecture, a textbook on probability and combinatorics which proves the Law of Large Numbers, the Power Series Equation, and introduces the Bernoulli numbers. He is credited with the invention of polar coordinates (though Newton and Alberuni had also discovered them). Jacob also did outstanding work in geometry, for example constructing perpendicular lines which quadrisect a triangle.
Johann Bernoulli (1667-1748) Switzerland
Johann Bernoulli learned from his older brother and Leibniz, and went on to become principal teacher to Leonhard Euler. He developed exponential calculus; together with his brother Jacob, he founded the calculus of variations. Johann solved the catenary before Jacob did; this led to a famous rivalry in the Bernoulli family. (No joint papers were written; instead the Bernoullis, especially Johann, began claiming each others' work.) Although his older brother may have demonstrated greater breadth, Johann had no less skill than Jacob, contributed more to calculus, discovered L'Hôpital's Rule before L'Hôpital did, and made important contributions in physics, e.g. about vibrations, elastic bodies, optics, tides, and ship sails.
It may not be clear which Bernoulli was the "greatest." Johann has special importance as tutor to Leonhard Euler, but Jacob has special importance as tutor to his brother Johann. Johann's son Daniel is also a candidate for greatest Bernoulli.
Abraham De Moivre (1667-1754) France, England
De Moivre was an important pioneer of analytic geometry and, especially, probability theory. (He and Laplace may be regarded as the two most important early developers of probability theory.) In probability theory he developed actuarial science, posed interesting problems (e.g. about derangements) and discovered the normal distribution. He was first to discover a closed-form formula for the Fibonacci numbers; and he developed an early version of Stirling's approximation to n!. He discovered De Moivre's Theorem: (cos x + i sin x)n = cos nx + i cos nx
He was a close friend and muse of Isaac Newton who told people who asked about Principia: "Go to Mr. De Moivre; he knows these things better than I do."
Colin Maclaurin (1698-1746) Scotland
Maclaurin received a University degree in divinity at age 14, with a treatise on gravitation. He became one of the most brilliant mathematicians of his era. He wrote extensively on Newton's method of fluxions, and the theory of equations, advancing these fields; worked in optics, and other areas of mathematical physics; but is most noted for his work in geometry. Lagrange said Maclaurin's geometry was as beautiful and ingenious as anything by Archimedes. Clairaut, seeing Maclaurin's methods, decided that he too would prove theorems with geometry rather than analysis. Maclaurin did important work on ellipsoids; for his work on tides he shared the Paris Prize with Euler and Daniel Bernoulli. As Scotland's top genius, he was called upon for practical work, including politics. Although Maclaurin's work was quite influential, his influence didn't really match his outstanding brilliance: he failed to adopt Leibnizian calculus with which great progress was being made on the Continent, and much of his best work was published posthumously. Many of his famous results duplicated work by others: Maclaurin's Series was just a form of Taylor's series; the Euler-Maclaurin Summation Formula was also discovered by Euler; and he discovered the Newton-Cotes Integration Formula after Cotes did. His brilliant results in geometry included the construction of a conic from five points, but Braikenridge made the same discovery and published before Maclaurin did. He discovered the Maclaurin-Cauchy Test for Integral Convergence before Cauchy did. He was first to discover Cramer's Paradox, as Cramer himself acknowledged. Colin Maclaurin found a simpler and more powerful proof of the fact that the cycloid solves the famous brachistochrone problem.
Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) Switzerland
Euler may be the most influential mathematician who ever lived (though some would make him second to Euclid); he ranks #77 on Michael Hart's famous list of the Most Influential Persons in History. His colleagues called him "Analysis Incarnate." Laplace, famous for denying credit to fellow mathematicians, once said "Read Euler: he is our master in everything." His notations and methods in many areas are in use to this day. Euler was the most prolific mathematician in history and is often judged to be the best algorist of all time. (This brief summary can only touch on a few highlights of Euler's work. The ranking #4 may seem too low for this supreme mathematician, but Gauss succeeded at proving several theorems which had stumped Euler.)
Just as Archimedes extended Euclid's geometry to marvelous heights, so Euler took marvelous advantage of the analysis of Newton and Leibniz. He also gave the world modern trigonometry; pioneered (along with Lagrange) the calculus of variations; generalized and proved the Newton-Giraud formulae; and made important contributions to algebra, e.g. his study of hypergeometric series. He was also supreme at discrete mathematics, inventing graph theory. He also invented the concept of generating functions; for example, letting p(n) denote the number of partitions of n, Euler found the lovely equation: Σn p(n) xn = 1 / Πk (1 - xk)
The denominator of the right side here expands to a series whose exponents all have the (3m2+m)/2 "pentagonal number" form; Euler found an ingenious proof of this.
Euler was a very major figure in number theory: He proved that the sum of the reciprocals of primes less than x is approx. (ln ln x), invented the totient function and used it to generalize Fermat's Little Theorem, found both the largest then-known prime and the largest then-known perfect number, proved e to be irrational, discovered (though without complete proof) a broad class of transcendental numbers, proved that all even perfect numbers must have the Mersenne number form that Euclid had discovered 2000 years earlier, and much more. Euler was also first to prove several interesting theorems of geometry, including facts about the 9-point Feuerbach circle; relationships among a triangle's altitudes, medians, and circumscribing and inscribing circles; the famous Intersecting Chords Theorem; and an expression for a tetrahedron's volume in terms of its edge lengths. Euler was first to explore topology, proving theorems about the Euler characteristic, and the famous Euler's Polyhedral Theorem, F+V = E+2 (although it may have been discovered by Descartes and first proved rigorously by Jordan). Although noted as the first great "pure mathematician," Euler's pump and turbine equations revolutionized the design of pumps; he also made important contributions to music theory, acoustics, optics, celestial motions, fluid dynamics, and mechanics. He extended Newton's Laws of Motion to rotating rigid bodies; and developed the Euler-Bernoulli beam equation. On a lighter note, Euler constructed a particularly "magical" magic square.
Euler combined his brilliance with phenomenal concentration. He developed the first method to estimate the Moon's orbit (the three-body problem which had stumped Newton), and he settled an arithmetic dispute involving 50 terms in a long convergent series. Both these feats were accomplished when he was totally blind. (About this he said "Now I will have less distraction.") François Arago said that "Euler calculated without apparent effort, as men breathe, or as eagles sustain themselves in the wind."
Four of the most important constant symbols in mathematics (π, e, i = √-1, and γ = 0.57721566...) were all introduced or popularized by Euler, along with operators like Σ. He did important work with Riemann's zeta function ζ(s) = ∑ k-s (although it was not then known by that name); he anticipated the concept of analytic continuation by showing ζ(-1) = 1+2+3+4+... = -1/12. As a young student of the Bernoulli family, Euler discovered the striking identity ζ(2) = π2/6 This catapulted Euler to instant fame, since the left-side infinite sum (1 + 1/4 + 1/9 + 1/16 + ...) was a famous problem of the time. Among many other famous and important identities, Euler proved the Pentagonal Number Theorem alluded to above (a beautiful result which has inspired a variety of discoveries), and the Euler Product Formula ζ(s) = ∏(1-p-s)-1 where the right-side product is taken over all primes p. His most famous identity (which Richard Feynman called an "almost astounding ... jewel") unifies the trigonometric and exponential functions:
ei x = cos x + i sin x. (It is almost wondrous how the particular instance ei π+1 = 0 combines the most important constants and operators together.)
Some of Euler's greatest formulae can be combined into curious-looking formulae for π: π2 = - log2(-1) = 6 ∏p∈Prime(1-p-2)-1/2
Alexis Claude Clairaut (1713-1765) France
The reputations of Euler and the Bernoullis are so high that it is easy to overlook that others in that epoch made essential contributions to mathematical physics. (Euler made errors in his development of physics, in some cases because of a Europeanist rejection of Newton's theories in favor of the contradictory theories of Descartes and Leibniz.) The Frenchmen Clairaut and d'Alembert were two other great and influential mathematicians of the mid-18th century.
Alexis Clairaut was extremely precocious, delivering a math paper at age 13, and becoming the youngest person ever elected to the Paris Academy of Sciences. He developed the concept of skew curves (the earliest precursor of spatial curvature); he made very significant contributions in differential equations and mathematical physics. Clairaut supported Newton against the Continental schools, and helped translate Newton's work into French. The theories of Newton and Descartes gave different predictions for the shape of the Earth (whether the poles were flattened or pointy); Clairaut participated in Maupertuis' expedition to Lappland to measure the polar regions. Measurements at high latitudes showed the poles to be flattened: Newton was right. Clairaut worked on the theories of ellipsoids and the three-body problem, e.g. Moon's orbit. That orbit was the major mathematical challenge of the day, and there was great difficulty reconciling theory and observation. It was Clairaut who finally resolved this, by approaching the problem with more rigor than others. When Euler finally understood Clairaut's solution he called it "the most important and profound discovery that has ever been made in mathematics." Later, when Halley's Comet reappeared as he had predicted, Clairaut was acclaimed as "the new Thales."
Jean-Baptiste le Rond d' Alembert (1717-1783) France
During the century after Newton, the Laws of Motion needed to be clarified and augmented with mathematical techniques. Jean le Rond, named after the Parisian church where he was abandoned as a baby, played a very key role in that development. His D'Alembert's Principle clarified Newton's Third Law and allowed problems in dynamics to be expressed with simple partial differential equations; his Method of Characteristics then reduced those equations to ordinary differential equations; to solve the resultant linear systems, he effectively invented the method of eigenvalues; he also anticipated the Cauchy-Riemann Equations. These are the same techniques in use for many problems in physics to this day. D'Alembert was also a forerunner in functions of a complex variable, and the notions of infinitesimals and limits. With his treatises on dynamics, elastic collisions, hydrodynamics, cause of winds, vibrating strings, celestial motions, refraction, etc., the young Jean le Rond easily surpassed the efforts of his older rival, Daniel Bernoulli. He may have been first to speak of time as a "fourth dimension." (Rivalry with the Swiss mathematicians led to d'Alembert's sometimes being unfairly ridiculed, although it does seem true that d'Alembert had very incorrect notions of probability.)
D'Alembert was first to prove that every polynomial has a complex root; this is now called the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra. (In France this Theorem is called the D'Alembert-Gauss Theorem. Although Gauss was first to provide a fully rigorous proof, d'Alembert's proof preceded, and was more nearly complete than, the attempted proof by Euler-Lagrange.) He also did creative work in geometry (e.g. anticipating Monge's Three Circle Theorem), and was principal creator of the major encyclopedia of his day. D'Alembert wrote "The imagination in a mathematician who creates makes no less difference than in a poet who invents."
Johann Heinrich Lambert (1727-1777) Switzerland, Prussia
Lambert had to drop out of school at age 12 to help support his family, but went on to become a mathematician of great fame and breadth. He made key discoveries involving continued fractions that led him to prove that π is irrational. (He proved more strongly that tan x and ex are both irrational for any non-zero rational x. His proof for this was so remarkable for its time, that its completeness wasn't recognized for over a century.) He also conjectured that π and e were transcendental. He made advances in analysis (including the introduction of Lambert's W function) and in trigonometry (introducing the hyperbolic functions sinh and cosh); proved a key theorem of spherical trigonometry, and solved the "trinomial equation." Lambert, whom Kant called "the greatest genius of Germany," was an outstanding polymath: In addition to several areas of mathematics, he made contributions in philosophy, psychology, cosmology (conceiving of star clusters, galaxies and supergalaxies), map-making (inventing several distinct map projections), inventions (he built the first practical hygrometer and photometer), dynamics, and especially optics (several laws of optics carry his name).
Lambert is famous for his work in geometry, proving Lambert's Theorem (the path of rotation of a parabola tangent triangle passes through the parabola's focus). Lagrange declared this famous identity, used to calculate cometary orbits, to be the most beautiful and significant result in celestial motions. Lambert was first to explore straight-edge constructions without compass. He also developed non-Euclidean geometry, long before Bolyai and Lobachevsky did.
Joseph-Louis (Comte de) Lagrange (1736-1813) Italy, France
Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Lodovico Lagrangia) was a brilliant man who advanced to become a teen-age Professor shortly after first studying mathematics. He excelled in all fields of analysis and number theory; he made key contributions to the theories of determinants, continued fractions, and many other fields. He developed partial differential equations far beyond those of D. Bernoulli and d'Alembert, developed the calculus of variations far beyond that of the Bernoullis, discovered the Laplace transform before Laplace did, and developed terminology and notation (e.g. the use of f'(x) and f''(x) for a function's 1st and 2nd derivatives). He proved a fundamental Theorem of Group Theory. He laid the foundations for the theory of polynomial equations which Cauchy, Abel, Galois and Poincaré would later complete. Number theory was almost just a diversion for Lagrange, whose focus was analysis; nevertheless he was the master of that field as well, proving difficult and historic theorems including Wilson's Conjecture (p divides (p-1)! + 1 when p is prime); Lagrange's Four-Square Theorem (every positive integer is the sum of four squares); and that n·x2 + 1 = y2 has solutions for every positive non-square integer n.
Lagrange's many contributions to physics include understanding of vibrations (he found an error in Newton's work and published the definitive treatise on sound), celestial mechanics (including an explanation of why the Moon keeps the same face pointed towards the Earth), the Principle of Least Action (which Hamilton compared to poetry), and the discovery of the Lagrangian points (e.g., in Jupiter's orbit). Lagrange's textbooks were noted for clarity and inspired most of the 19th-century mathematicians on this list. Unlike Newton, who used calculus to derive his results but then worked backwards to create geometric proofs for publication, Lagrange relied only on analysis. "No diagrams will be found in this work" he wrote in the preface to his masterpiece Mécanique analytique.
Lagrange once wrote "As long as algebra and geometry have been separated, their progress have been slow and their uses limited; but when these two sciences have been united, they have lent each mutual forces, and have marched together towards perfection." Both W.W.R. Ball and E.T. Bell, renowned mathematical historians, bypass Euler to name Lagrange as "the Greatest Mathematician of the 18th Century." Jacobi bypassed Newton and Gauss to call Lagrange "perhaps the greatest mathematical genius since Archimedes."
Gaspard Monge (Comte de Péluse) (1746-1818) France
Gaspard Monge, son of a humble peddler, was an industrious and creative inventor who astounded early with his genius, becoming a professor of physics at age 16. As a military engineer he developed the new field of descriptive geometry, so useful to engineering that it was kept a military secret for 15 years. Monge made early discoveries in chemistry and helped promote Lavoisier's work; he also wrote papers on optics and metallurgy; Monge's talents were so diverse that he became Minister of the Navy in the revolutionary government, and eventually became a close friend and companion of Napoleon Bonaparte. Traveling with Napoleon he demonstrated great courage on several occasions.
In mathematics, Monge is called the "Father of Differential Geometry," and it is that foundational work for which he is most praised. He also did work in discrete math, partial differential equations, and calculus of variations. He anticipated Poncelet's Principle of Continuity. Monge's most famous theorems of geometry are the Three Circles Theorem and Four Spheres Theorem. His early work in descriptive geometry has little interest to pure mathematics, but his application of calculus to the curvature of surfaces inspired Gauss and eventually Riemann, and led the great Lagrange to say "With [Monge's] application of analysis to geometry this devil of a man will make himself immortal."
Monge was an inspirational teacher whose students included Fourier, Chasles, Brianchon, Ampere, Carnot, Poncelet, several other famous mathematicians, and perhaps indirectly, Sophie Germain. Chasles reports that Monge never drew figures in his lectures, but could make "the most complicated forms appear in space ... with no other aid than his hands, whose movements admirably supplemented his words." The contributions of Poncelet to synthetic geometry may be more important than those of Monge, but Monge demonstrated great genius as an untutored child, while Poncelet's skills probably developed due to his great teacher.
Pierre-Simon (Marquis de) Laplace (1749-1827) France
Laplace was the preeminent mathematical astronomer, and is often called the "French Newton." His masterpiece was Mecanique Celeste which redeveloped and improved Newton's work on planetary motions using calculus. While Newton had shown that the two-body gravitation problem led to orbits which were ellipses (or other conic sections), Laplace was more interested in the much more difficult problems involving three or more bodies. (Would Jupiter's pull on Saturn eventually propel Saturn into a closer orbit, or was Saturn's orbit stable for eternity?) Laplace's equations had the optimistic outcome that the solar system was stable.
Laplace advanced the nebular hypothesis of solar system origin, and was first to conceive of black holes. (He also conceived of multiple galaxies, but this was Lambert's idea first.) He explained the so-called secular acceleration of the Moon. (Today we know Laplace's theories do not fully explain the Moon's path, nor guarantee orbit stability.) His other accomplishments in physics include theories about the speed of sound and surface tension. He was noted for his strong belief in determinism, famously replying to Napoleon's question about God with: "I have no need of that hypothesis."
Laplace viewed mathematics as just a tool for developing his physical theories. Nevertheless, he made many important mathematical discoveries and inventions (although the Laplace Transform itself was already known to Lagrange). He was the premier expert at differential and difference equations, and definite integrals. He developed spherical harmonics, potential theory, and the theory of determinants; anticipated Fourier's series; and advanced Euler's technique of generating functions. In the fields of probability and statistics he made key advances: he proved the Law of Least Squares, and introduced the controversial ("Bayesian") rule of succession. In the theory of equations, he was first to prove that any polynomial of even degree must have a real quadratic factor.
Others might place Laplace higher on the List, but he proved no fundamental theorems of pure mathematics (though his partial differential equation for fluid dynamics is one of the most famous in physics), founded no major branch of pure mathematics, and wasn't particularly concerned with rigorous proof. (He is famous for skipping difficult proof steps with the phrase "It is easy to see".) Nevertheless he was surely one of the greatest applied mathematicians ever.
Adrien Marie Legendre (1752-1833) France
Legendre was an outstanding mathematician who did important work in plane and solid geometry, spherical trigonometry, celestial mechanics and other areas of physics, and especially elliptic integrals and number theory. He found key results in the theories of sums of squares and sums of k-gonal numbers. He also made key contributions in several areas of analysis: he invented the Legendre transform and Legendre polynomials; the notation for partial derivatives is due to him. He invented the Legendre symbol; invented the study of zonal harmonics; proved that π2 was irrational (the irrationality of π had already been proved by Lambert); and wrote important textbooks in several fields. Although he never accepted non-Euclidean geometry, and had spent much time trying to prove the Parallel Postulate, his inspiring geometry text remained a standard until the 20th century. As one of France's premier mathematicians, Legendre did other significant work, promoting the careers of Lagrange and Laplace, developing trig tables, geodesic projects, etc.
There are several important theorems proposed by Legendre for which he is denied credit, either because his proof was incomplete or was preceded by another's. He proposed the famous theorem about primes in a progression which was proved by Dirichlet; proved and used the Law of Least Squares which Gauss had left unpublished; proved the N=5 case of Fermat's Last Theorem which is credited to Dirichlet; proposed the famous Prime Number Theorem which was finally proved by Hadamard; improved the Fermat-Cauchy result about sums of k-gonal numbers but this topic wasn't fruitful; and developed various techniques commonly credited to Laplace. His two most famous theorems of number theory, the Law of Quadratic Reciprocity and the Three Squares Theorem (a difficult extension of Lagrange's Four Squares Theorem), were each enhanced by Gauss a few years after Legendre's work. Legendre also proved an early version of Bonnet's Theorem. Legendre's work in the theory of equations and elliptic integrals directly inspired the achievements of Galois and Abel (which then obsoleted much of Legendre's own work); Chebyshev's work also built on Legendre's foundations.
Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier (1768-1830) France
Joseph Fourier had a varied career: precocious but mischievous orphan, theology student, young professor of mathematics (advancing the theory of equations), then revolutionary activist. Under Napoleon he was a brilliant and important teacher and historian; accompanied the French Emperor to Egypt; and did excellent service as district governor of Grenoble. In his spare time at Grenoble he continued the work in mathematics and physics that led to his immortality. After the fall of Napoleon, Fourier exiled himself to England, but returned to France when offered an important academic position and published his revolutionary treatise on the Theory of Heat. Fourier anticipated linear programming, developing the simplex method and Fourier-Motzkin Elimination; and did significant work in operator theory. He is also noted for the notion of dimensional analysis, was first to describe the Greenhouse Effect, and continued his earlier brilliant work with equations.
Fourier's greatest fame rests on his use of trigonometric series (now called Fourier series) in the solution of differential equations. Since "Fourier" analysis is in extremely common use among applied mathematicians, he joins the select company of the eponyms of "Cartesian" coordinates, "Gaussian" curve, and "Boolean" algebra. Because of the importance of Fourier analysis, many listmakers would rank Fourier much higher than I have done; however the work was not exceptional as pure mathematics. Fourier's Heat Equation built on Newton's Law of Cooling; and the Fourier series solution itself had already been introduced by Euler, Lagrange and Daniel Bernoulli.
Fourier's solution to the heat equation was counterintuitive (heat transfer doesn't seem to involve the oscillations fundamental to trigonometric functions): The brilliance of Fourier's imagination is indicated in that the solution had been rejected by Lagrange himself. Although rigorous Fourier Theorems were finally proved only by Dirichlet, Riemann and Lebesgue, it has been said that it was Fourier's "very disregard for rigor" that led to his great achievement, which Lord Kelvin compared to poetry.
Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) Germany
Carl Friedrich Gauss, the "Prince of Mathematics," exhibited his calculative powers when he corrected his father's arithmetic before the age of three. His revolutionary nature was demonstrated at age twelve, when he began questioning the axioms of Euclid. His genius was confirmed at the age of nineteen when he proved that the regular n-gon was constructible if and only if it is the product of distinct prime Fermat numbers. (He didn't complete the proof of the only-if part. Click to see construction of regular 17-gon. ) Also at age 19, he proved Fermat's conjecture that every number is the sum of three triangle numbers. (He further determined the number of distinct ways such a sum could be formed.) At age 24 he published Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, probably the greatest book of pure mathematics ever.
Although he published fewer papers than some other great mathematicians, Gauss may be the greatest theorem prover ever. Several important theorems and lemmas bear his name; he extended Euclid's Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic (prime factorization is unique) to the Gaussian (complex) integers; and he was first to produce a rigorous proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra (that an n-th degree polynomial has n complex roots). Gauss himself used "Fundamental Theorem" to refer to Euler's Law of Quadratic Reciprocity; Gauss was first to provide a proof for this, and provided eight distinct proofs for it over the years. Gauss proved the n=3 case of Fermat's Last Theorem for Eisenstein integers (the triangular lattice-points on the complex plane); though more general, Gauss' proof was simpler than the real integer proof; this simplification method revolutionized algebra. Other work by Gauss led to fundamental theorems in statistics, vector analysis, function theory, and generalizations of the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus.
Gauss built the theory of complex numbers into its modern form, including the notion of "monogenic" functions which are now ubiquitous in mathematical physics. (Constructing the regular 17-gon as a teenager was actually an exercise in complex-number algebra, not geometry.) Gauss developed the arithmetic of congruences and became the premier number theoretician of all time. Other contributions of Gauss include hypergeometric series, foundations of statistics, and differential geometry. He proved a surprising fundamental theorem about the curvature of manifolds. He also did important work in geometry, providing an improved solution to Apollonius' famous problem of tangent circles, stating and proving the Fundamental Theorem of Normal Axonometry, and solving astronomical problems related to comet orbits and navigation by the stars. Ceres, the first asteroid, was discovered when Gauss was a young man; but only a few observations were made before it disappeared into the Sun's brightness. Could its orbit be predicted well enough to rediscover it on re-emergence? Laplace, one of the most respected mathematicians of the time, declared it impossible. Gauss became famous when he used an 8th-degree polynomial equation to successfully predict Ceres' orbit. Gauss also did important work in several areas of physics, developed an important modification to Mercator's map projection, invented the heliotrope, and co-invented the telegraph.
Much of Gauss's work wasn't published: unbeknownst to his colleagues it was Gauss who first discovered non-Euclidean geometry (even anticipating Einstein by suggesting physical space might not be Euclidean), doubly periodic elliptic functions, a prime distribution formula, quaternions, foundations of topology, the Law of Least Squares, Dirichlet's class number formula, the key Bonnet's Theorem of differential geometry (now usually called Gauss-Bonnet Theorem), the butterfly procedure for rapid calculation of Fourier series, and even the rudiments of knot theory. Gauss was first to prove the Fundamental Theorem of Functions of a Complex Variable (that the line-integral over a closed curve of a monogenic function is zero), but he let Cauchy take the credit. Gauss was very prolific, and may be the most brilliant theorem prover who ever lived, so many would rank him #1. But several others on the list had more historical importance. Abel hints at a reason for this: "[Gauss] is like the fox, who effaces his tracks in the sand."
Gauss once wrote "It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, ... which grants the greatest enjoyment. When I have clarified and exhausted a subject, then I turn away from it, in order to go into darkness again ..."
Siméon Denis Poisson (1781-1840) France
Siméon Poisson was a protégé of Laplace and, like his mentor, is among the greatest applied mathematicians ever. Poisson was an extremely prolific researcher and also an excellent teacher. In addition to important advances in several areas of physics, Poisson made key contributions to Fourier analysis, definite integrals, path integrals, statistics, partial differential equations, calculus of variations and other fields of mathematics. Dozens of discoveries are named after Poisson; for example the Poisson summation formula which has applications in analysis, number theory, lattice theory, etc. He was first to note the paradoxical properties of the Cauchy distribution. He made improvements to Lagrange's equations of celestial motions, which Lagrange himself found inspirational. Another of Poisson's contributions to mathematical physics was his conclusion that the wave theory of light implies a bright Arago spot at the center of certain shadows. (Poisson used this paradoxical result to argue that the wave theory was false, but instead the Arago spot, hitherto hardly noticed, was observed experimentally.) Poisson once said "Life is good for only two things, discovering mathematics and teaching mathematics."
Bernard Placidus Johann Nepomuk Bolzano (1781-1848) Bohemia
Bolzano was an ordained Catholic priest, a religious philosopher, and focused his mathematical attention on fields like metalogic, writing "I prized only ... mathematics which was ... philosophy." Still he made several important mathematical discoveries ahead of his time. His liberal religious philosophy upset the Imperial rulers; he was charged with heresy, placed under house arrest, and his writings censored. This censorship meant that many of his great discoveries turned up only posthumously, and were first rediscovered by others. He was noted for advocating great rigor, and is appreciated for developing the (ε, δ) approach for rigorous proofs in analysis; this work inspired the great Weierstrass.
Bolzano gave the first analytic proof of the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra; the first rigorous proof that continuous functions achieve any intermediate value (Bolzano's Theorem, rediscovered by Cauchy); the first proof that a bounded sequence of reals has a convergent subsequence (Bolzano-Weierstrass theorem); was first to describe a nowhere-differentiable continuous function; and anticipated Cantor's discovery of the distinction between denumerable and non-denumerable infinities. If he had focused on mathematics and published more, he might be considered one of the most important mathematicians of his era.
Jean-Victor Poncelet (1788-1867) France
After studying under Monge, Poncelet became an officer in Napoleon's army, then a prisoner of the Russians. To keep up his spirits as a prisoner he devised and solved mathematical problems using charcoal and the walls of his prison cell instead of pencil and paper. During this time he reinvented projective geometry. Regaining his freedom, he wrote many papers, made numerous contributions to geometry; he also made contributions to practical mechanics. Poncelet is considered one of the most influential geometers ever; he is especially noted for his Principle of Continuity, an intuition with broad application. His notion of imaginary solutions in geometry was inspirational. Although projective geometry had been studied earlier by mathematicians like Desargues, Poncelet's work excelled and served as an inspiration for other branches of mathematics including algebra, topology, Cayley's invariant theory and group-theoretic developments by Lie and Klein. His theorems of geometry include his Closure Theorem about Poncelet Traverses, the Poncelet-Brianchon Hyperbola Theorem, and Poncelet's Porism (if two conic sections are respectively inscribed and circumscribed by an n-gon, then there are infinitely many such n-gons). Perhaps his most famous theorem, although it was left to Steiner to complete a proof, is the beautiful Poncelet-Steiner Theorem about straight-edge constructions.
Augustin-Louis Cauchy (1789-1857) France
Cauchy was extraordinarily prodigious, prolific and inventive. Home-schooled, he awed famous mathematicians at an early age. In contrast to Gauss and Newton, he was almost over-eager to publish; in his day his fame surpassed that of Gauss and has continued to grow. Cauchy did significant work in analysis, algebra, number theory and discrete topology. His most important contributions included convergence criteria for infinite series, the "theory of substitutions" (permutation group theory), and especially his insistence on rigorous proofs.
Cauchy's research also included differential equations, determinants, and probability. He invented the calculus of residues, rediscovered Bolzano's Theorem, and much more. Although he was one of the first great mathematicians to focus on abstract mathematics (another was Euler), he also made important contributions to mathematical physics, e.g. the theory of elasticity. Cauchy's theorem of solid geometry is important in rigidity theory; the Cauchy-Schwarz Inequality has very wide application (e.g. as the basis for Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle); several important lemmas of analysis are due to Cauchy; the famous Burnside's Counting Theorem was first discovered by Cauchy; etc. He was first to prove Taylor's Theorem rigorously, and first to prove Fermat's conjecture that every positive integer can be expressed as the sum of k k-gonal numbers for any k. (Gauss had proved the case k = 3.)
One of the duties of a great mathematician is to nurture his successors, but Cauchy selfishly dropped the ball on both of the two greatest young mathematicians of his day, mislaying key manuscripts of both Abel and Galois. Cauchy is credited with group theory, yet it was Galois who invented this first, abstracting it far more than Cauchy did, some of this in a work which Cauchy "mislaid." (For this historical miscontribution perhaps Cauchy should be demoted.)
August Ferdinand Möbius (1790-1868) Germany
Möbius worked as a Professor of physics and astronomy, but his astronomy teachers included Carl Gauss and other brilliant mathematicians, and Möbius is most noted for his work in mathematics. He had outstanding intuition and originality, and prepared his books and papers with great care. He made important advances in number theory, topology, and especially projective geometry. Several inventions are named after him, such as the Möbius transformation and Möbius net of geometry, and the Möbius function and Möbius inversion formula of algebraic number theory. He is most famous for the Möbius strip; this one-sided strip was first discovered by Lister, but Möbius went much further and developed important new insights in topology.
Möbius' greatest contributions were to projective geometry, where he introduced the use of homogeneous barycentric coordinates as well as signed angles and lengths. These revolutionary discoveries inspired Plücker, and were declared by Gauss to be "among the most revolutionary intuitions in the history of mathematics."
Nicolai Ivanovitch Lobachevsky (1793-1856) Russia
Lobachevsky is famous for discovering non-Euclidean geometry. He did not regard this new geometry as simply a theoretical curiosity, writing "There is no branch of mathematics ... which may not someday be applied to the phenomena of the real world." He also worked in several branches of analysis and physics, anticipated the modern definition of function, and may have been first to explicitly note the distinction between continuous and differentiable curves. He also discovered the important Dandelin-Gräffe method of polynomial roots independently of Dandelin and Gräffe. (In his lifetime, Lobachevsky was under-appreciated and over-worked; his duties led him to learn architecture and even some medicine.)
Although Gauss and Bolyai discovered non-Euclidean geometry independently about the same time as Lobachevsky, it is worth noting that both of them had strong praise for Lobachevsky's genius. His particular significance was in daring to reject a 2100-year old axiom; thus William K. Clifford called Lobachevsky "the Copernicus of Geometry."
Michel Floréal Chasles (1793-1880) France
Chasles was a very original thinker who developed new techniques for synthetic geometry. He introduced new notions like pencil and cross-ratio; made great progress with the Principle of Duality; and showed how to combine the power of analysis with the intuitions of geometry. He invented a theory of characteristics and used it to become the Founder of Enumerative Geometry. He proved a key theorem about solid body kinematics. His influence was very large; for example Poincaré (student of Darboux, who in turn was Chasles' student) often applied Chasles' methods. Chasles was also a historian of mathematics; for example he noted that Euclid had anticipated the method of cross-ratios.
Jakob Steiner (1796-1863) Switzerland
Jakob Steiner made many major advances in synthetic geometry, hoping that classical methods could avoid any need for analysis; and indeed, like Isaac Newton, he was often able to equal or surpass methods of analysis or the calculus of variations using just pure geometry; for example he had pure synthetic proofs for a notable extension to Pascal's Mystic Hexagram, and a reproof of Salmon's Theorem that cubic surfaces have exactly 27 lines. (He wrote "Calculating replaces thinking while geometry stimulates it.") One mathematical historian (Boyer) wrote "Steiner reminds one of Gauss in that ideas and discoveries thronged through his mind so rapidly that he could scarcely reduce them to order on paper." Although the Principle of Duality underlying projective geometry was already known, he gave it a radically new and more productive basis, and created a new theory of conics. His work combined generality, creativity and rigor.
Steiner developed several famous construction methods, e.g. for a triangle's smallest circumscribing and largest inscribing ellipses, and for its "Malfatti circles." Among many famous and important theorems of classic and projective geometry, he proved that the Wallace lines of a triangle lie in a 3-pointed hypocycloid, developed a formula for the partitioning of space by planes, a fact about the surface areas of tetrahedra, and proved several facts about his famous Steiner's Chain of tangential circles and his famous "Roman surface." Perhaps his three most famous theorems are the Poncelet-Steiner Theorem (lengths constructible with straightedge and compass can be constructed with straightedge alone as long as the picture plane contains the center and circumference of some circle), the Double-Element Theorem about self-homologous elements in projective geometry, and the Isoperimetric Theorem that among solids of equal volume the sphere will have minimum area, etc. (Dirichlet found a flaw in the proof of the Isoperimetric Theorem which was later corrected by Weierstrass.) Steiner is often called, along with Apollonius of Perga (who lived 2000 years earlier), one of the two greatest pure geometers ever. (The qualifier "pure" is added to exclude such geniuses as Archimedes, Newton and Pascal from this comparison. I've included Steiner for his extreme brilliance and productivity: several geometers had much more historic influence, and as solely a geometer he arguably lacked "depth.")
Steiner once wrote: "For all their wealth of content, ... music, mathematics, and chess are resplendently useless (applied mathematics is a higher plumbing, a kind of music for the police band). They are metaphysically trivial, irresponsible. They refuse to relate outward, to take reality for arbiter. This is the source of their witchery."
Julius Plücker (1801-1868) Germany
Plücker was one of the most innovative geometers, inventing line geometry (extending the atoms of geometry beyond just points), enumerative geometry (which considered such questions as the number of loops in an algebraic curve), geometries of more than three dimensions, and generalizations of projective geometry. He also gave an improved theoretic basis for the Principle of Duality. His novel methods and notations were important to the development of modern analytic geometry, and inspired Cayley, Klein and Lie. He resolved the famous Cramer-Euler Paradox and the related Poncelet Paradox by studying the singularities of curves; Cayley described this work as "most important ... beyond all comparison in the entire subject of modern geometry." In part due to conflict with his more famous rival, Jakob Steiner, Plücker was under-appreciated in his native Germany, but achieved fame in France and England. In addition to his mathematical work in algebraic and analytic geometry, Plücker did significant work in physics, e.g. his work with cathode rays. Although less brilliant as a theorem prover than Steiner, Plücker's work, taking full advantage of analysis and seeking physical applications, was far more influential.
Niels Henrik Abel (1802-1829) Norway
At an early age, Niels Abel studied the works of the greatest mathematicians, found flaws in their proofs, and resolved to reprove some of these theorems rigorously. He was the first to fully prove the general case of Newton's Binomial Theorem, one of the most widely applied theorems in mathematics. Several important theorems of analysis are named after Abel, including the (deceptively simple) Abel's Theorem of Convergence (published posthumously). Along with Galois, Abel is considered one of the two founders of group theory. Abel also made contributions in algebraic geometry and the theory of equations.
Inversion (replacing y = f(x) with x = f-1(y)) is a key idea in mathematics (consider Newton's Fundamental Theorem of Calculus); Abel developed this insight. Legendre had spent much of his life studying elliptic integrals, but Abel inverted these to get elliptic functions, and was first to observe (but in a manuscript mislaid by Cauchy) that they were doubly periodic. Elliptic functions quickly became a productive field of mathematics, and led to more general complex-variable functions, which were important to the development of both abstract and applied mathematics.
Finding the roots of polynomials is a key mathematical problem: the general solution of the quadratic equation was known by ancients; the discovery of general methods for solving polynomials of degree three and four is usually treated as the major math achievement of the 16th century; so for over two centuries an algebraic solution for the general 5th-degree polynomial (quintic) was a Holy Grail sought by most of the greatest mathematicians. Abel proved that most quintics did not have such solutions. This discovery, at the age of only nineteen, would have quickly awed the world, but Abel was impoverished, had few contacts, and spoke no German. When Gauss received Abel's manuscript he discarded it unread, assuming the unfamiliar author was just another crackpot trying to square the circle or some such. His genius was too great for him to be ignored long, but, still impoverished, Abel died of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-six. His fame lives on and even the lower-case word 'abelian' is applied to several concepts. Liouville said Abel was the greatest genius he ever met. Hermite said "Abel has left mathematicians enough to keep them busy for 500 years."
Carl G. J. Jacobi (1804-1851) Germany
Jacobi was a prolific mathematician who did decisive work in the algebra and analysis of complex variables, and did work in number theory (e.g. cubic reciprocity) which excited Carl Gauss. He is sometimes described as the successor to Gauss. As an algorist (manipulator of involved algebraic expressions), he may have been surpassed only by Euler and Ramanujan. He was also a very highly regarded teacher. In mathematical physics, Jacobi perfected Hamilton's principle of stationary action, and made other important advances.
Jacobi's most significant early achievement was the theory of elliptic functions, e.g. his fundamental result about functions with multiple periods. Jacobi was the first to apply elliptic functions to number theory, producing a new proof of Fermat's famous conjecture (Lagrange's theorem) that every integer is the sum of four squares. He also made important discoveries in many other areas including theta functions (e.g. his Jacobi Triple Product Identity), higher fields, number theory, algebraic geometry, differential equations, q-series, hypergeometric series, determinants, Abelian functions, and dynamics. He devised the algorithms still used to calculate eigenvectors and for other important matrix manipulations. The range of his work is suggested by the fact that the "Hungarian method," an efficient solution to an optimization problem published more than a century after Jacobi's death, has since been found among Jacobi's papers.
Like Abel, as a young man Jacobi attempted to factor the general quintic equation. Unlike Abel, he seems never to have considered proving its impossibility. This fact is sometimes cited to show that despite Jacobi's creativity, his ill-fated contemporary was the more brilliant genius.
Johann Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet (1805-1859) Germany
Dirichlet was preeminent in algebraic and analytic number theory, but did advanced work in several other fields as well: He discovered the modern definition of function, the Voronoi diagram of geometry, and important concepts in differential equations, topology, and statistics. His proofs were noted both for great ingenuity and unprecedented rigor. As an example of his careful rigor, he found a fundamental flaw in Steiner's Isoperimetric Theorem proof which no one else had noticed. In addition to his own discoveries, Dirichlet played a key role in interpreting the work of Gauss, and was an influential teacher, mentoring famous mathematicians like Bernhard Riemann (who considered Dirichlet second only to Gauss among living mathematicians), Leopold Kronecker and Gotthold Eisenstein.
As an impoverished lad Dirichlet spent his money on math textbooks; Gauss' masterwork became his life-long companion. Fermat and Euler had proved the impossibility of xk + yk = zk for k = 4 and k = 3; Dirichlet became famous by proving impossibility for k = 5 at the age of 20. Later he proved the case k = 14 and, later still, may have helped Kummer extend Dirichlet's quadratic fields, leading to proofs of more cases. More important than his work with Fermat's Last Theorem was his Unit Theorem, considered one of the most important theorems of algebraic number theory. The Unit Theorem is unusually difficult to prove; it is said that Dirichlet discovered the proof while listening to music in the Sistine Chapel. A key step in the proof uses Dirichlet's Pigeonhole Principle, a trivial idea but which Dirichlet applied with great ingenuity.
Dirichlet did seminal work in analysis and is considered the founder of analytic number theory. He invented a method of L-series to prove the important theorem (Gauss' conjecture) that any arithmetic series (without a common factor) has an infinity of primes. It was Dirichlet who proved the fundamental Theorem of Fourier series: that periodic analytic functions can always be represented as a simple trigonometric series. Although he never proved it rigorously, he is especially noted for the Dirichlet's Principle which posits the existence of certain solutions in the calculus of variations, and which Riemann found to be particularly fruitful. Other fundamental results Dirichlet contributed to analysis and number theory include a theorem about Diophantine approximations and his Class Number Formula.
William Rowan (Sir) Hamilton (1805-1865) Ireland
Hamilton was a childhood prodigy. Home-schooled and self-taught, he started as a student of languages and literature, was influenced by an arithmetic prodigy his own age, read Euclid, Newton and Lagrange, found an error by Laplace, and made new discoveries in optics; all this before the age of seventeen when he first attended school. At college he enjoyed unprecedented success in all fields, but his undergraduate days were cut short abruptly by his appointment as Royal Astronomer of Ireland at the age of 22. He soon began publishing his revolutionary treatises on optics, in which he developed Hamilton's Principle of Stationary Action. This Principle refined and corrected the earlier principles of least action developed by Maupertuis, Fermat, and Euler; it (and related principles) are key to much of modern physics. His early writing also predicted that some crystals would have an hitherto unknown "conical" refraction mode; this was soon confirmed experimentally.
Hamilton's Principle of Least Action, and its associated equations and concept of configuration space, led to a revolution in mathematical physics. Since Maupertuis had named this Principle a century earlier, it is possible to underestimate Hamilton's contribution. However Maupertuis, along with others credited with anticipating the idea (Fermat, Leibniz, Euler and Lagrange) failed to state the full Principle correctly. Rather than minimizing action, physical systems sometimes achieve a non-minimal but stationary action in configuration space. (Poisson and d' Alembert had noticed exceptions to Euler-Lagrange least action, but failed to find Hamilton's solution. Jacobi also deserves some credit for the Principle, but his work came after reading Hamilton.) Because of this Principle, as well as his wave-particle duality (which would be further developed by Planck and Einstein), Hamilton can be considered a major early influence on quantum theory.
Hamilton also made revolutionary contributions to dynamics, differential equations, the theory of equations, numerical analysis, fluctuating functions, and graph theory (he marketed a puzzle based on his Hamiltonian paths). He invented the ingenious hodograph. He coined several mathematical terms including vector, scalar, associative, and tensor. In addition to his brilliance and creativity, Hamilton was renowned for thoroughness and produced voluminous writings on several subjects.
Hamilton himself considered his greatest accomplishment to be the development of quaternions, a non-Abelian field to handle 3-D rotations. While there is no 3-D analog to the Gaussian complex-number plane (based on the equation i2 = -1 ), quaternions derive from a 4-D analog based on i2 = j2 = k2 = ijk = -jik = -1. (Despite their being "obsoleted" by more general matrix and tensor methods, quaternions are still in wide engineering use because of certain practical advantages.)
Hamilton once wrote: "On earth there is nothing great but man; in man there is nothing great but mind."
Hermann Günter Grassmann (1809-1877) Germany
Grassmann was an exceptional polymath: the term Grassmann's Law is applied to two separate facts in the fields of optics and linguistics, both discovered by Hermann Grassmann. He also did advanced work in crystallography, electricity, botany, folklore, and also wrote on political subjects. He had little formal training in mathematics, yet single-handedly developed linear algebra, vector and tensor calculus, multi-dimensional geometry, new results about cubic surfaces, the theory of extension, and exterior algebra; most of this work was so innovative it was not properly appreciated in his own lifetime. (Heaviside rediscovered vector analysis many years later.) Grassmann's exterior algebra, and the associated concept of Grassmannian manifold, provide a simplifying framework for many algebraic calculations. Recently their use led to an important simplification in quantum physics calculations.
Of his linear algebra, one historian wrote "few have come closer than Hermann Grassmann to creating, single-handedly, a new subject." Important mathematicians inspired directly by Grassmann include Peano, Klein, Cartan, Hankel, Clifford, and Whitehead.
Joseph Liouville (1809-1882) France
Liouville did expert research in several areas including number theory, differential geometry, complex analysis (especially Sturm-Liouville theory, boundary value problems and dynamical analysis), topology and mathematical physics. Several theorems bear his name, including the key result that any bounded entire function must be constant (the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra is an easy corollary of this!); important results in differential equations, differential algebra, differential geometry; a key result about conformal mappings; and an invariance law about trajectories in phase space which leads to the Second Law of Thermodynamics and is key to Hamilton's work in physics. He was first to prove the existence of transcendental numbers. (His proof was constructive, unlike that of Cantor which came 30 years later). He invented Liouville integrability and fractional calculus; he found a new proof of the Law of Quadratic Reciprocity. In addition to multiple Liouville Theorems, there are two "Liouville Principles": a fundamental result in differential algebra, and a fruitful theorem in number theory. Liouville was hugely prolific in number theory but this work is largely overlooked, e.g. the following remarkable generalization of Aryabhata's identity:
for all N, Σ (da3) = (Σ da)2
where da is the number of divisors of a, and the sums are taken over all divisors a of N.
Liouville established an important journal; influenced Catalan, Jordan, Chebyshev, Hermite; and helped promote other mathematicians' work, especially that of Évariste Galois, whose important results were almost unknown until Liouville clarified them. In 1851 Augustin Cauchy was bypassed to give a prestigious professorship to Liouville instead.
Ernst Eduard Kummer (1810-1893) Germany
Despite poverty, Kummer became an important mathematician at an early age, doing work with hypergeometric series, functions and equations, and number theory. He worked on the 4-degree Kummer Surface, an important algebraic form which inspired Klein's early work. He solved the ancient problem of finding all rational quadrilaterals. His most important discovery was ideal numbers; this led to the theory of ideals and p-adic numbers; this discovery's revolutionary nature has been compared to that of non-Euclidean geometry. Kummer is famous for his attempts to prove, with the aid of his ideal numbers, Fermat's Last Theorem. He established that theorem for almost all exponents (including all less than 100) but not the general case.
Kummer was an inspirational teacher; his famous students include Cantor, Frobenius, Fuchs, Schwarz, Gordan, Joachimsthal, Bachmann, and Kronecker. (Leopold Kronecker was a brilliant genius sometimes ranked ahead of Kummer in lists like this; that Kummer was Kronecker's teacher at high school persuades me to give Kummer priority.)
Évariste Galois (1811-1832) France
Galois, who died before the age of twenty-one, not only never became a professor, but was barely allowed to study as an undergraduate. His output of papers, mostly published posthumously, is much smaller than most of the others on this list, yet it is considered among the most awesome works in mathematics. He applied group theory to the theory of equations, revolutionizing both fields. (Galois coined the mathematical term group.) While Abel was the first to prove that some polynomial equations had no algebraic solutions, Galois established the necessary and sufficient condition for algebraic solutions to exist. His principal treatise was a letter he wrote the night before his fatal duel, of which Hermann Weyl wrote: "This letter, if judged by the novelty and profundity of ideas it contains, is perhaps the most substantial piece of writing in the whole literature of mankind."
Galois' ideas were very far-reaching; for example he is sometimes credited as first to prove that trisecting a general angle with Plato's rules is impossible. Galois is sometimes cited (instead of Archimedes, Gauss or Ramanujan) as "the greatest mathematical genius ever." His last words (spoken to his brother) were "Ne pleure pas, Alfred! J'ai besoin de tout mon courage pour mourir à vingt ans!" This tormented life, with its pointless early end, is one of the great tragedies of mathematical history. Although Galois' group theory is considered one of the greatest developments of 19th century mathematics, Galois' writings were largely ignored until the revolutionary work of Klein and Lie.
James Joseph Sylvester (1814-1897) England, U.S.A.
Sylvester made important contributions in matrix theory, invariant theory, number theory, partition theory, reciprocant theory, geometry, and combinatorics. He invented the theory of elementary divisors, and co-invented the law of quadratic forms. It is said he coined more new mathematical terms (e.g. matrix, invariant, discriminant, covariant, syzygy, graph, Jacobian) than anyone except Leibniz. Sylvester was especially noted for the broad range of his mathematics and his ingenious methods. He solved (or partially solved) a huge variety of rich puzzles including various geometric gems; the enumeration of polynomial roots first tackled by Descartes and Newton; and, by advancing the theory of partitions, the system of equations posed by Euler as The Problem of the Virgins. Sylvester was also a linguist, a poet, and did work in mechanics (inventing the skew pantograph) and optics. He once wrote, "May not music be described as the mathematics of the sense, mathematics as music of the reason?"
Karl Wilhelm Theodor Weierstrass (1815-1897) Germany
Weierstrass devised new definitions for the primitives of calculus, developed the concept of uniform convergence, and was then able to prove several fundamental but hitherto unproven theorems. Starting strictly from the integers, he also applied his axiomatic methods to a definition of irrational numbers. He developed important new insights in other fields including the calculus of variations, elliptic functions, and trigonometry. Weierstrass shocked his colleagues when he demonstrated a continuous function which is differentiable nowhere. (Both this and the Bolzano-Weierstrass Theorem were rediscoveries of forgotten results by the under-published Bolzano.) He found simpler proofs of many existing theorems, including Gauss' Fundamental Theorem of Algebra and the fundamental Hermite-Lindemann Transcendence Theorem. Steiner's proof of the Isoperimetric Theorem contained a flaw, so Weierstrass became the first to supply a fully rigorous proof of that famous and ancient result. Peter Dirichlet was a champion of rigor, but Weierstrass discovered a flaw in the argument for Dirichlet's Principle of of variational calculus.
Weierstrass demonstrated extreme brilliance as a youth, but during his college years he detoured into drinking and dueling and ended up as a degreeless secondary school teacher. During this time he studied Abel's papers, developed results in elliptic and Abelian functions, proved the Laurent expansion theorem before Laurent did, and independently proved the Fundamental Theorem of Functions of a Complex Variable. He was interested in power series and felt that others had overlooked the importance of Abel's Theorem. Eventually one of his papers was published in a journal; he was immediately given an honorary doctorate and was soon regarded as one of the best and most inspirational mathematicians in the world. His insistence on absolutely rigorous proofs equaled or exceeded even that of Cauchy, Abel and Dirichlet. His students included Kovalevskaya, Frobenius, Mittag-Leffler, and several other famous mathematicians. Bell called him "probably the greatest mathematical teacher of all time." In 1873 Hermite called Weierstrass "the Master of all of us." Today he is often called the "Father of Modern Analysis."
Weierstrass once wrote: "A mathematician who is not also something of a poet will never be a complete mathematician."
George Boole (1815-1864) England
George Boole was a precocious child who impressed by teaching himself classical languages, but was too poor to attend college and became an elementary school teacher at age 16. He gradually developed his math skills; as a young man he published a paper on the calculus of variations, and soon became one of the most respected mathematicians in England despite having no formal training. He was noted for work in symbolic logic, algebra and analysis, and also was apparently the first to discover invariant theory. When he followed up Augustus de Morgan's earlier work in symbolic logic, de Morgan insisted that Boole was the true master of that field, and begged his friend to finally study mathematics at university. Boole couldn't afford to, and had to be appointed Professor instead!
Although very few recognized its importance at the time, it is Boole's work in Boolean algebra and symbolic logic for which he is now remembered; this work inspired computer scientists like Claude Shannon. Boole's book An Investigation of the Laws of Thought prompted Bertrand Russell to label him the "discoverer of pure mathematics."
Boole once said "No matter how correct a mathematical theorem may appear to be, one ought never to be satisfied that there was not something imperfect about it until it also gives the impression of being beautiful."
Pafnuti Lvovich Chebyshev (1821-1894) Russia
Pafnuti Chebyshev (Pafnuty Tschebyscheff) was noted for work in probability, number theory, approximation theory, integrals, the theory of equations, and orthogonal polynomials. His famous theorems cover a diverse range; they include a new version of the Law of Large Numbers, first rigorous proof of the Central Limit Theorem, and an important result in integration of radicals first conjectured by Abel. He invented the Chebyshev polynomials, which have very wide application; many other theorems or concepts are also named after him. He did very important work with prime numbers, proving that there is always a prime between any n and 2n, and working with the zeta function before Riemann did. He made much progress with the Prime Number Theorem, proving two distinct forms of that theorem, each incomplete but in a different way. Chebyshev was very influential for Russian mathematics, inspiring Andrei Markov and Aleksandr Lyapunov among others.
Chebyshev was also a premier applied mathematician and a renowned inventor; his several inventions include the Chebyshev linkage, a mechanical device to convert rotational motion to straight-line motion. He once wrote "To isolate mathematics from the practical demands of the sciences is to invite the sterility of a cow shut away from the bulls."
Arthur Cayley (1821-1895) England
Cayley was one of the most prolific mathematicians in history; a list of the branches of mathematics he pioneered will seem like an exaggeration. In addition to being very inventive, he was an excellent algorist; some considered him to be the greatest mathematician of the late 19th century (an era that includes Weierstrass and Poincaré). Cayley was the essential founder of modern group theory, matrix algebra, the theory of higher singularities, and higher-dimensional geometry (building on Plücker's work and anticipating the ideas of Klein), as well as the theory of invariants. Among his many important theorems are the Cayley-Hamilton Theorem, and Cayley's Theorem itself (that any group is isomorphic to a subgroup of a symmetric group). He extended Hamilton's quaternions and developed the octonions, but was still one of the first to realize that these special algebras should be subsumed by general matrix methods. He also did original research in combinatorics (e.g. enumeration of trees), elliptic and Abelian functions, and projective geometry. One of his famous geometric theorems is a generalization of Pascal's Mystic Hexagram result; another resulted in an elegant proof of the Quadratic Reciprocity law.
Cayley may have been the least eccentric of the great mathematicians: In addition to his life-long love of mathematics, he enjoyed hiking, painting, reading fiction, and had a happy married life. He easily won Smith's Prize and Senior Wrangler at Cambridge, but then worked as a lawyer for many years. He later became professor, and finished his career in the limelight as President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He and James Joseph Sylvester were a source of inspiration to each other. These two, along with Charles Hermite, are considered the founders of the important theory of invariants. Though applied first to algebra, the notion of invariants is useful in many areas of mathematics.
Cayley once wrote: "As for everything else, so for a mathematical theory: beauty can be perceived but not explained."
Charles Hermite (1822-1901) France
Hermite studied the works of Lagrange and Gauss from an early age and soon developed an alternate proof of Abel's famous quintic impossibility result. He attended the same college as Galois and also had trouble passing their examinations, but soon became highly respected by Europe's best mathematicians for his significant advances in analytic number theory, elliptic functions, and quadratic forms. Along with Cayley and Sylvester, he founded the important theory of invariants. Hermite's theory of transformation allowed him to connect analysis, algebra and number theory in novel ways. He was a kindly modest man and an inspirational teacher. Among his students was Poincaré, who said of Hermite, "He never evokes a concrete image, yet you soon perceive that the more abstract entities are to him like living creatures.... Methods always seemed to be born in his mind in some mysterious way." Hermite's other famous students included Darboux, Borel, and Hadamard who wrote of "how magnificent Hermite's teaching was, overflowing with enthusiasm for science, which seemed to come to life in his voice and whose beauty he never failed to communicate to us, since he felt it so much himself to the very depth of his being."
Although he and Abel had proved that the general quintic lacked algebraic solutions, Hermite introduced an elliptic analog to the circular trigonometric functions and used these to provide a general solution for the quintic equation. He developed the concept of complex conjugate which is now ubiquitous in mathematical physics and matrix theory. He was first to prove that the Stirling and Euler generalizations of the factorial function are equivalent. He was first to note remarkable facts about Heegner numbers, e.g.
e
Ferdinand Gotthold Max Eisenstein (1823-1852) Germany
Eisenstein was born into severe poverty and suffered health problems throughout his short life, but was still one of the more significant mathematicians of his era. Today's mathematicians who study Eisenstein are invariably amazed by his brilliance and originality. He made revolutionary advances in number theory, algebra and analysis, and was also a composer of music. He anticipated ring theory, developed a new basis for elliptic functions, studied ternary quadratic forms, proved several theorems about cubic and higher-degree reciprocity, discovered the notion of analytic covariant, and much more.
Eisenstein was a young prodigy; he once wrote "As a boy of six I could understand the proof of a mathematical theorem more readily than that meat had to be cut with one's knife, not one's fork." Despite his early death, he is considered one of the greatest number theorists ever. Gauss named Eisenstein, along with Newton and Archimedes, as one of the three epoch-making mathematicians of history.
Leopold Kronecker (1823-1891) Germany
Kronecker was a businessman who pursued mathematics mainly as a hobby, but was still very prolific, and one of the greatest theorem provers of his era. He explored a wide variety of mathematics -- number theory, algebra, analysis, matrixes -- and especially the interconnections between areas. Many concepts and theorems are named after Kronecker; some of his theorems are frequently used as lemmas in algebraic number theory, ergodic theory, and approximation theory. He provided key ideas about foundations and continuity despite that he had philosophic objections to irrational numbers and infinities. He also introduced the Theory of Divisors to avoid Dedekind's Ideals; the importance of this and other work was only realized long after his death. Kronecker's philosophy eventually led to the Constructivism and Intuitionism of Brouwer and Poincaré.
Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866) Germany
Riemann was a phenomenal genius whose work was exceptionally deep, creative and rigorous; he made revolutionary contributions in many areas of pure mathematics, and also inspired the development of physics. He had poor physical health and died at an early age, yet is still considered to be among the most productive mathematicians ever. He made revolutionary advances in complex analysis, which he connected to both topology and number theory. He applied topology to analysis, and analysis to number theory, making revolutionary contributions to all three fields. He introduced the Riemann integral which clarified analysis. He developed the theory of manifolds, a term which he invented. Manifolds underpin topology. By imposing metrics on manifolds Riemann invented differential geometry and took non-Euclidean geometry far beyond his predecessors. Riemann's other masterpieces include tensor analysis, the theory of functions, and a key relationship between some differential equation solutions and hypergeometric series. His generalized notions of distance and curvature described new possibilities for the geometry of space itself. Several important theorems and concepts are named after Riemann, e.g. the Riemann-Roch Theorem, a key connection among topology, complex analysis and algebraic geometry. He was so prolific and original that some of his work went unnoticed (for example, Weierstrass became famous for showing a nowhere-differentiable continuous function; later it was found that Riemann had casually mentioned one in a lecture years earlier). Like his mathematical peers (Gauss, Archimedes, Newton), Riemann was intensely interested in physics. His theory unifying electricity, magnetism and light was supplanted by Maxwell's theory; however modern physics, beginning with Einstein's relativity, relies on Riemann's curvature tensor and other notions of the geometry of space.
Riemann's teacher was Carl Gauss, who helped steer the young genius towards pure mathematics. Gauss selected "On the hypotheses that Lie at the Foundations of Geometry" as Riemann's first lecture; with this famous lecture Riemann went far beyond Gauss' initial effort in differential geometry, extended it to multiple dimensions, and introduced the new and important theory of differential manifolds. Five years later, to celebrate his election to the Berlin Academy, Riemann presented a lecture "On the Number of Prime Numbers Less Than a Given Quantity," for which "Number" he presented and partially proved an exact formula, albeit weirdly complicated. Numerous papers have been written on the distribution of primes, but Riemann's contribution is incomparable, despite that his Berlin Academy lecture was his only paper ever on the topic, and number theory was far from his specialty. In the lecture he posed the Hypothesis of Riemann's zeta function, needed for the missing step in his proof. This Hypothesis is considered the most important and famous unsolved problem in mathematics. (Asked what he would first do, if he were magically awakened after centuries, David Hilbert replied "I would ask whether anyone had proved the Riemann Hypothesis.") ζ(.) was defined for convergent cases in Euler's mini-bio, which Riemann extended via analytic continuation for all cases. The Riemann Hypothesis "simply" states that in all solutions of ζ(s = a+bi) = 0, either s has real part a=1/2 or imaginary part b=0.
Despite his great creativity (Gauss praised Riemann's "gloriously fertile originality;" another biographer called him "one of the most profound and imaginative mathematicians of all time [and] a great philosopher"), Riemann once said: "If only I had the theorems! Then I should find the proofs easily enough."
Henry John Stephen Smith (1826-1883) England
Henry Smith (born in Ireland) was one of the greatest number theorists, working especially with elementary divisors; he also advanced the theory of quadratic forms. A famous problem of Eisenstein was, given n and k, in how many different ways can n be expressed as the sum of k squares? Smith made great progress on this problem, subsuming special cases which had earlier been famous theorems. Although most noted for number theory, he had great breadth. He did prize-winning work in geometry, discovered the unique normal form for matrices which now bears his name, anticipated specific fractals including the Cantor set, the Sierpinski gasket and the Koch snowflake, and wrote a paper demonstrating the limitations of Riemann integration.
Smith is sometimes called "the mathematician the world forgot." His paper on integration could have led directly to measure theory and Lebesgue integration, but was ignored for decades. The fractals he discovered are named after people who rediscovered them. The Smith-Minkowski-Siegel mass formula of lattice theory would be called just the Smith formula, but had to be rediscovered. And his solution to the Eisenstein five-squares problem, buried in his voluminous writings on number theory, was ignored: this "unsolved" problem was featured for a prize which Minkowski won two decades later!
Henry Smith was an outstanding intellect with a modest and charming personality. He was knowledgeable in a broad range of fields unrelated to mathematics; his University even insisted he run for Parliament. His love of mathematics didn't depend on utility: he once wrote "Pure mathematics: may it never be of any use to anyone."
Antonio Luigi Gaudenzio Giuseppe Cremona (1830-1903) Italy
Luigi Cremona made many important advances in analytic, synthetic and projective geometry, especially in the transformations of algebraic curves and surfaces. Working in mathematical physics, he developed the new field of graphical statics, and used it to reinterpret some of Maxwell's results. He improved (or found brilliant proofs for) several results of Steiner, especially in the field of cubic surfaces. (Some of this work was done in collaboration with Rudolf Sturm.) He is especially noted for developing the theory of Cremona transformations which have very wide application. He found a generalization of Pascal's Mystic Hexagram. Cremona also played a political role in establishing the modern Italian state and, as an excellent teacher, helped make Italy a top center of mathematics.
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) Scotland
Maxwell published a remarkable paper on the construction of novel ovals, at the age of 14; his genius was soon renowned throughout Scotland, with the future Lord Kelvin remarking that Maxwell's "lively imagination started so many hares that before he had run one down he was off on another." He did a comprehensive analysis of Saturn's rings, developed the important kinetic theory of gases, explored elasticity, knot theory, soap bubbles, and more. He introduced the "Maxwell's Demon" as a thought experiment for thermodynamics; his paper "On Governors" effectively founded the field of cybernetics; he advanced the theory of color, and produced the first color photograph. One Professor said of him, "there is scarcely a single topic that he touched upon, which he did not change almost beyond recognition." Maxwell was also a poet.
Maxwell did little of importance in pure mathematics, so his great creativity in mathematical physics might not seem enough to qualify him for this list, although his contribution to the kinetic theory of gases (which even led to the first estimate of molecular sizes) would already be enough to make him one of the greatest physicists. But then, in 1864 James Clerk Maxwell stunned the world by publishing the equations of electricity and magnetism and showing that light itself is linked to the electro-magnetic force. Richard Feynman considered this the most significant event of the 19th century (though others might give equal billing to Darwin's theory of evolution). While Einstein, Newton, and Galileo may be the Top Three, Maxwell is a strong candidate for "fourth greatest scientist ever." He has been called the "Father of Modern Physics"; he ranks #24 on Hart's list of the Most Influential Persons in History.
Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind (1831-1916) Germany
Dedekind was one of the most innovative mathematicians ever; his clear expositions and rigorous axiomatic methods had great influence. He made seminal contributions to abstract algebra and algebraic number theory as well as mathematical foundations. He was one of the first to pursue Galois Theory, making major advances there and pioneering in the application of group theory to other branches of mathematics. Dedekind also invented a system of fundamental axioms for arithmetic, worked in probability theory and complex analysis, and invented prime partitions and modular lattices. Dedekind may be most famous for his theory of ideals and rings; Kronecker and Kummer had begun this, but Dedekind gave it a more abstract and productive basis, which was developed further by Hilbert, Noether and Weil. Though the term ring itself was coined by Hilbert, Dedekind introduced the terms module, field, and ideal. Dedekind was far ahead of his time, so Noether became famous as the creator of modern algebra; but she acknowledged her great predecessor, frequently saying "It is all already in Dedekind."
Dedekind was concerned with rigor, writing "nothing capable of proof ought to be accepted without proof." Before him, the real numbers, continuity, and infinity all lacked rigorous definitions. The axioms Dedekind invented allow the integers and rational numbers to be built and his Dedekind Cut then led to a rigorous and useful definition of the real numbers. Dedekind was a key mentor for Georg Cantor: he introduced the notion that a bijection implied equinumerosity, used this to define infinitude (a set is infinite if equinumerous with its proper subset), and was first to prove the Cantor-Bernstein Theorem, though he didn't publish his proof. (Because he spent his career at a minor university, and neglected to publish some of his work, Dedekind's contributions may be underestimated.)
Rudolf Friedrich Alfred Clebsch (1833-1872) Germany
Alfred Clebsch began in mathematical physics, working in hydrodynamics and elasticity, but went on to become a pure mathematician of great brilliance and versatility. He started with novel results in analysis, but went on to make important advances to the invariant theory of Cayley and Sylvester (and Salmon and Aronhold), to the algebraic geometry and elliptic functions of Abel and Jacobi, and to the enumerative and projective geometries of Plücker. He was also one of the first to build on Riemann's innovations. Clebsch developed new notions, e.g. Clebsch-Aronhold symbolic notation and 'connex'; and proved key theorems about cubic surfaces (for example, the Sylvester pentahedron conjecture) and other high-degree curves, and representations (bijections) between surfaces. Some of his work, e.g. Clebsch-Gordan coefficients which are important in physics, was done in collaboration with Paul Gordan. For a while Clebsch was one of the top mathematicians in Germany, and founded an important journal, but he died young. He was a key teacher of Max Noether, Ferdinand Lindemann, Alexander Brill and Gottlob Frege. Clebsch's great influence is suggested by the fact that his name appeared as co-author on a text published 60 years after his death.
Eugenio Beltrami (1835-1899) Italy
Beltrami was an outstanding mathematician noted for differential geometry, pseudospherical surfaces, transformation theory, differential calculus, and especially for proving the equiconsistency of hyperbolic and Euclidean geometry for every dimensionality; he achieved this by building on models of Cayley, Klein, Riemann and Liouville. He was first to invent singular value decompositions. (Camille Jordan and J.J. Sylvester each invented it independently a few years later.) Using insights from non-Euclidean geometry, he did important mathematical work in a very wide range of physics; for example he improved Green's theorem, generalized the Laplace operator, studied gravitation in non-Euclidean space, and gave a new derivation of Maxwell's equations.
Marie Ennemond Camille Jordan (1838-1921) France
Jordan was a great "universal mathematician", making revolutionary advances in group theory, topology, and operator theory; and also doing important work in differential equations, number theory, measure theory, matrix theory, combinatorics, algebra and especially Galois theory. He worked as both mechanical engineer and professor of analysis. Jordan is especially famous for the Jordan Closed Curve Theorem of topology, a simple statement "obviously true" yet remarkably difficult to prove. In measure theory he developed Peano-Jordan "content" and proved the Jordan Decomposition Theorem. He also proved the Jordan-Holder Theorem of group theory, invented the notion of homotopy, invented the Jordan Canonical Forms of matrix theory, and supplied the first complete proof of Euler's Polyhedral Theorem, F+V = E+2. Some consider Jordan second only to Weierstrass among great 19th-century teachers; his work inspired such mathematicians as Klein, Lie and Borel.
Marius Sophus Lie (1842-1899) Norway
Lie was twenty-five years old before his interest in and aptitude for mathematics became clear, but then did revolutionary work with continuous symmetry and continuous transformation groups. These groups and the algebra he developed to manipulate them now bear his name; they have major importance in the study of differential equations. Lie sphere geometry is one result of Lie's fertile approach and even led to a new approach for Apollonius' ancient problem about tangent circles. Lie became a close friend and collaborator of Felix Klein early in their careers; their methods of relating group theory to geometry were quite similar; but they eventually fell out after Klein became (unfairly?) recognized as the superior of the two. Lie's work wasn't properly appreciated in his own lifetime, but one later commentator was "overwhelmed by the richness and beauty of the geometric ideas flowing from Lie's work."
Jean Gaston Darboux (1842-1917) France
Darboux did outstanding work in geometry, differential geometry, analysis, function theory, mathematical physics, and other fields, his ability "based on a rare combination of geometrical fancy and analytical power." He devised the Darboux integral, equivalent to Riemann's integral but simpler; developed a novel mapping between (hyper-)sphere and (hyper-)plane; proved an important Envelope Theorem in the calculus of variations; developed the field of infinitesimal geometry; and more. Several important theorems are named after him including a generalization of Taylor series, the foundational theorem of symplectic geometry, and the fact that "the image of an interval is also an interval." He wrote the definitive textbook on differential geometry; he was an excellent teacher, inspiring Borel, Cartan and others.
William Kingdon Clifford (1845-1879) England
Clifford was a versatile and talented mathematician who was among the first to appreciate the work of both Riemann and Grassmann. He found new connections between algebra, topology and non-Euclidean geometry. Combining Hamilton's quaternions, Grassmann's exterior algebra, and his own geometric intuition and understanding of physics, he developed biquaternions, and generalized this to geometric algebra, which paralleled work by Klein. In addition to developing theories, he also produced ingenious proofs; for example he was first to prove Miquel's n-Circle Theorem, and did so with a purely geometric argument. Clifford is especially famous for anticipating, before Einstein, that gravitation could be modeled with a non-Euclidean space. He was a polymath; a talented teacher, noted philosopher, and outstanding athlete. With his singular genius, Clifford would probably have become one of the greatest mathematicians of his era had he not died at age thirty-three.
Georg Cantor (1845-1918) Russia, Germany
Cantor did brilliant and important work early in his career, for example he greatly advanced the Fourier-series uniqueness question which had intrigued Riemann. In his explorations of that problem he was led to questions of set enumeration, and his greatest invention: set theory. Cantor created modern Set Theory almost single-handedly, defining cardinal numbers, well-ordering, ordinal numbers, and discovering the Theory of Transfinite Numbers. He defined equality between cardinal numbers based on the existence of a bijection, and was the first to demonstrate that the real numbers have a higher cardinal number than the integers. (He also showed that the rationals have the same cardinality as the integers; and that the reals have the same cardinality as the points of N-space and as the power-set of the integers.) Although there are infinitely many distinct transfinite numbers, Cantor conjectured that C, the cardinality of the reals, was the second smallest transfinite number. This Continuum Hypothesis was included in Hilbert's famous List of Problems, and was partly resolved many years later: Cantor's Continuum Hypothesis is an "Undecidable Statement" of Set Theory.
Cantor's revolutionary set theory attracted vehement opposition from Poincaré ("grave disease"), Kronecker (Cantor was a "charlatan" and "corrupter of youth"), Wittgenstein ("laughable nonsense"), and even theologians. David Hilbert had kinder words for it: "The finest product of mathematical genius and one of the supreme achievements of purely intellectual human activity" and addressed the critics with "no one shall expel us from the paradise that Cantor has created." Cantor's own attitude was expressed with "The essence of mathematics lies in its freedom." Cantor's set theory laid the theoretical basis for the measure theory developed by Borel and Lebesgue. Cantor's invention of modern set theory is now considered one of the most important and creative achievements in modern mathematics.
Cantor demonstrated much breadth (he even involved himself in the Shakespeare authorship controversy!). In addition to his set theory and key discoveries in the theory of trigonometric series, he made advances in number theory, and gave the modern definition of irrational numbers. His Cantor set was the early inspiration for fractals. Cantor was also an excellent violinist. He once wrote "In mathematics the art of proposing a question must be held of higher value than solving it."
Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (1848-1925) Germany
Gottlob Frege developed the first complete and fully rigorous system of pure logic; his work has been called the greatest advance in logic since Aristotle. He introduced the essential notion of quantifiers; he distinguished terms from predicates, and simple predicates from 2nd-level predicates. From his second-order logic he defined numbers, and derived the axioms of arithmetic with what is now called Frege's Theorem. His work was largely underappreciated at the time, partly because of his clumsy notation, partly because his system was published with a flaw (Russell's antinomy). He and Cantor were the era's outstanding foundational theorists; unfortunately their relationship with each other became bitter. Despite all this, Frege's work influenced Peano, Russell, Wittgenstein and others; and he is now often called the greatest mathematical logician ever.
Frege also did work in geometry and differential equations; and, in order to construct the real numbers with his set theory, proved an important new theorem of group theory. He was also an important philosopher, and wrote "Every good mathematician is at least half a philosopher, and every good philosopher is at least half a mathematician."
Ferdinand Georg Frobenius (1849-1917) Germany
Frobenius did significant work in a very broad range of mathematics, was an outstanding algorist, and had several successful students including Edmund Landau, Issai Schur, and Carl Siegel. In addition to developing the theory of abstract groups, Frobenius did important work in number theory, differential equations, elliptic functions, biquadratic forms, matrixes, and algebra. He was first to actually prove the important Cayley-Hamilton Theorem, and first to extend the Sylow Theorems to abstract groups. He anticipated the important and imaginative Prime Density Theorem, though he didn't prove its general case. Although he modestly left his name off the "Cayley-Hamilton Theorem," many lemmas and concepts are named after him, including Frobenius conjugacy class, Frobenius reciprocity, Frobenius manifolds, the Frobenius-Schur Indicator, etc. He is most noted for his character theory, a revolutionary advance which led to the representation theory of groups, and has applications in modern physics. The middle-aged Frobenius invented this after the aging Dedekind asked him for help in solving a key algebraic factoring problem.
Christian Felix Klein (1849-1925) Germany
Klein's key contribution was an application of invariant theory to unify geometry with group theory. This radical new view of geometry inspired Sophus Lie's Lie groups, and also led to the remarkable unification of Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometries which is probably Klein's most famous result. Klein did other work in function theory, providing links between several areas of mathematics including number theory, group theory, hyperbolic geometry, and abstract algebra. His Klein's Quartic curve and popularly-famous Klein's bottle were among several useful results from his new approaches to groups and higher-dimensional geometries and equations. Klein did significant work in mathematical physics, e.g. writing about gyroscopes. He facilitated David Hilbert's early career, publishing his controversial Finite Basis Theorem and declaring it "without doubt the most important work on general algebra [the leading German journal] ever published."
Klein is also famous for his book on the icosahedron, reasoning from its symmetries to develop the elliptic modular and automorphic functions which he used to solve the general quintic equation. He formulated a "grand uniformization theorem" about automorphic functions but suffered a health collapse before completing the proof. His focus then changed to teaching; he devised a mathematics curriculum for secondary schools which had world-wide influence. Klein once wrote "... mathematics has been most advanced by those who distinguished themselves by intuition rather than by rigorous proofs."
Oliver Heaviside (1850-1925) England
Heaviside dropped out of high school to teach himself telegraphy and electromagnetism, becoming first a telegraph operator but eventually perhaps the greatest electrical engineer ever. He developed transmission line theory, invented the coaxial cable, predicted Cherenkov radiation, described the use of the ionosphere in radio transmission, and much more. Some of his insights anticipated parts of special relativity, and he was first to speculate about gravitational waves. For his revolutionary discoveries in electromagnetism and mathematics, Heaviside became the first winner of the Faraday Medal.
As an applied mathematician, Heaviside developed operational calculus (an important shortcut for solving differential equations); developed vector analysis independently of Grassmann; and demonstrated the usage of complex numbers for electro-magnetic equations. Four of the famous Maxwell's Equations are in fact due to Oliver Heaviside, Maxwell having presented a more cumbersome version. Although one of the greatest applied mathematicians, Heaviside is omitted from the Top 100 because he didn't provide proofs for his methods. Of this Heaviside said, "Should I refuse a good dinner simply because I do not understand the process of digestion?"
Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (1850-1891) Russia
Sofia Kovalevskaya (aka Sonya Kowalevski; née Korvin-Krukovskaya) was initially self-taught, sought out Weierstrass as her teacher, and was later considered the greatest female mathematician ever (before Emmy Noether). She was influential in the development of Russian mathematics. Kovalevskaya studied Abelian integrals and partial differential equations, producing the important Cauchy-Kovalevsky Theorem; her application of complex analysis to physics inspired Poincaré and others. Her most famous work was the solution to the Kovalevskaya top, which has been called a "genuine highlight of 19th-century mathematics." Other than the simplest cases solved by Euler and Lagrange, exact ("integrable") solutions to the equations of motion were unknown, so Kovalevskaya received fame and a rich prize when she solved the Kovalevskaya top. Her ingenious solution might be considered a mere curiosity, but since it is still the only post-Lagrange physical motion problem for which an "integrable" solution has been demonstrated, it remains an important textbook example. Kovalevskaya once wrote "It is impossible to be a mathematician without being a poet in soul." She was also a noted playwright.
Jules Henri Poincaré (1854-1912) France
Poincaré founded the theory of algebraic (combinatorial) topology, and is sometimes called the "Father of Topology" (a title also used for Euler and Brouwer). He also did brilliant work in several other areas of mathematics; he was one of the most creative mathematicians ever, and the greatest mathematician of the Constructivist ("intuitionist") style. He published hundreds of papers on a variety of topics and might have become the most prolific mathematician ever, but he died at the height of his powers. Poincaré was clumsy and absent-minded; like Galois, he was almost denied admission to French University, passing only because at age 17 he was already far too famous to flunk.
In addition to his topology, Poincaré laid the foundations of homology; he discovered automorphic functions (a unifying foundation for the trigonometric and elliptic functions), and essentially founded the theory of periodic orbits; he made major advances in the theory of differential equations. He is credited with partial solution of Hilbert's 22nd Problem. Several important results carry his name, for example the famous Poincaré Recurrence Theorem, which almost seems to contradict the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Poincaré is especially noted for effectively discovering chaos theory, and for posing Poincaré's Conjecture; that conjecture was one of the most famous unsolved problems in mathematics for an entire century, and can be explained without equations to a layman. The Conjecture is that all "simply-connected" closed manifolds are topologically equivalent to "spheres"; it is directly relevant to the possible topology of our universe. Recently Grigori Perelman proved Poincaré's conjecture, and is eligible for the first Million Dollar math prize in history.
As were most of the greatest mathematicians, Poincaré was intensely interested in physics. He made revolutionary advances in fluid dynamics and celestial motions; he anticipated Minkowski space and much of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity (including the famous equation E = mc2). Poincaré also found time to become a famous popular writer of philosophy, writing, "Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things;" and "A [worthy] mathematician experiences in his work the same impression as an artist; his pleasure is as great and of the same nature;" and "If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living." With his fame, Poincaré helped the world recognize the importance of the new physical theories of Einstein and Planck.
Andrei Andreyevich Markov (1856-1922) Russia
Markov did excellent work in a broad range of mathematics including analysis, number theory, algebra, continued fractions, approximation theory, and especially probability theory: it has been said that his accuracy and clarity transformed probability theory into one of the most perfected areas of mathematics. Markov is best known as the founder of the theory of stochastic processes. In addition to his Ergodic Theorem about such processes, theorems named after him include the Gauss-Markov Theorem of statistics, the Riesz-Markov Theorem of functional analysis, and the Markov Brothers' Inequality in the theory of equations. Markov was also noted for his politics, mocking Czarist rule, and insisting that he be excommunicated from the Russian Orthodox Church when Tolstoy was.
Markov had a son, also named Andrei Andreyevich, who was also an outstanding mathematician of great breadth. Among the son's achievements was Markov's Theorem, which helps relate the theories of braids and knots to each other.
Giuseppe Peano (1858-1932) Italy
Giuseppe Peano is one of the most under-appreciated of all great mathematicians. He started his career by proving a fundamental theorem in differential equations, developed practical solution methods for such equations, discovered a continuous space-filling curve (then thought impossible), and laid the foundations of abstract operator theory. He also produced the best calculus textbook of his time, was first to produce a correct (non-paradoxical) definition of surface area, proved an important theorem about Dirichlet functions, did important work in topology, and much more. Much of his work was unappreciated and left for others to rediscover: he anticipated many of Borel's and Lebesgue's results in measure theory, and several concepts and theorems of analysis. He was the champion of counter-examples, and found flaws in published proofs of several important theorems.
Most of the preceding work was done when Peano was quite young. Later he focused on mathematical foundations, and this is the work for which he is most famous. He developed rigorous definitions and axioms for set theory, as well as most of the notation of modern set theory. He was first to define arithmetic (and then the rest of mathematics) in terms of set theory. Peano was first to note that some proofs required an explicit Axiom of Choice (although it was Ernst Zermelo who explicitly formulated that Axiom a few years later).
Despite his early show of genius, Peano's quest for utter rigor may have detracted from his influence in mainstream mathematics. Moreover, since he modestly referenced work by predecessors like Dedekind, Peano's huge influence in axiomatic theory is often overlooked. Yet Bertrand Russell reports that it was from Peano that he first learned that a single-member set is not the same as its element; this fact is now taught in elementary school.
Samuel Giuseppe Vito Volterra (1860-1946) Italy
Vito Volterra founded the field of functional analysis ('functions of lines'), and used it to extend the work of Hamilton and Jacobi to more areas of mathematical physics. He developed cylindrical waves and the theory of integral equations. He worked in mechanics, developed the theory of crystal dislocations, and was first to propose the use of helium in balloons. Eventually he turned to mathematical biology and made notable contributions to that field, e.g. predator-prey equations.
David Hilbert (1862-1943) Prussia, Germany
Hilbert, often considered the greatest mathematician of the 20th century, was unequaled in many fields of mathematics, including axiomatic theory, invariant theory, algebraic number theory, class field theory and functional analysis. He proved many new theorems, including the fundamental theorems of algebraic manifolds, and also discovered simpler proofs for older theorems. His examination of calculus led him to the invention of Hilbert space, considered one of the key concepts of functional analysis and modern mathematical physics. His Nullstellensatz Theorem laid the foundation of algebraic geometry. He was a founder of fields like metamathematics and modern logic. He was also the founder of the "Formalist" school which opposed the "Intuitionism" of Kronecker and Brouwer. He developed a new system of definitions and axioms for geometry, replacing the 2200 year-old system of Euclid. As a young Professor he proved his Finite Basis Theorem, now regarded as one of the most important results of general algebra. His mentor, Paul Gordan, had sought the proof for many years, and rejected Hilbert's proof as non-constructive. Later, Hilbert produced the first constructive proof of the Finite Basis Theorem, as well. In number theory, he proved Waring's famous conjecture which is now known as the Hilbert-Waring Theorem.
Any one man can only do so much, so the greatest mathematicians should help nurture their colleagues. Hilbert provided a famous List of 23 Unsolved Problems, which inspired and directed the development of 20th-century mathematics. Hilbert was warmly regarded by his colleagues and students, and contributed to the careers of several great mathematicians and physicists including Georg Cantor, Hermann Minkowski, Hermann Weyl, John von Neumann, Emmy Noether, Alonzo Church, and Albert Einstein.
Eventually Hilbert turned to physics and made key contributions to classical and quantum physics and to general relativity. He published the Einstein Field Equations independently of Einstein (though his writings make clear he treats this as strictly Einstein's invention).
Hermann Minkowski (1864-1909) Lithuania, Germany
Minkowski won a prestigious prize at age 18 for reconstructing Eisenstein's enumeration of the ways to represent integers as the sum of five squares. (The Paris Academy overlooked that Smith had already published a solution for this!) His proof built on quadratic forms and continued fractions and eventually led him to the new field of Geometric Number Theory, for which Minkowski's Convex Body Theorem (a sort of pigeonhole principle) is often called the Fundamental Theorem. Minkowski was also a major figure in the development of functional analysis. With his "question mark function" and "sausage," he was also a pioneer in the study of fractals. Several other important results are named after him, e.g. the Hasse-Minkowski Theorem. He was first to extend the Separating Axis Theorem to multiple dimensions. Minkowski was one of Einstein's teachers, and also a close friend of David Hilbert. He is particularly famous for building on Poincaré's work to invent Minkowski space to deal with Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. This not only provided a better explanation for the Special Theory, but helped inspire Einstein toward his General Theory. Minkowski said that his "views of space and time ... have sprung from the soil of experimental physics, and therein lies their strength.... Henceforth space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality."
Jacques Salomon Hadamard (1865-1963) France
Hadamard made revolutionary advances in several different areas of mathematics, especially complex analysis, analytic number theory, differential geometry, partial differential equations, symbolic dynamics, chaos theory, matrix theory, and Markov chains; for this reason he is sometimes called the "Last Universal Mathematician." He also made contributions to physics. One of the most famous results in mathematics is the Prime Number Theorem, that there are approximately n/log n primes less than n. This result was conjectured by Legendre and Gauss, attacked cleverly by Riemann and Chebyshev, and finally, by building on Riemann's work, proved by Hadamard and Vallee-Poussin. (Hadamard's proof is considered more elegant and useful than Vallee-Poussin's.) Several other important theorems are named after Hadamard (e.g. his Inequality of Determinants), and some of his theorems are named after others (Hadamard was first to prove Brouwer's Fixed-Point Theorem for arbitrarily many dimensions). Hadamard was also influential in promoting others' work: He is noted for his survey of Poincaré's work; his staunch defense of the Axiom of Choice led to the acceptance of Zermelo's work. Hadamard was a successful teacher, with André Weil, Maurice Fréchet, and others acknowledging him as key inspiration. Like many great mathematicians he emphasized the importance of intuition, writing "The object of mathematical rigor is to sanction and legitimize the conquests of intuition, and there never was any other object for it."
Felix Hausdorff (1868-1942) Germany
Hausdorff had diverse interests: he composed music and wrote poetry, studied astronomy, wrote on philosophy, but eventually focused on mathematics, where he did important work in several fields including set theory, measure theory, functional analysis, and both algebraic and point-set topology. His studies in set theory led him to the Hausdorff Maximal Principle, and the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis; his concepts now called Hausdorff measure and Hausdorff dimension led to geometric measure theory and fractal geometry; his Hausdorff paradox led directly to the famous Banach-Tarski paradox; he introduced other seminal concepts, e.g. Hausdorff Distance. He also worked in analysis, solving the Hausdorff moment problem.
As Jews in Hitler's Germany, Hausdorff and his wife committed suicide rather than submit to internment.
Élie Joseph Cartan (1869-1951) France
Cartan worked in the theory of Lie groups and Lie algebras, applying methods of topology, geometry and invariant theory to Lie theory, and classifying all Lie groups. This work was so significant that Cartan, rather than Lie, is considered the most important developer of the theory of Lie groups. Using Lie theory and ideas like his Method of Prolongation he advanced the theories of differential equations and differential geometry. Cartan introduced several new concepts including algebraic group, exterior differential forms, spinors, moving frames, Cartan connections. He proved several important theorems, e.g. Schläfli's Conjecture about embedding Riemann metrics, and fundamental theorems about symmetric Riemann spaces. He made a key contribution to Einstein's general relativity, based on what is now called Riemann-Cartan geometry. Cartan's methods were so original as to be fully appreciated only recently; many now consider him to be one of the greatest mathematicians of his era. In 1938 Weyl called him "the greatest living master in differential geometry."
Félix Édouard Justin Émile Borel (1871-1956) France
Borel exhibited great talent while still in his teens, soon practically founded modern measure theory, and received several honors and prizes. Among his famous theorems is the Heine-Borel Covering Theorem. He also did important work in several other fields of mathematics, including divergent series, quasi-analytic functions, differential equations, number theory, complex analysis, theory of functions, geometry, probability theory, and game theory. Relating measure theory to probabilities, he introduced concepts like normal numbers and the Borel-Kolmogorov paradox. He also did work in relativity and the philosophy of science. He anticipated the concept of chaos, inspiring Poincaré. Borel combined great creativity with strong analytic power; however he was especially interested in applications, philosophy, and education, so didn't pursue the tedium of rigorous development and proof; for this reason his great importance as a theorist is often underestimated. Borel was decorated for valor in World War I, entered politics between the Wars, and joined the French Resistance during World War II.
Tullio Levi-Civita (1873-1941) Italy
Levi-Civita was noted for strong geometrical intuition, and excelled at both pure mathematics and mathematical physics. He worked in analytic number theory, differential equations, tensor calculus, hydrodynamics, celestial mechanics, and the theory of stability. Several inventions are named after him, e.g. the non-archimedean Levi-Civita field, the Levi-Civita parallelogramoid, and the Levi-Civita symbol. His work inspired all three of the greatest 20th-century mathematical physicists, laying key mathematical groundwork for Weyl's unified field theory, Einstein's relativity, and Dirac's quantum theory.
Henri Léon Lebesgue (1875-1941) France
Lebesgue did groundbreaking work in real analysis, advancing Borel's measure theory; his Lebesgue integral superseded the Riemann integral and improved the theoretical basis for Fourier analysis. Several important theorems are named after him, e.g. the Lebesgue Differentiation Theorem and Lebesgue's Number Lemma. He did important work on Hilbert's 19th Problem, and in the Jordan Curve Theorem for higher dimensions. In 1916, the Lebesgue integral was compared "with a modern Krupp gun, so easily does it penetrate barriers which were impregnable." In addition to his seminal contributions to measure theory and Fourier analysis, Lebesgue made significant contributions in several other fields including complex analysis, topology, set theory, potential theory, dimension theory, and calculus of variations.
Edmund Georg Hermann Landau (1877-1938) Germany
Landau was one of the most prolific and influential number theorists ever; he was also adept at complex function theory. He was especially keen at finding very simple proofs: one of his most famous results was a simpler proof of Hadamard's prime number theorem; being simpler it was also more fruitful and led to Landau's Prime Ideal Theorem. In addition to simpler proofs of existing theorems, new theorems by Landau include important facts about Riemann's Hypothesis; facts about Dirichlet series; key lemmas of analysis; a result in Waring's Problem; a generalization of the Little Picard Theorem; a partial proof of Gauss' conjecture about the density of classes of composite numbers; and key results in the theory of pecking orders, e.g. every flock has at least one "king," never exactly two kings, and exactly one king only if that king is an "emperor." (If every chicken except X is pecked either by X or someone pecked by X, then X is defined as a "King." Landau's pecking orders are now described as round-robin tournaments.) Landau was also the inventor of big-O notation. Hardy wrote that no one was ever more passionately devoted to mathematics than Landau.
Godfrey Harold Hardy (1877-1947) England
Hardy was an extremely prolific research mathematician who did important work in analysis (especially the theory of integration), number theory, global analysis, and analytic number theory. He proved several important theorems about numbers, for example that Riemann's zeta function has infinitely many zeros with real part 1/2. He was also an excellent teacher and wrote several excellent textbooks, as well as a famous treatise on the mathematical mind. He abhorred applied mathematics, treating mathematics as a creative art; yet his work has found application in population genetics, cryptography, thermodynamics and particle physics.
Hardy is especially famous (and important) for his encouragement of and collaboration with Ramanujan. Hardy provided rigorous proofs for several of Ramanujan's conjectures, including Ramanujan's "Master Theorem" of analysis. Among other results of this collaboration was the Hardy-Ramanujan Formula for partition enumeration, which Hardy later used as a model to develop the Hardy-Littlewood Circle Method; Hardy then used this method to prove stronger versions of the Hilbert-Waring Theorem, and in prime number theory; the method has continued to be a very productive tool in analytic number theory. Hardy was also a mentor to Norbert Wiener, another famous prodigy.
Hardy once wrote "A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas." He also wrote "Beauty is the first test; there is no permanent place in the world for ugly mathematics."
René Maurice Fréchet (1878-1973) France
Maurice Fréchet introduced the concept of metric spaces (though not using that term); and also made major contributions to point-set topology. Building on work of Hadamard and Volterra, he generalized Banach spaces to use new (non-normed) metrics and proved that many important theorems still applied in these more general spaces. For this work, and his invention of the notion of compactness, Fréchet is called the Founder of the Theory of Abstract Spaces. He also did important work in probability theory and in analysis; for example he proved the Riesz Representation Theorem the same year Riesz did. Many theorems and inventions are named after him, for example Fréchet Distance, which has many applications in applied math, e.g. protein structure analysis.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Germany, Switzerland, U.S.A.
Albert Einstein was unquestionably one of the two greatest physicists in all of history. The atomic theory achieved general acceptance only after Einstein's 1905 paper which showed that atoms' discreteness explained Brownian motion. Another 1905 paper introduced the famous equation E = mc2; yet Einstein published other papers that same year, two of which were more important and influential than either of the two just mentioned. No wonder that physicists speak of the Miracle Year without bothering to qualify it as Einstein's Miracle Year! (Before his Miracle Year, Einstein had been a mediocre undergraduate, and held minor jobs including patent examiner.) Altogether Einstein published at least 300 books or papers on physics. For example, in a 1917 paper he anticipated the principle of the laser. Also, sometimes in collaboration with Leo Szilard, he was co-inventor of several devices, including a gyroscopic compass, hearing aid, automatic camera and, most famously, the Einstein-Szilard refrigerator. He became a very famous and influential public figure. (For example, it was his letter that led Roosevelt to start the Manhattan Project.) Among his many famous quotations is: "The search for truth is more precious than its possession."
Einstein is most famous for his Special and General Theories of Relativity, but he should be considered the key pioneer of Quantum Theory as well, drawing inferences from Planck's work that no one else dared to draw. Indeed it was his articulation of the quantum principle in a 1905 paper which has been called "the most revolutionary sentence written by a physicist of the twentieth century." Einstein's discovery of the photon in that paper led to his only Nobel Prize; years later, he was first to call attention to the "spooky" nature of quantum entanglement. Einstein was also first to call attention to a flaw in Weyl's earliest unified field theory. But despite the importance of his other contributions it is Einstein's General Theory which is his most profound contribution. Minkowski had developed a flat 4-dimensional space-time to cope with Einstein's Special Theory; but it was Einstein who had the vision to add curvature to that space to describe acceleration.
Einstein certainly has the breadth, depth, and historical importance to qualify for this list; but his genius and significance were not in the field of pure mathematics. (He acknowledged his limitation, writing "I admire the elegance of your [Levi-Civita's] method of computation; it must be nice to ride through these fields upon the horse of true mathematics while the like of us have to make our way laboriously on foot.") Einstein was a mathematician, however; he pioneered the application of tensor calculus to physics and invented the Einstein summation notation. That Einstein's equation explained a discrepancy in Mercury's orbit was a discovery made by Einstein personally (a discovery he described as 'joyous excitement' that gave him heart palpitations). He composed a beautiful essay about mathematical proofs using the Theorem of Menelaus as his example. Certainly he belongs on a Top 100 List: his extreme greatness overrides his focus away from math. Einstein ranks #10 on Michael Hart's famous list of the Most Influential Persons in History. His General Theory of Relativity has been called the most creative and original scientific theory ever. Einstein once wrote "... the creative principle resides in mathematics [; thus] I hold it true that pure thought can grasp reality, as the ancients dreamed."
Oswald Veblen (1880-1960) U.S.A.
Oswald Veblen's first mathematical achievement was a novel system of axioms for geometry. He also worked in topology; projective geometry; differential geometry (where he was first to introduce the concept of differentiable manifold); ordinal theory (where he introduced the Veblen hierarchy); and mathematical physics where he worked with spinors and relativity. He developed a new theory of ballistics during World War I and helped plan the first American computer during World War II. His famous theorems include the Veblen-Young Theorem (an important algebraic fact about projective spaces); a proof of the Jordan Curve Theorem more rigorous than Jordan's; and Veblen's Theorem itself (a generalization of Euler's result about cycles in graphs). Veblen, a nephew of the famous economist Thorstein Veblen, was an important teacher; his famous students included Alonzo Church, John W. Alexander, Robert L. Moore, and J.H.C. Whitehead. He was also a key figure in establishing Princeton's Institute of Advanced Study; the first five mathematicians he hired for the Institute were Einstein, von Neumann, Weyl, J.W. Alexander and Marston Morse.
Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer (1881-1966) Holland
Brouwer is often considered the "Father of Topology;" among his important theorems were the Fixed Point Theorem, the "Hairy Ball" Theorem, the Jordan-Brouwer Separation Theorem, and the Invariance of Dimension. He developed the method of simplicial approximations, important to algebraic topology; he also did work in geometry, set theory, measure theory, complex analysis and the foundations of mathematics. He was first to anticipate forms like the Lakes of Wada, leading eventually to other measure-theory "paradoxes." Several great mathematicians, including Weyl, were inspired by Brouwer's work in topology.
Brouwer is most famous as the founder of Intuitionism, a philosophy of mathematics in sharp contrast to Hilbert's Formalism, but Brouwer's philosophy also involved ethics and aesthetics and has been compared with those of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Part of his mathematics thesis was rejected as "... interwoven with some kind of pessimism and mystical attitude to life which is not mathematics ..." As a young man, Brouwer spent a few years to develop topology, but once his great talent was demonstrated and he was offered prestigious professorships, he devoted himself to Intuitionism, and acquired a reputation as eccentric and self-righteous.
Intuitionism has had a significant influence, although few strict adherents. Since only constructive proofs are permitted, strict adherence would slow mathematical work. This didn't worry Brouwer who once wrote: "The construction itself is an art, its application to the world an evil parasite."
Amalie Emmy Noether (1882-1935) Germany
Noether was an innovative researcher who was considered the greatest master of abstract algebra ever; her advances included a new theory of ideals, the inverse Galois problem, and the general theory of commutative rings. She originated novel reasoning methods, especially one based on "chain conditions," which advanced invariant theory and abstract algebra; her insistence on generalization led to a unified theory of modules and Noetherian rings. Her approaches tended to unify disparate areas (algebra, geometry, topology, logic) and led eventually to modern category theory. Her invention of Betti homology groups led to algebraic topology, and thus revolutionized topology.
Noether's work has found various applications in physics, and she made direct advances in mathematical physics herself. Noether's Theorem establishing that certain symmetries imply conservation laws has been called the most important Theorem in physics since the Pythagorean Theorem. Several other important theorems are named after her, e.g. Noether's Normalization Lemma, which provided an important new proof of Hilbert's Nullstellensatz. Noether was an unusual and inspiring teacher; her successful students included Emil Artin, Max Deuring, Jacob Levitzki, etc. She was generous with students and colleagues, even allowing them to claim her work as their own. Noether was close friends with the other greatest mathematicians of her generation: Hilbert, von Neumann, and Weyl. Weyl once said he was embarrassed to accept the famous Professorship at Göttingen because Noether was his "superior as a mathematician." Emmy Noether is considered the greatest female mathematician ever.
Waclaw Sierpinski (1882-1969) Poland
Sierpinski won a gold medal as an undergraduate by making a major improvement to a famous theorem by Gauss about lattice points inside a circle. He went on to do important research in set theory, number theory, point set topology, the theory of functions, and fractals. He was extremely prolific, producing 50 books and over 700 papers. He was a Polish patriot: he contributed to the development of Polish mathematics despite that his land was controlled by Russians or Nazis for most of his life. He worked as a code-breaker during the Polish-Soviet War, helping to break Soviet ciphers.
Sierpinski was first to prove Tarski's remarkable conjecture that the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis implies the Axiom of Choice. He developed three famous fractals: a space-filling curve; the Sierpinski gasket; and the Sierpinski carpet, which covers the plane but has area zero and has found application in antennae design. Borel had proved that almost all real numbers are "normal" but Sierpinski was the first to actually display a number which is normal in every base. He proved the existence of infinitely many Sierpinski numbers having the property that, e.g. (78557·2n+1) is composite number for every natural number n. It remains an unsolved problem (likely to be defeated soon with high-speed computers) whether 78557 is the smallest such "Sierpinski number."
Solomon Lefschetz (1884-1972) Russia, U.S.A.
Lefschetz was born in Russia, educated as an engineer in France, moved to U.S.A., was severely handicapped in an accident, and then switched to pure mathematics. He was a key founder of algebraic topology, even coining the word topology, and pioneered the application of topology to algebraic geometry. Starting from Poincaré's work, he developed Lefschetz duality and used it to derive conclusions about fixed points in topological mappings. The Lefschetz Fixed-point Theorem left Brouwer's famous result as just a special case. His Picard-Lefschetz theory eventually led to the proof of the Weil conjectures. Lefschetz also did important work in algebraic geometry, non-linear differential equations, and control theory. As a teacher he was noted for a combative style. Preferring intuition over rigor, he once told a student who had improved on one of Lefschetz's proofs: "Don't come to me with your pretty proofs. We don't bother with that baby stuff around here."
George David Birkhoff (1884-1984) U.S.A.
Birkhoff is one of the greatest native-born American mathematicians ever, and did important work in many fields. There are several significant theorems named after him: the Birkhoff-Grothendieck Theorem is an important result about vector bundles; Birkhoff's Theorem is an important result in algebra; and Birkhoff's Ergodic Theorem is a key result in statistical mechanics which has since been applied to many other fields. His Poincaré-Birkhoff Fixed Point Theorem is especially important in celestial mechanics, and led to instant worldwide fame: the great Poincaré had described it as most important, but had been unable to complete the proof. In algebraic graph theory, he invented Birkhoff's chromatic polynomial (while trying to prove the four-color map theorem); he proved a significant result in general relativity which implied the existence of black holes; he also worked in differential equations and number theory; he authored an important text on dynamical systems. Like several of the great mathematicians of that era, Birkhoff developed his own set of axioms for geometry; it is his axioms that are often found in today's high school texts. Birkhoff's intellectual interests went beyond mathematics; he once wrote "The transcendent importance of love and goodwill in all human relations is shown by their mighty beneficent effect upon the individual and society."
John Edensor Littlewood (1885-1977) England
John Littlewood was a very prolific researcher. (This fact is obscured somewhat in that many papers were co-authored with Hardy, and their names were always given in alphabetic order.) The tremendous span of his career is suggested by the fact that he won Smith's Prize (and Senior Wrangler) in 1905 and the Copley Medal in 1958. He specialized in analysis and analytic number theory but also did important work in combinatorics, Fourier theory, Diophantine approximations, differential equations, and other fields. He also did important work in practical engineering, creating a method for accurate artillery fire during the First World War, and developing equations for radio and radar in preparation for the Second War. He worked with the Prime Number Theorem and Riemann's Hypothesis; and proved the unexpected fact that Chebyshev's bias, and Li(x)>π(x), while true for most, and all but very large, numbers, are violated infinitely often. Some of his work was elementary, e.g. his elegant proof that a cube cannot be dissected into unequal cubes; but most of his results were too specialized to state here, e.g. his widely-applied 4/3 Inequality which guarantees that certain bimeasures are finite, and which inspired one of Grothendieck's most famous results. Hardy once said that his friend was "the man most likely to storm and smash a really deep and formidable problem; there was no one else who could command such a combination of insight, technique and power." Littlewood's response was that it was possible to be too strong of a mathematician, "forcing through, where another might be driven to a different, and possibly more fruitful, approach."
Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar (1887-1920) India
Like Abel, Ramanujan was a self-taught prodigy who lived in a country distant from his mathematical peers, and suffered from poverty: childhood dysentery and vitamin deficiencies probably led to his early death. Yet he produced 4000 theorems or conjectures in number theory, algebra, and combinatorics. While some of these were old theorems or just curiosities, many were brilliant new theorems with very difficult proofs. For example, he found a beautiful identity connecting Poisson summation to the Möbius function. Ramanujan might be almost unknown today, except that his letter caught the eye of Godfrey Hardy, who saw remarkable, almost inexplicable formulae which "must be true, because if they were not true, no one would have had the imagination to invent them." Ramanujan's specialties included infinite series, elliptic functions, continued fractions, partition enumeration, definite integrals, modular equations, gamma functions, "mock theta" functions, hypergeometric series, and "highly composite" numbers. Ramanujan's "Master Theorem" has wide application in analysis, and has been applied to the evaluation of Feynman diagrams. Much of his best work was done in collaboration with Hardy, for example a proof that almost all numbers n have about log log n prime factors (a result which developed into probabilistic number theory). Much of his methodology, including unusual ideas about divergent series, was his own invention. (As a young man he made the absurd claim that 1+2+3+4+... = -1/12. Later it was noticed that this claim translates to a true statement about the Riemann zeta function, with which Ramanujan was unfamiliar.) Ramanujan's innate ability for algebraic manipulations equaled or surpassed that of Euler and Jacobi.
Ramanujan's most famous work was with the partition enumeration function p(), Hardy guessing that some of these discoveries would have been delayed at least a century without Ramanujan. Together, Hardy and Ramanujan developed an analytic approximation to p(), although Hardy was initially awed by Ramanujan's intuitive certainty about the existence of such a formula, and even the form it would have. (Rademacher and Selberg later discovered an exact expression to replace the Hardy-Ramanujan approximation; when Ramanujan's notebooks were studied it was found he had anticipated their technique, but had deferred to his friend and mentor.)
In a letter from his deathbed, Ramanujan introduced his mysterious "mock theta functions", gave examples, and developed their properties. Much later these forms began to appear in disparate areas: combinatorics, the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, and even knot theory and the theory of black holes. It was only recently, more than 80 years after Ramanujan's letter, that his conjectures about these functions were proven; solutions mathematicians had sought unsuccessfully were found among his examples. Mathematicians are baffled that Ramanujan could make these conjectures, which they confirmed only with difficulty using methods not available in Ramanujan's day.
Many of Ramanujan's results are so inspirational that there is a periodical dedicated to them. The theories of strings and crystals have benefited from Ramanujan's work. (Today some professors achieve fame just by finding a new proof for one of Ramanujan's many results.) Unlike Abel, who insisted on rigorous proofs, Ramanujan often omitted proofs. (Ramanujan may have had unrecorded proofs, poverty leading him to use chalk and erasable slate rather than paper.) Unlike Abel, much of whose work depended on the complex numbers, most of Ramanujan's work focused on real numbers. Despite these limitations, some consider Ramanujan to be the greatest mathematical genius ever; but he ranks as low as #19 because his work lacked great influence.
Because of its fast convergence, an odd-looking formula of Ramanujan is sometimes used to calculate π:
992 / π = √8 ∑k=0,∞ ((4k)! (1103+26390 k) / (k!4 3964k))
Thoralf Albert Skolem (1887-1963) Norway
Thoralf Skolem proved fundamental theorems of lattice theory, proved the Skolem-Noether Theorem of algebra, also worked with set theory and Diophantine equations; but is best known for his work in logic, metalogic, and non-standard models. Some of his work preceded similar results by Gödel. He developed a theory of recursive functions which anticipated some computer science. He worked on the famous Löwenheim-Skolem Theorem which has the "paradoxical" consequence that systems with uncountable sets can have countable models. ("Legend has it that Thoralf Skolem, up until the end of his life, was scandalized by the association of his name to a result of this type, which he considered an absurdity, nondenumerable sets being, for him, fictions without real existence.")
George Pólya (1887-1985) Hungary
George Pólya (Pólya György) did significant work in several fields: complex analysis, probability, geometry, algebraic number theory, and combinatorics, but is most noted for his teaching How to Solve It, the craft of problem posing and proof. He is also famous for the Pólya Enumeration Theorem. Several other important theorems he proved include the Pólya-Vinogradov Inequality of number theory, the Pólya-Szego Inequality of functional analysis, and the Pólya Inequality of measure theory. He introduced the Hilbert-Pólya Conjecture that the Riemann Hypothesis might be a consequence of spectral theory; he introduced the famous "All horses are the same color" example of inductive fallacy; he named the Central Limit Theorem of statistics. Pólya was the "teacher par excellence": he wrote top books on multiple subjects; his successful students included John von Neumann. His work on plane symmetry groups directly inspired Escher's drawings. Having huge breadth and influence, Pólya has been called "the most influential mathematician of the 20th century."
Stefan Banach (1892-1945) Poland
Stefan Banach was a self-taught mathematician who is most noted as the "Founder of Functional Analysis" and for his contributions to measure theory. Among several important theorems bearing his name are the Uniform Boundedness (Banach-Steinhaus) Theorem, the Open Mapping (Banach-Schauder) Theorem, the Contraction Mapping (Banach fixed-point) Theorem, and the Hahn-Banach Theorem. Many of these theorems are of practical value to modern physics; however he also proved the paradoxical Banach-Tarski Theorem, which demonstrates a sphere being rearranged into two spheres of the same original size. (Banach's proof uses the Axiom of Choice and is sometimes cited as evidence that that Axiom is false.) The wide range of Banach's work is indicated by the Banach-Mazur results in game theory (which also challenge the axiom of choice). Banach also made brilliant contributions to probability theory, set theory, analysis and topology.
Banach once said "Mathematics is the most beautiful and most powerful creation of the human spirit."
Norbert Wiener (1894-1964) U.S.A.
Norbert Wiener entered college at age 11, studying various sciences; he wrote a PhD dissertation at age 17 in philosophy of mathematics where he was one of the first to show a definition of ordered pair as a set. (Hausdorff also proposed such a definition; both Wiener's and Hausdorff's definitions have been superceded by Kuratowski's (a, b) = {{a}, {a, b}} despite that it leads to a singleton when a=b.) He then did important work in several topics in applied mathematics, including stochastic processes (beginning with Brownian motion), potential theory, Fourier analysis, the Wiener-Hopf decomposition useful for solving differential and integral equations, communication theory, cognitive science, and quantum theory. Many theorems and concepts are named after him, e.g the Wiener Filter used to reduce the error in noisy signals. His most important contribution to pure mathematics was his generalization of Fourier theory into generalized harmonic analysis, but he is most famous for his writings on feedback in control systems, for which he coined the new word, cybernetics. Wiener was first to relate information to thermodynamic entropy, and anticipated the theory of information attributed to Claude Shannon. He also designed an early analog computer. Although they differed dramatically in both personal and mathematical outlooks, he and John von Neumann were the two key pioneers (after Turing) in computer science. Wiener applied his cybernetics to draw conclusions about human society which, unfortunately, remain largely unheeded.
Carl Ludwig Siegel (1896-1981) Germany
Carl Siegel became famous when his doctoral dissertation established a key result in Diophantine approximations. He continued with contributions to several branches of analytic and algebraic number theory, including arithmetic geometry and quadratic forms. He also did seminal work with Riemann's zeta function, Dedekind's zeta functions, transcendental number theory, discontinuous groups, the 3-body problem in celestial mechanics, and symplectic geometry. In complex analysis he developed Siegel modular forms, which have wide application in math and physics. He may share credit with Alexander Gelfond for the solution to Hilbert's 7th Problem, Siegel admired the "simplicity and honesty" of masters like Gauss, Lagrange and Hardy and lamented the modern "trend for senseless abstraction." He and Israel Gelfand were the first two winners of the Wolf Prize in Mathematics. Atle Selberg called him a "devastatingly impressive" mathematician who did things that "seemed impossible." André Weil declared that Siegel was the greatest mathematician of the first half of the 20th century.
Pavel Sergeevich Aleksandrov (1896-1962) Russia
Aleksandrov worked in set theory, metric spaces and several fields of topology, where he developed techniques of very broad application. He pioneered the studies of compact and bicompact spaces, and homology theory. He laid the groundwork for a key theorem of metrisation. His most famous theorem may be his discovery about "perfect subsets" when he was just 19 years old. Much of his work was done in collaboration with Pavel Uryson and Heinz Hopf. Aleksandrov was an important teacher; his students included Lev Pontryagin.
Emil Artin (1898-1962) Austria, Germany, U.S.A.
Artin was an important and prolific researcher in several fields of algebra, including algebraic number theory, the theory of rings, field theory, algebraic topology, Galois theory, a new method of L-series, and geometric algebra. Among his most famous theorems were Artin's Reciprocity Law, key lemmas in Galois theory, and results in his Theory of Braids. He also produced two very influential conjectures: his conjecture about the zeta function in finite fields developed into the field of arithmetic geometry; Artin's Conjecture on primitive roots inspired much work in number theory, and was later generalized to become Weil's Conjectures. He is credited with solution to Hilbert's 17th Problem and partial solution to the 9th Problem. His prize-winning students include John Tate and Serge Lang. Artin also did work in physical sciences, and was an accomplished musician.
Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1902-1984) England, U.S.A.
Dirac had a severe father and was bizarrely taciturn, but became one of the greatest mathematical physicists ever. This Nobel Prize-winner developed Fermi-Dirac statistics, applied quantum theory to field theory, predicted the existence of magnetic monopoles, and was first to note that some quantum equations lead to inexplicable infinities. His most important contribution was to combine relativity and quantum mechanics by developing, with pure thought, the Dirac Equation. From this equation, Dirac deduced the existence of anti-electrons, a prediction considered so bizarre it was ignored -- until anti-electrons were discovered in a cloud chamber four years later. Dirac's mathematical formulations, including his Equation and the Dirac-von Neumann axioms, underpin all of modern particle physics. After his great discovery, Dirac continued to do important work, some of which underlies modern string theory. He was also adept at more practical physics; although he declined an invitation to work on the Manhattan Project, he did contribute a fundamental result in centrifuge theory to that Project.
The Dirac Equation was one of the most important scientific discoveries of the 20th century, but I've left Dirac off of the Top 100 since his work didn't advance "pure" mathematics. Like many of the other greatest mathematical physicists (Kepler, Einstein, Weyl), Dirac thought the true equations of physics must have beauty, writing "... it is more important to have beauty in one's equations than to have them fit experiment ... [any discrepancy may] get cleared up with further development of the theory."
Alfred Tarski (1902-1983) Poland, U.S.A.
Alfred Tarski (born Alfred Tajtelbaum) was one of the greatest and most prolific logicians ever, but also made advances in set theory, measure theory, topology, algebra, group theory, computability theory, metamathematics, and geometry. He was also acclaimed as a teacher. Although he achieved fame at an early age with the Banach-Tarski Paradox, his greatest achievements were in formal logic. He wrote on the definition of truth, developed model theory, and investigated the completeness questions which also intrigued Gödel. He proved several important systems to be incomplete, but also established completeness results for real arithmetic and geometry. His most famous result may be Tarski's Undefinability Theorem, which is related to Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem but more powerful. Several other theorems, theories and paradoxes are named after Tarski including Tarski-Grothendieck Set Theory, Tarski's Fixed-Point Theorem of lattice theory (from which the famous Cantor-Bernstein Theorem is a simple corollary), and a new derivation of the Axiom of Choice (which Lebesgue refused to publish because "an implication between two false propositions is of no interest"). Tarski was first to enunciate the remarkable fact that the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis implies the Axiom of Choice, although proof had to wait for Sierpinski. Tarski's other notable accomplishments include his cylindrical algebra, ordinal algebra, universal algebra, and an elegant and novel axiomatic basis of geometry.
John von Neumann (1903-1957) Hungary, U.S.A.
John von Neumann (born Neumann Janos Lajos) was a childhood prodigy who could do very complicated mental arithmetic at an early age. As an adult he was noted for hedonism and reckless driving but also became one of the most prolific geniuses in history, making major contributions in many branches of both pure and applied mathematics. He was an essential pioneer of both quantum physics and computer science.
Von Neumann pioneered the use of models in set theory, thus improving the axiomatic basis of mathematics. He proved a generalized spectral theorem sometimes called the most important result in operator theory. He developed von Neumann Algebras. He was first to state and prove the Minimax Theorem and thus invented game theory; this work also advanced operations research; and led von Neumann to propose the Doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction which was a basis for Cold War strategy. He invented cellular automata, famously constructing a self-reproducing automaton. He invented elegant definitions for the counting numbers (0 = {}, n+1 = n ∪ {n}). He also worked in analysis, matrix theory, measure theory, numerical analysis, ergodic theory, group representations, continuous geometry, statistics and topology. Von Neumann discovered an ingenious area-conservation paradox related to the famous Banach-Tarski volume-conservation paradox. He inspired some of Gödel's famous work (and independently proved Gödel's Second Theorem). He is credited with (partial) solution to Hilbert's 5th Problem using the Haar Theorem; this also relates to quantum physics. George Pólya once said "Johnny was the only student I was ever afraid of. If in the course of a lecture I stated an unsolved problem, the chances were he'd come to me as soon as the lecture was over, with the complete solution in a few scribbles on a slip of paper."
Von Neumann did very important work in fields other than pure mathematics. By treating the universe as a very high-dimensional phase space, he constructed an elegant mathematical basis (now called von Neumann algebras) for the principles of quantum physics. He advanced philosophical questions about time and logic in modern physics. He played key roles in the design of conventional, nuclear and thermonuclear bombs; he also advanced the theory of hydrodynamics. He applied game theory and Brouwer's Fixed-Point Theorem to economics, becoming a major figure in that field. His contributions to computer science are many: in addition to co-inventing the stored-program computer, he was first to use pseudo-random number generation, finite element analysis, the merge-sort algorithm, and a "biased coin" algorithm. By implementing wide-number software he joined several other great mathematicians (Archimedes, Apollonius, Liu Hui, Hipparchus, Madhava, and (by proxy), Ramanujan) in producing the best approximation to π of his time. At the time of his death, von Neumann was working on a theory of the human brain.
Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov (1903-1987) Russia
Kolmogorov had a powerful intellect and excelled in many fields. As a youth he dazzled his teachers by constructing toys that appeared to be "Perpetual Motion Machines." At the age of 19, he achieved fame by finding a Fourier series that diverges almost everywhere, and decided to devote himself to mathematics. He is considered the founder of the fields of intuitionistic logic, algorithmic complexity theory, and (by applying measure theory) modern probability theory. He also excelled in topology, set theory, trigonometric series, and random processes. He and his student Vladimir Arnold proved the surprising Superposition Theorem, which not only solved Hilbert's 13th Problem, but went far beyond it. He and Arnold also developed the "magnificent" Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser (KAM) Theorem, which quantifies how strong a perturbation must be to upset a quasiperiodic dynamical system. Kolmogorov's axioms of probability are considered a partial solution of Hilbert's 6th Problem. He made important contributions to the constructivist ideas of Kronecker and Brouwer. While Kolmogorov's work in probability theory had direct applications to physics, Kolmogorov also did work in physics directly, especially the study of turbulence. There are dozens of notions named after Kolmogorov, such as the Kolmogorov Backward Equation, the Chapman-Kolmogorov equations, the Borel-Kolmogorov Paradox, and the intriguing Zero-One Law of "tail events" among random variables.
Henri Paul Cartan (1904-2008) France
Henri Cartan, son of the great Élie Cartan, is particularly noted for his work in algebraic topology, and analytic functions; but also worked with sheaves, and many other areas of mathematics. He was a key member of the Bourbaki circle. (That circle was led by Weil, emphasized rigor, produced important texts, and introduced terms like in-, sur-, and bi-jection, as well as the Ø symbol.) Working with Samuel Eilenberg (also a Bourbakian), Cartan advanced the theory of homological algebra. He is most noted for his many contributions to the theory of functions of several complex variables. Henri Cartan was an important influence on Grothendieck and others, and an excellent teacher; his students included Jean-Pierre Serre.
Kurt Gödel (1906-1978) Germany, U.S.A.
Gödel, who had the nickname Herr Warum ("Mr. Why") as a child, was perhaps the foremost logic theorist ever, clarifying the relationships between various modes of logic. He partially resolved both Hilbert's 1st and 2nd Problems, the latter with a proof so remarkable that it was connected to the drawings of Escher and music of Bach in the title of a famous book. He was a close friend of Albert Einstein, and was first to discover "paradoxical" solutions (e.g. time travel) to Einstein's equations. About his friend, Einstein later said that he had remained at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study merely "to have the privilege of walking home with Gödel." (Like a few of the other greatest 20th-century mathematicians, Gödel was very eccentric.)
Two of the major questions confronting mathematics are: (1) are its axioms consistent (its theorems all being true statements)?, and (2) are its axioms complete (its true statements all being theorems)? Gödel turned his attention to these fundamental questions. He proved that first-order logic was indeed complete, but that the more powerful axiom systems needed for arithmetic (constructible set theory) were necessarily incomplete. He also proved that the Axioms of Choice (AC) and the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis (GCH) were consistent with set theory, but that set theory's own consistency could not be proven. He may have established that the truths of AC and GCH were independent of the usual set theory axioms, but the proof was left to Paul Cohen.
In Gödel's famous proof of Incompleteness, he exhibits a true statement (G) which cannot be proven, to wit "G (this statement itself) cannot be proven." If G could be proven it would be a contradictory true statement, so consistency dictates that it indeed cannot be proven. But that's what G says, so G is true! This sounds like mere word play, but building from ordinary logic and arithmetic Gödel was able to construct statement G rigorously.
André Weil (1906-1998) France, U.S.A.
Weil made profound contributions to several areas of mathematics, especially algebraic geometry, which he showed to have deep connections with number theory. His Weil conjectures were very influential; these and other works laid the groundwork for some of Grothendieck's work. Weil proved a special case of the Riemann Hypothesis; he contributed, at least indirectly, to the recent proof of Fermat's Last Theorem; he also worked in group theory, general and algebraic topology, differential geometry, sheaf theory, representation theory, and theta functions. He invented several new concepts including vector bundles, and uniform space. His work has found applications in particle physics and string theory. He is considered to be one of the most influential of modern mathematicians.
Weil's biography is interesting. He studied Sanskrit as a child, loved to travel, taught at a Muslim university in India for two years (intending to teach French civilization), wrote as a young man under the famous pseudonym Nicolas Bourbaki, spent time in prison during World War II as a Jewish objector, was almost executed as a spy, escaped to America, and eventually joined Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies. He once wrote: "Every mathematician worthy of the name has experienced [a] lucid exaltation in which one thought succeeds another as if miraculously."
Shiing-Shen Chern (1911-2004) China, U.S.A.
Shiing-Shen Chern (Chen Xingshen) studied under Élie Cartan, and became perhaps the greatest master of differential geometry. He is especially noted for his work in algebraic geometry, topology and fiber bundles, developing his Chern characters (in a paper with "a tremendous number of geometrical jewels"), developing Chern-Weil theory, the Chern-Simons invariants, and especially for his brilliant generalization of the Gauss-Bonnet Theorem to multiple dimensions. His work had a major influence in several fields of modern mathematics as well as gauge theories of physics. Chern was an important influence in China and a highly renowned and successful teacher: one of his students (Yau) won the Fields Medal, another (Yang) the Nobel Prize in physics. Chern himself was the first Asian to win the prestigious Wolf Prize.
Alan Mathison Turing (1912-1954) Britain
Turing developed a new foundation for mathematics based on computation; he invented the abstract Turing machine, designed a "universal" version of such a machine, proved the famous Halting Theorem (related to Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem), and developed the concept of machine intelligence (including his famous Turing Test proposal). He also introduced the notions of definable number and oracle (important in modern computer science), and was an early pioneer in the study of neural networks. For this work he is called the Father of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. Turing also worked in group theory, numerical analysis, and complex analysis; he developed an important theorem about Riemann's zeta function; he had novel insights in quantum physics. During World War II he turned his talents to cryptology; his creative algorithms were considered possibly "indispensable" to the decryption of German Naval Enigma coding, which in turn is judged to have certainly shortened the War by at least two years. Although his clever code-breaking algorithms were his most spectacular contributions at Bletchley Park, he was also a key designer of the Bletchley "Bombe" computer. After the war he helped design other physical computers, as well as theoretical designs; and helped inspire von Neumann's later work. He (and earlier, von Neumann) wrote about the Quantum Zeno Effect which is sometimes called the Turing Paradox. He also studied the mathematics of biology, especially the Turing Patterns of morphogenesis which anticipated the discovery of BZ reactions. Turing's life ended tragically: charged with immorality and forced to undergo chemical castration, he apparently took his own life. With his outstanding depth and breadth, Alan Turing would qualify for our list in any event, but his decisive contribution to the war against Hitler gives him unusually strong historic importance.
Paul Erdös (1913-1996) Hungary, U.S.A., Israel, etc.
Erdös was a childhood prodigy who became a famous (and famously eccentric) mathematician. He is best known for work in combinatorics (especially Ramsey Theory) and partition calculus, but made contributions across a very broad range of mathematics, including graph theory, analytic number theory, probabilistic methods, and approximation theory. He is regarded as the second most prolific mathematician in history, behind only Euler. Although he is widely regarded as an important and influential mathematician, Erdös founded no new field of mathematics: He was a "problem solver" rather than a "theory developer." He's left us several still-unproven intriguing conjectures, e.g. that 4/n = 1/x + 1/y + 1/z has positive-integer solutions for any n.
Erdös liked to speak of "God's Book of Proofs" and discovered new, more elegant, proofs of several existing theorems, including the two most famous and important about prime numbers: Chebyshev's Theorem that there is always a prime between any n and 2n, and (though the major contributor was Atle Selberg) Hadamard's Prime Number Theorem itself. He also proved many new theorems, such as the Erdös-Szekeres Theorem about monotone subsequences with its elegant (if trivial) pigeonhole-principle proof.
Samuel Eilenberg (1913-1998) Poland, U.S.A.
Eilenberg is considered a founder of category theory, but also worked in algebraic topology, automata theory and other areas. He coined several new terms including functor, category, and natural isomorphism. Several other concepts are named after him, e.g. a proof method called the Eilenberg telescope or Eilenberg-Mazur Swindle. He worked on cohomology theory, homological algebra, etc. By using his category theory and axioms of homology, he unified and revolutionized topology. Most of his work was done in collaboration with others, e.g. Henri Cartan; but he also single-authored an important text laying a mathematical foundation for theories of computation and language. Sammy Eilenberg was also a noted art collector.
Israel Moiseevich Gelfand (1913-2009) Russia
Gelfand was a brilliant and important mathematician of outstanding breadth with a huge number of theorems and discoveries. He was a key figure of functional analysis and integral geometry; he pioneered representation theory, important to modern physics; he also worked in many fields of analysis, soliton theory, distribution theory, index theory, Banach algebra, cohomology, etc. He made advances in physics and biology as well as mathematics. He won the Order of Lenin three times and several prizes from Western countries. Considered one of the two greatest Russian mathematicians of the 20th century, the two were compared with "[arriving in a mountainous country] Kolmogorov would immediately try to climb the highest mountain; Gelfand would immediately start to build roads." In old age Israel Gelfand emigrated to the U.S.A. as a professor, and won a MacArthur Fellowship.
Claude Elwood Shannon (1916-2001) U.S.A.
Shannon's initial fame was for a paper called "possibly the most important master's thesis of the century." That paper founded digital circuit design theory by proving that universal computation was achieved with an ensemble of switches and boolean gates. He also worked with analog computers, theoretical genetics, and sampling and communication theories. Early in his career Shannon was fortunate to work with several other great geniuses including Weyl, Turing, Gödel and even Einstein; this may have stimulated him toward a broad range of interests and expertise. He was an important and prolific inventor, discovering signal-flow graphs, the topological gain formula, etc.; but also inventing the first wearable computer (to time roulette wheels in Las Vegas casinos), a chess-playing algorithm, a flame-throwing trumpet, and whimsical robots (e.g. a "mouse" that navigated a maze). His hobbies included juggling, unicycling, blackjack card-counting. His investigations into gambling theory led to new approaches to the stock market.
Shannon worked in cryptography during World War II; he was first to note that a one-time pad allowed unbreakable encryption as long as the pad was as large as the message; he is also noted for Shannon's maxim that a code designer should assume the enemy knows the system. His insights into cryptology eventually led to information theory, or the mathematical theory of communication, in which Shannon established the relationships among bits, entropy, power and noise. It is as the Founder of Information Theory that Shannon has become immortal.
Atle Selberg (1917-2007) Norway, U.S.A.
Selberg may be the greatest analytic number theorist ever. He also did important work in Fourier spectral theory, lattice theory (e.g. introducing and partially proving the conjecture that "all lattices are arithmetic"), and the theory of automorphic forms, where he introduced Selberg's Trace Formula. He developed a very important result in analysis called the Selberg Integral. Other Selberg techniques of general utility include mollification, sieve theory, and the Rankin-Selberg method. These have inspired other mathematicians, e.g. contributing to Deligne's proof of the Weil conjectures. Selberg is also famous for ground-breaking work on Riemann's Hypothesis, and the first "elementary" proof of the Prime Number Theorem.
Jean-Pierre Serre (1926-) France
Serre did important work with spectral sequences and algebraic methods, revolutionizing the study of algebraic topology and algebraic geometry, especially homotopy groups and sheaves. Hermann Weyl praised Serre's work strongly, saying it gave an important new algebraic basis to analysis. He collaborated with Grothendieck and Pierre Deligne, helped resolve the Weil conjectures, and contributed indirectly to the recent proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. His wide range of research areas also includes number theory, bundles, fibrations, p-adic modular forms, Galois representation theory, and more. Serre has been much honored: he is the youngest ever to win a Fields Medal; 49 years after his Fields Medal he became the first recipient of the Abel Prize.
Alexandre Grothendieck (1928-2014) Germany, France
Grothendieck has done brilliant work in several areas of mathematics including number theory, geometry, topology, and functional analysis, but especially in the fields of algebraic geometry and category theory, both of which he revolutionized. He is especially noted for his invention of the Theory of Schemes, and other methods to unify different branches of mathematics. He applied algebraic geometry to number theory; applied methods of topology to set theory; etc. Grothendieck is considered a master of abstraction, rigor and presentation. He has produced many important and deep results in homological algebra, most notably his etale cohomology. With these new methods, Grothendieck and his outstanding student Pierre Deligne were able to prove the Weil Conjectures. Grothendieck also developed the theory of sheafs, the theory of motives, generalized the Riemann-Roch Theorem to revolutionize K-theory, developed Grothendieck categories, crystalline cohomology, infinity-stacks and more. The guiding principle behind much of Grothendieck's work has been Topos Theory, which he invented to harness the methods of topology. These methods and results have redirected several diverse branches of modern mathematics including number theory, algebraic topology, and representation theory. Among Grothendieck's famous results was his Fundamental Theorem in the Metric Theory of Tensor Products, which was inspired by Littlewood's proof of the 4/3 Inequality.
Grothendieck's radical religious and political philosophies led him to retire from public life while still in his prime, but he is widely regarded as the greatest mathematician of the 20th century, and indeed one of the greatest geniuses ever.
Lennart Axel Edvard Carleson (1928-) Sweden
Carleson is a master of complex analysis, especially harmonic analysis, and dynamical systems; he proved many difficult and important theorems; among these are a theorem about quasiconformal mapping extension, a technique to construct higher dimensional strange attractors, and the famous Kakutani Corona Conjecture, whose proof brought Carleson great fame. For the Corona proof he introduced Carleson measures, one of several useful tools he's created for his masterful proofs. In 1966, four years after proving Kakutani's Conjecture, he proved the 53-year old Luzin's Conjecture, a strong statement about Fourier convergence. This was startling because of a 38-year old conjecture suggested by Kolmogorov that Luzin's Conjecture was false.
Michael Francis (Sir) Atiyah (1929-) Britain
Atiyah's career has had extraordinary breadth and depth. He advanced the theory of vector bundles; this developed into topological K-theory and the Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem. This Index Theorem is considered one of the most far-reaching theorems ever, subsuming famous old results (Descartes' total angular defect, Euler's topological characteristic), important 19th-century theorems (Gauss-Bonnet, Riemann-Roch), and incorporating important work by Weil and especially Shiing-Shen Chern. It is a key to the study of high-dimension spaces, differential geometry, and equation solving. Several other key results are named after Atiyah, e.g. the Atiyah-Bott Fixed-Point Theorem, the Atiyah-Segal Completion Theorem, and the Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence. Atiyah's work developed important connections not only between topology and analysis, but with modern physics; Atiyah himself has been a key figure in the development of string theory. This work, and Atiyah-inspired work in gauge theory, restored a close relationship between leading edge research in mathematics and physics. Atiyah is known as a vivacious genius in person, inspiring many, e.g. Edward Witten. Along with Serre, Atiyah is often considered to be one of the very greatest living mathematicians.
Atiyah once said a mathematician must sometimes "freely float in the atmosphere like a poet and imagine the whole universe of possibilities, and hope that eventually you come down to Earth somewhere else."
John Willard Milnor (1931-) U.S.A.
Milnor has made major advances in topology (especially differential topology), algebraic geometry, and dynamical systems. He discovered Milnor maps (related to fiber bundles); important theorems in knot theory; the Duality Theorem for Reidemeister Torsion; the Milnor Attractors of dynamical systems; a new elegant proof of Brouwer's "Hairy Ball" Theorem; and much more. He is especially famous for two counterexamples which each revolutionized topology. His "exotic" 7-dimensional hyperspheres gave the first examples of homeomorphic manifolds that were not also diffeomorphic, and developed the fields of differential topology and surgery theory. Milnor invented certain high-dimensional polyhedra to disprove the Hauptvermutung ("main conjecture") of geometric topology. While most famous for his exotic counterexamples, his revolutionary insights into dynamical systems have important value to practical applied mathematics. Although Milnor has been called the "Wizard of Higher Dimensions," his work in dynamics began with novel insights into very low-dimensional systems.
As Fields, Presidential and (twice) Putnam Medalist, as well as winner of the Abel, Wolf and two Steele Prizes; Milnor can be considered the most "decorated" mathematician of the modern era.
Robert Phelan Langlands (1936-) Canada, U.S.A.
Langlands started by studying semigroups and partial differential equations but soon switched his attention to representation theory where he found deep connections between group theory and automorphic forms; he then used these connections to make profound discoveries in number theory. Langlands' methods, collectively called the Langlands Program, are now central to all of these fields. The Langlands Dual Group LG revolutionized representation theory and led to a large number of conjectures. One of these conjectures is the Principle of Functoriality, of which a partial proof allowed Langlands to prove a famous conjecture of Artin, and Wiles to prove Fermat's Last Theorem. Langlands and others have applied these methods to prove several other old conjectures, and to formulate new more powerful conjectures. He has also worked with Eisenstein series, L-functions, Lie groups, percolation theory, etc. He mentored several important mathematicians (including Thomas Hales, mentioned briefly in Pappus' mini-bio).
Langlands once wrote "Certainly the best times were when I was alone with mathematics, free of ambition and pretense, and indifferent to the world." He was appointed Hermann Weyl Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study and now sits in the office once occupied by Albert Einstein. This seems appropriate since, as the man "who reinvented mathematics," his advances have sometimes been compared to Einstein's.
John Horton Conway (1937-) Britain, U.S.A.
Conway has done pioneering work in a very broad range of mathematics including knot theory, number theory, group theory, lattice theory, combinatorial game theory, geometry, quaternions, tilings, and cellular automaton theory. He started his career by proving a case of Waring's Problem, but achieved fame when he discovered the largest then-known sporadic group (the symmetry group of the Leech lattice); this sporadic group is now known to be second in size only to the Monster Group, with which Conway also worked. Conway's fertile creativity has produced a cornucopia of fascinating inventions: markable straight-edge construction of the regular heptagon (a feat also achieved by Alhazen, Thabit, Vieta and perhaps Archimedes), a nowhere-continuous function that has the Intermediate Value property, the Conway box function, the aperiodic pinwheel tiling, a representation of symmetric polyhedra, the silly but elegant Fractran programming language, his chained-arrow notation for large numbers, and many results and conjectures in recreational mathematics. He found the simplest proof for Morley's Trisector Theorem (sometimes called the best result in simple plane geometry since ancient Greece). He proved an unusual theorem about quantum physics: "If experimenters have free will, then so do elementary particles." His most famous construction is the computationally complete automaton known as the Game of Life. His most important theoretical invention, however, may be his surreal numbers incorporating infinitesimals; he invented them to solve combinatorial games like Go, but they have pure mathematical significance as the largest possible ordered field.
Conway's great creativity and breadth certainly make him one of the greatest living mathematicians. Conway has won the Nemmers Prize in Mathematics, and was first winner of the Pólya Prize.
Mikhael Leonidovich Gromov (1943-) Russia, France
Gromov is considered one of the greatest geometers ever, but he has a unique "soft" approach to geometry which leads to applications in other fields: Gromov has contributed to group theory, partial differential equations, other areas of analysis and algebra, and even mathematical biology. He is especially famous for his pseudoholomorphic curves; they revolutionized the study of symplectic manifolds and are important in string theory. By applying his geometric ideas to all areas of mathematics, Gromov has become one of the most influential living mathematicians. He has proved a very wide variety of theorems: important results about groups of polynomial growth, theorems essential to Perelman's proof of the Poincaré conjecture, the nonsqueezing theorem of Hamiltonian mechanics, theorems of systolic geometry, and various inequalities and compactness theorems. Several concepts are named after him, including Gromov-Hausdorff convergence, Gromov-Witten invariants, Gromov's random groups, Gromov product, etc.
Pierre René Deligne (1944-) Belgium, France, U.S.A.
Using new ideas about cohomology, in 1974 Pierre Deligne stunned the world of mathematics with a spectacular proof of the Weil conjectures. Proof of these conjectures, which were key to further progress in algebraic geometry, had eluded the great Alexandre Grothendieck. With his "unparalleled blend of penetrating insights, fearless technical mastery and dazzling ingenuity," Deligne made other important contributions to a broad range of mathematics in addition to algebraic geometry, including algebraic and analytic number theory, topology, group theory, the Langlands conjectures, Grothendieck's theory of motives, and Hodge theory. Deligne also found a partial solution of Hilbert's 21st Problem. Several ideas are named after him including Deligne-Lusztig theory, Deligne-Mumford stacks, Fourier-Deligne transform, the Langlands-Deligne local constant, Deligne cohomology, and at least eight distinct conjectures.
Terence Chi-Shen Tao (1975-) Australia, U.S.A.
Tao was a phenomenal child prodigy who has become perhaps the greatest living mathematician. He has made important contributions to partial differential equations, combinatorics, harmonic analysis, number theory, group theory, model theory, nonstandard analysis, random matrices, the geometry of 3-manifolds, functional analysis, ergodic theory, etc. and areas of applied math including quantum mechanics, general relativity, and image processing. He has been called the first since David Hilbert to be expert across the entire spectrum of mathematics. Among his earliest important discoveries were results about the multi-dimensional Kakeya needle problem, which led to advances in Fourier analysis and fractals. In addition to his numerous research papers he has written many highly regarded textbooks. One of his prize citations commends his "sheer technical power, his other-worldly ingenuity for hitting upon new ideas, and a startlingly natural point of view."
Much of Tao's work has been done in collaboration: for example with Van Vu he proved the circular law of random matrices; with Ben Green he proved the Dirac-Motzkin conjecture and solved the "orchard-planting problem." Especially famous is the Green-Tao Theorem that there are arbitrarily long arithmetic series among the prime numbers (or indeed among any sufficiently dense subset of the primes). This confirmed an old conjecture by Lagrange, and was especially remarkable because the proof fused methods from number theory, ergodic theory, harmonic analysis, discrete geometry, and combinatorics.
| George Boole |
Which was the only one of the four 'Grand Slam' Tennis titles that Bjorn Borg did not win? | Boole biography
Version for printing
George Boole's parents were Mary Ann Joyce and John Boole. John made shoes but he was interested in science and in particular the application of mathematics to scientific instruments. Mary Ann was a lady's maid and she married John on 14 September 1806. They moved to Lincoln where John opened a cobbler's shop at 34 Silver Street. The family were not well off, partly because John's love of science and mathematics meant that he did not devote the energy to developing his business in the way he might have done. George, their first child, was born after Mary Ann and John had been married for nine years. They had almost given up hope of having children after this time so it was an occasion for great rejoicing. George was christened the day after he was born, an indication that he was a weak child that his parents feared might not live. He was named after John's father who had died in April 1815. Over the next five years Mary Ann and John had three further children, Mary Ann, William and Charles.
If George was a weak child after his birth, he certainly soon became strong and healthy. George first attended a school in Lincoln for children of tradesmen run by two Misses Clarke when he was less than two years old. After a year he went to a commercial school run by Mr Gibson, a friend of John Boole, where he remained until he was seven years old. His early instruction in mathematics, however, was from his father who also gave George a liking for constructing optical instruments. When he was seven George attended a primary school where he was taught by Mr Reeves. His interests turned to languages and his father arranged that he receive instruction in Latin from a local bookseller.
Having learnt Latin from a tutor, George went on to teach himself Greek. By the age of 14 he had become so skilled in Greek that it provoked an argument. He translated a poem by the Greek poet Meleager which his father was so proud of that he had it published. However the talent was such that a local schoolmaster disputed that any 14 year old could have written with such depth. By this time George was attending Bainbridge's Commercial Academy in Lincoln which he had entered on 10 September 1828. This school did not provide the type of education he would have wished but it was all his parents could afford. However he was able to teach himself French and German studying for himself academic subjects that a commercial school did not cover.
Boole did not study for an academic degree, but from the age of 16 he was an assistant school teacher at Heigham's School in Doncaster. This was rather forced on him since his father's business collapsed and he found himself having to support financially his parents, brothers and sister. He maintained his interest in languages, began to study mathematics seriously, and gave up ideas which he had to enter the Church. The first advanced mathematics book he read was Lacroix 's Differential and integral calculus. He was later to realise that he had almost wasted five years in trying to teach himself the subject instead of having a skilled teacher. In 1833 he moved to a new teaching position in Liverpool but he only remained there for six months before moving to Hall's Academy in Waddington, four miles from Lincoln. In 1834 he opened his own school in Lincoln although he was only 19 years old.
In 1838 Robert Hall, who had run Hall's Academy in Waddington, died and Boole was invited to take over the school which he did. His parents, brothers and sister moved to Waddington and together they ran the school which had both boarding and day pupils. At this time Boole was studying the works of Laplace and Lagrange , making notes which would later be the basis for his first mathematics paper. However he did receive encouragement from Duncan Gregory who at this time was in Cambridge and the editor of the recently founded Cambridge Mathematical Journal. Boole was unable to take Duncan Gregory 's advice and study courses at Cambridge as he required the income from his school to look after his parents. In the summer of 1840 he had opened a boarding school in Lincoln and again the whole family had moved with him. He began publishing regularly in the Cambridge Mathematical Journal and his interests were influenced by Duncan Gregory as he began to study algebra.
Boole had begun to correspond with De Morgan in 1842 and when in the following year he wrote a paper On a general method of analysis applying algebraic methods to the solution of differential equations he sent it to De Morgan for comments. It was published by Boole in the Transactions of the Royal Society in 1844 and for this work he received the Society's Royal Medal in November 1844. His mathematical work was beginning to bring him fame.
Boole was appointed to the chair of mathematics at Queens College, Cork in 1849. In fact he made an application for a chair in any of the new Queen's Colleges of Ireland in 1846 and in September of that year De Morgan , Kelland , Cayley , and Thomson were among those writing testimonials in support. De Morgan wrote (see for example [ 7 ]):-
I can speak confidently to the fact of his being not only well-versed in the highest branches of mathematics, but possessed of original power for their extension which gives him a very respectable rank among their English cultivators of this day.
Kelland wrote:-
From the originality of his conceptions and the extent and accuracy of his knowledge, I conceive he has few superiors in Europe ...
Boole's father died in December 1848 before the decision had been made concerning the Irish chairs but an announcement came in August 1849 that Boole was to become the first Professor of Mathematics at Queen's College, Cork, and he took up the position in November. He taught there for the rest of his life, gaining a reputation as an outstanding and dedicated teacher. However the position was not without difficulty as the College became embroiled in religious disputes. Boole wrote to De Morgan on 17 October 1850 (see for example [ 7 ]):-
... if you should hear of any situation in England that would be likely to suit me ... let me know of it. I am not terrified by the storm of religious bigotry which is at this moment raging round us here. I am not dissatisfied with my duties and I may venture to say that I am on good terms with my colleagues and with my pupils. But I cannot help entertaining a feeling ... that recent events in this College have laid the foundation of a lack of mutual trust and confidence among us ...
In May 1851 Boole was elected as Dean of Science, a role he carried out conscientiously. By this time he had already met Mary Everest (a niece of Sir George Everest, after whom the mountain is named) whose uncle was the professor of Greek at Cork and a friend of Boole. They met first in 1850 when Mary visited her uncle in Cork and again in July 1852 when Boole visited the Everest family in Wickwar, Gloucestershire, England. Boole began to give Mary informal mathematics lessons on the differential calculus. At this time he was 37 years old while Mary was only 20. In 1855 Mary's father died leaving her without means of support and Boole proposed marriage. They married on 11 September 1855 at a small ceremony in Wickwar. It proved a very happy marriage with five daughters: Mary Ellen born in 1856, Margaret born in 1858, Alicia (later Alicia Stott ) born in 1860, Lucy Everest born in 1862, and Ethel Lilian born in 1864. MacHale writes [ 7 ]:-
The large gap in their ages seemed to count for nothing because they were kindred spirits with an almost complete unity of purpose.
Let us now look at Boole's most important work. In 1854 he published An investigation into the Laws of Thought, on Which are founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities. Boole approached logic in a new way reducing it to a simple algebra, incorporating logic into mathematics. He pointed out the analogy between algebraic symbols and those that represent logical forms. It began the algebra of logic called Boolean algebra which now finds application in computer construction, switching circuits etc. Boole himself understood the importance of the work. He wrote in a letter to Thomson dated 2 January 1851 (see for example [ 7 ]):-
I am now about to set seriously to work upon preparing for the press an account of my theory of Logic and Probabilities which in its present state I look upon as the most valuable if not the only valuable contribution that I have made or am likely to make to Science and the thing by which I would desire if at all to be remembered hereafter ...
Boole also worked on differential equations, the influential Treatise on Differential Equations appeared in 1859, the calculus of finite differences, Treatise on the Calculus of Finite Differences (1860), and general methods in probability . He published around 50 papers and was one of the first to investigate the basic properties of numbers, such as the distributive property, that underlie the subject of algebra.
Many honours were given to Boole as the genius in his work was recognised. He received honorary degrees from the universities of Dublin and Oxford and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (1857). However his career, which was started rather late, came to an unfortunately early end when he died at the age of 49. The circumstances are described by Macfarlane in [ 18 ] as follows:-
One day in 1864 he walked from his residence to the College, a distance of two miles, in the drenching rain, and lectured in wet clothes. The result was a feverish cold which soon fell upon his lungs and terminated his career ....
What Macfarlane fails to say is that Boole's wife believed that a remedy should resemble the cause. She put Boole to bed and threw buckets of water over the bed since his illness had been caused by getting wet.
Hirst described Boole as:-
... evidently an earnest able and at the same time a genial man.
His work was praised by De Morgan who said:-
Boole's system of logic is but one of many proofs of genius and patience combined. ... That the symbolic processes of algebra, invented as tools of numerical calculation, should be competent to express every act of thought, and to furnish the grammar and dictionary of an all-containing system of logic, would not have been believed until it was proved. When Hobbes ... published his "Computation or Logique" he had a remote glimpse of some of the points which are placed in the light of day by Mr Boole.
Boolean algebra has wide applications in telephone switching and the design of modern computers. Boole's work has to be seen as a fundamental step in today's computer revolution.
Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
Click on this link to see a list of the Glossary entries for this page
| i don't know |
Which Merchant Ivory film, based on an acclaimed novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, tells the story of 'Mr. Stevens', the butler at 'Darlington Hall'? | Delicate masterpiece: Reading Kazuo Ishiguro’s “The Remains of the Day.” – www.seanmunger.com
Posted on May 1, 2016 by Sean Munger in Books , Spotlight // 1 Comment
The 1993 Merchant-Ivory film Remains of the Day, starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, is my favorite movie of all time. About two years ago I wrote a blog, one of my personal favorites, about how it came to be so . You might be surprised that with as many times as I’ve seen the film, I had never read the highly-regarded novel it was based on, by Japanese-born British author Kazuo Ishiguro. I finally rectified that. Not long ago I found a used paperback copy of the book, and last night I finished reading it. It was an absolutely magical experience and reminded me of why I love books so much in the first place. And, far from sparking a comparison in my head (which might otherwise seem inevitable) about which was “better,” the movie or the book, I discovered that the two media complement each other in unexpected and fascinating ways. Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day is a wonderfully delicate masterpiece and one that everybody should read.
The novel, which is really not very long, opens at Darlington Hall, a stately old English manor home, in July 1956. The narrative is the first-person story of Stevens–his first name is never revealed–who has for decades been the head butler at Darlington Hall. The estate, now unprofitable, has been purchased by Mr. Faraday, an American millionaire. As Farraday prepares to go out of town he tells Stevens he can take the car and go on a trip for a few days if he likes. Stevens seizes the opportunity to travel to the West Country of England to look up a former employee, Miss Kenton (now Mrs. Benn), who wrote Stevens a letter containing what he believes to be cryptic clues that she may want to return to her old employment after nearly 20 years away. The book follows Stevens on his six-day trip, during which he reminisces about the old days at Darlington Hall before World War II, and especially his relationship with Miss Kenton–who he seems to have fallen in love with, though neither of them expressed their feelings for each other.
The 1993 film version of The Remains of the Day is overall a pretty faithful adaptation of the book. Anthony Hopkins portrays Stevens, in one of his most memorable roles.
The structure of the novel is masterful. The chapters are organized around Stevens’s trip through the country, exposing us to various sleepy little villages in the English countryside and their citizens, from whom Stevens–who has spent most of his adult life at Darlington Hall–feels quite aloof. The tour is a springboard for his free-floating memories of his lifetime of service to Lord Darlington, who turns out in later years to be a Nazi sympathizer. Stevens’s preoccupation is the concept of “dignity” which he believes is the key to being a good butler. The narrative consumes numerous pages if Stevens’s thought processes as he tries to define what “dignity” is, studded with examples from his own life. As it turns out (spoilers, obviously) it is this exact concept of “dignity” that’s what prevented Stevens from acting on his feelings for Miss Kenton. The central conflict of the novel is thus Stevens’s troubled relationship with this concept: he wants to embrace it and perfect it to be good at his job and thus validate his self-worth, but the same concept ultimately costs him his happiness. He only realizes this at the end, as Miss Kenton/Mrs. Benn declines to return to employment at Darlington Hall.
One of the book’s fascinating elements, something that’s not even attempted in the movie, is that Stevens is an “unreliable narrator.” Early on he mentions that mistakes are being made in the operation and service at Darlington Hall, which he chalks up to a bad “staff plan”; this is in fact the reason he seeks out Miss Kenton. One of his reminiscences involves his father, who briefly worked at Darlington Hall in the early 1920s, but who began making mistakes due to increasing age and infirmity and eventually had a stroke on the job. Only later in the book do we, the readers, begin to realize that the mistakes Stevens says are now (1956) happening at Darlington Hall are being made by him–what happened to his father is now happening to him, and he refuses to acknowledge it. Stevens’s blind devotion to Lord Darlington, whom the reader soon realizes is a gullible fool, is explained quite rationally–except the reality is different. Indeed Stevens’s whole vision of his own life appears to be quite skewed from what it really was. The way Ishiguro writes these subtle clues is wonderful and fascinating. A lesser writer would have beaten us over the head with them. Here, it’s understated.
Dyrham Park, a stately English manor, is similar to the kind of estate the fictional Darlington Hall is supposed to be in the novel. This location was used as Darlington Hall in the film version.
This is, I think, the chief difference between the novel and the movie. The film version is much more literal: it shows what actually happens, and leaves the viewer to puzzle out what’s going on in the characters’ minds, especially Stevens. The novel shows us the story from a subjective viewpoint. The film also spends much more time on the Miss Kenton relationship than the book does. Certain things are also compressed: characters in the movie are composites, and the time frame is compressed; the movie deals principally with events in the late 1930s, while the time span of Stevens’ reminiscences in the book begins 15 years earlier. Both have a great richness to them, but the brilliance of the movie is that it captures the subtlety and the delicate fragility of Ishiguro’s story. I think I will love the movie version even more the next time I see it as a result of having read the book.
The Remains of the Day, published in 1989, is truly one of the great novels in the English language in the past three decades. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. Great writing, fascinating characters and a beautiful setting all combine into a masterwork of storytelling. Books don’t get much better than this.
The header photo is by me, depicting the cover of the 1999 Faber & Faber paperback edition of The Remains of the Day.
Share this:
| The Remains of the Day |
Also going by the name of Talmadge Hayer and his chosen Islamic name, Mujahid Abdul Halim, Thomas Hagan is best known as one of the assassins of which famous person? | Reviews of The Remains of the Day Musical, Alex Loveless at the Union Theatre
Reviews of 'The Remains of the Day' Musical
an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguros masterpiece
by Alex Loveless
Songs for English reserve in The Remains of the Day
By Fiona Mountford
03.09.10
"A cursory glance at The Remains of the Day, a novel of subtlety and nuance, would suggest it is an unlikely candidate to be turned into a musical, a genre that often over-emphasises the obvious. Kazuo Ishiguros masterful study of quintessential English reserve in the first half of the last century, turned into a magnificent Merchant Ivory film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, doesnt exactly beg to have songs inserted. Yet from such seemingly unpromising source material Alex Loveless has crafted a sophisticated piece of musical theatre.
A strong sense of magisterial Darlington Hall, home of a Nazi-sympathising lord and place of work for butler Mr Stevens (Stephen Rashbrook) and housekeeper Miss Kenton (Lucy Bradshaw) is skilfully evoked in the small playing space, and director Chris Loveless captures the milieu perfectly via maids whispering in corners. The central thrust of the narrative is the years-long non-romance between the central characters, due to the obsessively decorous Stevens putting service before any vestige of a personal life.
Rashbrook gives a marvellously restrained performance that hints at the unexplored depths of Stevenss soul and he and Bradshaw, plus a top-notch ensemble, make easy work of the songs, many of which have a solemn and hymn-like feel. Its not all gloom, though, with the frothy music hall number The End of the Pier to lighten the mood. A canny West End producer could do far worse than to tweak this fine show for a transfer."
Blanche Marvin's London Theatreviews
It may be a tiny theatre but it has a giant production in this programme. It is a play with music taken from the subtle and sensitive book that was made into the most heart rending film starring Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins.
Does such a delicate story sustain the transition
absolutely. The set is amazingly captivating using the space to recreate rooms in the stately home of Darlington Hall that are not just a box set. The cast are all hand picked in both their acting singing and dancing. The adaptation flows sustaining the mood of the times with music that is melodic in its songs yet lively enough for the dancing and jolly enough in the music hall rendition of The End of the Pier. It is all woven together in fluid strokes. The staging is inventive, abounding with whispering servants and the lovers that never come to be
Stephen Rashbrook as Stevens, Lucy Bradshaw as Miss Kenton
could not be bettered in the West End.
It is a gem
a jewel
that shines its light and lingers on. The story centres on Lord Darlington, a Nazi sympathizer who held his political meetings at Darlington Hall. The English formality and reserve as epitomised by the butler Stevens freezes him from shedding tears upon his fathers death or opening his heart to the housekeeper Mrs Kenton. His deep sense of loyalty, putting service before his personal feelings, being more a part of Darlington Hall than part of a marriage leads him into a loneliness never counted upon as the times change. Lord Darlington is forced to sell the estate and Mr Farraday, an American without English tradition, takes over leaving Stevens serving in a world he no longer knows. And yet he cannot commit himself to Mrs Kenton when the door is opened to him. It is a quiet tragedy of two misplaced lovers surrounded by the vitality of the young servants who effervesce with life. The soul of Stevens is touched by life but never lived. Hats off to this accomplished company and to the Union Theatre
Import, import and export to the West End, Lincoln Center, BAM, Kennedy Center, etc.
September 1-25/10
by Bernie Whelan for EXTRA! EXTRA!
It was difficult, at first, to accept the idea of Kazuo Ishiguro's wonderful book as a musical. The Merchant Ivory film was as close to the book as I imagined it was possible to get, with Anthony Hopkins making the role of the quintessential butler, Stevens, very much his own among a brilliant cast. Yet the key theme of declining British hegemony, as played out in Darlington Hall at key moments just before the Second World War in 1935, looking back through the eyes of Stevens (Stephen Rashbrook), from around the time of the Suez Crisis in the 1950s, is rendered perfectly on stage in this musical production.
The complexities of the political machinations of 'gentlemen amateurs' like Lord Darlington (Alan Vicary), who seeks to forge European alliances with the Nazis, is, yes I know it's hard to believe, sung in thrilling ensembles such as 'The French' in Act I and 'Democracy' in Act II. The American challenger Mr Lewis/Mr Farraday (Reuben Kaye) becomes Stevens' master at Darlington Hall, just as the Americans take the lead as world superpower from the British after the Suez Crisis, and sings 'Divide and Rule' to the gathered European politicians, taking on the tactics which allowed Britain to remain world leader for so long.
A combination of dramatic dialogue, singing, and dancing brought the characters to life with an emotional subtlety that bewitched the audience in the Union Theatre. Miss Kenton (Lucy Bradshaw) is a fine singer, and brought real depth and intensity to the part of Stevens' thwarted housekeeper. When Stevens follows Lord Darlington's directive to dismiss the two Jewish servants in the household, Miss Kenton's argument on their behalf and their leave-taking in 'Close Your Eyes' is really moving, and beautifully sung by Gemma Salter and Katia Sartini as Sarah and Ruth.
However, the star is Stephen Rashbrook for his singing, dancing and at all times, utterly composed Stevens. The scenes between Stevens and his dying father, played by Dudley Rogers, were all the more affecting for the emotional reserve both actors conveyed so powerfully. I imagine this is no mean feat among a cast of incredibly professional and accomplished singers and dancers who filled the stage with all the verve and panache expected of any musical.
The set, designed by David Shields, marvellously conveyed the changing scenes in Darlington Hall and the Cornish seaside town where Stevens visits Miss Kenton, now Mrs Benn. The music, composed by Alex Loveless, was divine and worthy of attendance by itself. Richard Bates deserves credit for the wonderful dance and vocal arrangements. I particularly enjoyed 'The End of the Pier' which evoked a 1950s British 'naughty but nice' nostalgia with the girls dancing and singing in tiny sailor suits.
This really was a surprise for me. I didn't expect a work of such understated quality to be rendered well in a musical but it was a true success. An all singing, all dancing Remains of the Day seemed a questionable enterprise, but I enjoyed every moment of it and left excitedly discussing new angles of a book and film I had thought it would be impossible to improve on. However, new wine in old bottles can sometimes be a very good thing.
Review of 'The Remains of the Day Musical'
"Expect tugging of heart strings"
by Peter Carrington for remotegoat on 05/09/10
One might be forgiven for hesitating to see a musical version of the celebrated novel The Remains of the Day but this production, like a well-kept house, handles each and every aspect skillfully and is deserving of praise.
To be successful in producing effective musical theatre many elements must come together successfully. To begin with, the Union Theatre is not a huge venue, but in portraying the vast Darlington Hall it is used well, impressively evoking the stately home's grandeur and size. This is coupled with a skillful use of lighting throughout to show the journey taken. Within the set, all cast are costumed very well in understated ways completing the image of the 1920s to 1930s.
The audience are transported via this setting to Darlington Hall, home of Lord Darlington where the tense relationship between Mr Stevens the Butler and Miss Kenton, the Housekeeper happens behind the scenes of important discussions on the economics and politics of Europe. The historical grounding (though largely fictional) is well grounded and the interesting time is handled unpretentiously by Loveless's script and lyrics.
Within this setting we find a strong cast, none shying from their songs, though some voices are stronger than others. Lucy Bradshaw plays Miss Kenton, the passionate housekeeper who initially clashes with the Butler but in her quiet movements and looks betray much more. Lucy Bradshaw also plays well against Stephen Rashbrook as Mr Stevens the butler and lead of the show. Both convey the depth of emotion in a short space of time and with all the same subtlety of the time period. Together they are both halves of the heart of the play and are what keeps the audience involved.
Christopher Bartlett as Reginald ably handles what is not an easy role, neither fully comic relief nor na�ve hero. Reuben Kaye makes a strong musical debut as Mr Lewis, a conniving American.
One of the other essentials of successful musical theatre are the Ensemble and this cast of talented and skilled actors and actresses push the roof off this production.
Finally, no musical theatre would be complete without the music and musicians themselves. Those gathered for this are superb, subtle when needed and soaring with the anthems of the show. It is therefore this skillful blend of all the essential elements that means The Remains of the day tugs at the heartstrings with such strength that one wishes this was staged in a larger space, with more people able to experience it.
by Helena Rampley for Whats On Stage
Its somewhat surprising that writer and composer Alex Loveless decided to turn Kazuo Ishiguros The Remains of the Day into a musical. Whats even more surprising is that, by and large, his radical transformation of this story works
the songs are almost always well-integrated, intelligently written, and subtly performed.
A sense of distant opulence is created by David Shields sombre coloured set, and the small space of the Union helps capture the mood of claustrophobic suspicion and uncertainty.
Dilemmas of duty are fought by Stevens the butler and Miss Kenton the housekeeper, and the uneasy partnership between servitude and sterility is movingly portrayed by Stephen Rashbrook and Lucy Bradshaw. Never guilty of over-singing, their vocal control and contained style of singing poignantly reflect the social constraints placed upon their passion.
Although Loveless adaptation does not quite pack what we feel is its potential punch, it does suggest a wealth of potential.
by Naima Khan for Spoonfed
An innovative, fringe musical
There are possibly too many ways of looking at a production like The Remains of the Day by Chris Loveless at Union Theatre. This musical, based on the sombre Kazuo Ishiguro novel of the same name, will split crowds and critics, as should the best of theatre.
If you come at it from a literary angle, hell-bent on comparing it to the book, you'll lose out. The production deserves to be regarded in its own right. Sure enough, Loveless, who is making a fine name for himself on the fringe circuit, has used the novel as a springboard for a multitude of his own ideas, and they're great ideas
The story follows Stevens, the fiercely disciplined butler of Darlington Hall. Endlessly committed to Lord Darlington, Stevens, a stupendously controlled Stephen Rashbrook, finds himself at an all-time low when his employer passes away and the estate is taken over by the American Mr Farraday (Reuben Kaye). Convinced his woes are down to a lack of staff, he plans to meet up with the former housekeeper Miss Kenton, the politely bold Lucy Bradshaw. Though the ensemble scenes in this musical are well thought-out, Loveless has created a musical that celebrates the individuality of each character, as proved by the memorable scenes between Bradshaw and Rashbrook
Its darker parts are the best, but its more frivolous scenes highlight the limitations of Union Theatre. Though one of my favourite fringe venues in London, The Remains of the Day could go bigger and louder and still maintain that sweet darkness that pervades the text.
Go see it for a display of the many talents of this young company
their performances hold their audience, and they sure can sing.
CLASSICAL SOURCE review of The Remains of the Day Michael Darvell
The film version of Kazuo Ishiguros Booker Prize-winning novel The Remains of the Day was nominated for eight Academy Awards. It won a BAFTA Award for Best Direction by James Ivory. A much-loved book, a well-received film, but does it need to be made into a musical? One could ask that question about any book or play that becomes a film, but then the film industry has long-relied on popular works of literature and the theatre as a source for its bread-and-butter productions. The thinking must be that what works in one medium must work again in another and on many occasions it has been true. English dramatist John Cornfords 1835 farce A Day Well Spent was re-written by Austrian playwright Johann Nestroy in 1842 which American writer Thornton Wilder then adapted in 1938 as The Merchant of Yonkers, but it flopped first time around. Seventeen years later Wilder wrote a new version called The Matchmaker for actress Ruth Gordon and it was a huge hit. Hollywood filmed it in 1958 with Shirley Booth, and Jerry Herman took it up again as the basis of his stage musical Hello, Dolly! for Carol Channing, and it was another massive hit. Gene Kelly directed the film version with Barbra Streisand in 1969 but it was not an immediate success because it had cost too much to make. After that Tom Stoppard took the original story for his farce On the Razzle which was staged at the National Theatre. So, what goes around, comes around
again and again and again.
One could hardly disapprove of all these various versions of the same story because most of them were successful on their own level. By that token then it is good to welcome a musical version of The Remains of the Day, perhaps because it doesnt ruin ones recollections of the book or the film. Adding the songs in the way that Alex Loveless has done help the story along mainly in a through-composed way that explains both the thoughts and emotions of the characters involved. It succeeds where a similar piece like Andrew Lloyd Webbers Aspects of Love doesnt. The lyrics in The Remains of the Day are not banal but are still conversational in the way that Stephen Sondheim writes in, say, Company, Assassins or Sweeney Todd.
The main action of The Remains of the Day is set between the two World Wars, although the story is told in flashback from the 1950s as Stevens, once devoted butler to the late Lord Darlington but now with Mr Farraday, a wealthy, brash American employer, who has bought Darlington Hall. Stevens receives a letter from Miss Kenton, his former housekeeper some twenty years before at the Hall, which hints at an unhappy marriage. When Farraday tells Stevens to take a motoring holiday in his car, he decides to visit Miss Kenton (now Mrs Benn) on the pretext of re-employing her at Darlington Hall. When they worked together they kept their relationship on a purely professional level, even though they obviously both had feelings for each other, feelings that could never be expressed at the time.
The portrait of Stevens is of a man so buttoned-up emotionally and obsessed with his work that he cannot let anything else into his life. Every task must be carried out with dignity, nothing must impinge on the job at hand, the public front of propriety is all-important and there must be nothing unseemly or strange to upset the work to be done at Darlington Hall. This attitude makes him ignore what is going on around him. He unquestioningly supports Lord Darlington and refuses to even think about his employers support of people like Oswald Mosley and his support for anti-Semitism, considering it to be none of his business. His business is to keep Darlington Hall running smoothly. His blindness to Darlingtons politics and his refusal to accept any form of romantic approach from Miss Kenton or anybody else may make him a good employee but less of a man. Stevenss motoring trip allows him to evaluate his life but by then it is too late. Miss Kenton has grown to love her husband after all, which leaves Stevens ultimately alone, thinking not only about the remains of the day, this day, but also about the remains of his life.
The songs, a mixture of lively music and more contemplative ballads, set the scene well and provide a suitable atmosphere for the narrative. Scored for woodwind and strings, it has a delightfully plangent quality in Rowland Lees arrangements. David Shieldss settings and Chris Linces lighting evoke the darkness of Darlington Hall, a place steeped in repression. Darlington cannot even bring himself to tell his son the facts of life and asks Stevens, of all people, to do the job for him, but its the one task the butler cannot fulfil. The ambience at the Hall is one that Stevens totally ignores even to accepting unquestioningly when Darlington tells him to dismiss two of his staff who happen to be Jewish. It is not only Stevens who is devoid of feelings, even anti-Jewish ones, for he makes his whole world a place of emotional desolation.
Steven Rashbrook is excellent at creating a man with little or no soul who would rather die than experience embarrassment, who shuts people out if they are going to upset his working routine, ignoring their feelings in the process. Lucy Bradshaw as Miss Kenton tries to fight her way through the barrier that prevents Stevens from being a fallible human being. The actress gives the part a nicely honed edge and, perhaps surprisingly in the context of the plot, creates a believable relationship. A good supporting cast double-up in various roles including Alan Vicary as Lord Darlington, Christopher Bartlett as his son Reginald, and Dudley Rogers as Stevenss father. Omar F. Okais choreography helps to establish the period feel of the piece and Chris Lovelesss unfussy direction lets the cast and the text get to the heart of the matter. It is in essence a charming piece, subtly and movingly played without making it at all overwrought. It is not often that new musicals are instantly successful. The Remains of the Day seems to be an exception that works from first word to last.
Review: The Remains of the Day, Union Theatre
Is it foolish to wait for the day that will never come
You have to admire the ambition currently on display at the Union Theatre. Writing a new musical is hard enough at the best of times, but when your source material is a Booker-Prize-winning novel which has already had a much loved film adaptation made, then theres quite a challenge ahead. But that is what Alex Loveless has taken on with his adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguros The Remains of the Day.
Telling the story of Stevens in post WWII England, a long-serving butler to the late Lord Darlington who is struggling to deal with his new American employer, he identifies the solution as being retrieving a former colleague from Cornwall, Miss Kenton. As he sets off on a road-trip to try and persuade her, he also goes on a journey through his memories of the inter-war period where we discover that his employer was uncomfortably sympathetic to the Nazis and that his relationship with Miss Kenton ran far far deeper than that of just butler and housekeeper.
As Stevens and Miss Kenton, Stephen Rashbrook and Lucy Bradshaw are perfectly cast. Rashbrook displays the emotional restraint of a man who knows nothing aside from a life of servitude and dealt with transmitting this through the medium of song rather well (though there were moments when the sound drowned him out). As Miss Kenton, Bradshaw however is allowed to burst free from her emotional shackles occasionally, her playful scenes teasing Stevens over his reading material were joyous and her beautiful voice filled the Union perfectly, she is just excellent throughout... more at There Ought To Be Clowns
Background to 'The Remains of the Day' Musical
"We talked to Ishiguro and he completely endorsed the idea," the producer added.
"Remains of the Day" is opening in a small theatre by West End standards because the recession makes it difficult to raise money for new shows, Collier said.
But he has big ambitions for the project.
"It is a work in progress. We have another two and a half or three hours of music and when we get feedback from the opening we will chop and change it and develop the show further," he said... more at Remains of the Day Musical opens in London
| i don't know |
What name is given to the main area of a church, extending from the main entrance to the chancel, usually flanked by lower aisles? | Gothic Glossary
Athena Review, Vol. 4, No. 2
Glossary: Gothic Art and Architecture
Altar: Elevated structure located in the choir at the east end of the church, where religious rites are performed (fig.1).
Ambulatory: Passageways surrounding the central part of the choir, which is often a continuation of the side aisles (fig.1,5). The most common design of the Gothic era was the double ambulatory surrounded by semi-circular radiating chapels such as at the Abbey Church of Saint-Denis.
Apse: Semi-circular vaulted structure at the east end of the church at the termination of the choir (fig.1).
Arcade: An arch or a series of arches supported by piers or columns (fig.6)
Arch: Curved masonry construction that spans an opening such as a portal or window. Pointed arches were a feature of the Gothic era, that evolved from the round Romanesque arches.See Gothic Architecture.
[
Fig.1:
Plan of the interior at the Cathedral of St-Gervais and St-Protais (after Gonet 1998)].
Archivolt: A series of decorated, recessed arches spanning an opening such as a portal (fig.3, B).
Baldachin: ornamental canopy covering statues (fig.3, F).
Balustrade: A railing with symmetrical supports.
Bay: A major vertical division of a large, interior wall. There are usually more than one, such as a nave that is divided into seven bays (fig.1).
Buttress/Abutment System: A projecting or free-standing support built into or against the exterior wall of a cathedral, which steadies the structure by opposing the lateral thrusts from the vaults. The appearance of double span flying buttresses first occurred at Saint-Denis (fig.2, B).
Canopy: A decorated rooflike projection or a richly decorated baldachin over a statue (fig.3, F).
Capital: Architectural element that surmounts a column or any other vertical support (fig.5, B).
Chancel: Space around the altar of a church that is usually intended for the clergy (fig.1). From the Latin cancellus for "railing."
Chevet: Apse built as radiating chapels outside of the choir aisle, and the resulting, more complicated structure became known as the chevet at the beginning of the 13th century.
[
Fig.2: North transept of the Abbey Church of Saint-Denis showing A)tower; B) Double Span Flying Buttresses; C) Gothic rose window with tracery; D) Lancet windows (photo: Athena Review)].
Choir: Part of the church east of the crossing, usually occupied by the priests and singers of the choir (fig.1). From the Latin chorus for a "singing group."
Clerestory: Windowed area of the church above the side aisles and above the wall of the central part of the nave (fig.6).
Colonnades: A series of columns supporting either arches or an entablature, and usually one side of a roof. These were common architectural features of Early Roman churches.
Colonettes: Small, thin columns, often used for decoration or to support an arcade.
Column: Slender vertical support having either a cylindrical or polygonal shaft, and which always has a base and a capital.
Crossing: Space where the transept intersects with the nave along the main axis of the church (fig.1).
Crypt: Low room underneath the choir of the church used as a sepulchral vault. From the Greek kryptós meaning "hidden." Examples include the crypt at Notre-Dame in Paris .
Embrasure: An opening in a thick wall for a portal or window, especially one with angled sides, so that the opening is larger on the inside than the outside. From the Old French embraser for "to cut at a slant."
Effigy: A sculptured representation of a figure such as in the recumbent effigies of dead kings at the Abbey Church of Saint-Denis.
Façade: The front of the cathedral (fig.1). During the Gothic era, the west façade at the entranceway was noted for its three sculptured portals, and crowning rose window flanked by two towers. Starting with Saint-Denis, this became a feature of Gothic cathedrals.
Finial: Small ornament located on top of a pinnacle or gable.
Foil: Circular segments combined concentrically with other foils to form the tracery used in rose windows (fig.2, fig.4, B) The foil is usually used in groups such as trefoil or quatrefoil.
Foliated frieze: A panel decorated with carved foliage or leaves, found below the upper molding or cornice of a wall, and sometimes spanning the whole interior of the church.
Gable: Triangular portion of a wall fronting the enclosing lines of a sloping roof, which often contains sculptures (fig.3, A).
Gallery: Covered corridor in an upper story overlooking the nave. A traverse gallery crosses both sides of the church and a tribune gallery is the elevated part of a gallery which contains seats.
[
Fig.3:
Central portal of the West façade of Amiens showing A) gable; B) pointed archivolt; C) tympanum; D) lintel; E) trumeau; F) canopy above a carved cornerpiece; G)jambs; H) socles (photo:Athena Review)].
Gallery of Kings: Statues of kings in sequence, located either under baldachins (ornamental canopies) or encircling the base of the towers of the west façade of Gothic cathedrals. Examples include the 63 giant statues of kings at Reims, and the Kings of Judah at Notre-Dame in Paris.
Gargoyles: A water sprout terminating in a grotesquely carved figure of a human or animal, and projecting from the gutter of a cathedral such as Notre-Dame in Paris.
Iconographic scheme/program: The specific arrangement of sculptures, which symbolically represent a religious event or saint's life on the sculptured portals of Gothic cathedrals. Examples include the narrative portrayal of the Annunciation, Visitation, and Presentation at Reims Cathedral.
Impost: Slab above a column capital at the point of the spring of an arch.
Jamb: One of a pair of vertical posts or pieces, that together form the sides of a portal, which often contains sculptures (fig.3, G). The individual columns can also be referred to as jambshafts, which often support an arch or vault. From the Old French jambe for "pier" or "sidepost of a door."
Keystone: Stone in the form of wedge forming the central element of a lintel, vault, or arch. Pendant keystones are found at the intersection of ribbed vaults. Originally from the Latin clavis for "key."
Labyrinth: Intricate combination of paths and passageways, often located in the nave of a cathedral, marked by floor tiles sometimes engraved with the names of the cathedral architects. Pilgrims would follow the torturous path on their knees; see Chartres .
Lancet window: A narrow window with sharp pointed arches. Starting with Amiens, lancets were often subdivided into two and topped by a smaller rose window. Prior to this, lancets were typically surmounted by an oculus or round opening (fig.2, D; fig.4, D).
Lintel: Horizontal architectural member in wood or stone that supports the weight above an opening (fig.3, D).
Marmosets: Grotesque human and animal figures sculpted in stone, often underlying jamb figures. From the Old French word marmouset (1280). At the end of the 15th century, the same word was used to describe small squirrel-like monkeys of the New World.
Martyrium: An edifice built over the site of a tomb of a martyr frequently became the site of cathedrals.
Moldings: Long narrow, often decorated bands found on other architectural features such as cornices or bases.
Mosan goldsmiths: A 12th century workshop located in the Meuse valley of Belgium and northern France that produced high quality gold, silver, and enameled objects, with naturalistic human figures. These are thought to have influenced the figurative stone sculptures adorning the façades of Gothic cathedrals (Williamson 1995). Examples include the reliquary of Cologne by Nicolas of Verdun and the gold cross made for Abbot Suger .
[
Fig. 4:
Lancet Window (D) of Reims Cathedral surmounted by an oculus (A) with six lobed foils (B). Tabernacle pinnacles (C) flank both sides of the lancet window and contain sculptures of saints and angels (photo: Athena Review)].
Mullion: The vertical dividing bar of a rose or lancet window (fig.6).
Narthex: Beginning with Early Christian architecture, this was the gallery, vestibule, or porch located in the main (west) entrance of the church (fig.1).
Naturalism: Style of art treating drapery, bodily movements, and facial expressions as they might appear in nature or real life. Sculptures carved in the Gothic era showed considerably more naturalism than in the Romanesque or Byzantine eras ( see Gothic sculpture ).
Nave: The middle aisle or multiple main aisled part of a church extending from the narthex or main entrance to the choir (fig.1). The congregation usually sits here.
Oculus: A small circular opening, and which was a precursor of the Gothic rose window (fig.4, A).
Openwork gablet: Gable-shaped motif above portals and windows, often containing tracery decorations as well as pinnacles and finials.
Pier: A masonry support between openings such as arcades. Typically slender, the pier has a rectangular, polygonal, or round cross-section, but does not taper and often has no capital (fig.6). The pier may also have a base as well as an impost. A compound pier is a pier with two or more members or support elements.
Pillar: A support which does not taper, has an impost, and does not need to be cylindrical as is the case with a column. The shaft consists of either rectangular, octagonal, circular, or cruciform blocks and may have a capital (fig.5, A).
Pinnacle: Small narrow pointed tower capping buttresses and openwork gablets or portals and galleries.
Portal: The door or entrance of a cathedral (fig.3).
Fig.5:
Pillars (A) with capitals (B) and quatri-partite vaulting (D) containing keystones (C) of the ambulatory of the Cathedral of St-Gervais and St-Protais at Soissons (photo: Athena Review)].
Portico: A gallery which opens onto the exterior of the church and is supported by columns. From the Latin porticus for "arcade" or "gallery."
Radiating (Apsidal) chapels: Series of chapels arranged around an ambulatory in the apse of a cathedral (fig.1).
Reliquary: A container, often richly ornamented, holding the remains of a saint which can be displayed to the faithful.
Rood screen/Jube: A stone or wooden screen, which separated the choir of the church where the clergy sits from the nave where the congregation sits (fig.1).
Rose window: A large round window on the west façade or transept, containing tracery that became more elaborate as the Gothic era progressed (fig.2, C). Beautiful examples occur at Notre-Dame in Paris and Chartres.
Socles: Architectural term referring to the lower panels of a portal, often located under the jamb figures. The reliefs were often quatrefoil, and typically portrayed such pagan themes as the Signs of the Zodiac and the Virtues and Vices (fig.3, H).
Spire: A sharply pointed pyramidal structure surmounting a tower.
Spandrel: An area between two adjoining arches, often decorated.
Stained glass: Colored windows of Gothic cathedrals made from a combination of many pieces of colored and semi-transparent white glass joined together with lead strips. Colors were generated by adding specific metal oxides, which
illuminated the glass with bright red, blue, green, and yellow tones. The function of stained glass was to fill the cathedral with light in windows which also fulfilled a narrative and illustrative purpose, in representing Biblical events and the lives of saints. Patrons and workers guilds who helped fund the construction of the cathedral were also portrayed (see Chartres ).
Tabernacle: a canopied niche holding a sculpted figure, such as the rendering of saints and angels on the façade and transept of Reims cathedral (fig.4, C).
Tracery: Geometrically constructed building ornament such as a foil found in the upper part of Gothic rose windows (fig.2, C). This type of stonework decoration became more complex during the High Gothic and Flamboyant phase.
Transept: Any major transverse part of the church, usually crossing the nave and at right angles with the entrance of the choir (fig.1). The transept may be divided into areas of different height.
Triforium: Space or passage above the nave arcade, below the clerestory, and extending over the ceiling or vaults of the side aisle (fig.6). A blind triforium does not contain a passageway and blind arches are placed in front of the wall such as at Amiens. A false triforium has arcades which open to the roof. A pierced triforium contains windows in the outer walls of the passageway.
Trumeau: Stone pillar or column supporting the tympanum of a portal at its center (fig.3, E).
[
Fig.6:
Drawing of the nave at Reims cathedral showing the clerestory, triforium, and the nave arcades (after M.Alexander, 2003)].
Tympanum: A triangular space between an arch and the horizontal bar of a portal or window (lintel), often decorated with sculpture (fig.3,C).
Vaulting: A curved, self supporting wall or ceiling that covers a space between two walls and rests on pillars. Romanesque antecedents of the Gothic ribbed vault are the barrel vault and the groined vault. The ribbed vault is composed of diagonally arched ribs and can be classified as tri-partite, quatri-partite (fig.5, D), or sexpartite. Sexpartite vaults have an additional transversal rib in the center of the bay ( see Gothic architecture ).
Voussoirs: Any of the pieces, in the shape of a truncated wedge, that make up an arch or vault.
References:
Binding, G. 2002. High Gothic: The Age of the Great Cathedrals. Cologne, Taschen.
Bony, J. 1983. French Gothic Architectures of the 12th and 13th centuries. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, University of California Press.
Michelin Travel Publications. 2001. The Green Guide. Northern France and the Paris Region. France.
Williamson, P. 1995. Gothic Sculpture. New Haven and London, Yale University Press.
This glossary appears on pages 109-111 of Vol.4 No.2 of Athena Review. The complete text may be obtained in the printed version of the magazine .
For original, comprehensive illustrations of ancients sites and monuments, visit Athena Review Image Archive ®
Copyright 1996-2006 Athena Publications, Inc (All Rights Reserved) <>
| Nave |
The flag of Cornwall is named after which Cornish abbot and saint traditionally held to be patron saint of the county, as well as tin miners? | Glasgow, 866, 868 Govan Road, Govan Old Parish Church | Canmore
Glasgow, 866, 868 Govan Road, Govan Old Parish Church
Burial Ground (Period Unassigned), Carved Stone(S) (10th Century), Church (Period Unassigned), Cross Slab(S) (10th Century), Hogback Stone(S) (Early Medieval), Sarcophagus (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Glasgow, 866, 868 Govan Road, Govan Old Parish Church
Alternative Name(s) Govan, Carved Stones And Old Parish Church
Canmore ID 44077
Ordnance Survey licence number 100057073. All rights reserved.
© Copyright and database right 2017.
© RCAHMS (Betty Willsher Collection)
SC 1463016
Photographic copy of three rubbings. The middle rubbing shows the face of Govan no.34. The left and right rubbings are unidentified.
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
c. 1890
SC 1321227
View of rear section detail of Carved stone sarcophagus, Pictish, known as Govan no.1, from Govan Old Parish Church, Glasgow.
© RCAHMS (Tom and Sybil Gray Collection)
SC 1321225
1992
SC 1315478
Glasgow, general view, showing Harland and Wolff Shipbuilding Yard, Govan and Yorkhill Basin. Oblique aerial photograph taken facing east. This image has been produced from a print.
© RCAHMS (Tom and Sybil Gray Collection)
SC 1084237
© Crown Copyright: HES
DP 011615
Oblique aerial view centred on the basin and the site of the ship yard with the bridge adjacent, taken from the NNE.
© RCAHMS
SC 684143
Glasgow, 866 Govan Road, Govan Old Parish Church General view of church and burial ground from South West.
© RCAHMS (Tom and Sybil Gray Collection)
SC 1084230
© RCAHMS (Tom and Sybil Gray Collection)
SC 1465850
© RCAHMS (Tom and Sybil Gray Collection)
SC 1137167
© RCAHMS (Tom and Sybil Gray Collection)
SC 1084238
© Crown Copyright: HES
DP 028724
© RCAHMS
SC 1465846
2/2/1999
SC 1137213
View of rear section detail of Carved stone sarcophagus, Pictish, known as Govan no.1, from Govan Old Parish Church, Glasgow.
© RCAHMS (Tom and Sybil Gray Collection)
SC 1137210
© RCAHMS (Tom and Sybil Gray Collection)
DP 029877
© Crown Copyright: HES
DP 011614
Oblique aerial view centred on the basin and the site of the ship yard with the bridge adjacent, taken from the ESE.
© RCAHMS (Tom and Sybil Gray Collection)
SC 1084232
© Crown Copyright: HES
SC 684144
Glasgow, 866 Govan Road, Govan Old Parish Church General view of church and burial ground from South East.
© RCAHMS (Tom and Sybil Gray Collection)
SC 460665
© RCAHMS
SC 1465851
View of graveslab with incised cross for John Donald d.1860 and Agnes Addie d1892, Govan Old Parish Church burial ground.
© RCAHMS (Tom and Sybil Gray Collection)
SC 1137209
© RCAHMS (Tom and Sybil Gray Collection)
SC 1137183
© RCAHMS (Tom and Sybil Gray Collection)
SC 1084236
19/7/2007
© Crown Copyright: HES
First 100 images shown. See the Collections panel (below) for a link to all digital images.
Collections
Parish Govan (City Of Glasgow)
Former Region Strathclyde
Former District City Of Glasgow
Former County Lanarkshire
Recording Your Heritage Online
Govan Parish Church, 866-868 Govan Road, 1883, R Rowand Anderson
Huge Early English Gothic, cruciform plan under a single roof, chancel extended, 1906. Plain exterior with cross finial and angled gable buttresses. Anderson had reverted, from the current hall-like church plan, to the traditional multi-cell cruciform plan, but put a new single roof over all. Splendid interior devised by the Rev. Dr John MacLeod, to provide a glorious traditional setting for worship. Anderson had made ample provision for stained glass, the major element in MacLeod¿s plans. Kerr windows, 1891 below the Choir Gallery; above, 1902, Heaton, Butler & Bayne, probably chosen by Commissioner R Malcolm Kerr. Steven (Bellahouston) Memorial Chapel; side windows, 1893, Burlison & Grylls; east window, 1894, Clayton & Bell. Baptistery windows, 1898, Shrigley & Hunt. MacLeod was dissatisfied with all their designs and finally prevailed on his original choice, Charles Eamer Kempe, who would normally only accept Episcopal commissions, to make the remainder of the church windows. Early Christian sculpture - best in Scotland. St Constantine¿s Sarcophagus, AD 576, decorated with interlace, beasts; buried in churchyard at the Reformation, discovered in 1885 and returned to the church. Pagan `Sun Stone¿, a swastika and mounted bagpiper; `Cuddy Stane¿, Jesus on an ass; Govan Cross Shaft, interlace and horseman, top missing; five Viking hog-backed tombstones; 17 Celtic stones, Celtic crosses added, adapted as gravestones, 17th, 18th centuries. All are now inside the church. Govan Old Parish Burying Ground, surrounding the church, the heart-shaped burying ground, containing 16th- to 19th-century monuments, clearly a location of rare antiquity.
Taken from "Greater Glasgow: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Sam Small, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
Further Details
NS56NE 17.01 55349 65869 Burial Ground
Govan Old Parish Church (C of S) [NAT]
OS 1:1250 map, 1971.
The church of Govan was a prebend of Glasgow. It was dedicated to St Constantine who was buried at Govan. On 13th July 1577, the teinds of Govan were granted to the University of Glasgow, and the Principal of the University ex officio was appointed minister of the parish. The settlement was set aside on 20th December 1621, and only the patronage of Govan was left to the University. There was a chapel in the parish at Partick. Govan church was rebuilt in 1762 and again in 1826. A later rebuilding was begun in 1884 and was opened 19th May 1888.
H Scott 1915-61.
(NS 5534 6590). Govan Old Parish Church was built in 1884-8, on the site of earlier churches. Within it and its roughly circular graveyard is one of the finest collections of Early Christian stones in Britain, dating from the 10th and 11th centuries. There are 24 stones within the church and there were 17 more along the E wall of the graveyard. Some of these were damaged in 1973 when the neighbouring factory was demolished and have been removed to Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum. Inside the church there is now one sarcophagus, five hog-back gravestones, two cross shafts and many recumbent grave slabs.
A date in the 10th or early 11th century has been suggested for the sarcophagus, which was found in 1855 when digging a grave at the SE corner of the churchyard. Three such sarcophagi were present at Govan church in the 18th century and one doubtless contained the relics of the particular St Constantine to whom the church is dedicated. The five hog-back tombstones are of an Anglian type, and 10th or perhaps 11th century dates are suggested for them. Both of the cross shafts have lost their heads; a date of about AD 900 has been suggested for them. There are two upright cross slabs, datable to the 10th century, and the rest of the stones comprise 29 flat grave covers, usually with a cross carved on them and flanked by interlace ornament; they should all date between AD 900 and the early 12th century. Many of the stones have been re-used in recent times and bear added names.
E W MacKie 1975; J R Allen and J Anderson 1903; T B S Thomson nd.; J T Laing 1975.
Govan (Glasgow, Rutherglen). Granted to the episcopal mensa of Glasgow by David I before 1152, the church was shortly afterwards erected into a prebend of Glasgow cathedral by Herbert, bishop of Glasgow (1147-64), the patronage thereafter resting with the bishop. Both parsonage and vicarage teinds were annexed to the prebend, the cure being a vicarage pensionary.
I B Cowan 1967.
The number of early sculptured stones found indicates the former presence of a Celtic monastic community at this site.
C A R Radford 1970.
Govan parish church is set well back in a churchyard of great antiquity (as the collection of monuments in the church clearly shows). The present church of 1883-8, by Robert Rowand Anderson, is the last in a long series of churches on this site. The exterior of grey snecked rubble with green slate roofs seems dull without the intended lavish tower and spire (for which, see the foundations on the W side) and the unexpected band of relief sculpture across the facade, although the plans were ambitious and the interior is splendid. The minister who promoted rebuilding, John Macleod, was a pioneer of Scoto-Catholicism and a believer in the beauty of worship as inspiration for the working classes. The style is Early English in the Scottish manner, with details (especially the chancel gable) based on Pluscarden Priory, near Elgin. Ashlar chancel, higher than the nave, extended in 1911-12, with octagonal stairtowers at the angles. The walls are striped in red brick and stone, a vibrant effect dimmed with age.
The size of the interior, with broad high nave and narrow passage aisles, owes much to the preaching churches Macleod had visited in Italy. The aisle arcades are of broad moulded piers dying into the arches, but the clearstorey is more decorative, each bay with one tall window flanked by two nook-shafted lancets. Between the bays, wall-shafts carrying the arched braces of the roof, which cross the boarded cove before spanning the roof high above the nave. Only one (W) galleried transept, opening with two clustered piers. The rhythm of one large and two small arches is repeated with the openings to the deep chancel and the choir aisles, one with the choir gallery, the other (originally the baptistery) with the organ (by Brindley and Foster) over. The chancel ends in an elegant blind arcade and band of foliage. Each side, top-lit passages in the depth of the walls; they lie over those that lead to the stairs in the angles. Fine wrought-iron screens divide the chancel aisles, the W one continuous with the large square Steven chapel, ringed with lancets. The furnishings are simple and unobtrusive.
Stained glass: Twelve windows are by C E Kempe, part of a unified but uncompleted scheme commissioned soon after the church was finished. Chancel: first completed and dedicated to John Macleod (died 1898): Christ enthroned (oculus) above scenes of the main events in His life. Choir and transept galleries: Angels of Faith and Hope. Transept lancets: figures of Faith flanked by Noah and Abraham, and Hope flanked by Moses and Jacob. Clearstorey (E): Witnesses of the Resurrection. (The W clearstorey windows were designed but not inserted). S window over the gallery (particularly beautiful): Our Lord the King of Angels, with the three archangels and thirteen angel musicians. E chancel aisle: windows by Shrigley and Hunt. In the Steven chapel, a good undated display by Clayton and Bell (The Power of Our Lord, and eight Old Testament prophets, with finely illustrated scenes from their lives), and the Supper at Emmaus by Heaton, Butler and Bayne. Above the font, a window by Kempe from St Margaret, Polmadie, dedicated to Dr Macleod, who also founded that church.
Monuments. The W transept and chancel contain one of the most remarkable assemblages of Early Christian sculpture in Scotland, most of which were moved inside the church from the graveyard in 1926. Five main types of sculpture are represented: a richly-ornamented sarcophagus; hogbacked tombstones; cross-shafts; upright crosses; and recumbent slabs.
The sarcophagus in the chancel, one of three that survived until 1762, is of 10th/11th cent AD date, and is a single block of sandstone hollowed out internally to receive the burial; the top part of each side is carefully shaped to allow the cover slab (perhaps a gabled block) to fit tightly. The sides and ends of the sarcophagus are decorated with panels of interlace and figural ornament. On one side, a panel including two pairs of beasts, the lower pair having tails and ears which interknot, and a panel with a pair whose necks are intertwined. The other side has a hunting scene in Pictish style.
The five hogbacked stones are bowed and gabled blocks, with decoration representing the square shingles of a wooden roof. Several of the stones have roughly-carved animal heads with the forepaws continuing along the sides. Of Scandinavian inspiration, such slabs can be paralleled in the Anglian areas of Northern England, and are probably of mid- to late-10th-century AD date.
The better-preserved of the two cross-shafts, which formerly stood at Jordanhill (whither it had been moved from Govan after the demolition of the medieval church) bears elaborated panels of interlace ornament and a panel with a man on horseback. Another fragment bears on one side what has been described as 'a blundered representation' of an interesting scene in the iconography of the early church, Saints Paul and Anthony breaking bread in the desert.
The better-preserved of the two upright crosses is of the 10th century AD and bears a cross filled with interlace above a panel depicting a horseman with a spear; on the reverse, there is a boss from which emerge four serpents above a panel of interlace. The other upright cross is now broken, but a fragment with a man on horseback remains.
Finally, there is a large group of recumbent cross-slabs or grave-markers, all bearing a central cross surrounded by interlace ornament.
E Williamson, A Riches and M Higgs 1990.
NS 5534 6590. A geophysical survey was carried out by GUARD prior to the excavation to identify the location of the earlier churches suggested by the presence in the church of several early carved stones. Hovever the results proved inconclusive due to the large number of monuments present in the churchyard and the 18th and 19th-century burial activity. They were not used as an aid in positioning of the trial trenches.
Seven trial trenches were opened. spaced around the churchyard and immediately outside the churchyard wall. The primary aim of the trenches on the boundary was to recover evidence of the vallum, in the form of a bank and ditch. Secondarily it was hoped that occupational activity areas would fall inside the boundary. The third aim was to locate an earlier church.
Trenches A and B were situated offset on either side of the southern boundary of the churchyard. A ditch was excavated which reached a depth of 1.6m below the level of the natural sands and clays and which had two recuts. Slight evidence of an internal bank was found on both sides of the present boundary wall and fence. Very few artefacts were recovered from the ditch: medieval pottery was present in the upper fills of the final recut. A few roughly worked shale fragments were recovered from the primary fill. Trench B, inside the churchyard, produced evidence of successive periods of burning and a stone hearth. Fragments of worked shale, including a roughout for a finger ring, large chunks of charcoal, fragments of burnt bone, cinder and small amounts of iron slag, were recovered from the burnt layers. Although no definite structural evidence was found in the small area excavated, it seems likely that some sort of workshop existed in the area. Four graves had been cut into these layers. Only one was definitely post-medieval and the three other, highly decayed skeletons are probably medieval. Overall it appeared that disturbance from burials became more severe about 3.5m from the fence. Considerable evidence of a succession of fences and walls in the immediate area of the present wall and over the original bank was recovered. These hindered interpretation,
Trench C was located close to the SE corner of the church and beneath the line of a path which has existed since at least the 18th century. Evidence for two stone structures, built one over the other was recovered. The earlier one was of more substantial construct and both were of drystone build. The later wall was insubstantial and little more than a drystone dyke. The earlier feature was much better built. Small boulders had been packed in a trench of indeterminate width. The top of the boulders had been tightly packed with small stones to create a firm, even surface, No mortar was used. It was oriented on the same line as the existing S wall of the church. The absence of mortar and the estimate that the ground surface at the time of construction was some 1m below the present ground level suggests an early date, perhaps 10th or 11th century. The deposits were slightly disturbed by three modern burials, one of which was of an infant. No artefacts were recovered to give a more certain date. A later robbed out construction trench may relate to the Medieval church demolished in 1762.
Trenches D, E and F were situated along the northern boundary of the churchyard. Trench D was located adjacent to the N wall inside the churchyard and within a Victorian burial lair. The Victorian burials had effectively destroyed any archaeology and only a small fragment of old ground surface remained undisturbed. Very good evidence for mid-19th-century burial furnishings were discovered. Trenches E and F were located N of the wall between the churchyard and the River Clyde on the site of the demolished Harland and Wolff shipyard, They were machine dug, because of modern ripping and demolition debris. No evidence of a ditch, or any Medieval activity in this area was eodent.
Trench G was located in the SE corner of the churchyard at the suspected location of an earlier gate. however deep deposits of 19th-century rubbish were encountered which prevented this trench from being excavated to earlier levels.
Sponsor: City of Glasgow District Council
S T Driscoll and I S Cullen 1994; MS/725/70.
In 1997, three trenches were excavated within the burial-ground for the Channel 4 Television 'Time Team' series:
Trench 1 (NS c. 5535 6588) revealed the foundation debris of successive post-medieval churches, the remains of one or more burials of comparatively recent date, pottery (some of it from the 14th century), and unmortared stone walls of uncertain context.
Trench 2 (NS 554 658) was comparatively large (14m long by 3m deep) and was dug outside the burial-ground (to the E) in an (abortive) attempt to find evidence beneath modern industrial debris for a ceremonial way between the church and the possible motte or moot hill of Doomster Hill ( NS56NE 18 ).
Trench 3 (NS c. 5538 6582) aimed the investigate the 'pointed' (SE) end of the burial-ground in a search for an entrance-way from the direction of Doomster Hill. Tip-lines and a layer of stone and gravel (possibly a path) were revealed as well as a 'substantial assemblage of pottery shards'.
T Taylor and M Aston 1997.
NS 554 658 In February 1996 a series of trial trenches were excavated to the E of the churchyard of Govan Old Parish Church. This was the second in a series of investigations at Govan, the first having been conducted in 1994. Most of the area examined is waste ground, used for parking and a weekly market; the remainder is occupied by temporary dwellings, which limited the choice of location for some of the trenches. Foundations for a plating shed and cranes were known to exist in the area, dating to the site's most recent use as a shipyard. Prior to the construction of the shipyard at the turn of the century, the areas to be investigated fell within the grounds of the manse (immediately adjacent to the E boundary of the churchyard).
The excavations were intended to evaluate the surviving archaeological deposits by targeting specific structures, which resulted in the location of the five trenches.
Trench 1 - Churchyard boundary. This was located immediately E of the present E boundary wall of the churchyard. The aim was to establish the eastern extent of the churchyard by locating the boundary ditch or vallum, which had been located and excavated just outside the S boundary in 1994.
A massive ditch was discovered running close to the modern churchyard wall which was of a scale similar to that interpreted as the vallum ditch in the 1994 trench. It was investigated in detail in two places, though the orientations and profiles did not correspond. This suggests that they relate to different configurations of the churchyard. Both ditch sections showed signs of frequent recuts. The deepest fill of the earliest ditch produced a perforated shale disc. Shale working debris was also found in the primary deposits of the 1994 ditch. These ditches are almost certainly of early medieval date.
Outside of the ditch traces of a drystone structure were discovered built over part of the infilled ditch. They probably represent the footings for a shed or slight building, perhaps of post-medieval date.
Trench 2 - The manse site. A series of machine-dug trenches were opened in the area occupied by the former manse, which was demolished in the later 19th century and may have been composed of elements dating to the Middle Ages. Extensive trenching revealed no traces of any structure, no indications of demolition having taken place, nor even traces of soil horizons above the natural gravel. It seems likely that the manse stood on a slight hillock which was levelled when the shipyard was built, removing all trace of the building.
Trench 3 - Water Row West. This trench was opened to investigate the survival of archaeological deposits in the area of the street frontage extending into the backlands. No trace of any early activity survived the development of the site as a shipyard.
Trench 4 - Doomster Hill. A machine-excavated trench was opened in several stages in the vicinity of the site of the Doomster Hill, as represented on early maps. Documentary research established that not only a shipyard, but also a tenement block had subsequently occupied part of the site. As a consequence over 2m of made ground had to be removed before medieval levels were encountered. The only surviving medieval feature was a small portion of what appeared to have been a massive ditch, the fill of which produced late medieval pottery. This is believed to represent the quarry ditch for the Doomster Hill which stood open until the early 19th century.
Trench 5 - Water Row East. This trench was dug along the E frontage to see whether pre-industrial remains had survived on the E side of Water Row. A substantial wall founded on sandstone blocks was revealed, which seems most likely to have been associated with the shipyard. No traces of earlier structures were noted here.
In June 1996 a third season of trial trenching was undertaken, on this occasion co-ordinated with the production of the 'Time Team' television programme. The excavations sought to clarify various issues which had been raised by the two previous phases of investigation. Four areas were targeted for further work: the putative early church discovered at the SE corner of the extant church (Trench C); the SE corner of the churchyard (Trench G), where an early entrance was expected to exist; the W extent of the churchyard interior (Trench H) which had not previously been investigated; and the Doomster Hill site at Water Row.
Trench C. The 1994 trench was re-excavated and extended to the E (closer to the church) and to the N principally in order to re-examine the massive drystone foundations exposed in the original excavation. As expected a number of Early Modern (18th/19th century) graves were encountered. Only two grave plots were excavated; others were identified and avoided. Nevertheless, portions of seven Early Modern burials were examined and produced the expected range of coffin fittings. One of the burials contained two individuals, perhaps a mother and child interment.
Apart from the burials the main modern feature revealed was a massive robber trench running E-W, some 1.5m deep, probably representing the 19th-century demolition of the medieval church.
A high-medieval phase of burial was represented by a single grave which contained a substantial portion of a 15th-century face-mask jug and was cut into the foundations of what are thought to be part of an early church.
The foundations of this church consisted of large boulders set into a trench, which perhaps supported a timber-built structure. These foundations, which appear to represent the SW corner of the structure, were massive, being cut over 0.5m into the natural sand. The W edge of the foundation trench was located in the 1996 trench, adding to the evidence for the S edge discovered in 1994; but the full width of the structure was not ascertained. The precise orientation of the building remains in some doubt, although there can be little question that it is aligned E-W.
The earliest features in this trench were two burials discovered under the foundations. Only portions of the burials, in dug graves with no coffins, were exposed, though they were clearly oriented E-W. The dating of these bones is awaited.
Trench G. This trench was located in the SE extremity of the churchyard where the curving walls come to a slight point. It was thought that this might indicate the location of an entrance which pre-dated the 19th-century reorganisation of the churchyard. The 1994 trench was reopened and the excavation extended by machine towards the E and the N.
The whole area was covered by a deep layer of topsoil (0.4m), into which a number of modern rubbish pits had been dug. At a depth of c 1m a hard, compacted, gravel surface was exposed which was c 2.5m wide and 0.3m thick. This surface rose to a crown with vestigial drainage channels present on both sides.
A section through the road surface revealed that it was composed of layers of clay and gravel. Some of this material overlay deposits of charcoal, which may provide a date for one phase of repair to the road. Below the road surface were in situ remains of a masonry structure. This may represent part of a gatehouse or other entrance but too little was exposed to allow any firm interpretation. The gravel road appears to have been on the same alignment as Pearce Lane (formerly Manse Lane), which may have been the original approach to the church.
Trench H. This trench (3 x 2m in extent) was located along the interior of the W perimeter of the churchyard, an area not previously investigated. The intention was to determine the nature and condition of any surviving archaeological deposits. The initial levels proved to be quite disturbed.
At a depth of approximately 1m the root damage became less noticeable and evidence for archaeological activity was apparent. This consisted of substantial deposits of charcoal and scorched earth, which indicate that intense fires had been repeatedly built in the area. This evidence was similar in character to the deposits excavated in Trench C in 1994, where the presence of fragments of worked shale led to the burning being interpreted as evidence for a workshop. In Trench H no shale fragments were found, thus the evidence here may simply represent a domestic hearth.
Doomster Hill, Water Row. Initially a trench 12 x 7m was excavated by machine under archaeological supervision, though this was subsequently reduced in area. The material removed from the top 2m included mixed layers of building rubble, concrete, ash, coal and gravel. This material, which derived from the shipyard and 19th-century tenements, overlay a level of soft brown soil, into which several pits had been dug. These pits relate to the industrial use of the area, perhaps in the period when it was a dyeworks.
The brown soil was recognised (from the February 1996 investigations) as ditch fill and produced quantities of post-medieval and medieval pottery. The edge of the ditch was clearly discerned. Unfortunately, despite the scale of the trench, the full width of the ditch was found to extend beyond the trench edges, the best estimate being 8-10m wide, and originally c 2-3m deep with a broad flat base.
It is thought that this ditch represents the quarry from which the Doomster Hill was constructed. Most of the material within the ditch fill appears to have been placed there in a single event, around the 16th century to judge from the pottery recovered from the fill. The uniformity of the infill and the richness of the soil utilised suggests that backfilling was undertaken to expand the gardens in the backlands of the dwellings on Govan Road and Water Row, though this is far from certain. What is clear is that the scale of the Doomster Hill has not been exaggerated by 18th and 19th-century representations and accounts.
Sponsor: City of Glasgow Planning Department.
S T Driscoll and B Will 1996.
A survey of the early modern graveyard monuments of Govan Parish Church was carried out by C Cutmore in 1995.
NMRS MS/997/13.
Scheduled as Govan, carved stones and Old Parish Church graveyard... a collection of 31 medieval carved stones in Govan Old Parish Church, and the graveyard S and E of Govan Old Parish Church from which the carved stones were recovered.
Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 19 November 2003.
Further Details
| i don't know |
What was the name of the Greenpeace trawler that was sunk off the coast of New Zealand by French secret intelligence officers in July 1985? | Enjoy Rainbow Warrior | The Far North, NZ
Harrisons Cape Runner - Cape Reinga tour
Rainbow Warrior was a schooner (sailing ship) operated by the Greenpeace organisation. She was named after the Greenpeace flagship of the same name that was sunk by the French secret service in Auckland harbour, New Zealand, on July 10, 1985. The three-masted vessel was built from the hull of the deep sea fishing ship Grampian Fame. Built in Yorkshire and launched in 1957 she was originally 44 metres long and powered by steam. She was extended to 55.2 m in 1966. Greenpeace gave the vessel new masts, gaff rigged, a new engine and a number of environmentally low-impact systems to handle waste, heating and hot water. She was officially launched in Hamburg on July 10, 1989, the anniversary of the sinking of her predecessor.
The first Rainbow Warrior, a craft of 40 metres and 418 tonnes, was originally the MAFF trawler Sir William Hardy, launched in 1955. She was acquired for £40,000 and was renovated over four months, then re-launched on April 29, 1978 as Rainbow Warrior. She was named after a Native American prophecy. The engines were replaced in 1981 and the ship was converted with a ketch rig in 1985. Rainbow Warrior was used as a support vessel for many Greenpeace protest activities against sealing, whaling and nuclear weapons testing during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In 1985, she had travelled to New Zealand to lead a flotilla of yachts protesting against French nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll in the Tuamotu Archipelago of French Polynesia. During previous nuclear tests at Mururoa, protest ships had been boarded by French commandos after sailing inside the shipping exclusion zone around the atoll. With the 1985 tests, Greenpeace had intended to monitor the impact of nuclear tests and place protesters on the island to do this.
The French Government infiltrated the New Zealand organisation and discovered these plans. Rainbow Warrior was sunk just before midnight on July 10, 1985 by two explosive devices attached to the hull by operatives of French intelligence (DGSE). Of the twelve people on board, one, photographer Fernando Pereira, was drowned when he attempted to retrieve his equipment.
The New Zealand Police immediately initiated a homicide inquiry into the sinking. With the assistance of the New Zealand public, and an intense media focus, the police quickly established the movements of the bombers. On July 12, 1985, two of the six bombers who had operated under orders, were found, interviewed at length, arrested and sent to trial, and eventually imprisoned for 5 years. The others, though identified and although three were interviewed by the New Zealand Police on Norfolk Island, where they had escaped in the yacht Ouvea, were not arrested due to lack of evidence. Ouvea subsequently sailed for Nouma but disappeared. Most of the agents remain in French government service.
In 1987, under heavy international pressure, the French government paid $8.16 million compensation to Greenpeace. Rainbow Warrior was refloated on August 21, 1985 and moved to a naval harbour for forensic examination. Although the hull had been recovered, the damage was too extensive for economic repair and the vessel was scuttled in Matauri Bay , Cavalli Islands on December 2, 1987, to serve as a dive wreck and fish sanctuary. The move is seen as a fitting end for the vessel. The name Rainbow Warrior comes from a Native American prophecy of the "Warriors of the Rainbow", keepers of the legend, stories, culture rituals, and myths, and all the Ancient Tribal Customs. These warriors, who would be mankind's key to survival are prophesised to appear at a dark time when the fish would die in the streams, the birds would fall from the air, the waters would be blackened, and the trees would no longer be, mankind as we would know it would all but cease to exist.
More things to do nearby
| Rainbow Warrior |
Long the richest country in the Muslim world, which country has, according to the International Monetary Fund, replaced Luxembourg as the world's richest country per head of population? | The Greenpeace Chronicles by Greenpeace International - issuu
issuu
chronicles the greenpeace
40 years of protecting the planet
THE GREENPEACE CHRONICLES 40 Years of Protecting the Planet Written and edited by: Steve Erwood Contributors: Laura Kenyon, John Novis, Mike Townsley, Rex Weyler With special thanks to Bill Darnell Creative Direction/Design: Toby Cotton, ARC Communications Acknowledgements: There are many previous chroniclers of Greenpeace’s history whose accounts - like Rex Weyler’s - have informed and influenced this present work. These include Michael Brown and John May, authors of ‘The Greenpeace Story’; Fouad Hamdan and Conny Boettger, authors of ‘Greenpeace: Changing the World’; and Daniel Kramb, who compiled information during Greenpeace’s 40th anniversary year. Thanks are also due to Karen Gallagher, Karen Guy, Elaine Hill, Sara Holden and Alex Yallop Published in November 2011 by Greenpeace International Ottho Heldringstraat 5 1066 AZ Amsterdam The Netherlands Printed on 50% recycled, 50% FSC mixed-source paper using vegetable-based ink. For more information, contact: [email protected] JN400 ISBN 978-90-73361-00-3
10s 00s 90s 80s 70s origins
contents foreword 2 introduction 3 let’s make it a green peace 6 the women who founded greenpeace 14 the warriors of the rainbow 18 the 70s
20
the 80s ten minutes to midnight, 10 july 1985
40 58
the 90s 84 david and goliath 100 the 00s 118 the 10s 162 the social network 166 40 years of photoactivism 40 years of inspiring action get involved
182 190 192
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 1
FOREWORD BY BILL DARNELL
foreword Forty years of campaigns have taught many lessons. Fundamental is to pay respectful attention to everything that lives around us; make deep connections, even with those we disagree with. When we connect deeply, we fall in love and we will not allow others to be harmed. We have also learned that when we confront destructive activities, we are going to be scared; we know those we confront may be angry. Fear is an expected part of change but it does not stop us. Mistakes are also to be expected and we will make them: during the first voyage of Greenpeace, if we had not made the mistake of entering the USA ‘illegally’, we would not have received the heroic support of the coast guard crew of the United States vessel Confidence. (See the account of this on pages 12-13).
It is my honour to write the foreword to The Greenpeace Chronicles, a record of the first 40 years of Greenpeace. Greenpeace has evolved from a small group of men and women in the port city of Vancouver on Canada’s Pacific coast to a planetary network of activists, working in concert with indigenous peoples and other activists. What remains common to the people of Greenpeace is a deep connection to creation and the shared thread of activism. From its very beginning, Greenpeace, backed by research, has taken direct action to confront the destruction of our sacred home. Greenpeace is the many, supported by the many, acting for all.
image © Brenda Hala Photography
2 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
Forty years of activism have taught us to work together and to trust each other. What really matters in the end are our relationship with all life on this planet. Finally, we have learned to celebrate these loving connections by having fun. Hard work ties us together, the fun celebrates the bonds. As Greenpeace sails into the next 40 years, I am filled with hope. The tasks ahead are daunting, but our gaze is global and our roots are with peoples in all continents. We will use our strength, intelligence and goodness to inspire people to organise. Greenpeace has been an inspiration for me for these 40 years. I trust Greenpeace will inspire both me and you for the next 40 years. Bill Darnell, Founding member of Greenpeace Canada, October 2011
introduction In 2009, Greenpeace mounted a major ship-based science expedition to the Arctic. It was a great opportunity to work with some of the world’s leading climate scientists and glaciologists, joining forces and expertise to highlight the reality and severity of climate change impacts in the region. Investigations focussed mainly around Greenland’s glaciers, and finished with research into the sea ice in the north, west of Norway’s Svalbard archipelago. Apart from the scientific work, the expedition was also the highest – north or south – a Greenpeace ship had ever travelled. In 2010, we sailed the coast of Greenland again. The aim of our mission this time was to stop Cairn Energy from drilling for oil in the pristine waters of the Arctic Circle. Cairn’s Arctic drilling programme was limited to a period between July and November, and it was in a race against time to finish its exploration before the sea-ice once again became too thick to allow its vessels to operate and for wells to be drilled effectively. In non-violent direct action, Greenpeace climbers occupied Cairn’s rigs in order to delay its activities. Even this short action was enough, and Cairn was unable to find any oil that year. And in 2011, we returned to the Arctic. In September, a gigantic version of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous sketch – the Vitruvian Man – was constructed by the Greenpeace-commissioned artist John Quigley, on a stretch of sea-ice just 800km from the North Pole. As the seaice melts into the Arctic Sunrise, the Vitruvian Man himself bears witness to the dramatic decline in both the thickness and the extent of summer sea-ice in the Arctic over the past 30 years, driven by a rise in global temperatures.
These Arctic activities encapsulate the key elements of Greenpeace’s work: bearing witness, exposing environmental crimes, investigating and highlighting environmental issues. They make use of the Greenpeace ‘tools of the trade’ - our ships, our non-violent direct actions - and they have been accomplished by our volunteers and our activists, our ships crew and our campaigners, our scientists, lawyers, political lobbyists and researchers, our staff in regional and national offices around the world and by our supporters and cyberactivists.
The Arctic is under threat from both climate change and oil drilling.
It was this same combination of independent investigation and scientific research, political lobbying and direct action, ships, Greenpeace staff, volunteers, supporters and activists that - 20 years ago, and at the opposite side of the world - helped to ensure that the entire continent of Antarctica was protected from exploitation. And 40 years ago, a small group of environmentalists and anti-war protestors set sail in a rickety old boat headed towards the US nuclear testing site at Amchitka Island. They may not have had the resources that Greenpeace enjoys today, but their vision has remained constant throughout the organisation’s history. From its very earliest days, Greenpeace has borne witness to environmental crimes, and challenging those who fail to protect our planet. Today, Greenpeace comprises 28 national and regional offices in over 40 countries across Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Pacific, as well as a coordinating body - Greenpeace International - based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
image 1 In 2011, leading independent ice scientists from the University of Cambridge joined the Greenpeace ice breaker Arctic Sunrise on an expedition to test Arctic sea ice thickness, in a year that could mark the lowest sea ice minimum on record © Nick Cobbing / Greenpeace image 2 The Arctic Sunrise and her crew facilitate the field work of oceanographers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in 2009, in order to calculate the impact of ocean warming on east Greenland’s outlet glaciers © Nick Cobbing / Greenpeace image 3 Greenpeace was involved in a week-long search for the 53,000 tonne Leiv Eiriksson, the only oil rig scheduled to begin new offshore drilling operations in the Arctic in 2011 © Jiri Rezac / Greenpeace
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 3
Introduction
image With the help of the crew of the Arctic Sunrise, artist John Quigley recreates Leonardo da Vinci’s sketch Vitruvian Man, from copper, on the Arctic sea ice © Nick Cobbing / Greenpeace
Like that small group of protestors who sailed towards Amchitka, we remain independent. We do not accept funding from any political parties, governments or corporations. Instead, we rely entirely on voluntary donations from individual supporters, and on grant support from foundations. Our independence ensures the credibility and authority that plays a large role in making our campaigns successful. We continue to expose environmental criminals and to challenge governments and corporations when they fail to live up to their mandate to safeguard our environment and our future. We continue to use research, lobbying and quiet diplomacy to pursue our goals, as well as high-profile, non-violent conflict to raise the level and quality of public debate. And we continue to inspire millions of people to join us in taking action every day to preserve the future of our planet. In the year marking Greenpeace’s 40th anniversary, we wanted to bring you a collection of stories and a selection of images that attempt to show you more about what Greenpeace is and what Greenpeace does. We have called this document ‘The Greenpeace Chronicles’ in tribute to the organisation’s very first newsletter, which was edited by Rex Weyler. Rex was a director of the original Greenpeace Foundation and a co-founder of Greenpeace International in 1979. He was a photographer and reporter on the early Greenpeace whale and seal campaigns and has written one of the best and most comprehensive histories of the organisation, ‘Greenpeace: An Insider’s Account’ (Raincoast, 2004). Rex writes a monthly column - ‘Deep Green’ - for the Greenpeace website, and we reproduce two of his articles on the early history of Greenpeace in this volume.
4 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
Also contributing to ‘The Greenpeace Chronicles’ is John Novis, Greenpeace International’s Head of Photography. John has worked with Greenpeace for over 20 years, and provides us here with his insight into 40 years of Greenpeace’s photoactivism. Mike Townsley looks at the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior by French secret service agents in New Zealand, 1985, a defining moment in Greenpeace history. And Laura Kenyon - Greenpeace International online activist and a specialist in community network - brings us up to date with the latest technological developments as Greenpeace adds social networking and cyberactivism to its powerful array of campaigning tools. ‘The Greenpeace Chronicles’ have been 40 years in the making. Join us on a trip through time that will lead you from that group of protesters and environmentalists who set sail to take on a superpower, to Greenpeace’s campaigns and actions around the world today. And discover more about the many ordinary people who have chosen to do extraordinary things in order to save our planet.
“We came here and created the ‘Melting Vitruvian Man’, da Vinci’s famous sketch of the human body, because literally climate change is eating into the body of our civilisation.” John Quigley, artist
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 5
let’s make it a
green peace
Bob Hunter
“We were anti-heroes rather than heroes. We were Dustin Hoffmans and not John Waynes.” Bob Hunter
Lyle Thurston Richard Fineberg
let’s make it a
origins LET’S Make it a green peaCe
green peace 1968 In the early evening of 4 April, Martin Luther King – one of the world’s most visionary activists for justice – is assassinated in Memphis. Two months later, US Senator Bobby Kennedy is shot and killed in Los Angeles. Throughout the year, there are worldwide protests against the Vietnam War; US President Richard Nixon asks ‘the silent majority’ to support his policies, and Vice President Spiro T Agnew denounces Nixon’s critics as ‘an effete corps of impudent snobs’. Just as it seems that the entire world was falling apart, the astronauts on Apollo 8 – the first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon – take a photograph that will forever change humanity’s image of the planet it inhabits: Earthrise - planet Earth as seen from space. Radiant, alive, infinitely beautiful, awash with oceans, swathed in clouds. The picture will later be called ‘the single most influential environmental photograph ever taken’. The image is seen on Christmas Eve 1968, by the largest TV audience of the time. Exactly one year earlier Martin Luther King had proclaimed that if we are to attain peace on Earth, ‘we must develop a world perspective’. Back in 1948, the British astronomer Fred Hoyle had predicted that a photograph of the Earth taken from space would let loose ‘a new idea as powerful as any in history’. Earthrise fulfilled both Hoyle’s prediction and King’s prophetic call, and a new era of ecology and environmental consciousness was about to be ushered in…
Ecology? Look it up, you’re involved As the Vietnam War escalated throughout the 1960s, over a million draft resisters and deserters fled the US. 150,000 of them went to Canada in the largest single political exodus in US history. Among them were the Quaker pacifists Irving and Dorothy Stowe, from Providence, Rhode Island, and Jim and Marie Bohlen from Pennsylvania. One Saturday morning in the spring of ’68 the Bohlens attend an anti-war demonstration on the lawn of the Provincial Court House in Vancouver. Knowing almost nobody there, they looked out for fellow Quakers and introduced themselves to the Stowes. The four soon became devoted friends and were among the charter members of the new British Columbia chapter of the Sierra Club. In August 1969 the US announced a onemegaton nuclear bomb test – ‘Milrow’ - scheduled for October, on Amchitka Island, in the Aleutian Islands, just off the Alaskan coast. The US began nuclear tests on Amchitka in 1965, despite the fact that the island is located in one of the most earthquake-prone regions in the world. Journalist Bob Hunter wrote in the Vancouver Sun: “The United States will begin to play a game of Russian roulette with a nuclear pistol pressed against the head of the world.” He had researched the risk of an earthquake and threat of a tidal wave. “There is a distinct danger,” he wrote, “that the tests might set in motion earthquakes and tidal waves which could sweep from one end of the Pacific to the other.” On 29 September, a demonstration to protest the nuclear bomb test was organised at the US Consulate in downtown Vancouver. Bob Hunter made placards for the protest and came up with the slogan ‘Don’t Make a Wave’. Also attending this protest were Bob’s wife
8 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
Zoe Hunter, Irving Stowe, Ben Metcalfe, Paul and Linda Spong and several others who would eventually form the core of Greenpeace. Journalist Ben Metcalfe – on his own initiative, and at a cost of $4,000 – had previously been responsible for placing 12 billboards around Vancouver that declared, ‘Ecology? Look it up! You’re involved.’ Spong had been hired by the University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Aquarium to study the first captive Orcinus orca, Skana. Spong’s experience with the whale converted him into a full-time advocate for whales, and one day the Spongs’ passion for whales would change the face of Greenpeace and the environmental movement. The same group who had gathered at the US Consulate blockaded the highway at the US-Canadian boarder a couple of days later. Irving and Dorothy Stowe held the Quaker banner, and others brandished their ‘Don’t Make a Wave’ signs. That night, the Milrow blast was detonated 4,000 feet below the surface of Amchitka Island, registering a Richter 6.9 shockwave.
Don’t make a wave When the US Department of Defence announced in November that a 5-megaton thermonuclear test – ‘Cannikin’ - was scheduled for Amchitka in the fall of 1971, Irving Stowe formed a group to protest this bomb. Dorothy Stowe recruited the BC Association of Social Workers and Deeno Birmingham from the BC Voice of Women. Jim and Marie Bohlen and Terry Simmons from the Sierra Club joined. Bohlen recruited Paul Cote, a law student he met at the border blockade. Borrowing the slogan coined by Bob Hunter, Stowe, Bohlen and Cote became directors of the Don’t Make A Wave Committee. Stowe recruited Hunter, Metcalfe, Bill Darnell and Rod Marining, all of whom were working on similar projects. As working journalists, Metcalfe and Hunter were
the most prominent ecology voices in Vancouver, at the CBC and The Vancouver Sun. Bob Cummings, writing for the radical underground Georgia Straight, also helped promote the cause and joined the group. The Committee met at the Stowes’ house to plan their protest at the Amchitka tests, but its consensus process could often result in long debates and slow resolutions. This particularly frustrated Jim Bohlen, whose wife Marie asked him one February morning why they didn’t simply send a boat to Amchitka. At the same moment the Vancouver Sun called, to ask what campaigns the group was planning. Caught off guard, Jim said “We hope to sail a boat to Amchitka to confront the bomb.” The newspaper ran the story the following day, announcing the plan as a Sierra Club campaign. While the Sierra Club in California rejected the idea, the Don’t Make a Wave Committee embraced it. Although Marie’s idea and Jim’s announcement had bypassed the consensus process, nobody opposed the plan. At a meeting at the Unitarian Church that week, as Irving Stowe flashed the ‘V’ sign and said “Peace,” Bill Darnell replied modestly, “Make it a green peace.” The name ‘Greenpeace’ quickly caught on. On 15 February 1970, the Vancouver Sun ran the story about the intended voyage - dropping the Sierra Club reference but mentioning a boat to be called ‘the Greenpeace’, the first time the word appeared in print as a single word. Marie Bohlen’s son, Paul Nonnast, designed the first button with the ecology symbol above, the peace symbol below, and in the middle, the single word: Greenpeace. The Don’t Make A Wave Committee published the first ‘Greenpeace’ pamphlet in March 1970, written by the 71-year-old Lille d’Easum, an executive of the BC Voice of Women.
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 9
let’s make it a
origins Let’s make it a green peace
green peace Although the Committee had unanimously ratified the idea of sailing to Amchitka to protest the nuclear testing, it had neither a boat nor the money to charter one. Stowe hit upon the idea of organising a concert to raise funds for a boat. The concert would feature Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Phil Ochs and Chilliwack, and it raised $17.000. The Sierra Club and Quaker groups in the US also contributed towards the fund. In the meantime, the search for a suitable boat was on. Paul Cote met the 60-year old Captain John Cormack on a Fraser River dock, and Cormack agreed to use his fishing boat, the Phyllis Cormack, named after his wife, for the voyage. Hunter, Metcalfe, Bohlen, Darnell and Simmons formed the activist core of the boat crew. Underground journalist Bob Cummings, ecologist Patrick Moore, engineer Dave Birmingham, medical doctor Lyle Thurston, and photographer Robert Keziere joined them. When Marie Bohlen decided to stay ashore, Lou Hogan and Rod Marining stood next on the waiting list. Marining deferred to Hogan, believing that a woman should be on the boat, as did Hunter and Metcalfe. In the end, Richard Fineberg, who had met Bohlen in Alaska, joined the crew instead of Hogan.
10 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
Behind you, one hundred percent The Phyllis Cormack, rechristened Greenpeace for the voyage, departed Vancouver on 15 September 1971. Throughout the voyage, Dorothy Metcalfe served as the primary media link, via radio in her home. Dorothy told her husband how support for their action was stretching across Canada and the US, ranging from radical ecological groups to members of Nixon’s own cabinet. She told him how the United Church of Canada had sounded church bells across the country asking the US to cancel the tests. She also told him that the Don’t Make a Wave Committee had now been able to raise money to launch a bigger and faster ship to Amchitka, the Canadian minesweeper Edgewater Fortune; a second boat was now waiting in the wings. The Phyllis Cormack’s crew went ashore at Alert Bay and then continued to the Gulf of Alaska. They were refused entry to Dutch Harbor, to stock up on fuel and supplies, because it was a military base. Instead they anchored off the island of Akutan; they received a message here that the tests had been delayed, but nobody knew for how long. They decided to leave Akutan on a scouting trip to Amchitka, but on 30 September, they were approached by the Coast Guard cutter USS Confidence. Commander Floyd Hunter came aboard and announced that the Phyllis Cormack was under arrest; the crew had failed to notify customs officials of their arrival in Akutan and were ordered to the Shumagin Islands – away from Amchitka – to clear customs there.
However, the Confidence’s crew handed over a document, signed by 18 crewmembers, recording their support for the protest: DUE TO THE SITUATION WE ARE IN, THE CREW OF THE CONFIDENCE FEEL THAT WHAT YOU ARE DOING IS FOR THE GOOD OF ALL MANKIND. IF OUR HANDS WEREN’T TIED BY THESE MILITARY BONDS, WE WOULD BE IN THE SAME POSITION AS YOU ARE IN IF IT WAS AT ALL POSSIBLE. GOOD LUCK. WE ARE BEHIND YOU ONE HUNDRED PERCENT. For the Phyllis Cormack, it was time to return home. She met the Edgewater Fortune – now known as the Greenpeace Too – near Union Bay, a day out of Vancouver. The two crews hugged and shook hands and the Greenpeace flag from the Phyllis Cormack was handed over to the bigger ship. The Phyllis Cormack went on to Vancouver where the crew was afforded a heroic welcome home. The Greenpeace Too pushed towards Amchitka, racing for the 4 November deadline of the nuclear test. Still, the bomb remained silent but the following day 30 US Senators submitted a statement to Nixon urging him to proceed with the test. Although the governor of Minnesota pleaded with James Schlesinger, the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, to halt the test, Schlesinger announced he would fly to Amchitka with his family to show the world how safe the test was. “It’s fun for the kids, and my wife is delighted to get away from the house for a while.” At 1.00 on the afternoon of 6 November, a 4-3 vote allowed the test to proceed. Five hours later, the 5.2 megaton hydrogen bomb was detonated 5,875 feet below the surface of Amchitka. The blast created a molten cavern inside the rock and blew a mile-wide crater on the surface that filled with water and became known as Cannikin Lake. Radioactive krypton gas leaked from the fissured rock, military buildings collapsed, roads cracked
wide open and 40,000 cubic metres of granite crumbled from shoreline cliffs. Seabirds nestling on the rocks were killed instantaneously and the skulls of thousands of sea otters were split open. The shock wave registered 7.2 on the Richter scale, becoming the largest human-made earth tremor in history.
Greenpeacing Because the Phyllis Cormack had never reached Amchitka, and the presence of the Edgewater Fortune had not deterred the US authorities, the Greenpeacers thought that all of their efforts had ultimately proven futile. But this was far from the case - public opposition to the tests was now so massive that disarmament campaigners believed the US might not even attempt to complete its scheduled tests. In the age ushered in following the publication of Earthrise, the world had – quite literally – seen itself for the first time, and it cared. The Greenpeace mission had drawn attention to something the world was no longer willing to tolerate. It was about the ecology, and this time everybody wanted to be involved. In February 1972, the US Atomic Energy Commission announced that the Amchitka test site would be abandoned ‘for political and other reasons’. Today, it has been returned to its status as a wildlife refuge. It had been made a green peace, and it was the making of Greenpeace. Jim Bohlen, Irving Stowe and Paul Cote met to wrap up the Don’t Make a Wave Committee. However, the Committee now had legal standing and a surplus of funds, and Ben Metcalfe brokered a deal to keep the organisation intact – under the name of the Greenpeace Foundation. The organisation would now turn its attention to French nuclear testing in the South Pacific. All it needed to do was find a capable yacht and a captain willing to sail into the test zone at Moruroa Atoll…
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 11
1971
image 1The core of the ‘Don’t Make A Wave Committee’ - Jim Bohlen, Paul Cote and Irving Stowe image 2 Ben Metcalfe at the radio as Jim Bohlen looks on image 3 Commander Floyd Hunter of the USS Confidence comes on board the Phyllis Cormack image 4 Engineer Dave Birmingham image 5 View over deck with Patrick Moore looking out of door, boat tilting in heavy weather image 6 The crew image 7 Ben Metcalfe turns to speak as wearer of the ‘Wakefield’s King Crab’ hat. image 8 Lyle Thurston, Pat Moore and Bill Darnell image 9 Bob Hunter image 10 Captain John Cormack image 11 The Phyllis Cormack heads north image 12 Bill Darnell and Bob Cummings image 13 Lyle Thurston image 14 and 15 The Phyllis Cormack returns to Vancouver harbour. All images © Greenpeace / Robert Keziere
12 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
image The crew of the USS Confidence coastguard vessel declare their support for the anti-nuclear voyage Š Greenpeace / Robert Keziere The images on this spread are taken from a photographic record by Robert Keziere of the very first Greenpeace voyage, which departed Vancouver on the 15 September 1971. The aim of the trip was to halt nuclear tests in Amchitka Island by sailing into the restricted area. Crew on-board the ship, are the pioneers of the green movement who formed the original group that became Greenpeace.
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 13
thewomen who founded greenpeace
Dorothy Stowe
Although men got most of the headlines in the early Greenpeace campaigns, many strong and visionary women helped bring Greenpeace to life. Dorothy Stowe was the first president of her local civic employees union in Rhode Island, where she faced repressive McCarthy era attacks. She spent her wedding night at a civil rights dinner, campaigned against nuclear weapons, and immigrated to Canada with her husband Irving in protest against the US-Vietnam war. She helped launch the first Greenpeace campaign, and hosted early Greenpeace meetings in her home. Dorothy always served food at these meetings, sometimes tea and cookies, and infused the radical politics with a calming sense of family and community. Marie Bohlen (Nonnast) was a nature illustrator, a Sierra Club member and a pacifist. Upon the birth of her son, Paul, she vowed that he would never go to war. She met Jim Bohlen at a Quaker peace march in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1958. They married and she introduced him to the Quaker Society of Friends and the Sierra Club. When Paul became eligible for the US military in 1967, they immigrated to Vancouver, Canada, where they met the Stowes and co-founded the Don’t Make A Wave Committee, which would later become Greenpeace.
14 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
In February 1970, while discussing how to stop US nuclear bomb tests in Alaska, Marie proposed the idea of sailing a boat up to the test site and confronting the bomb. Since the voyage had been her idea, Marie intended to represent the Quakers on the boat. In the end, she decided to remain in Vancouver and work with Dorothy Stowe and the others. Thus, the Phyllis Cormack - the first Greenpeace boat - carried only men. Bob Hunter later commented in a newspaper interview that this had been a mistake and that the half of the crew should have been women. The BC Voice of Women, led by Deeno Birmingham, played a key role in that first campaign, raising funds and petitioning the Canadian government to support the protest. Deeno drafted her husband, Dave Birmingham, to serve as engineer on the Phyllis Cormack. Lille d’Easum, a director of the Voice of Women, wrote the first Greenpeace technical report, a study of radiation effects.
Ann-Marie Horne
Dorothy Metcalfe Mary Lornie
Dorothy Metcalfe (Harris) had been a reporter at the Winnipeg Tribune when she met journalist Ben Metcalfe. They married and travelled to Europe in the 1950s, filing stories for the North America Newspaper Alliance. During the first Greenpeace campaign she converted her home into a radio room, relaying radio reports from Ben - who was on the Phyllis Cormack - to the world’s media. When the US delayed the test, and the crew contemplated safe harbour in Kodiak, Alaska, Dorothy encouraged them to push on toward the Aleutian Islands. “The momentum is building,” she advised. Dorothy lobbied Canadian Members of Parliament, which resulted in three motions urging the US to cancel the test. She called Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s office, insisting he travel to Washington to confront the Americans. Through the media she sent a message “from the wives and families of the men on board the Greenpeace. Our men are risking their lives… for the benefit of all mankind.” When she accused Trudeau of being cowardly, some supporters thought she had gone too far. “This is a democracy,” Dorothy Metcalfe insisted. “People have a responsibility to speak their minds.” During the French nuclear campaign, Dorothy Metcalfe once again provided the media centre. She also attended the first UN environmental meeting in Stockholm, and arranged an audience with the Pope at the Vatican to bless the Greenpeace flag. Zoe Hunter (Rahim), a member of the UK Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, met Bob Hunter in London in 1962. She introduced him to the pacifist work of Bertrand Russell and took him on the 1963 peace march to the Aldermaston nuclear facility, Hunter’s first political protest. They married and had two children, Conan and Justine. Zoe worked
with Dorothy Stowe and Dorothy Metcalfe to provision the first two Greenpeace ships. Today, she works with Amnesty International in Canada. The first two women to sail on a Greenpeace campaign were Ann-Marie Horne and Mary Lornie from New Zealand, on board the Vega, which sailed into the French nuclear test site at Moruroa Atoll in 1973. When French sailors boarded the Vega and assaulted David McTaggart and Nigel Ingram, AnnMarie snapped photographs and Mary Lornie took video footage. Ann-Marie’s photographs – which showed the beatings of McTaggart and Ingram – appeared around the world. Artist and musician Linda Spong helped launch the Greenpeace whale campaign with her husband Paul. In 1974, they travelled to Japan with their son Yasha, and interpreters Maya Koizumi and Michiko Sakata, to build a prowhale movement among Japanese scientists and supporters. In 1977, she served on the Greenpeace boat Meander, which blockaded a vessel carrying representatives from 15 oil companies promoting an oil tanker port in northern British Columbia. To this day, Linda is active in the campaign to ban oil tankers from the Canadian coast.
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 15
thewomen who founded greenpeace
Susi Newborn
Taeko Miwa and Carlie Trueman sailed on the first Greenpeace whale campaign. Trueman, an avid diver, was the first Greenpeace Zodiac specialist, and trained the crews in the operation and maintenance of the inflatable boats that would become a Greenpeace icon. Miwa was a student and environmentalist from Japan who had witnessed the devastating mercury poisoning in Minamata Bay. She ran campaigns against air pollution in Japan and served as Greenpeace’s Japanese translator. Bobbi Hunter (Innes) helped launch the first whale campaign, managed the first public Greenpeace office in Vancouver, and raised much of the money for the first whale and seal campaigns. As project manager for a cable company, she had tracked the workflow of hundreds of technicians, and she applied these skills to Greenpeace; Bobbi became a key figure in organising a disjointed Greenpeace group that was running three campaigns with modest income. In 1976, Bobbi and Marilyn Kaga were the first women to blockade a whaling ship, the Russian Vlasny harpoon boat.
r
Bobbi Hunte
von Koettlitz to help them restore the ship to life. In the spring of 1978, the ship set sail with an international crew representing the Netherlands, France, the UK, South Africa, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, the US and Canada. They confronted Icelandic and Spanish whalers and exposed the UK ship Gem, illegally dumping nuclear waste into the ocean. Newborn wrote a personal account of the Rainbow Warrior story, A Bonfire in My Mouth. The Rainbow Warrior name came from a small book, Warriors of the Rainbow, by Aleut elder William Willoya and Vinson Brown. This story inspired the Rainbow Warrior tradition in Greenpeace and to this day, the Grandmother - Eyes of the Fire – continues to shed her powerful light and vision over Greenpeace.n
By the time of the whale and seal campaigns in the 1970s, women were regularly serving on the front line of Greenpeace actions. Eileen Chivers, Henrietta Nielson, Bonnie MacLeod, Bree Drummond, Mary-Lee Brassard, Susi Leger and other women served on the whale and seal campaigns during that era. Meanwhile, in London, Susi Newborn and Denise Bell acquired and outfitted the first ship that Greenpeace ever owned, the Rainbow Warrior. Newborn and Bell, who wanted to confront Icelandic whalers in the North Pacific, found the 134-foot trawler Sir William Hardy, raised the money to purchase it, and drafted Newborn’s childhood friend Athel
16 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
© Greenpeace / REX WEYLER
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 17
image In the longhouse of the Kwakiutl villagers; crew members are anointed with water and feathers as they stand in front of the huge totem pole © Greenpeace / Robert Keziere
the warriors of the rainbow How Greenpeace adopted an ancient North American How Greenpeace adopted an legend In the summer of 1969, a rusted, red ancient North American legend pickup rattled up the driveway of Bob
The Kwakiutl’s hereditary crest has graced many a Greenpeace vessel.
and Zoe Hunter’s farmhouse, south of Vancouver, Canada. Bob Hunter, a newspaper columnist, sat on his front porch writing his first non-fiction book, The Enemies of Anarchy, about technological culture and Earth’s degraded ecology. Hunter squinted at the pickup as it stopped in a stir of dust. A wild-looking hippie, with long blond hair and beaded moccasins, stepped from the cab. Hunter’s newspaper column – examining ecology, peace, psychology, and progressive ideas – often attracted strange visitors. Hunter stepped from the porch. The young man approached, carrying a small book, which he handed to Hunter. “This is for you,” he said. “It will reveal a path that will affect your life.” Hunter looked at the title: Warriors of the Rainbow, Strange and Prophetic Dreams of the Indian People. On the cover, an Indian warrior sat below an eagle and a buffalo. The visitor explained that these were animal spirits appearing to a chief, who had gone into the wilderness to seek spiritual guidance. “Yeah, okay,” Hunter said to the stranger. “Thanks.” The mysterious visitor departed without idle conversation. Hunter watched the red pickup bump down the gravel driveway. He thumbed the volume, finding references to peyote ceremonies, Buddhist teachings, and quotes from the Bible, Koran, and Bhagavad-Gita.
18 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
Pictures of the authors revealed a smiling Aleut from Alaska, William Willoya and a Stanford University biologist Vinson Brown. Hunter filed the book on his shelf and returned to his work. Two years later, the fishing boat Phyllis Cormack, christened ‘Greenpeace’, stood ready to set out for the Alaska bomb test site. On the night before departure, Hunter selected books to take on the voyage. When the little volume Warriors of the Rainbow fell from the shelf to the floor, he casually stuffed it into his bag. On 18 September 1971, the third day out, the Phyllis Cormack stopped at the Kwakiutl village at Alert Bay. Lucy and Daisy Sewid, the chief’s daughters, met the crew at the dock and escorted them to a ceremony in the longhouse. Kwakiutl families blessed the ship, and fisherman donated salmon. The following morning Hunter filed a column describing the closed canneries and abandoned fish boats along the coast. He noted that the Kwakiutl had lived from the bounty of the sea for thousands of years before giant factory trawlers arrived with drift nets, and the North Pacific perch, herring, yellowfin sole, crab and shrimp began to disappear. Hunter saw in the depressed fishing economies a warning from the environment that humanity had reached the limits of industrial resource harvesting. Hunter dug into his duffle bag and found the Warriors of the
Rainbow. On the stern of the boat, as they moved north, Hunter read and paused at an excerpt from The Ten Grandmothers by Alice Marriott. “Of course you don’t know what it’s about when I sing of the old days,” said the Grandmother. “You’re just calves. You don’t remember. You were born inside the fence, like my own grandchildren.” Hunter felt a deep melancholy for what the world was losing. A story called ‘Return of the Indian Spirit’ told of a 12-year-old boy who asked his Great Grandmother, Eyes of the Fire, “Why have such bad things happened to our people?” Hunter discovered in the story a confirmation that aboriginal people had something important to offer humanity. In the story, the old Grandmother tells the boy that the White race was sent here to learn about other ways of being. She tells the boy of a prophecy that someday people from all the races of the world will join together to save the Earth from destruction and that these people will be known as ‘Warriors of the Rainbow’. At the Kitasoo native fishing village of Klemtu, cheering children swarmed the boat and sang songs for their guests. Hunter could not stop the tears from welling in his eyes. These people are counting on us, he thought to himself. The Greenpeace boat pushed north, with promises to return. The US Coast Guard arrested that first Greenpeace vessel, but the campaign created public response and the US ended the nuclear tests.
Throughout Greenpeace’s early days, we often referred to ourselves as ‘Rainbow Warriors’, inspired by the prophecy from the book. We staged a harp seal campaign that spring, and on Sunday, 13 June 1976, we launched a second whale campaign. Two boats stood at the dock in Vancouver, the Phyllis Cormack and a faster minesweeper, the James Bay, with rainbows painted on the bows. To our surprise, a Cree elder from Saskatchewan, Fred Mosquito, asked to address the crowd. Wrapped in a ceremonial blanket, he spoke of the Cree legend of the Warriors of the Rainbow. We feared that the elder might rebuke us for being disrespectful, since we had never actually asked anyone if we could use the legend in our campaign. When Fred Mosquito spoke, the crew huddled close. “Our prophecies we take seriously,” said the Cree elder. “To us it is not just a story. It is a foretelling.” Fred Mosquito waved his hand over the crowd and bore his eyes down on us. “You are the Warriors of the Rainbow,” he said. Bob Hunter straightened. Others bowed their head solemnly. Hunter gave the Cree elder a Greenpeace pin. We filed down the pier, boarded the two boats, and set off for a second summer of harassing whalers in the Pacific. We assumed the role of Rainbow Warriors as a sacred trust.n
“This is for you...it will reveal a path that will affect your life.”
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 19
the
20 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
Greenpeace offices in the ’70s CANADA – 1971 NEW ZEALAND – 1974 UK – 1976 USA - 1976 AUSTRALIA - 1977 FRANCE – 1977 NETHERLANDS – 1978
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 21
1970-77
Ships: Phyllis Cormack In service: 1970-77 Built: around 1940 Type of ship: Fish trawler Length: 24m Max. speed: 9 knots Crew: 12 people were on board during the trip to Amchitka Early in 1971, Jim Bohlen and Paul Cote were looking around the docks in Vancouver for a suitable boat to make the trip to the nuclear test site at Amchitka. A boat had been recommended to Cote, but he failed to find it at the dock he had been directed to. He asked a nearby fisherman, who had never heard of the boat Cote was looking for, but who was curious to know more about Cote’s search. The fisherman was Captain John Cormack, a stout man in his 60s, covered in grease and oil, missing two fingers on his left hand, missing most of his teeth, and sporting a rough grey stubble of a beard. Cormack had 40 years’ experience fishing the West Coast, though, and operated a 66-foot fish trawler called Phyllis Cormack, after his wife. The idea of taking his boat across the treacherous Gulf of Alaska did not faze him in the slightest, and after several years of poor fishing and with his boat needing repairs, he needed the charter money. The Phyllis Cormack made the legendary trip to Amchitka with Captain Cormack at the wheel. She was also later involved in Greenpeace’s first actions against whaling in 1975 and 1976. After her Greenpeace career, she remained in service as a fish trawler for many years, until she sank in 2000.
image 1 1975 anti-whaling campaign © Greenpeace / Rex Weyler image 2 Preparing for departure for Amchitka on 15 September 1971 © Greenpeace / Robert Keziere image 3 1975 anti-whaling campaign © Greenpeace / Robert Keziere
22 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
70s 1972 French nuclear tests in the South Pacific unleash protests across the world. After making preparations with Greenpeace in Canada, a five-man crew led by David McTaggart sets out in May from New Zealand in May, on the yacht Vega. Headed for the testing area at Moruroa atoll, the Vega is rammed by a French minesweeper in international waters, bringing the protest action to an end.
1973
“The first truncheon came down with a weight and force unlike anything I had felt…Something crashed into my right eye with such incredible force that it seemed to come right into the middle of my brain in an explosion, so that I thought that half my head had been torn off. And then everything went black…” David McTaggart
images 1 to 4 A sequence of images of French police boarding the Vega and beating up David McTaggart. image 5 David McTaggart in a hospital bed following the incident. His eye is bandaged. All images © Greenpeace / Ann-Marie Horne image 6 David McTaggart, 1996 © Greenpeace / Waltraud Geier
The Vega sets off for its second voyage to Moruroa, accompanied by other ships. French military forces board the yacht, and David McTaggart and Neil Ingram are beaten up. The incident causes worldwide outrage. In November, France announces that it will only carry out underground nuclear testing in future.
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 23
The threat
Greenpeace in action
Although the UK, the US and the USSR had all signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963, agreeing to conduct future nuclear testing underground, France and China refused. France continued its atmospheric nuclear weapons testing at Moruroa Atoll in French Polynesia. The task of halting this would fall to Greenpeace, and the organisation began a quest to find somebody able to sail to Moruroa to protest against the tests.
A newspaper article about Greenpeace’s ambition came to the attention of one David McTaggart, a former Canadian businessman and expert yachtsman. McTaggart was living in New Zealand at the time, and he owned a strong, seaworthy 12 metre ketch, the Vega, capable of crossing any of the world’s oceans. He contacted Ben Metcalfe in Vancouver to ask if Greenpeace could help to pay for a new inflatable life raft and a long-range radio transceiver; Greenpeace was delighted to oblige. McTaggart renamed his yacht ‘Greenpeace III’ for the occasion and set sail. He observed international law in establishing his anchor position, but ignored the French government’s unilateral declaration of the area around Moruroa as a forbidden zone. The presence of his boat forced the French government to halt its test – a French naval vessel eventually rammed the boat to bring an end to what was, for the French, an embarrassing situation.
24 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
70s
McTaggart didn’t give up. He repaired his boat, and the Vega was back in action the following year. But, when the Vega arrived at the site, a French aircraft spotted her. Three French ships closed in on the yacht, and French military personnel boarded her. McTaggart and fellow crewmember Nigel Ingram were physically beaten. The French naval high command were quick to fabricate a cover story, claiming that McTaggart was trying to throw French sailors back into the sea, before he was “borne down by their weight and fell into a rubber dinghy alongside the yacht. He injured his eye in the fall when he hit a cleat. Our men boarded his vessel unarmed and without striking a single blow…”
Atmospheric nuclear testing driven from the entire Pacific Ocean McTaggart entered into lengthy litigation against the French. In 1974 he won part of his case, a landmark decision in which the French courts sided against the French government. That same year, France announced that it would end its atmospheric nuclear testing programme.
© Greenpeace / RANDI BAIRD
However, another crewmember, AnnMarie Horne, had smuggled a camera film off of the Vega. Her photographs revealed the truth of the incident, and they were published widely. The story drew further criticism of France’s nuclear testing programme.
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 25
1972-95 Ships: vega
In service: 1972-95 Built: around 1948 Type of ship: Yacht Length: 12m Max. speed: 6.5 knots Crew: 5 Built in 1948 without the aid of power tools and entirely of native New Zealand timber, the Vega has large diesel fuel and water tanks and plenty of storage space, which means she can cross any of the world’s oceans. She has covered over 50,000 sea miles. Her history with Greenpeace begins when David McTaggart sailed her to Moruroa to confront French atmospheric nuclear testing in the early 1970s. She was to return to the atoll many times, but also participated in other Greenpeace campaigns and information tours. In 1991, the Vega underwent repairs in New Zealand, in preparation for her retirement, and sailed to the Mediterranean in 1992 to be reunited with David McTaggart, by then Greenpeace International’s Honorary Chair. When McTaggart died in 2011, veteran Greenpeace activist Chris Robinson – one of the original Rainbow Warrior crew and a former captain of the Vega - assumed operation of the vessel. Under Chris’ guidance, the Vega continued her work, including protests against environmentally-destructive projects in Australia. When Chris also sadly died in 2008, the Vega returned to New Zealand, to be run by Waiheke Islander Daniel Mares, also a former crew member and skipper. The Vega is now used mainly for educational purposes.
image 1 Approaching the Moruroa test site in 1995 © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan image 2 At Pohnpei, one of the Federated States of Micronesia, in 1991 © Greenpeace / Lorette Dorreboom image 3 With the Rainbow Warrior off Mejato in the Marshall Islands, in 1991 © Greenpeace / Lorette Dorreboom image 4 Sailing from Manzanillo on her third voyage to the French nuclear test site, in 1981 © Greenpeace / David McTaggart
26 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
70s 1975 Greenpeace launches its campaign to protect whales with an expedition against the Soviet whaling fleet off the California coast. The Phyllis Cormack and the Vega set out in April with a photographer and two professionals with cameras on board. The first confrontation with a Soviet whaling vessel takes place in June. The activists place themselves literally in the firing line, sailing their dinghies between the harpoon sights and the whales – films and photos of the encounter are published around the world.
image 1 Russian crew on whaling vessel © Greenpeace / Rex Weyler image 2 Russian factory ship takes over a killed whale from the catcher ship image 3 Bob Hunter on inflatable boat with the Phyllis Cormack in the background image 4 Track of whale blood at the stern of a factory vessel image 5 Greenpeace cameraman takes footage of a Russian whaling ship image 6 Factory vessel pumping out whale blood. All images © Greenpeace / Rex Weyler.
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 27
PROJECT AHAB Greenpeace wasn’t originally involved with the whaling issue, so Bob Hunter and whale expert Paul Spong developed initial ideas for an antiwhaling campaign under the banner of ‘Project Ahab’. In 1973, Spong travelled to Japan – one of the principal whaling nations – and lectured in more than 20 cities there, playing whale sounds, showing slides and appearing on television. Despite his impact in Japan, it was clear that stronger measures were called for. The Project Ahab team began planning an expedition to confront whaling fleets out at sea, and while looking at photographs of the French military pursuing the Vega in high-speed inflatable Zodiac dinghies, Hunter and Spong came up with the idea of using inflatables in the whale protest, placing themselves between the whales and the whalers and making it impossible for the harpooner to get a clear shot.
Following the death of Irving Stowe in October 1974, and the resignation of the Greenpeace Foundation’s chairman of the time, Robert Hunter and the other members of the Project Ahab committee effectively became the new Greenpeace. At the beginning of 1975 they rented their first real office, three small rooms on Vancouver’s Fourth Avenue, and set about raising the money to finance the voyage.
28 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
Paul Spong © GP / Weyler
In September 1974 the Project Ahab committee explained their plans to a large gathering of volunteers, asking for their help, and over the next few months people from all walks of life would dedicate themselves to the campaign. “It was a fine, if unconventional, blend of human talents and skills,” wrote Bob Hunter. According to Hunter, there were “dozens of people who regularly consulted the I Ching, astrology charts and ancient Aztec tables. Yet for every mystic, there was at least one mechanic, and salty old West Coast experts on diesel engines and boat hulls showed up at the meetings to sit next to young vegetarian women. Hippies and psychologists mixed freely with animal lovers, poets, marine surveyors, housewives, dancers, computer programmers and photographers.”
“It seems to me that in time we might be able to learn an awful lot from the whales. But if this generation allows the whales to be wiped out like the dinosaurs, future generations will never have the opportunity to make the discoveries that are possible. It will be too late. So we have to do something now. That’s all there is to it.”
70s 1976 Greenpeace begins a campaign to protect seals, protesting against the slaughter of baby seals in Newfoundland. Using helicopters, a Greenpeace team land on the ice where the sealers are at work; bloody pelts lie everywhere. At one point the only course of action for Greenpeace activists to take is to block the advancing sealing vessel from moving further into the ice with their own bodies.
image 1 Paul Watson holds a seal pup in his arms to protect it from sealers image 2 A lone seal pup is helpless on the ice; a sealing ship can be seen in the background image 3 Aerial view of a seal-culling ship travelling through the ice; traces of blood are visible on the ice image 4 Paul Watson and Bob Hunter kneel on the ice in front of a sealing ship. All images Š Greenpeace / Patrick Moore
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 29
1976-77
Ships: JAMES BAY In service: 1976-77 Built: around 1944 Type of ship: former Royal Canadian Navy minesweeper Length: 47m Max. speed: 15 knots Crew: 36 Greenpeace chartered the James Bay in Seattle in 1976 for actions against the Soviet whaling fleet. The ship was much faster than the Phyllis Cormack, and therefore more suitable for keeping up with the whalers. At one point, about 1,400 miles southwest of the San Francisco coast, the James Bay cruised alongside the Soviet whaler Dalniy Vostok and, through loudspeakers, appealed to the whalers in six different languages to stop their activities. It was on the way back home from this confrontation that the ship’s crew spotted a submarine monitoring them. Although this craft trailed the James Bay for more than a week, it never came close enough to be identified. It still remains unknown to this day which nation decided to watch Greenpeace so closely.
image 1 The wheelhouse of the James Bay image 2 In the North Pacific during the 1976 Soviet antiwhaling tour image 3 At sea, just off Vancouver Island image 4 Crew members in the wheelhouse. All images Š Greenpeace / Rex Weyler
30 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
70s The Greenpeace ship James Bay goes into action against Soviet whalers during the whaling season. About 100 whales are saved during this encounter – and at least another 1,300 whales are saved because the whalers are deterred from visiting their hunting grounds.
image 1 In the North Pacific image 2 Approaching a Russian whaling ship image 3 Paul Watson on Zodiac in front of whaling vessel image 4 Crew member Mike Bailey image 5 Russian whaling ship surrounded by Greenpeace inflatables image 6 James Bay with Russian whaling ship in background image 7 Crew member David Garrick, known as ‘Walrus’ image 8 Paul Spong and Bob Hunter image 9 The James Bay prepares to depart image 10 Crew lookout during sunset image 11 Marilyn Kaga and Paul Watson on an inflatable in front of a Russian whaling ship. All images © Greenpeace / Rex Weyler
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 31
1977
Ships: OHANA KAI
In service: 1977 Built: 1942 Type of ship: former US navy submarine chaser Length: 51m Max. speed: 20 knots Crew: approximately 25 Formerly the Island Transport, the first ship actually owned rather than chartered was renamed Ohana Kai, a name meaning ‘Family of the Seas’. She was also the fastest ship the organisation has ever had. Used in 1977 to pursue Soviet whalers in the North Pacific, she was able to shadow the whaling fleet for over a week, during which time not a single whale was caught. Crew from the Ohana Kai were able to drive two of their inflatables right up the stern slip of the Dalniy Vostok factory ship. Russian crew gathered around, and the Greenpeacers handed out Russianlanguage literature and whale pins. “The whales are your comrades,” Paul Spong told them. The shocked but curious crew accepted the gifts. The ship was docked in San Francisco for a couple of years, before Greenpeace sold her again. She was finally scrapped in 1991. image © Campbell Plowden / Greenpeace
32 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
1977 French actress Brigitte Bardot supports the seal campaign, which has become a headline topic in media around the world. At least 45 journalists from across Europe accompany Bardot when she steps out on the ice to join Greenpeace protesters at Belle Isle. Greenpeace goes into action against Soviet whaling vessels in the North Pacific during the summer whaling season. Film of the voyage and the slaughter of sperm whales is broadcast across the US as a one-hour documentary, with US president Jimmy Carter making a special request to view it. As the International Whaling Commission (IWC) conference takes place in Canberra, Greenpeace joins an anti-whaling convoy setting out from Sydney to confront Australian whalers. The activists use Zodiacs to place themselves directly in the line of fire, and films of the actions are shown on major Australian television networks, drawing considerable public attention. Greenpeace follows this up with another coup when its efforts lead US Customs to refuse entry to a tanker carrying 1,200 tons of sperm whale oil, described as fish oil, which has been sent by the Australian whaling company. The tide of public opinion in Australia turns against whaling, and within two years the last Australian whaling station will close down. Greenpeace is accorded observer status at the IWC.
70s
image 1 Russian whaler captures a whale image 2 Russian catcher image 3 Crew on board the whaling ship image 4 Details of the Russian whale catcher NK-2026 images 5 and 6 Greenpeace Zodiac in front of Russian whaler. All images Š Greenpeace / Rex Weyler
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 33
1978-85
Ships: rainbow warrior In service: 1978-85 Built: 1955 Type of ship: former fishery research vessel Length: 44m Max. speed: 12 knots Crew: 15 Greenpeace acquired the Sir William Hardy in London in 1978 with funds provided by the Dutch WWF for a campaign against Icelandic whaling. She was named after the Native American prophecy of the Warriors of the Rainbow. She set out on her first voyage on 29 April 1978. The Rainbow Warrior was equipped with sails in 1985, in readiness for a voyage to the Pacific. The 320 residents of the radioactively contaminated Rongelap Atoll had asked Greenpeace to help resettle them on the safer soil of Mejato Island. The Islanders were suffering the after-effects such as cancer, leukaemia and birth defects - of US nuclear tests undertaken in the 1950s. Following the Rongelap evacuation, the Rainbow Warrior was due to lead a peace flotilla of ships from New Zealand to Moruroa to protest against French nuclear testing. Three days after her arrival in Auckland, however, French secret service agents bombed and sank her in the harbour, killing Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira, who drowned in his cabin. The ship was refloated, but she could not be repaired. She was towed from Auckland and scuttled off the coast, to become an artificial reef for marine life.
image 1 Sailing through scattered Arctic ice to protest against the seal cull in 1981 © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 2 During actions against Icelandic whaling in 1979 © Greenpeace / Jean Deloffre image 3 In Marsden Wharf, Auckland Harbour after the bombing by French secret service agents © Greenpeace / John Miller image 4 © Greenpeace / Jean Deloffre image 5 Leaving London in 1978 for the Icelandic anti-whaling protest © Greenpeace / Ferrero / Marriner image 6 Memorial to the Rainbow Warrior in Matauri Bay, New Zealand © Greenpeace / Roger Grace
34 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
70s
1978 In May, Greenpeace’s new flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, sails into Icelandic whaling areas. The crew successfully hinders whaling activities, making whaling a discussion topic in Iceland.
“It was decided that our rusting old trawler was to be called the Rainbow Warrior…Robert Hunter had given me a copy of the book ‘Warriors of the Rainbow’. I often wonder whether it went down with the Warrior, or got lost along the way. I always remember it there, on the shelf in the mess room…” Susi Newborn
image 1 The crew of the Rainbow Warrior image 2 Musicians on board at Rotterdam Port, the Netherlands image 3 Activists in inflatable race alongside an Icelandic whaling ship image 4 Pete Bouquet paints the hull image 5 Man on harpoon of Icelandic whaler Hvalur 9 image 6 Whale tied up alongside an Icelandic whaling ship image 7 Chris Robinson in Zodiac in front of the Hvalur 9 image 8 Activists protesting against Icelandic whaling ship. All images © Greenpeace / Ferrero / Marriner image 9 Susi Newborn, used with permission image overleaf Crew member’s birthday party on board the Rainbow Warrior during the Icelandic tour © Greenpeace / Jean Paul Ferrero
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 35
© Greenpeace / JEAN PAUL FERRARO
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 37
70s After its Iceland expedition, Greenpeace hinders a British freighter, the Gem, from dumping 2,000 tonnes of radioactive waste into the Atlantic, southwest of Britain’s Cornish coast. In June, Greenpeace participates in mass protests in the US against the construction of a nuclear power plant in Seabrook, New Hampshire. In October, Greenpeace takes action against seal hunters off the Orkney Islands. Public interest in the organisation’s activities has grown, and journalists accompany the Rainbow Warrior on its voyage. The British government calls off the seal hunt.
image 1 Rainbow Warrior crew preparing to take on the Orkney seal cull © Greenpeace / Peter Lagendyk image 2 Water hoses are aimed at Greenpeace activists attempting to prevent the dumping of nuclear waste © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 3 Greenpeace activists manoeuvre close to the Gem, to prevent it dumping nuclear waste materials in the North Atlantic © Greenpeace / Jean Deloffre
38 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
70s 1979 Greenpeace protests against nuclearpowered submarines, shipments of nuclear waste and nuclear power plants in Canada and the US. In June, Greenpeace activists make a parachute jump above the Darlington nuclear power plant on Lake Ontario in Canada, to protest against the construction of the world’s largest nuclear power plant to date. The Rainbow Warrior continues to protect whales from being killed by Icelandic whalers in April and August. As friction grows between different Greenpeace offices in the US and Canada, David McTaggart – who by know heads the closely-knit groups of Greenpeace in Europe – sweeps into the US calling for unity. The US, Canadian and European groups agree to the formation of a new umbrella organisation, Greenpeace International. Based in the Netherlands, Greenpeace International is registered under the name Stichting Greenpeace Council (a ‘stichting’ is the Dutch form of organisation often used for nonprofit foundations). Greenpeace is now composed of offices in Canada, Australia, the UK, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the US. Each national office will maintain its autonomy and devise its own local campaigns, but an overseeing council with representatives from each office will meet to make major decisions and coordinate the organisation’s work. This coordination is becomingly increasingly essential – Greenpeace has 25,000 financial supporters in the Boston area alone in the US, and in the Netherlands new supporters are signing up at the rate of 1,100 a month.
“There’s a peaceful battleship, the Rainbow Warrior, sailing ’round the world to the shore, where the seals are cudgelled by them nasty furriers ‘till there ain’t no more.” - Lyrics to ‘Greenpeace’, a 1979 single released by the Dutch Eurovision-winning pop group Teach-In, which also featured a voice over by Greenpeace’s own David McTaggart.
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 39
80s
the
New Greenpeace offices in the ’80s DENMARK – 1980 GERMANY - 1980 BELGIUM - 1981 AUSTRIA – 1983 SWEDEN – 1983 SPAIN – 1984 SWITZERLAND - 1984 LUXEMBOURG – 1985 ITALY - 1986 ARGENTINA - 1987 NORWAY – 1988 FINLAND – 1989 JAPAN – 1989 RUSSIA – 1989
40 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
© Greenpeace / PIERRE GLEIZES
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 41
80s 1980 In May, Greenpeace prevents two freighters loaded with Bayer’s chemical waste from leaving port in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. A 3-day long blockade draws public attention to the dumping of acid waste at sea. The Rainbow Warrior prevents nuclear shipments being made from Cherbourg, France and Barrow-in-Furness, UK, to the reprocessing plants at La Hague and Sellafield. The actions protest against the transportation of spent fuel rods from Japanese nuclear power plants. In Canada and the US, Greenpeace also takes part in protests against nuclear shipments and the construction of nuclear power plants. In June, the Rainbow Warrior obstructs Spanish whalers and is impounded by the Spanish navy. She is detained at the navy base at El Ferrol, where she remains for five months before making her getaway.
image 1 The Rainbow Warrior manoeuvres to blockade firefighter loaded with Bayer’s chemical waste © Greenpeace image 2 Protests against nuclear transport in Barrow, UK © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 3 Nuclear transport ship Pacific Fisher © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 4 Spanish navy marines board the Rainbow Warrior after protest against the whaler Ibsa III © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 5 Chris Robinson during custody in Spain @ Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes
42 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
image 6 Spanish navy vessels interfere with Greenpeace’s protest against whaling © Greenpeace / Hollander image 7 Spanish navy vessels approach the Rainbow Warrior © Greenpeace / Pieter Lagendyk image 8 Athel von Koettlitz and Tim Mark fit an engine part they have brought on board past the eyes of the Spanish navy; it will enable the Warrior to make her escape © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 9 After their heroic escape from El Ferrol, the Rainbow Warrior arrives in Jersey, UK, to a rousing welcome © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes
80s We loved it, and started to use it on everything. Somehow, others loved it too and everyone started to use it. Each time I see that ‘graffiti logo’, especially in the most remote places – whether it be in the Antarctic, the Arctic or even on an offshore installation – I remember Garaude with his pen in one hand and his beer in the other.” Remi Parmentier © GP / Davison
“In the early years of Greenpeace International, we would always have an agenda item called ‘Logo’ at our annual or biannual meetings. There was no unified logo and, consequently, it often looked messy. Finally, one day in Paris in the early ‘80s, I guess we had no Letrasets left and the local stationery store must have been closed. A guy called Jean-Marc Pias – who was designing posters and stickers for us – asked a young Parisian named Patrick Garaude to write out ‘Greenpeace’ for some occasion or publication. He did it quickly – with a felttip pen in one hand and a beer in the other.
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 43
80s 1981 Greenpeace activists spray 200 baby seals with harmless green paint, making their fur worthless for seal hunters. The European parliament recommends a ban on the import of seal products shortly afterwards.
Greenpeace becomes active against oil pollution of the world’s seas and oceans. It protests off the northeast coat of the US against oil drilling planned there. In Puget Sound, near Seattle, Greenpeace protests against supertankers sailing near coastal waters.
image 1 White harp seal pup © Greenoeace / Jean Deloffre image 2 View from the mast on the bow of the Rainbow Warrior as it sails through scattered drift ice © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 3 and opposite Greenpeace activists spray seals with harmless dye to render their pelts valueless © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 4 Baby harp seal, after being sprayed © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 5 Canadian police arrest a Greenpeace activist who has being spraying the baby seals © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 6 Greenpeace activists in the US on the sailing vessel Sylvia, looking out for approaching supertankers © Greenpeace / Rex Weyler image 7 Side view of the boat Norsal, with a banner on its side reading ‘Stop Supertankers’ © Greenpeace / Rex Weyler
44 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
80s “xxxxx xxxxxx xxx xxxxx”
19xx xxxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xx xxxx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxx xxx
19xx xxxxxxxxxxx
THE THE GREENPEACE GREENPEACE chronicles chronicles 4547
1981-2010 Ships: SIRIUS
In service: 1981-2010 Built: 1950 Type of ship: Former Dutch pilot vessel Length: 46m Max. speed: 12 knots Crew: 12, max. 32 The Sirius joined the Greenpeace fleet with help from the World Wildlife Fund. She conducted most of her campaign work around Europe, building a reputation as not only an action ship but also an information centre. Actions in the 1980s saw her trying to prevent the freighter Gem from dumping low and mid-level radioactive waste in the Atlantic Ocean off the Spanish coast, blocking nuclear fuel transports from Italy to the Sellafield reprocessing plant in the UK, and attempting to stop incineration ships from burning toxic waste on the North Sea. From 1988 to 1992, she operated primarily in the Mediterranean, providing information to summer tourists about environmental impacts. In June 1994, she confronted Norwegian whalers and was arrested and released twice over. Her last action was in 1998, against the import of illegal timber. Exhibitions were held on board the ship, promoting campaigns such as ‘NuclearFree Seas’ and ‘Stop Overfishing the Mediterranean’. In her latter years she carried out information tours in the Netherlands and Belgium, before finally settling down in the Netherlands, where she was used for educational purposes.
image 1 Harald Zindler, one of the first German Greenpeace activists, on board the Sirius in 1981 image 2 The freshly painted boiw of the ship in 1981 image 3 Protesting against the dumping of chemical waste by the ship Kronos image 4 On her way to stop nuclear dumping in the North Atlantic in 1981. All images © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes
46 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
1982 Acid rain becomes a campaign issue. Activists climb factory and power plant chimneys in the US to draw attention to sulphur dioxide emissions that cause acid rain.
82-84 Ships: CEDARLEA
The Rainbow Warrior takes action off the coast of New Jersey, USA to protest against the dumping of chemical waste. Meanwhile in Hamburg, Germany, Greenpeace’s new ship, the Sirius, joins a demonstration by fishermen on the River Elbe outside a Dow Chemical factory; the fishermen are not permitted to sell their catches because of pollution by mercury and chlorinated hydrocarbons.
In service: 1982-84 Built: 1962 Type of ship: Former North Sea fish trawler Length: 45m Max. speed: 15 knots Crew: 10, max. 25 The Cedarlea’s first mission, in July 1982, took place in 1982 off the coast of Brighton in the UK, where together with the Sirius she kept vigil monitoring the proceedings at the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC); a vote to ban commercial whaling was passed successfully at the meeting.
The European Community imposes a ban in 1982 on the import of baby seal fur…
She accompanied the Sirius to the North Atlantic to prevent the Gem from dumping British radioactive waste at sea. She also helped expose companies responsible for chemical pollution in the UK’s River Humber, monitored radioactive discharges from the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant, and prevented the dump ship Falco from discharging toxic waste into the North Sea off the Belgian coast.
image © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 47
80s 1982 In June, the Sirius arrives in Kronstadt in the USSR, to protest against nuclear testing. The crew are expelled from the country after distributing leaflets. Actions are carried out on the high seas throughout the summer against ships intending to dump British, Dutch, Belgian and Swiss nuclear waste into the Atlantic, off the northwest coast of Spain. The Sirius, supported by another Greenpeace vessel, the Cedarlea, prevents British nuclear waste being dumped in the Atlantic in July, following a fierce confrontation with the freighter Gem. The Dutch ship Rijnborg is attempting to dump 7,000 tonnes of nuclear waste when Greenpeace arrives on the scene in June; the Dutch crew respond by dropping waste barrels directly onto the protesting Greenpeace boats. These actions, coordinated with other protests in many European countries, will lead the Dutch government to back down and announce in September that it will stop dumping nuclear waste at sea.
48 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
80s
images 1 to 5 Greenpeace action protesting the dumping of nuclear waste in the Atlantic by the Rijnborg. Two barrels are dropped on top of a Greenpeace inflatable, pulling it under the water. As the boat springs back upwards, crew member Willem Groenier is thrown into the sea. All images Š Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes Overleaf: Activist Gijs Thieme is taken out of the water after the splash caused by a dropping barrel lifted his inflatable into the air. Š Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 49
50 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
80s
the railing and try to look at the person who is dumping – just to look at his face and keep contact, so he won’t pull.” Gijs Thieme, Greenpeace activist
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 51
© Greenpeace / PIERRE GLEIZES
“Those barrels weighed about 900 or 1,000 lbs each, and there was a crane that took two, three or four barrels at the same time and swung them over the side. You drive under
80s
80s 1983 In April, four Greenpeace activists gain access to the US nuclear weapons testing range in Nevada to protest against continued testing.
image 1 Jon Hinck image 2 Brian Fitzgerald image 3 Ron Taylor image 4 Brian Fitzgerald, Jon Hinck, Harald Zindler and Ron Taylor image 5 Harald Zindler, communicating with base camp during the walk to the test site image 6 Van decorated with banner, in the Nevada desert image 7 The trek to the test site image 8 At the same time, supporters protest outside the military zone. image, pages 58-59 Brian Fitzgerald, Harald Zindler and Ron Taylor looking over Nevada test site All images Š Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes
In February 1983, the London Dumping Convention decides on a 10-year moratorium on the dumping of nuclear waste.
52 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
80s
“Berlin was the only place in the world where we could protest against nuclear testing by four nuclear powers at the same time.” Gerd Leipold
In July, the Rainbow Warrior documents illegal whaling in the USSR. Members of the expedition who enter Soviet territory are arrested. The protest draws more international attention than any other Greenpeace action at this point in time.
image 1 Gerd Leipold © Greenpeace / Gavin Parsons image 2 Preparing the Greenpeace hot air balloon, ‘Trinity’ image 3 Gerd Leipold and John Sprange will fly over the Berlin Wall into East Germany, in protest against nuclear testing image 4 German activist and campaigner Gerd Leipold will one day be an Executive Director of Greenpeace International image 5 Trinity will fly across the heavily-guarded Berlin Wall image 6 Preparing the balloon for take off image 7 Leipold and Sprange in the balloon image 8 The balloon was taken into custody by the East German police. Images 2-8 © Greenpeace / Ali Paczensky
In August, Greenpeace activists make a flight in a hot-air balloon to protest against nuclear testing by the four superpowers. Their flight begins in West Berlin and takes them over the Berlin Wall; they land in East Germany.
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 53
© Greenpeace / JOHN HINCK
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 55
80s 1984 The Antarctic campaign begins. Its goal is a ‘World Park’ to protect the entire continent from exploitation for minerals, and from suffering from environmental damage. In October a ship due to transport construction materials for a French landing strip in Antarctica is occupied by Greenpeace activists, first in Le Havre, France and later in Hobart, Tasmania. In North America, Greenpeace activists block effluent pipes at several locations, including the Monsanto works at Boston, Massachusetts, Chevron in Richmond, California and the Tioxide of Canada works in Tracy, Quebec.
© Greenpeace / FRANKS
Greenpeace occupies the chimneys of coal-fired power plants in several countries to draw attention to the dangers of acid rain. In August, Greenpeace climbers scale the highest chimney in Europe – that of the Buschhaus power plant in West Germany – demanding that the plant not be allowed to operate until it installs desulphurisation mechanisms.
56 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
80s 1985 In May, the Rainbow Warrior visits Rongelap, a Pacific island where the fallout from US atmospheric tests in the 1950s is now causing widespread health problems. Greenpeace helps to evacuate the residents – some 300 people – to the island of Mejato. After the Rongelap evacuation, the Rainbow Warrior heads to New Zealand, from where she plans to travel to Moruroa Atoll to protest French nuclear testing. But the voyage is not to be…
main image Rongelap Island image 1 The crew helps to evacuate the Rongelap Islanders image 2 The Rainbow Warrior transports adults and children from Rongelap with 100 tonnes of belongings to the island of Mejato, 14 hours away image 3 A woman and two children on the deck of the Rainbow Warrior. The health of many adults and children has suffered as a result of the fallout from US nuclear tests. All images © Greenpeace / Fernando Pereira
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 57
by Mike Townsley
80s ten minutes to midnight, 10 July 1985 The Rainbow Warrior has been in Auckland, New Zealand for three days. Her crew, together with New Zealand volunteers, are patching up the wear and tear she’s suffered during recent months. Greenpeace has evacuated the Rongelapese people to another island, and there’s still plenty of more work to come. The Greenpeacers and skippers of other yachts are preparing to sail together to Moruroa as part of a Peace Flotilla that will oppose French plans for a series of underground nuclear tests. They know they will face stiff opposition and interference from the French navy patrols, but no one can begin to imagine the level of interference already sanctioned in Paris. The Peace Flotilla planning meeting, held on the Rainbow Warrior, breaks up some time after. The Warrior’s visitors leave, as do some of the crew. Others wish their friends good night and go down to their cabins. Seven people, including photographer Fernando Pereira, remain chatting around the mess-room table, sharing the last two bottles of beer between them. It is ten minutes to midnight. And then the lights go out…
Everything happens at once. The steady drone of the generator abruptly ceases, but instead there is a sharp crack of breaking glass, followed by a sudden ferocious roar of water. Suspecting that a tug has collided with them, people scramble to get off the Warrior and on to the wharf. Fernando and crewmates Martini Gotje and Andy Biedermann rush below decks to make sure nobody is left behind. Martini wakes Margaret Mills, and they hurry towards safety. There is a second explosion. Dishevelled and numb with shock, the crew stand staring into the dark waters of Marsden Wharf; the Rainbow Warrior lies crippled and half submerged before them. There is no sign of Fernando. At around 3am, one of the team of New Zealand navy divers called in to inspect the Rainbow Warrior surfaces with Fernando’s body in his arms. He has been found lying face down on the floor of the cabin next to his own, but exactly what happened is unclear. The Portuguese-born Greenpeace photographer joined the crew of the Rainbow Warrior to document the French nuclear testing and bring his photographs to the world. Instead, he is caught in a rush of water as the second bomb detonates, and is drowned. He had just celebrated his 35th birthday.
image 1 The Rainbow Warrior in Marsden Wharf in Auckland Harbour after the bombing by French secret service agents © Greenpeace / John Miller image 2 Materials litter the deck during salvage operations in dry dock after the ship was bombed and sunk © Gill Hanly / Greenpeace image 3 A painting is recovered from inside the Rainbow Warrior after the ship was bombed © Gill Hanly / Greenpeace image opposite © Greenpeace / John Miller
58 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
80s
A beret, a bottle of Beaujolais and a baguette The hole in the side of the Rainbow Warrior is big enough to drive a car through. The first bomb blew the generator to pieces, the second damaged the propeller, stern-shaft and rudder, cracked the stern frame in two places and blew in a ballast tank. The ship has seemingly been sabotaged, and Fernando murdered. But who is responsible? Detective Inspector Allan Galbraith, appointed to oversee the investigation, senses that this will be a long and complicated case, and requests additional resources. By the end of the week the investigation team comprises 56 offices; and this number will grow to over 100. Over the coming four months, more than 6,000 interviews will be carried out. An abandoned Zodiac, a man spotted wearing a wetsuit, and a mysterious white camper van spotted on the night of the bombing all take on sinister new overtones. The camper van is traced to Newman’s car rentals. When the Turenges, a Swiss couple who rented the van, bring it back ‘early’ – because they want to claim a refund of $130 New Zealand dollars staff keep them talking while the police are alerted. The Turenges are taken in for questioning and it is quickly established that they are carrying false passports. Their true identities are Major Alain Mafart and Captain Dominique Prieur, and they are both high-ranking agents of the DGSE, the French Secret Service.
The French connection quickly grows stronger. Frank McLean, a Senior Customs Officer, recalls and reports an incident in late June involving a French-crewed sloop, the Ouvéa, that docked in Whangarei and set sail on 9 July. During routine immigration checks, McLean’s instincts had told him something was amiss; three of the crew had a distinct military bearing and they carried brand new, uncreased and unmarked passports. By 26 July, police investigations point to the Ouvéa being used to transport the explosives and other French agents to New Zealand. Three crew members are eventually identified as DGSE agents Roland Verge, Gerald Andries and Jean-Michel Barcelo. The fourth is Navy reservist Xavier Maniguet, a freelance doctor specialising in the treatment of diving injuries. Brought in after the bombing there is insufficient evidence to hold them, and they – and the Ouvéa – quickly disappear. The police conclude that the yacht now lies at the bottom of the deep ocean and that the men were picked up by a French submarine in the area at the time. It then comes to light that Frédérique Bonlieu - Greenpeace New Zealand’s recent French volunteer – was actually Christine Cabon, a captain in the French army. Information and forensic evidence also emerges showing that Mafart and Prieur met with the agents from the Ouvéa. Such is the depth and breadth of the trail left by the DGSE agents that the papers quickly observe that the only things missing to indicate French secret service involvement in the bombing are ‘a beret, a bottle of Beaujolais and a baguette’.
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 59
ten minutes to midnight, 10 july 1985
TEN MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT 10 JULY 1985
“In no way was France involved” The French government denies its involvement on 11 July, and continues to do so. However, on 8 August, as media speculation in France mounts, French president François Mitterand orders an inquiry. On 20 August this inquiry concludes that the French government had not ordered the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior. In an unconvincing attempt to explain the presence of six DGSE agents in New Zealand at the time, the former general secretary of the Elysee Palace, Bernard Tricot, claims they were there to gather intelligence on Greenpeace. Tricot’s report has a very short shelf life. New revelations emerge in the influential Le Monde newspaper, and France’s Prime Minister, Laurent Fabius, orders a new inquiry on 5 September, this time to be run by Defence Minister Charles Hernu. DGSE chief Admiral Lacoste refuses to answer a number of questions, and is subsequently sacked. Hernu resigns. It finally becomes impossible for the truth to remain hidden. Fabius admits on French TV that DGSE agents, acting under orders to neutralise her, had indeed blown up the Rainbow Warrior.
Following this admission, the UN is called in to mediate a settlement between France and New Zealand; the French government is forced into an unconvincing apology and pays $13m New Zealand dollars to the New Zealand government. Greenpeace later receives $8m US dollars from France to build a replacement for the Rainbow Warrior. On 4 November, Mafart and Prieur plead guilty and are sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for manslaughter, and seven for arson, to run concurrently. A deal is struck after France exerts serious economic pressure on New Zealand over dairy exports, and the pair are allowed to serve their time in a French military prison. They serve a little over two years of their sentences before being freed and returning to Paris, where they are honoured with military medals. They resume their careers. Today, many of the events surrounding the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior remain unclear. To date, no proper public inquiry into the bombing and the murder of Fernando Pereira has ever been held in France. Most of those involved in what happened that night in an Auckland harbour have simply disappeared. The guilty have not been punished, and justice has not been served.
image 1 Campaigner Steve Sawyer, next to a hole created by the bomb explosion © Gill Hanly / Greenpeace image 2 Damage inside the Rainbow Warrior © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 3 The Rainbow Warrior is laid to rest off New Zealand in a traditional Maori ceremony at sea © Greenpeace / Brian Latham image 4 Crew members during the Rainbow Warrior ceremony © Greenpeace / John Miller
60 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
“I stood there looking at the boat with all those bubbles coming out of it. That’s when Davey [Edwards] said Fernando is down there. I remember arguing with him, saying no, Fernando has gone to town, that’s what he always did. No, he said … Fernando is down there.”
- Pete Willcox, Captain of the Rainbow Warrior
image 1 Fernando Pereira, photographed during the Rongelap evacuation © Greenpeace image 2 Pete Willcox, Captain of the Rainbow Warrior © Greenpeace / Bas Beentjes image 3 The stern of the ship as she sinks beneath the water © Greenpeace / Brian Latham image 4 Sunrise at the memorial in Matauri Bay, New Zealand, which overlooks the final resting place of the Rainbow Warrior © Greenpeace / Roger Grace image 5 A wreath thrown onto the site of the sunken Rainbow Warrior by the crew of the second Rainbow Warrior, n 2004 © Greenpeace / Dave Walsh
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 61
80s 1986 The worst civilian accident to date in the history of the nuclear power industry occurs on 26 April 1986 at the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl in Ukraine. People are killed, and many suffer serious damage to their health. A huge area will be radioactively contaminated for decades. Greenpeace’s campaign against the pollution of rivers and lakes by chlorine bleach effluent from the pulp and paper industry begins with actions in Sweden and Austria, and against companies polluting the River Rhine. At Leverkusen in Germany, activists lower themselves from the Rhine Bridge to protest against river pollution by the Bayer corporation. In Basel, Switzerland, climbers occupy a Ciba-Geigy chimney, holding a three-day vigil just before Christmas. The Sirius undertakes an extended tour of the Mediterranean from May to August, providing the public with information and taking actions against freighters carrying nuclear and chemical wastes, discharges of industrial effluent, and illegal driftnetting. In May, Greenpeace’s new campaign ship, the Moby Dick, leaves Hamburg for Norway, where she will successfully disrupt Norwegian whaling operations.
image 1 Activist dressed as Santa Claus during the 19-21 December three-day vigil at the Ciba-Geigy chemical company’s factory in Switzerland © Greenpeace image 2 Lloyd Anderson, covered in mud during a pipe-blockjing action at Portman, in Spain. The Portman Pipe dumps silid industrial waste - containing cadmium, lead, zinc, cyanide and sulphuric acid - straight into the Mediterranean © Greenpeace / Lorette Dorreboom image 3 Action against the Mediterranean Shearwater, a ship carrying BNFL’s nuclear waste © Greenpeace / Lorette Dorreboom image 4 A Norwegian whaler approaches a harpooned sperm whale in the North Atlantic © Greenpeace / J Luther
62 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
80s
1986-98 Ships: Moby Dick
In service: 1986-98 Built: 1959 Type of ship: Former fish trawler Length: 25m Max. speed: 7.5 knots Crew: 6 Built in the Netherlands, the Moby Dick joined Greenpeace’s fleet in May 1986. It took only two weeks to convert her into a vessel ready for Greenpeace actions, and the first of these was protecting whales in the Barents Sea from Norwegian whaling vessels. She also took part in several actions for the ‘Nuclear-Free Seas’ campaign, including opposing the presence of Soviet warships in the Kattegat, Denmark in 1988 and drawing attention to the USS Ticonderoga carrying nuclear warheads in Swedish waters in 1989. She carried out campaigns against oil drilling in the Wadden Sea, and protested against industrial fishing on the Dogger Bank in the North Sea. She undertook fisheries work for the Mediterranean campaign, and protested against driftnet fishing in Italy, France and Greece. She surveyed an oil spill in the Bosphorus, and was also involved in the Brent Spar campaign in 1995. She was then transported to North America for campaign work in the Great Lakes of the US and Canada. She had been to the US briefly before, in the early 1990s, where she protested against the import of tropical hardwood. For her final years with Greenpeace she travelled to the west coast of Canada for the campaign against the destruction of primary temperate forest in the Clayoquot Sound. image 1 John Sprange, nuclear campaigner, on board in 1988 © Greenpeace / Vanessa Miles image 2 In Cardigan Bay, Wales, 1990 © Greenpeace / Paul Kay image 3 The crew are greeted by dolphins © Greenpeace / Paul Kay image 4 Preparing for an action against nuclear weapons, in Danish waters © Greenpeace / Vanessa Miles image 5 Protest at Rosyth Naval Base in the UK, against nuclear armament © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan image 6 Helicopter taking off from the Moby Dick during the 1995 Brent Spar action © Greenpeace / David Sims
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 63
An
end
to commercial whaling The threat In 1970, the total number of blue whales had decreased to less than 6,000. Humpbacks were showing a similar decline. Populations of Pacific gray, sei and sperm whales had been halved. Exploding harpoons and ever more efficient factory ships were ensuring that – away from the public’s gaze – some of the planet’s most amazing and awe-inspiring species were being eradicated.
Greenpeace in action
© SCOTT PORTELLI / Greenpeace
Greenpeace launched its anti-whaling campaign only a few years after the organisation has been founded. In 1973, Greenpeace ships began confronting the whaling fleets out on the high seas. Daring activists in inflatable boats put themselves between harpoons and whales, bringing images of whaling directly into the public’s living rooms and directly into the public consciousness. And, faced with the realities of commercial whaling for the first time, public opinion began to turn against the whaling industry.
64 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
While action was being taken at sea, Greenpeace campaigners around the world drummed up public support on land, handing out flyers and running petitions asking national governments to apply international pressure. Lobbying efforts paid off when, in 1979, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) established the Indian Ocean Whale Sanctuary as a practical conservation measure. Greenpeace kept up the pressure until, in 1982, the IWC finally delivered what the anti-whaling committee had been fighting for. A moratorium on commercial whaling, which came into force in 1986, would give the worlds dwindling whale populations a chance to recover.
The campaign continues… A few countries – namely Japan, Norway and Iceland – continue to ignore the moratorium to the present day. But Greenpeace continues to campaign for an end to commercial whaling in all its forms. In 2010, two Greenpeace activists, who would become known as the ‘Tokyo Two’, were convicted after exposing a whalemeat embezzlement scandal in Japan’s whaling industry. The case brought unprecedented public scrutiny to Japan’s ‘scientific’ whaling programme and has helped rebuild public support within Japan to end the senseless hunt.
80s
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 65
80s 1987 1987 In January, the MV Greenpeace sets out from New Zealand on an expedition to Antarctica. The crew sets up the first non-governmental Antarctic station, the ‘World Park’ base.
image 1 MV Greenpeace in pack-ice on 2nd expedition to set up base camp. Antarctica © Greenpeace / Andy Loor image 2 View on Cape Evans Bay, where Greenpeace settles for her first base camp image 3 Aggregate device to obtain power supply during base camp installation image 4 View of Greenpeace’s base camp image 5 Base camp, Terra Nova Bay image 6 Helicopter above Antarctica camp, to assist first base camp installation image 7 Grace O’Sullivan image 8 View on Cape Evans Bay image 9 Food supply for the Greenpeace base camp image 10 Helicopter delivers materials to the base camp. All images © Greenpeace / Andy Loor
66 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
80s
image 1 World Park Antarctica image 2 Albatross chick on Maquarie Island image 3 Aerial view of frozen sea during MV Greenpeace’s second voyage image 4 Common dolphin image 5 Adelie penguins image 6 Dolphins jumping ahead at the bow of the MV Greenpeace during the second Antarctica expedition image 7 Penguins image 8 Antarctica’s icy coastline image 9 Arctic gulls. All images © Greenpeace / Andy Loor
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 67
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 69
1985-2001 Ships: MV Greenpeace
In service: 1985-2001 Built: 1959 Type of ship: Former ocean-going tug, later pilot vessel Length: 58m Max. speed: 13 knots Crew: 15, max 38 Formerly known as the Elbe, the MV Greenpeace was donated by the Association of Maryland Pilots for the Antarctic campaign, and prior to going into service with Greenpeace was equipped with a reinforced bow, a crane, and modern communications and navigation systems. Her first campaign trip, however, was to Moruroa where she joined a peace flotilla protesting French nuclear testing, assuming the tasks of the Rainbow Warrior, which had been blown up by the French secret service in New Zealand shortly beforehand. The MV Greenpeace sailed all of the world’s seas, protesting against driftnetting in the South Atlantic, the discharge of toxic substances into the Mediterranean, and the dumping of Russian nuclear waste into the Sea of Japan. Her crew knew her by the affectionate name ‘Black Pig’. The Black Pig was the ship sailed by Captain Horatio Pugwash, a fictional pirate in a series of British children’s comic strips and books, and cult TV cartoon series through the 50s, 60s and 70s. She was replaced in 2001 by the Esperanza, and has since been reconverted to her original form as the Elbe. She is now a museum ship in Maassluis in the Netherlands.
image 1 Greenpeace climate action against JET oilrig, being transported to drill for oil in the North Sea © Greenpeace / Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert image 2 Arndvoort Bay, Antarctica © Greenpeace / Roger Grace image 3 Paula Huckleberry flies the Greenpeace helicopter over the MV Greenpeace, during protests against French nuclear testing in the Pacific © Greenpeace / Daniel Beltrá image 4 Moored on the quayside in St Petersburg, during the Baltic Toxics tour © Greenpeace / John Cunningham image 5 Leaving Barrow Lock in the UK, in pursuit of the plutonium transport ship Pacific Teal © Greenpeace / David Sims
70 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
80s Over a thousand demonstrators protest at the Nevada nuclear testing site in the US, and Greenpeace penetrates the testing zone in a balloon. Under the slogan ‘No More Chernobyls – We Want a NuclearFree Future’, Greenpeace demonstrates in Prague’s Wenceslas Square against nuclear power plants in Czechoslovakia On the second anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior bombing, Greenpeace starts its campaign for nuclear-free seas.
“The Greenpeace vs. France international legal tribunal over the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior took place in Geneva in 1987. It was held away from public view in a hotel chosen by the French government – the Hotel de la Paix. Paix, of course, means ‘peace’, and the hotel’s logo was a dove. In each room was a version of Picasso’s dove series. We thought it was a joke, but no – the French had excelled again! The room
the tribunal was held in was normally a conference and banquet room and the big glass doors didn’t have locks on them. The brass door handles, in line with the hotel’s identity, were in the shape of doves. Ironically, at the end of each day’s negotiation, to ensure security, the staff locked the doors – by putting a huge chain and padlock around the doves.” Cindy Baxter
image 1 Cindy Baxter, used with permission image 2 Bohunice nuclear power plant in the former Czechoslovakia © Greenpeace / Claudia Ott image 2 The Moby Dick visits the Dounreay nuclear research and reprocessing plant, in Scotland © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 71
80s 1988 The Beluga sets off in May on a 6-month tour of North America’s rivers and Great Lakes to expose discharges and the corporations responsible. Greenpeace’s ‘laboratory bus’ starts a 3,000 mile tour along the Baltic coast to draw attention to marine pollution.
In the German harbour of Nordenham, Greenpeace blocks the freighter Kronos and its load of dilute acid; the firms involved will stop dumping dilute acid into the North Sea at the end of the year.
image 1 Activists sit on top of a vehicle blocking the main entrance of the James River Corporation’s pulp mill © Greenpeace / Joseph Arcure image 2 Walpole in Sarnia, Ontario © Greenpeace / Joseph Arcure image 3 Activist from the Beluga collecting water samples © Greenpeace / Joseph Arcure image 4 Polluted water © Greenpeace / Joseph Arcure image 5 Laboratory sampling and analysing sample equipment on board the Beluga © Greenpeace / Pias image 6 Facility at Walpole © Greenpeace / Joseph Arcure image 7 Divers collecting samples © Greenpeace / Joseph Arcure image 8 Monica Griefahn on the Sirius © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 9 Sirius protests against the dumping of chemical waste in the North Sea by the Kronos © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 10 Night time action against the Kronos © Thomas Berndt / Greenpeace image opposite The Sirius is joined by a flotilla of fishing boats protesting against the dumping of toxic waste by the Kronos-Titan plant in Nordenham, Germany © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes
72 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 73
1988-92 Ships: GONDWANA
In service: 1988-92 Built: 1975 Type of ship: Former Ice-class supply ship Length: 61m Max. speed: 13 knots Crew: 12, max 30 The Gondwana was Greenpeace’s campaign ship for the Antarctic. She is named after the ancient land mass of which Antarctica was once a part. The ship is particularly suitable for polar operations – she was built as an ice-class tug/supply vessel, and can spend 36 days at sea. Greenpeace equipped her with a helicopter landing platform and hangar to facilitate her work re-supplying the World Park base. She made trips to Antarctica over four consecutive years. During her third voyage she encountered the Japanese whaling fleet again – she had already delayed them for eight days on her first trip. Crew members were dropped by helicopter into the path of the whalers’ factory ship, frustrating the whaling fleet’s activities once more. During her fourth visit to the continent, the World Park base was dismantled and stored on board the ship. When she returned to Europe in 1993, she protested the building of a new power plant in the Canary Islands. She also campaigned against industrial and urban waste discharges in the Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay, before finally returning to Amsterdam, her port of registry, where she ended her service with Greenpeace.
image 1 Cook on board in 1988 © Greenpeace / Loretta Dorreboom image 2 1988/89 Antartica expedition © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan image 3 Albert Kuiken, Mate on board in 1988 © Greenpeace / Loretta Dorreboom image 4 At Cape Evans, 1989/90 Antarctica tour © Mike Midgley / Greenpeace
74 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
80s
In the Baltic, Greenpeace’s NuclearFree Seas campaign draws attention to nuclear-armed British and Soviet warships. Greenpeace frogmen hold on to buoys to prevent the US guided missile destroyer Conyngham from entering port at Ålborg in Denmark. Elsewhere, the Sirius hinders the US aircraft carrier Dwight E Eisenhower as it attempts to enter the ‘nuclear-weapon-free zone’ at Palma de Mallorca in the Mediterranean.
image 1 Greenpeace protest against the HMS Eisenhower © Greenpeace / Miguel Angel Gremo image 2 The Gondwana brings new team members and supplies to the World Park Base in Antarctica © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan image 3 Protest against the building of an airstrip in Antarctica © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan image 4 Adelie penguins © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan image 5 Emperor penguin walking past Greenpeace placards at the Dumont D’Urville airstrip blockade © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan image overleaf Greenpeace protest against the HMS Eisenhower © Greenpeace / Miguel Angel Gremo
The Gondwana departs Auckland to start her first Antarctic campaign expedition, visiting several national Antarctic bases en-route to re-supplying the Greenpeace World Park Base. During the trip the crew intercept French construction workers building an airstrip that will destroy the home of over 75,000 Adelie penguins.
A boycott of Icelandic fish products in several countries moves the Icelandic government to abandon whaling in 1988 THE GREENPEACE chronicles 75
80s
80s
78 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
It’s clear that the only way we can prevent the type of disaster we still see in Prince William Sound 20 years after the Exxon Valdez spill is to prevent spills from happening in the first place. And the only way to guarantee that is by not drilling for or transporting oil.” Greenpeace campaigner Mel Duchin, in 2009 – a year before the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster. © Cobbing / GP
“For the last two decades, Alaskans have fought to hold Exxon accountable for the spill while people around the world watched Exxon do all it can to avoid taking responsibility for the harm and the suffering it caused. I’ve kayaked through Prince William Sound and seen the ‘bathtub ring’ of Exxon Valdez oil that still marks the high-tide line. I’ve dug a little way down on rocky beaches and shorelines to find lingering puddles of oil. The Exxon Valdez spill remains big news in Alaska. Media coverage documents an ecosystem that has not recovered from the spill and heart-wrenching stories of so many people who still deal with the aftermath of what the spill has done to their lives, waiting for the healing to happen and for justice to finally take hold.
Following actions at sea and submissions by Greenpeace, a worldwide ban on incinerating organochlorine waste at sea is agreed by the London Dumping Convention.
80s
1989 The supertanker Exxon Valdez collides with a reef off the coast of Alaska, and over 40 million litres of crude oil escape. The spill fouls hundreds of miles of coastline, kills thousands of otters, hundreds of thousands of birds and untold numbers of fish and other wildlife. It devastates the lives of subsistence and fishing communities that rely on the waters and wildlife of Prince William Sound for their survival. Greenpeace helps with the clean-up operation and documents the disaster. image 1 Greenpeace banner protesting the Exxon Valdez oil spill © Michael Lewis / Greenpeace image 2 A heavily oiled loon found dead in Kenai Fjords, Alaska after the spill © Ken Graham / Greenpeace image 3 Dead, oil-covered mother and baby otter at Homer, Alaska Otter Centre after the oil spill disaster © Ken Graham / Greenpeace
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 79
80s image 1 Banner hanging at the DuPont chemical plant in Nemours, Luxembourg © Greenpeace / Triebel image 2 Greenpeace protests against the arrival of the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal in Hamburg Harbour © Greenpeace / Diether Vennemann image 3 Action against the USS Iowa, near Kiel, Germany © Greenpeace / Diether Vennemann image 4 Grace O’Sullivan climbing the anchor chain of a Soviet nuclear warship in Greece © Mike Midgley / Greenpeace image 5 Greenpeace inflatables from the Moby Dick in an action against a Soviet Juliett-class nuclear-powered submarine © Mike Midgley / Greenpeace
Activists penetrate the factory premises of the DuPont chemical giant in Luxembourg to protest against the use of carcinogenic hydrocarbons. In Germany, Greenpeace carries out actions against ships carrying nuclear weapons and powered by nuclear fuel. The Sirius goes into action against the Soviet nuclear fleet in the Mediterranean.
On 10 July, four years to the day of the bombing that destroyed and sunk the original Rainbow Warrior and cost Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira his life, a new Rainbow Warrior is officially launched in Hamburg.
80 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
80s On 6 March 1989, a compilation double album of 25 tracks, entitled ‘Greenpeace: Breakthrough’, was released in the Soviet Union, the proceeds of which will be used to establish Greenpeace Russia. The deal, set up with the state record company Melodiya, saw the release of 3 million double albums and 500,000 double cassettes, representing the first major release and largest pressing of Western rock music in the Soviet Union. Each album also contained a 16-page booklet giving an overview of the world’s major environmental problems and introducing Greenpeace to the Russian public. The artists, who all donated their tracks to the album, included Peter Gabriel, the Pretenders, Dire Straits, U2, the Eurythmics, Talking Heads, Sting, the Grateful Dead and Bryan Adams. A dozen of the artists went to Moscow for the album’s launch. Within hours, the first half million records were sold, reaching a million by 15 May. One Soviet journalist remarked, “Every time you plug in an electric appliance in the Soviet Union you hear the Greenpeace album.”
image Featured artists in Red Square for the release of the Greenpeace ‘Breakthrough’ album in the Soviet Union © Mike Midgley / Greenpeace
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 81
1989-2011 Ships: rainbow warrior
In service: 1989-2011 Built: 1957 Type of ship: Former North Sea fish trawler Length: 55m Max. speed: 13 knots Crew: 11, max 30 The former Grampian Frame was converted to a motor yacht with sail assistance by Greenpeace when she joined the fleet as the successor of the first Rainbow Warrior, destroyed four years earlier by the French secret service in Auckland, New Zealand. She literally and figuratively embodied the message that ‘You Can’t Sink a Rainbow’. She spent her early Greenpeace years on pulp-and-paper campaigns in the US and Canada, toxics actions and Gulf War protests and an Alaskan tour highlighting overfishing and protesting oil exploration before she, like her predecessor, travelled to Moruroa to campaign against French nuclear testing in the Pacific. For the first time, video film of the encounter between Greenpeace and the French Navy would be seen around the entire world. She was also part of the Peace Flotilla that sailed into Moruroa in 1995. This time, French commandoes boarded and seized the ship in French Polynesian territorial waters, badly damaging the vessel. She was not released until March of the following year.
main image Sailing in the Mediterranean sea at sunset, 2010 © Paul Hilton / Greenpeace inset image 1 Madeleine Habib at the wheel in 1995, as the ship sails towards the French nuclear test site at Moruroa Atoll © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan image 2 En route to Ebeye in the Marshall Islands, 1990 © Greenpeace / Lorette Dorreboom image 3 Captain Joel Stewart, on the bridge during the 1991 Alaska tour © Greenpeace / Robert Visser image 4 Eurythmics concert on the Rainbow Warrior, raising funds for Greenpeace and Amnesty International in London, UK, in 1999 © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan
82 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
This Rainbow Warrior travelled all over the world and was active across the whole range of Greenpeace’s campaigns, before age began to creep up on her. In 2010, she was gracefully retired from Greenpeace’s service, and was transferred to Friendship, a Bangladesh-based NGO that will refit her for use as a hospital. The ship was renamed Rongdhnou, the Bengali word for ‘rainbow’.
image 1 The iconic protest vessel is transferred to Friendship, a Bangladesh-based NGO that will refit her for use as a hospital ship; Runa Khan, Executive Director of Friendship, during the handover ceremony image 2 Mike Fincken rings the ship’s bell as a symbol of his last act as captain of the Rainbow Warrior image 3 Lalita Ramdas, former Chair of the Greenpeace International Board, delivers her speech during the handover ceremony. All images Š Athit Perawongmetha / Greenpeace
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 83
90s
the
New Greenpeace offices in the ’90s CHILE - 1990 BRAZIL – 1991 CZECHOSLOVAKIA – 1991 (separating into Greenpeace Czech Republic and Greenpeace Slovakia following the State’s dissolution in 1993) GREECE – 1991 MEXICO - 1992 PACIFIC – 1995 (regional office, present in Fiji, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea) CHINA – 1997 AUSTRALIA-PACIFIC – 1999 (formed by a merger of Greenpeace Australia and Greenpeace Pacific) NORDIC – 1999 (formed by a merger of Greenpeaces Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway) MEDITERRANEAN – 1995 (regional office, present in Lebanon, Israel and Turkey)
GREENPEACE chronicles 8684 THE THE GREENPEACE chronicles
THE THE GREENPEACE chronicles 85 87 GREENPEACE chronicles
90s 1990 Greenpeace takes action against the producers of ozone-depleting CFC gases; in Germany, the target is Hoechst, in the UK protests are aimed at ICI, and in the US at DuPont, the world’s largest producer of CFC gases. Actions continue against chlorine bleaching, with effluent pipelines being blocked in the Baltic, along the Canadian west coast and in Belgium and Spain. Supported by local environmental groups, Greenpeace also runs a campaign against the discharge of industrial effluent into the sea along Australia’s southern and eastern coasts. The Beluga travels along the River Elbe to the Czech border in a tour protesting against river polluters in the East and the West. Greenpeace also continues its campaign for nuclear-free seas, with actions taking place at many ports around the world, including Yokosuka in Japan, Gothenborg in Sweden and Portland, Oregon in the US. The MV Greenpeace sails to the Arctic Ocean in October to protest against Russian nuclear testing on Novaya Zemlya, where crew are able to land and measure high levels of radioactivity. ‘Life is not patentable’ is the slogan for a Greenpeace action carried out at the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) conference in Geneva. The activists are demonstrating against patents on animal and plant life.
image 1 ICI plant, Runcorn, UK © Greenpeace / Alan Greig image 2 ICI plant, Runcorn, UK © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan image 3 One hundred activists occupy a tower at the ICI plant © Greenpeace / Alan Greig image 4 Activist in protective gear walking into nuclear testing area at Novaya Zemlya © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan image 5 MV Greenpeace en route to Novaya Zemlya, Soviet test site in the Barents Sea © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan image 6 Protest against the nuclear-armed USS Mobile Bay, Yokosuka Harbour, Japan © Greenpeace
86 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
90s 1991 The Moby Dick’s tour of the Great Lakes of North America kicks off after Canadian activists block the entrance to a paper factory discharging effluent contaminated with dioxins. Activists occupy an oil shipping facility near Thessalonika in Greece, in protest against pollution of the Saronic Gulf by oil refineries. At the very beginning of the year, Greenpeace staff in many countries – including the US, the UK and Germany – participate in demonstrations against the burgeoning war in the Gulf. After the conflict ends, Greenpeace documents the ecological effects of the war on the region.
image 1 Moby Dick blocks a shipment of chlorine from Dow at Sarnia, Ontariom Canada © Greenpeace / Joseph Arcure image 2 Al Burgan oilfield, Kuwait © Greenpeace / Jim Hodson image 3 Burning oil wells near Ahmadi, Kuwait © Greenpeace / Andy Tickle image 4 Greenpeace campaigner Paul Horsman holds an oiled bird in his hands; oil burns in the background © Greenpeace / Jim Hodson image 5 Oil pollution © Greenpeace / Jim Hodson image 6 Abandoned Iraqi tank next to burning oil well © Greenpeace / Jim Hodson image 7 Dead camels in Kuwait © Greenpeace / Jim Hodson image 8 Oily beach in Saudi Arabia © Greenpeace / Paul Horsman image 9 Greenpeace campaigner Paul Horsman surveys the boiling oil wells © Greenpeace / Jim Hodson
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 87
antarctica
from a deadly threat
The threat Antarctica is unique. It is the only continent that remains relatively unharmed by human interference, and is arguably the only pristine wilderness remaining on Earth. Yet, in the early 1980s, the threat of commercial exploitation of this delicate ecosystem loomed large. There was strong evidence for the existence of oil and mineral deposits under the rock and ice, and governments and companies were lining themselves up to start prospecting.
Greenpeace in action
© Greenpeace / ANDY LOOR
Greenpeace’s campaign to save Antarctica is a prime example of what can happen when daring action, solid science and political pressure are mixed together with another key ingredient: perseverance. In the beginning, the prospect of making the continent a ‘World Park’, protected
88 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
from exploitation, looked pretty slim. It became clear that Greenpeace would have to set up a permanent base on the ice if it was to have a voice at the Antarctic Treaty table where the continent’s fate would be determined. Only a base would allow Greenpeace to challenge national territorial claims with the argument that Antarctica should be preserved as a global commons, belonging to no one. In 1987 the MV Greenpeace moored in Antarctica, and a few weeks later the ‘World Park Base’ was up and running. The team staying there monitored pollution from the neighbouring US and New Zealand bases; the US base was the size of a small town. Greenpeace exposed scandals, such as construction work that involved dynamiting the habitats of nesting penguins, and its professionalism in so doing gradually earned it the respect of the Antarctic Treaty nations.
90s
World Park Antarctica Greenpeace’s standing had developed from rank outsider to respected player in the negotiations for the continent’s future. Around the world, Greenpeace offices lobbied their national governments to take a responsible position on protecting Antarctica. Greenpeace joined forces with other nongovernmental organisations, and elicited support from eminent people such as the United Nations diplomat Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, the pioneering marine conservationist Jacques Cousteau and the American media mogul and philanthropist Ted Turner. International negotiations were routinely accompanied by demonstrations, as Greenpeace made it clear to politicians that they would be congratulated as heroes if they did the right thing.
They did the right thing. Antarctica has become a powerful symbol for the responsible treatment of the planet and for successful international cooperation. It boldly underlined the Greenpeace belief that ‘nothing is impossible’. Mission accomplished, Greenpeace dismantled its Antarctic station.
THE THE GREENPEACE GREENPEACE chronicles chronicles 8991
90s 1992 The UN conference on environment and development is held in Rio de Janeiro. Greenpeace calls for measures to ensure that the conference produces more than just statements of intent. A few days before the summit begins, the Rainbow Warrior blocks the Rio harbour facilities of Aracruz, a Brazilian pulp producer that has destroyed large sections of rainforest. The Rainbow Warrior also sails to the Pacific, to protest against French nuclear testing. The French navy seizes her off the coast of Moruroa. Shortly afterwards, however, the French government declares a moratorium on nuclear testing. In the UK, Greenpeace carries out a series of protests against the nuclear waste factory at Sellafield; a solidarity concert takes place in Manchester featuring the rock group U2. The Greenpeace ship Solo sails to the Kara Sea and the island of Novaya Zemlya to document the dumping of nuclear reactors from decommissioned submarines by the Soviet navy. And at La Hague processing plant in France, over 100 activists chain themselves to the iron gates in protest against the shipment of 1.7 tonnes of plutonium to Japan. The Solo pursues the freighter Akatsuki Maru on its way to Japan, and draws attention to the dangers of transporting nuclear waste.
image 1 Blockade of Vitoria Port, used by Aracruz © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan image 2 Rainbow Warrior approaching the exclusion zone around the French nuclear testing site at Moruroa © Greenpeace / Randi Baird image 3 French frigate Lafayette, which shadows the Rainbow Warrior © Greenpeace / Randi Baird image 4 French commandoes are sent to board the Rainbow Warrior © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan image 5 Russian sailors reading Greenpeace magazine in Novaya Zemlya © Greenpeace / Martin Lueders image 6 Irish rock band U2 protest at Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria © Greenpeace / Jim Hodson image 7 U2 protest alongside Greenpeace against the new THORP plant due to open in 1992 © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan image 8 U2 arrive at Sellafield after playing a ‘Stop Sellafield’ concert in Manchester © Greenpeace / Jim Hodson
90 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
90s 1993 Greenpeace discovers leaking barrels and boxes of outdated pesticides that German companies have disposed of illegally in Romania. Activists secure and then return large amounts of toxic waste to Germany. Elsewhere in Europe, Greenpeace continues to protest at the chlorine chemicals industry, with actions directed at PVC producers in several European countries.
Greenpeace begins to promote the Greenfreeze refrigator in Japan and China, notably at the Beijing household goods trade fair. Greenfreeze is the world’s first refrigerator that does not use ozone-depleting CFC gases or climate-damaging HFC gases. The environmentally-friendly technology, codeveloped by Greenpeace, will be adopted in many countries in coming years. Greenpeace protests and blockades against clearcutting in the ancient forests of Clayoquot Sound in British Columbia, Canada, after the provincial government opens two-thirds of the area to logging. The London Dumping Convention comes into force, but it does not affect the discharge of radioactive waste into the sea from land-based sites. Greenpeace continues to draw attention to the radioactive contamination of the Irish Sea near Sellafield, and the English Channel near La Hague. images 1 to 5 Greenpeace makes toxic chemicals safe and ready for removal from Sibiu in Romania © Greenpeace / Sabine Vielmo image 6 Chinese delegation visits Hamburg to see Greenpeace’s Greenfreeze refrigerators © Greenpeace / Jörg Müller images 7 to 9 Greenfreeze production line © Ali Paczensky / Greenpeace
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 91
90s FINDING SOLUTIONS: GREENFREEZE Until the early ’90s virtually all domestic refrigerators used ozonedepleting chemicals as refrigerants. When the hole in the Earth’s ozone layer was discovered, these chemicals – known as chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs – were banned. Unfortunately, the alternatives that were then adapted – hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs – turned out to be harmful in a different way: they are powerful greenhouses gases that contribute massively to climate change. Greenpeace felt that there had to be an alternative. In 1992, it found a medical institute in Dortmund, Germany, that had come up with a mixture of butane and propane that was neither ozone-depleting nor climate-killing. Immediately, Greenpeace set out to find an industrial partner who was prepared to take the financial risk and build a prototype. DKK, a company that had been producing refrigerators for 50 years and the leading household appliance manufacturer in the former East Germany was that company, and so Greenfreeze was born. When the industry claimed that there was no market for the product, Greenpeace went to the public. 70,000 people placed pre-orders, and in 1993 the first Greenfreeze fridge rolled off the assembly lines in Germany. The industry changed quickly, even joining the Greenpeace campaign to spread the technology. Today, around 35 million domestic Greenfreeze refrigerators are produced worldwide, roughly a third of all fridges produced annually. All the major European, Chinese, Japanese and Indian manufacturers now use the technology pioneered by Greenpeace. European companies, including Siemens, Liebherr and Miele, are marketing Greenfreeze.
92 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
So far, the technology has spared the planet 450,000,000 tonnes of CO2 – more than the combined annual emissions of the Netherlands, Austria and Greece. Big industry users, notably Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Unilever, have also started switching over to HFC-free technologies. In 1997 Greenpeace was awarded the United Nations UNEP Ozone Award for the development of Greenfreeze. Greenfreeze was part of a much broader campaign on F-gases, which Greenpeace has been working on for 20 years. The campaign, which included efforts to bring the issue to a much wider public with a catchy video, catalysed a groundbreaking commitment when, in 2010, the 400 companies of the Consumer Goods Forum of the US agreed to climatefriendly refrigeration from 2015. SolarChill, another Greenpeacedeveloped technology, will bring the benefits of refrigeration to people without reliable supplies of electricity, allowing vaccine storage for example. Advanced in cooperation with the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF and many others, SolarChill aims to show – just like Greenfreeze did before it – the triumph of ‘can do’ over ‘can’t do’.
© Greenpeace /ROBERT VISSER
THE THE GREENPEACE GREENPEACE chronicles chronicles 9395
90s
Dumping of radioactive waste at sea
banned Greenpeace in action
Waste produced at every stage of the nuclear fuel cycle remains hazardous for hundreds of thousands of years. Yet, every year, millions of litres of radioactive waste used to be dumped into the sea, either routinely from nuclear facilities such as reprocessing plants or from ships at sea. For years, national governments allowed this practice - presenting a major threat to the environment and a potential health risk to millions of people.
Greenpeace’s campaign against the ocean disposal of radioactive began in 1978. For years, hard research and political lobbying were with non-violent direct actions to persuade corporations and governments to change their attitudes towards the ocean environment. Things came to a climax when Greenpeace document a Russian navy vessel pumping liquid waste directly into the Sea of Japan.
© Greenpeace / STANDBURY
The threat
9694 THE THE GREENPEACE GREENPEACE chronicles chronicles
Greenpeace had warned repeatedly that Russia was using the region as a dumping ground for radioactive waste from its submarines and icebreakers, and now the world could see the evidence for itself. As Greenpeace sent images out to international media as it was happening, Japanese television stations rushed to the scene, and began to transmit footage that was picked up by media outlets around the world. Japan, the US and other countries were outraged by Russia’s behaviour and an end to the practice with immediate effect was demanded. Reluctantly, Russia eventually gave in to the mounting international pressure and suspended the dumping.
90s
The London Dumping Convention The evidence was now so clear, the argument so strong and the outrage so visible that countries around the world came together to agree to the London Dumping Convention. This legally binding agreement, which strengthened an existing dumping convention considerably, was immediately approved by 37 countries. The dumping at sea of radioactive and industrial waste was effectively banned worldwide. The London Dumping Convention was an extremely powerful achievement in Greenpeace’s long-running - and continuing - campaign for healthy oceans.
THE THE GREENPEACE GREENPEACE chronicles chronicles 9597
90s
1994 An oil disaster occurs near Usinsk in the Komi region of northern Russia. Greenpeace investigates the site and discovers further pipeline leaks. Greenpeace secures German toxic waste in Albania and ships it back to Germany. It also discovers that toxic waste has been exported to the Philippines. Member States of the Basel Convention agree to ban all toxic waste exports from OECD countries to Eastern Europe or to developing nations; a great success for Greenpeace’s international toxic trade campaign.
image 1 Greenpeace monitors oil pollution in Usinsk © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 2 Burning oil following spills during the previous winter © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 3 Pipes filtering water from the dams that were built to contain oil; most collapsed © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 4 Usinsk oil clean-up underway © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 5 Usinsk oil clean-up © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 6 Greenpeace campaigner Andreas Bernstorff examines German pesticide wate on a train that has been standing in Albania for 2 years © Greenpeace / Sabine Vielmo image 7 Greenpeace makes barrels of German pesticide waste safe for its return to Germany from Albania © Greenpeace / Sabine Vielmo
96 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
90s
Š Greenpeace / STEVE MORGAN
At its meeting in Mexico in May 1994, the International Whaling Commission resolves to set up a Whale Sanctuary in Antarctic waters.
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 97
90s
1990-95 Ships: solo
In service: 1990-95 Built: 1976 Type of ship: Former ocean-going tug Length: 65m Max. speed: 14 knots Crew: 12, max. 38 Solo was first presented to the public in 1991, when she launched an information tour visiting numerous ports in the Netherlands and Belgium. She also carried out successful campaigns against Norwegian whaling in 1992 and 1994, participated in a UK toxic tour and travelled to Novaya Zemlya in the Russian Arctic, where she highlighted 30 years of irresponsible dumping of nuclear waste. In 1992, together with the Moby Dick, she tracked the Akatsuki Maru, which was shipping plutonium from France to Japan. In 1993 she assisted in an attempt to save birds and seals contaminated by oil from the wreck of the tanker Braer, which had stranded on the Shetland Islands. In May 1994, she managed to delay two UK Trident missile test-firings off the Florida coast. In early 1995 she again chased the Akatsuki Maru and its shipload of plutonium. Her final action for Greenpeace was on her return from Japan, when she arrived to assist the Altair, a motor vessel chartered by Greenpeace in the campaign against Shell’s dumping of the Brent Spar oil platform in the Atlantic. Since September 1995 the Solo has operated as a floating station under the control of the Dutch Coast Guard. Her present name is De Waker.
image 1 Solo crew and journalists, 1994 image 2 In the North Atlantic, shadowing the plutonium ship Akatsuki-Maru on its voyage from France to Japan image 3 The Greenpeace helicopter ‘Tweety’ on the deck of the Solo image 4 Solo in the Bay of Biscay, 1994, where she confronted driftnet fishing All images © Greenpeace / David Sims
98 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
90s
1995 Greenpeace blockades the Sellafield reprocessing plant and the Aldermaston nuclear weapons lab in Britain in order to draw attention to the connection between civil and military uses of nuclear energy.
Meanwhile, the Solo pursues the Pacific Pintail, a freighter carrying plutonium, along its route between the French port of Cherbourg to Japan - 35 countries refuse to allow the Pacific Pintail passage through their waters. In China, Greenpeace activists from Europe and the US hold up a banner in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, calling on an end to nuclear testing in the country. The activists are immediately detained and expelled from China. Greenpeace activists occupy the Brent Spar oil platform in the northeast Atlantic.
image 1 THORP (THermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant), Sellafield, UK @ Greenpeace / Robert Morris image 2 250 Greenpeace activists enter the Sellafield plant © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan images 3 and 4 Greenpeace road block against a Ministry of Defence convoy carrying plutonium from Sellafield to Aldermaston © Greenpeace / Jim Hodson image 5 Greenpeace activists occupy BNFL’s Sellafield site © Greenpeace / Andrew Wiard image 6 Greenpeace blockades a lorry carrying radioactive materials to Sellafield for four hours at a motorway services park, when its drivers and security guards take a tea break © Greenpeace / Jim Hodson image 7 Greenpeace activists paint ‘Stop Nuclear Trade’ on the side of the Pacific Pintail as it arrives in Cherbourg © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 8 Greenpeace action in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, against Chinese nuclear tests © Greenpeace / Frank Holderbaum
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 99
by steve erwood
90s david and goliath In 1995, the Shell oil company announces plans to dispose of its Brent Spar oil storage and tanker-loading bouy by disposing of it at sea. The Brent Spar is 147m high and 29m in diameter, and the storage tank has a capacity of 50,000 tonnes (300,000 barrels) of crude oil. It is considered too technically difficult and dangerous to decommission the rig on land, not to mention the fact that it would cost over twice as much to dispose of it on land. Shell’s decision is made with the blessing of the UK government - Prime Minister John Major announces that any proposition that the Brent Spar be taken onshore for disposal is ‘incredible’. Greenpeace, on the other hand, is appalled at Shell’s idea, and takes action on the principle that waste does not belong in the sea; it demands that the installation is dismantled on land in an ecologically sound way. And so, on 30 April 1995, Greenpeace enters the oil drilling fields, and activists – including ship’s captain Jon Castle – begin a lengthy occupation of the Brent Spar. A stand-off that will last for many weeks has begun in the North Sea, 120 miles northeast of the Shetland Islands. But this also marks the beginning of a new power that multinationals and corporations will need to take into account from now on – the power of the consumer.
100 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
When Greenpeace activists board the Spar, it has the air of an oil refinery crossed with the Marie Celeste; although Shell workers had left the Spar some four years earlier, coffee cups and magazines still litter the place, cupboards still contain clothes. Shell had simply abandoned the rig leaving everything behind. The initial occupation seems to elicit little reaction from Shell. However, after almost two weeks have passed, Shell sends a gigantic self-propelled oil rig the Staydive - to evacuate the Brent Spar. The activists barricade themselves in, determined to remain where they are. A first attempt to board the Spar is broken off due to stormy weather, but Shell finally makes it move, on May 22. A cage full of security officials is lifted by crane onto the Spar’s helideck. The activists hold out for 18 hours but are gradually removed and taken to the Scottish mainland. But the boarding and subsequent eviction of Greenpeace makes for dramatic footage. The German public is shocked by the aggression of the security officers and are incensed at the idea of a multinational company simply dumping its rubbish in the sea. Angela Merkel, Germany’s Minister of the Environment at the time, states that the Brent Spar should not be dumped at sea. Groups across Germany – including church organisations - call for a general boycott of Shell’s products, and many motorists stop buying Shell petrol. Germany is soon experiencing its largest nationwide consumer boycott in postwar times, and Greenpeace – David to Shell’s financially-driven and heartlessly corporate Goliath – can now count on this groundswell of public support.
© Greenpeace / DAVID SIMS
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 101
david and goliath
Greenpeace is determined to occupy the Spar again, but getting through the curtain of water is next to impossible. 102 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
image 1 Shell supply vessels spray water cannons on the Brent Spar to prevent Greenpeace from boarding and occupying the disused oil installation © Greenpeace / David Sims image 2 Shell workers and police arrive on the Spar after 26 days of Greenpeace’s occupation © Greenpeace / David Sims image 3 Shell workers and police remove activists from the Spar © Greenpeace / David Sims image 4 Protest against Shell in Germany © Greenpeace / Noel Matoff image 5 Greenpeace blockades the entrance to Royal Dutch Shell’s headquarters in Den Haag (The Hague), Netherlands © Greenpeace / Ruud Gort image 6 Greenpeace picket of a Shell petrol station in the UK © Greenpeace / Robert Morris
image 1 Harald Zindler (left) with activists Al Baker and Eric Heijselaar, as they prepare to board the Brent Spar by helicopter @ Greenpeace / David Sims image 2 Greenpeace activists in inflatable © Greenpeace / David Sims image 3 Greenpeace captain Jon Castle © Greenpeace / David Sims image 4 The Rembas attempts to keep Greenpeace away from the Brent Spar © Greenpeace / Dsvid Sims image 5 Banner on the Brent Spar helicopter platform during the Greenpeace occupation © Greenpeace / Peter Thompson image 6 The Brent Spar is blasted with water during Greenpeace’s second occupation of the platform © Greenpeace / Ulrich Jurgens image 7 Actvists celebrate the release of Jon Castle following the first occupation of the Brent Spar © Greenpeace / David Sims image 8 Greenpeace activists on the Brent Spar © Greenpeace / David Sims
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 103
“What we have to learn from the Brent Spar, mainly, is that the public have got an incredible amount of power, much more than they realise.”
david and goliath
- Al Baker, Greenpeace activist
“Altair, Altair, this is the Brent Spar…” The Moby Dick is swiftly joined by the chartered vessel, Altair, when Greenpeace returns to the Brent Spar. Shell’s support vessels start spraying water cannons at the Spar and at Greenpeace’s inflatables, determined to stop a further reoccupation of the Spar at all costs. At the same time, environmental ministers of the countries bordering the North Sea are meeting in Esbjerg, Denmark, where the UK in particular is criticised for its willingness to support Shell’s initiative.
On 10 June, Shell nevertheless begins plans to tow the platform to the spot where it will be dumped, flying in the face of public opinion and political opinion, and in the glare of full media attention. Greenpeace is determined to occupy the Spar again, but getting through the curtain of water is next to impossible. The only way back onto the Spar is from above, but even then the powerful water cannons are aimed directly at the helicopter. The pilot eventually manages to fly underneath the jets of water, and two activists - Al Baker from the UK and Eric Heijselaar from the Netherlands are able to jump from the helicopter onto the platform. Al radios their success to the Altair, and the pair will remain on the Spar for a further four days. The Shell support vessels back down a little, seemingly realising how dangerous their actions are becoming. However, once again, images of their aggression arouse public condemnation. In the meantime, Jon Castle receives a warning that there are explosives on board the Brent Spar. Al and Eric are able to disarm the devices that were intended to send the rig to its watery grave.
image 1 Al Baker, during the first occupation © Greenpeace / David Sims image 2 Eric Heijselaar, during the final occupation © Greenpeace / Al Baker image 3 Water cannons are sprayed at the Brent Spar, and at Greenpeace inflatables, throughout the occupation © Greenpeace / David Sims image 4 Eric Heijselaar, moments after he and Al Baker reoccupy the Brent Spar by jumping from a helicopter © Greenpeace / Al Baker
104 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
90s The turning of the Spar
Consequences
The Greenpeace ship Solo arrives on the scene and manages to place two more activists on the Spar. On the Shetlands plans are being put into motion to remove Greenpeace again. Elsewhere, an emergency meeting between Shell UK, Shell Germany and Shell Netherlands is taking place in Amsterdam. And on the Altair, Jon Castle notices that he is continuously turning course to keep track of the Brent Spar – and realises that it is turning around. It is at this point that he realises Greenpeace has won.
A few days before Shell admitted defeat, Greenpeace had claimed there were 5,000 tonnes of oil on the Brent Spar. This had only been an estimate, and had proven to be incorrect, but generated fierce criticism of Greenpeace at the time. The damage to the campaign’s credibility was entirely disproportionate, however, as the claim didn’t play an important role in the objectives of the campaign or its outcome. The long-term success of the campaign – the fact that it is no longer permissible today to sink such oil rigs in the sea anymore – needs to be remembered.
Shell’s own employees, its works council and its many franchise owners who are being affected by the boycott start challenging its stance, and some seven weeks after the epic confrontation began Shell finally gives way to public pressure, deciding on 20 June 1995 not to sink the rig. The following day, newspapers will carry headlines praising the win for and by the consumer. ‘People still count. Boycotts can still work. This is as refreshing for democracy as it is for the North Sea,’ as The Guardian puts it. On 29 June, the Ospar Conference, responsible for environmental protection of the Northeast Atlantic, decides by majority vote to generally prohibit the sinking of oil platforms in the North Sea and the northeast Atlantic. The dismantling of the Brent Spar on land begins in 1998, with parts of it converted to make a ferry quay in Mekjarvik, Norway.
image 1 Crew from the Greenpeace ships welcome the activists - ‘Spartans’ - as they return from the Brent Spar © Greenpeace / David Sims image 2 Banner hanging on the Brent Spar © Greenpeace / Steve Cox image 3 Greenpeace captain Jon Castle © Greenpeace / David Sims image 4 Greenpeace press conference following the Altair’s return from the Brent Spar © Greenpeace / David Sims
It had also been claimed by Shell at the time that the Brent Spar couldn’t have been decommissioned on land, this being much too difficult and dangerous. Today, rigs like the Northwest Hatton – approximately 10 times larger than the Brent Spar – are routinely decommissioned on land. The Brent Spar campaign changed the world, because with it a new power stepped onto the stage; consumer power. The Brent Spar deservedly remains a symbol of this consumer power, and of public expectations that corporations should act in an ecologically and socially responsible manner.
“The Brent Spar was so sudden, so clear, and had such immediate and dramatic consequences for the government and business, that it caused reverberations which still influence environmental debate today.” - Chris Rose, Greenpeace UK
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 105
90s President Chirac of France announces the resumption of nuclear testing in the South Pacific, and Greenpeace sends its ships to the Moruroa Atoll. Shortly before the testing begins in September, the French navy impounds the MV Greenpeace and the Rainbow Warrior.
1996 Greenpeace launches an international campaign against genetically-modified food. German and Czech activists hinder the departure from Hamburg of a freight train loaded with genetically-modified maize from the US, bound for the Czech Republic. Later in the year, Greenpeace reveals that genetically-modified soya beans have been shipped to Antwerp and Ghent in Belgium. In a four-week expedition during the summer, the Arctic Sunrise documents the oil industry’s continuous pollution of the North Sea as a consequence of oil production. Activists chain themselves to logging machines near the Russian city of Kostamus, in protest against the destruction of ancient forests in order to supply the Finnish company ENSO with wood for paper production. ENSO declares a one-year moratorium on logging in the Karelian forests.
Over 7 million people sign petitions, calling for a stop to NUCLEAR testing. the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Is adopted BY the United Nations. images 1 to 3 French commandos storm the Rainbow Warrior, smashing windows on the bridge and throwing tear gas canisters © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan image 4 Greenpeace activist with a handful of genetically modified corn seeds © Greenpeace / Fred Dott image 4 Taking sea bed samples during tour of oilrigs planned for sea dumping © Greenpeace / Fred Dott image 5 Open boat day on the Arctic Sunrise in Lerwick, Scotland, UK, during the North Sea oilrig tour © Greenpeace / Fred Dott image 6 Greenpeace activists mark a train transporting genetically modified maize to the Czech Republic © Greenpeace / Fred Dott image 6 Action against ENSO paper mill, which uses wood from old growth forests in Karelia © Greenpeace / Martin Langer
106 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
90s 1997 Greenpeace discovers rusted drums of dioxin near the grounds of the Sydney Olympic Games to be held in 2000. The drums have been left there by the chemical company Union Carbide. Greenpeace develops guidelines for the Olympics to ensure that they can be carried out ecologically. Greenpeace conducts a campaign against toxic discharges into the Mediterranean. In Lebanon, activists sample the main sources of industrial pollution along the whole coast, and the firms involved are named in the test results. A campaign against soft-PVC toys at the end of the year meets with success in several European countries; toys made with this toxic softener are removed from the market.
image 1 Greenpeace makes barrels of dioxin waste safe near the Olympic site in Homebush Bay, Australia © Greenpeace / Glen Barry image 2 Greenpeace demonstration at Karantina incinerator, Lebanon © Greenpeace / Nabil Ismail images 3 and 4 Making barrels of dixoin safe in Homebush Bay © Greenpeace / Glen Barry image 5 Greenpeace action against soft PVC toys in a Beunos Aires shopping street in Argentina © Greenpeace / Carla Victoria image 6 Greenpeace activists sample soft PVC toys at the Karstadt warehouse in Berlin, Germany © Jan-Peter Böning / Greenpeace image 7 Greenpeace action against soft PVC toys at the Ministry of Health, Rome, Italy © Greenpeace / Francesco Cabras
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 107
90s The tiny, uninhabited island of Rockall is just 29 metres high and measures just 31 by 25 metres. Despite its size, the UK, Ireland, Denmark (on behalf of the Faroe Islands), and Iceland all claim the rock because of the large amounts of oil and natural gas believed to be buried in the continental shelf, which could be worth as much as $160 billion US dollars. Greenpeace occupies the island - and also the Stena Dee BP oilrig in the northeastern Atlantic - as part of its Atlantic Frontier campaign to protest against the planned exploitation of new oil fields. Claiming Rockall as the ‘Republic of Waveland’, Greenpeace issues over 15,000 passports to supporters backing the campaign. The Kyoto Protocol to protect the climate is adopted by 38 industrial nations. Greenpeace and other environmental organisations criticise the protocol’s low carbon dioxide reduction goals as being insufficient.
main image The Greenpeace Pod, which will be ‘home’ to the activists during the occupation, is installed on Rockall inset image 1 Greenpeace activists Al Baker, Pete Morris and Meike Huelsmann raise the ‘Republic of Waveland’ flag on Rockall inset image 2 Helicopter setting down the Pod inset image 3 Rockall in low sun inset image 4 Greenpeace raises flags at the end of its occupation of the island. All images © Greenpeace / David Sims
108 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 109
90s
1998 Greenpeace cooperates with local environmentalists in Ecuador to reforest mangrove forests destroyed by illegal clearcutting to make way for shrimp farms. By the end of 2000, the Ecuadoran government will ban this logging. Canadian ships loaded with old-growth wood pulp are hindered from docking at ports in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany. Activists in Long Beach, California, chain themselves to a freighter’s loading crane and succeed in stopping the ship’s entry into port for several days.
After 15 years of GREENPEACE campaigning The EU finally agrees to Phase out driftnet fishing by its fleets in EU and international waters by the end of 2001. image 1 Up to 1 million hectares of mangrove have been cleared for shrimp farms in Ecuador © Greenpeace / Clive Shirley image 2 Mangrove forest being destroyed by digger © Greenpeace / Clive Shirley image 3 Greenpeace and local inhabitants replant mangroves that have been cut © Greenpeace / Clive Shirley image 4 Women standing in the shallow waters, with mangroves visible behind them © Greenpeace / Clive Shirley image 5 Greenpeace action in Antwerp, Belgium, against the Saga Wind, which is carrying Canadian rainforest wood and pulp © Greenpeace / Georges Berghezan image 6 Greenpeace action in Brake, Germany, against the Saga River, carrying rainforest wood from British Columbia, Canada © Greenpeace / Martin Langer
110 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
Greenpeace documents how basic labour and environmental protection standards are disregarded when Europe’s oceangoing ships, contaminated with toxins, are sent to India to be scrapped.
90s
image 1 Women picking asbestos insulation material from ships to be dumped into the sea image 2 Ship being scrapped in Alang, Gujarat, India image 3 Waste incineration on the beach, fuelled by used oil image 4 Woman carrying asbestos insulation materials from ships image 5 Workers scrapping ship at Alang scrap yard image 6 Workers ripping presumed asbestos insulation layer image 7 Workers scrapping ship image 8 Scrap material image 9 Ship being scrapped in Alang image 10 Alang scrap yard image 11 Toxic waste. All images © Christoph Engel / Greenpeace, except image 4 © Andreas Bernstorff / Greenpeace
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 111
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 113
90s
Nine countries ban the use of harmful phthalates in polyvinyl chloride (PVC) toys for children under three, and the EU introduces an ‘emergency’ ban on soft PVC teething toys.
1999 In Bhopal, India – where 16,000 people died in 1984 following a large chemical accident at the US-owned Union Carbide plant – Greenpeace supports survivors calling for the plant’s grounds to be cleaned up.
Japan experiences a nuclear accident early in October. Greenpeace publishes data on radiation measured near the Tokaimura fuel-rod factory.
image 1 Greenpeace demonstrates at 15th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster © Greenpeace / Santosh Bane image 2 Local people protest in Bhopal © Greenpeace / Peter Canton image 3 Weekly survivors’ meeting © Greenpeace / Shailendra Yashwant image 4 Sevin plant at Union Carbide factory in Bhopal; this image is taken in 1999, 15 years after the disaster © Greenpeace / Shailendra Yashwant image 5 Greenpeace nuclear expert Diederik Samsom monitoring levels of radioactivity after the accident at the Tokaimura plant in Japan © Greenpeace / Andrew MacColl image 6 Monitoring farmland, 110 km north of Tokyo, Japan © Greenpeace / Andrew MacColl image 7 JOYO nuclear facility; sign reads ‘Controlled Area, No Entry Without Permission’ © Greenpeace / Andrew MacColl image 8 The Tokaimura nuclear reprocessing facilities, near Tokyo, Japan © Greenpeace / Andrew MacColl
114 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
90s The Arctic Sunrise sails to the Southern Ocean to draw attention to overfishing in Antarctic waters.
Activists harvest a field of geneticallymodified maize in Lyng in the UK, and are arrested. They are, however, acquitted before court a year later. In the meantime, leading European supermarkets declare that they will no longer permit the use of geneticallymodified basic foodstuffs in their ownbrand products.
The Environmental Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty comes into force. image 1 Polar bear jumping on icefloe, Herald Island, Chuckchi Sea image 2 Climate campaigner Melanie Duchin on the Arctic Sunrise image 3 Walruses on icefloe image 4 Greenpeace’s Arctic Climate tour investigates climate change effects on the wildlife of the Arctic images 5 and 6 Scientists on board the Arctic Sunrise image 7 Greenpeace activists removing genetically engineered maize from a trial farm in Lyng, UK image 8 Greenpeace UK Executive Director Peter Melchett is arrested for his part in the action image 9 Activists are arrested and removed by the police. Images 1 to 6 © Greenpeace / Daniel Beltrá, images 7 to 9 © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 115
1996-
Ships: Arctic Sunrise In service: 1996 Built: 1975 Type of ship: Former research ship and supply vessel (ice class) Length: 50m Max. speed: 12 knots Crew: 12, max. 30 Greenpeace refitted the former Polarbjørn with efficient communications systems, a helicopter landing platform and a helicopter lift in the midship hold. Her first trip took her to the North Sea and the northeast Atlantic, where Greenpeace documented marine pollution by oil from offshore installations. In 1997, she became the first ship to circumnavigate James Ross Island in the Antarctic, a journey that would have once been impossible, had the 200m-thick ice shelf connecting the island to the Antarctic continent not collapsed. This was just one of the many signs of climate change that the ship has helped to document, and she spent many more months working around the coast of Greenland and the Arctic sea ice in 2009 documenting the effects of climate change in that region. In the Southern Ocean the ship, along with the Esperanza, thwarted the Japanese whaling fleet’s attempts to pursue its socalled ‘scientific’ whaling programme. She also chased pirate vessels fishing illegally for Patagonian toothfish. In 2010 the Arctic Sunrise was sent to the Gulf of Mexico to perform an independent assessment of the impacts of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The ship hosted independent scientists and researchers looking for oiled marine mammals, turtles, fish and sea birds, gathering vital evidence.
main image 1 In the Gulf of Mexico, where the crew of the Arctic Sunrise were joined by a team of independent scientists conducting scientific research that will further the understanding of the impacts of oil and chemical dispersant on the Gulf ecosystem in the aftermath of the British Petroleum oil spill © Sean Gardner / Greenpeace inset image 1 Berthed in the port of Gijon, Spain © Greenpeace / Jiri Rezac image 2 The ship negotiates icy waters near northern Greenland © Nick Cobbing / Greenpeace image 3 Helideck; the ship is swinging in rough seas during her 1999 Southern Ocean anti-whaling tour © Greenpeace / John Cunningham
118 116 THE THE GREENPEACE GREENPEACE chronicles chronicles
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 117
the
118 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
New Greenpeace offices in the ’00s INDIA – 2000 SOUTHEAST ASIA – 2000 (regional office, present in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand) CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE – 2001 (formed by a merger of Greenpeace Austria and Greenpeace Slovakia, plus new offices in Romania, Hungary and Poland) AFRICA – 2008 (regional office, present in South Africa, DRC and Senegal)
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 119
00s 2000 The entrances to the European Patent Office in Munich are bricked up by activists following Greenpeace’s discovery that the office has issued a patent on the breeding of human embryos. Greenpeace protests against the construction of BP’s Northstar oil production project in the Beaufort Sea, off the coast of Alaska.
The BiosafetY Protocol is adopted in Montreal, Canada. It aims to protect the environment and human health from the risks of geneticallymodified organisms (GMOs) by controlling international trade of GMOs.
Claiming that Russia is drowning in oil while multinational oil corporations sit back and watch it all happen, Greenpeace protests at TotalFinaElf and other Western oil corporations, pressuring them to take responsibility for disastrous oil pollution in Siberia.
image 1 Greenpeace action against ‘Patents on Life’ in front of the European Patent Office in Munich, Germany © Oliver Soulas / Greenpeace image 2 Activists wearing sheep masks with patent tags in the ears © Thomas Einberger / Greenpeace image 3 Greenpeace activists building up a polar survival shelter on the roof of BP’s Northstar control centre module © Greenpeace / John Cunningham image 4 Greenpeace activists boarding a massive industrial BP barge transporting the control centre of its Northstar development © Greenpeace / John Cunningham image 5 Aerial view of the Arctic Sunrise, with BP’s Northstar island in the background © Greenpeace / Daniel Beltrá image 6 Greenpeace activists clearing oil pollution from Samotlor oilfield, West Siberia © Igor Gavrilov / Greenpeace
120 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
00s 2001 Greenpeace protests against nuclear shipments in France and Germany, including several actions in Germany against the first nuclear shipment to the Gorleben interim storage site to take place under the Social Democratic/Greens coalition government. These actions are part of a large protest movement in the country. Greenpeace ‘lifesavers’ demonstrate at Bondi, Australia, against new moves to increase fishing quotas for the critically-endangered Southern Bluefin tuna.
Greenpeace confronts the Fisheries Agency of Japan’s whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary established in 1994. Japan has nevertheless continued to conduct an annual whale hunt in the Sanctuary under the guise of ‘scientific’ research.
image 1 Greenpeace activists seated under umbrellas bearing the nuclear radioactive symbol © Martin Langer / Greenpeace images 2 and 3 Activists digging and planting flowers and trees on the train tracks through which shipments of nuclear material are proposed to pass © Martin Langer / Greenpeace image 4 Activists dressed as lifesavers on Bondi Beach holding cutouts of bluefin tuna © Greenpeace / Tim Cole image 5 Greenpeace inflatable in front of the Nisshin Maru, the factory ship of the Fisheries Agency of Japan’s whaling fleet © Greenpeace / Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 121
00s
In ports around Europe, Greenpeace activists take action against freighters delivering Canadian old-growth lumber and paper products made from wood coming from the Great Bear rainforest in Canada. Protests also take place at the Canadian embassy in Den Haag (The Hague), in the Netherlands. In April, leading Canadian lumber companies promise to stop logging in large parts of the Great Bear rainforest in British Columbia.
image 1 Greenpeace activists in Antwerp, Belgium, blocking the unloading of paper products made of wood coming from the Great Bear Rainforest in Canada © Greenpeace / Philip Reynaers image 2 Greenpeace activist arrested following an action outside the Canadian embassy in the Hague, Netherlands © Greenpeace / Bas Beentjes image 3 Greenpeace activist Mannes Ubels holding onto the anchor chain of the Saga Tide while being sprayed by a high-pressure hose, in the Dutch port of Vlissingen © Greenpeace / Bas Beentjes image 4 Members of Greenpeace hanging from the cranes of the cargo ship Teal Arrow in the French port of La Pallice to prevent it from unloading its cargo. The ship is transporting timber from logging giant Interfor © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes
122 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
After years of negotiations and pressure from Greenpeace, a global agreement for the elimination of a group of highly toxic and persistent man-made chemicals (Persistent Organic Pollutants or POPs), becOMES a reality in May 2001 when a UN Treaty banning them is adopted.
00s
‘Stop Star Wars’ is the Rainbow Warrior’s motto when Greenpeace warns of the danger of a new nuclear arms race. Greenpeace is opposing Washington’s satellite-supporter missile defence system, and protests at the US army’s missile test area on the Kwajalein atoll in the north Pacific. In July, activists enter the Vandenburg test site in California and delay the start of a launch.
image 1 Greenpeace campaigner Mike Townsley on the Rainbow Warrior, looking towards the Kwajalein missile base prior to a ‘Stop Star Wars’ action in the Marshall Islands © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan image 2 Inflatable setting out towards Kwajalein missile base in the Marshall Islands © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan image 3 Activists protested in the exclusion zone waters of the Vandenberg airforce base in the US in an attempt to delay the ‘Star Wars’ missile defence system test © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan image 4 Activists chained to each other outside the US embassy in Helsinki, Finland, in support of the Star Wars 17 appearing in federal court in Los Angeles © Greenpeace / Jesse Anttila image 5 Demonstration in support of the Star Wars 17 at the US embassy in Bern, Switzerland; some activists are dressed in old-style prisoner’s suits and their mouths are sealed with tape, while another wears a George Bush mask © Greenpeace / David Adair image 6 Some of the activists arrested for disrupting the test; the so-called Star Wars 17 consist of nine foreign nationals, six US citizens and two independent journalists © Zachary Singer / Greenpeace
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 123
124 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
2002-
Ships: ESPERANZA In service: 2002 Built: 1984 Type of ship: Former Russian Navy fire-fighting vessel (ice class) Length: 72m Max. speed: 18 knots Crew: 12, max. 48 Launched in February 2002, the Esperanza – Spanish for ‘hope’ - is the largest vessel in the Greenpeace fleet, and the first ship to be named by visitors to the Greenpeace website. Between November 2005 and March 2007, she made the ‘Defending Our Oceans’ voyage, the largest expedition that Greenpeace has ever mounted. In 2009, as part of a subsequent ‘Defending Our Pacific’ expedition, she documented unsustainable and illegal fishing practices. She has participated across a wide range of Greenpeace activities, from tours promoting renewable energy to actions against climate destroying coal-fired power stations, and from tracking shipments of illegally logged timber to tackling the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean. In the summer of 2010, the Esperanza embarked on a two-month ‘Arctic Under Pressure’ expedition, examining some of the threats facing fragile Arctic Ocean ecosystems. The expedition supported the German marine science institute IFMGEOMAR in carrying out the largest ever experiment on ocean acidification, a process caused by the ocean’s absorption of CO2 pollution from industrial emissions. image 1 Arriving in Greenland for the 2010 ‘Go Beyond Oil’ expedition © Will Rose / Greenpeace image 2 View of heavy seas from the bridge, 2005 © Greenpeace / Nick Cobbing image 3 Deckhand Faye Lewis on the bridge, 2007 © Greenpeace / Jiri Rezac image 4 Northern lights seen from the Esperanza in the North Atlantic in 2010 © Will Rose / Greenpeace
© WILL ROSE / Greenpeace
In the same year, as part of Greenpeace’s Go Beyond Oil campaign, the ship headed for ‘iceberg alley’ off Greenland, where Cairn Energy is drilling for oil. Activists left the ship aboard inflatables, successfully evaded the Danish Navy, and scaled the company’s Stena Don drilling rig, halting the drilling operation. A few weeks later swimmers confronted the reckless pursuit of oil off the Shetland Islands by stopping Chevron’s Stena Carron drilling ship from heading towards its drill site.
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 125
00s 2002 Greenpeace helps defeat a major drive by Japan and its supporters to re-introduce commercial whaling through the International Whaling Commission (IWC). While it cannot be proved beyond doubt that the Japanese government has used its aid money to get votes in support of its position in the IWC, there is a strong link between the votes for Japan and the aid money some of the member countries of the IWC received. More than 600 Greenpeace volunteers from around the world shut down oil company Esso’s petrol stations in Luxembourg in a protest against Esso’s continued sabotage of international efforts to protect the climate.
image 1 IWC meeting in Shimonoseki, Japan © Greenpeace / Hiroto Kiryu image 2 Action outside Japanese embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, against Japanese votebuying within the IWC © Greenpeace / Christian Aslund image 3 Greenpeace Japan’s whales campaigner Mitoji Nagasawa tells the media that the world is watching Japan’s votebuying programme at the IWC © Greenpeace / Hiroto Kiryu images 4 to 10 Action against Esso, throughout Luxembourg - image 4 © Greenpeace / Philip Reynaers, images 5 to 9 © Greenpeace / Bas Beentjes, image 10 © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes
126 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
00s Greenpeace holds actions in a variety of locations to commemorate the 18th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, which killed thousands of people. The polluted site of the abandoned factory still leaks poisons into the groundwater of local residents. Dow Chemical bought Union Carbide in 2001, but will not accept any responsibility for the clean up of the contaminated site.
image 1 Protest at the Dow chemical plant in Bhopal © Greenpeace / Kadir van Lohuizen image 2 Protest in Australia © Greenpeace / Tim Cole image 3 Action at Dow’s head office in Terneuzen, the Netherlands; Greenpeace protest banner alongside photographer Raghu Rai’s images of the victims of the disaster © Greenpeace / Bas Beentjes images 4 and 5 Memorial in front of Dow Chemical’s European HQ in Horgen, Switzerland © Greenpeace / Ex-Press / David Adair image 6 Greenpeace campaigner Monique Harthoorn and survivors of the Bhopal disaster - Rashida Bi and Ganesg Nochur - return poisonous waste collected from the former Union Carbide plant in Bhopal to its owner, Dow Benelux in the Netherlands © Greenpeace / Bas Beentjes image 7 Emotional plea by Bhopal survivor Nur Jahan when Dow Netherlands refuse to come out and talk about Bhopal’s plight @ Greenpeace / Bas Beentjes image 8 Activists place a memorial statue outside the Dow head office in Terneuzen © Greenpeace / Bas Beentjes
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 127
00s
Archbishop Desmond Tutu visits the Greenpeace ship Esperanza when it travels to South Africa, and blesses the ship and her crew. He joins them in wishing for a clean, peaceful and nuclear free world. Greenpeace is in Cape Town as world leaders gather in Johannesburg for the World Summit for Sustainable Development. Shortly after Tutu’s visit, Greenpeace activists launch a pre-dawn protest at Koeberg, Africa’s only nuclear power plant, and six activists climb onto the roof of nearby buildings before dropping a banner that reads ‘Nukes Out of Africa’.
image 1 Activists on inflatable boat during a protest at Koeberg, Africa’s only nuclear power plant as world leaders gather in Johannesburg for the Earth Summit © Greenpeace / Daniel Beltrá image 2 The crew of the rigid inflatable are arrested by police after they drop activists off at the Koeberg plant © Greenpeace / Daniel Beltrá images 3 to 5 Archbishop Desmond Tutu visits the Esperanza, blessing the ship and its crew © Greenpeace / Daniel Beltrá image 6 Six activists climb onto the roof of buildings at the Koeberg plant before dropping a banner that read ‘Nukes Out of Africa’; they are later taken into custody © Greenpeace / Daniel Beltrá image 7 Eleven of the so-called Koeberg 12, outside the Atlantis Magistrates Court where they will be tried and deported from the country © Greenpeace / Roger Bosch image 8 Local residents outside the Magistrates Court show their support for the Koeberg 12 © Greenpeace / Karin Retief
128 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
00s 2003 A Greenpeace team, including two nuclear experts, travels to Iraq to investigate horrifying reports that the Tuwaitha nuclear facility near Baghdad has been left unguarded and the contents looted. They discover evidence of radioactive contamination in and around local schools and homes. Barrels previously used to store ‘yellowcake’ uranium are now being used to store water and food. While the US Administration refuses to admit there is a problem, despite failing to even carry out radiation checks, Greenpeace tracks down, secures and returns to US officials dangerous containers of radioactive material. In collaboration with the local community Greenpeace also arranges for contaminated barrels to be swapped for new, clean aluminium ones. To date, no other assistance has been given to help clean up the contaminated communities.
image 1 Barrels inside a shed in the Al Tuwaitha plant, Iraq image 2 Mike Townsley and Sara Holden talk to a US soldier in Iraq image 3 A girl standing outside the Al Majidat school for girls (900 pupils), next to the Tuwaitha nuclear facility; Greenpeace found levels of radioactivity up to 3,000 times higher than background levels at the school and cordoned the area off image 4 Foss Sadik writes warning signs at Al Madijat school for the area around Al Tuwaitha image 5 William Peden and Stefan Huttner prepare a yellow cake mixer for the return to the Tuwaitha nuclear facility. A local welder is welding the mixer shut. The device was found in an open public place in front of a bus stop image 6 Greenpeace radiation expert Dr. Rianne Teule takes measurements outside the Al-Majidat school for girls image 7 US soldier checks a yellow cake mixer returned by Greenpeace to the Tuwaitha nuclear facility images 8 and 9 Residents of Al Wadiyah carry home clean water barrels, which Greenpeace activists have exchanged for radioative ones. All images © Greenpeace / Philip Reynaers
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 129
00s The Deni, indigenous peoples of the Amazon, celebrate the end of an 18year campaign to mark their land as protected from logging. Thirteen Greenpeace volunteers, including a member of the rapidly developing cyberactivist community, used GPS technology and a helicopter for a month to create an ‘eco-corridor’ around 3.6 million hectares of land.
“If we were going to be serious about protecting the Amazon, we had to be there to really be able to understand the issues. We worked ‘on the ground’ in the Amazon, the only international NGO to do so. We worked with the locals, and found exactly what they needed, not what everybody assumed they needed. Take the Deni Indians, for example, an indigenous people with no written language. We helped the Deni make their voices heard in Brasilia, and they got their land protected, driving out a big Malaysian logging company in the process. The demarcation of the Deni land is one of things I’m proudest of in all my time with Greenpeace. I’m proud of what Greenpeace can help achieve.” - Anne Dingwall, Greenpeace veteran
main image Amazon rainforest and the River Amazon © Rodrigo Baléia / Greenpeace image 1 Greenpeace campaigners and local people using maps during demarcation preparations © Greenpeace / Flavio Cannalonga image 2 Anne Dingwall © Greenpeace / Philip Reynaers
130 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
00s 2004
© Greenpeace / FLAVIO CANNALONGA
Following years of campaiging in the Amazon by Greenpeace and other environmental organisations the Brazilian government stood up to the powerful forces of illegal loggers and greedy soya and beef barons by creating two massive protective reserves. The presidential decree protects 2 million hectares of the Amazon forest by creating the Verde Para Sempre and Riozinho do Anfrisio extractive reserves.
132 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
Thanks to years of pressure from environmental groups, the consumers, cyberactivists and Greenpeace, there is a victory for the environment following the announcement by Monsanto that it will suspend further development or open field trials of its genetically engineered ‘Roundup Ready’ wheat. Monsanto states that it is deferring all further efforts to introduce the crop and that it is discontinuing breeding and field-level research of the wheat. This follows a similar announcement in 2003 when the company announced its withdrawal from the development of pharmaceutical crops.
00s Iceland steps back from plans to kill 500 minke, sei, and fin whales over two years, announcing a quota of only 25 minkes for the year. Greenpeace web activists fuelled domestic opposition by gathering 50,000 worldwide signatures to a pledge to visit Iceland if the government would stop whaling. With a potential value of more than $60m US dollars in tourist spend, against a whaling programme which generated 3-4 million in profits, the pledge dramatically illustrates that whales are worth more to Iceland alive than dead.
The Stockholm Convention comes into force following years of lobbying by Greenpeace and other environmental organisations. A key feature of the Convention calls for the elimination of all Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). They include intentionally produced chemicals, such as pesticides, as well as byproducts, such as cancer-causing dioxins that are released from industries using chlorine and from waste incinerators. THE GREENPEACE chronicles 133
00s
Š Greenpeace / RONALD DE HOMMEL
Publishers of 34 Canadian magazines pledge to shift away from paper containing tree fibre from Canada’s ancient forests, thanks to ongoing pressure from the Markets Initiative coalition, of which Greenpeace Canada has a key role. The coalition has similar commitments from 71 Canadian book publishers including the Canadian publisher of Harry Potter, which prints The Order of the Phoenix on AFF paper.
134 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
Queensland Energy Resources announces an end to the Stuart Shale Oil Project in Australia. Greenpeace has campaigned against the project, which would have produced oil with four times the greenhouse impact as oil from the ground, since 1998. The project cost millions of dollars in government subsidies that should have been spent on renewable energy.
00s
A decade of lobbying, scientific research, and direct non-violent action by Greenpeace and environmental groups around the world comes to fruition as Russia ratifies the Kyoto Protocol, bringing to force the world’s sole global effort to address the dangers of global warming.
Greenpeace efforts to achieve tighter controls on the notorious shipbreaking industry result in an international agreement to treat obsolete ships as waste. Treaty commitments by 163 nations can be expected to increase demands for decontamination of ships prior to export to the principle shipbreaking countries of India, Bangladesh, and Turkey. It will also create new demand for the development of “green” ship recycling capacity in developed countries.
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 135
00s
136 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
2005 Photocopy giant Xerox agrees to stop buying timber pulp from StoraEnso, the Finnish national logging company that is cutting down one of Europe’s last remaining ancient forests. Following pressure by Greenpeace cyberactivists, the company agrees a new procurement policy, ensuring that suppliers do not source timber from ‘old-growth forests, conservation areas or other areas designated for protection.’ Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia, LG, Motorola and Sony announce that they will be phasing toxic chemicals out of their products. This is the result of the thousands of participants in our online action to pressure electronics companies to come clean.
The Pizarro reserve in northern Argentina is a haven for wildlife and the Wichi people who depend on the forest for their livelihoods, but in February 2004 the state government decides to put the reserve on the auction block, to be sold to the highest bidder for conversion into soy plantations. Greenpeace responds with actions in the forest and cyberactions from countries near and far. In the middle of all the activities prominent Argentinean actor Ricardo Darin and football legend Diego Maradona help out; Maradona, on his own top-rating TV talk show, appeals directly to the president to save the reserve from the bulldozers and the soy plantations. A week later, Pizarro is saved.
00s
138 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
00s
The Esperanza embarks on the ‘Defending Our Oceans’ voyage – the single largest expedition Greenpeace has ever taken. The expedition between 2005 and 2007 - which will also involve the Arctic Sunrise and the Rainbow Warrior - will tell the story of the crisis facing the oceans, from the Azores to Antarctica (including places few humans have been).
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 139
image 1 Leopard seal on hard ice sheets in the Southern Ocean © Greenpeace / Daniel Beltrá image 2 Sea turtles used to be a rare sight in the waters of Apo Island; since it was declared a marine reserve, it is now common to see Hawksbill and Green Sea Turtles such as this one - Apo Island is acknowledged internationally as a model community managed marine reserve © Greenpeace / Daniel M Ocampo image 3 California sea lions assist Greenpeace activists with their banner at the Los Islotes sea lion colony © Greenpeace / Alex Hofford image 4 Adelie penguins walk on ice in the Southern Ocean © Greenpeace / Daniel Beltrá image 5 The whale shark’s migration route takes it close to the shores off Rapu Rapu Island in the Philippines, the site of toxic sea pollution from the Lafayette mining operation © Greenpeace / Gavin Newman image 6 Spirograph worm in the Mediterranean © Greenpeace / Roger Grace image 7 A seahorse tries to camoflage itself inside a big plastic bag © Greenpeace / Daniel M Ocampo image 8 Jellyfish in the Mediterranean © Greenpeace / Marco Care image 9 A sea turtle is entangled in fishing gear; Greenpeace activists onboard the Rainbow Warrior found the turtle in the Mediterranean Sea north of Libya, and freed it © Greenpeace / Marco Care
140 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
00s
main image Humpback whales feed near the Antarctic ice edge in the Southern Ocean © Greenpeace / Jiri Rezac inset image 1 Marine Conservationist Charles Moore displays a toothbrush found in the Central North Pacific Ocean © Greenpeace / Alex Hofford image 2 The toothbrush is just one example of a wide variety of plastic items found in our oceans; here, plastic is displayed on a beach and the word ‘Trash’ is spelled out from golf balls © Greenpeace / Alex Hofford
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 141
142 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
00s
main image Chinese fishing vessel 60 miles off Conakry, Guinea; the rusting vessel appears unusable but is still in use. Profits take priority as workers exist in terrible conditions often waiting for crew that never arrives © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes inset image 1 Crew sorting catch on a Chinese fishing boat that has an history of pirate fishing activities © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 2 Rusting equipment controls the refrigeration of the fish that is destined for human consumption © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 3 Crew members sleeping down below in the living area on board a Taiwanese longliner © Greenpeace / Paul Hilton image 4 Local fishermen with nets on a fishing boat in Conakry port © Pierre Gleizes image 5 Sara Holden © Greenpeace / Daniel Beltrá
“The Defending Our Oceans expedition brought our oceans back to shore and made the invisible visible. It put into stark contrast breathtaking beauty and diversity with the scale and relentlessness of the oceans’ destruction. What we saw far out to sea would never be allowed to happen on land and reinforces the need for oceans protection to begin at home.” - Sara Holden, Communications Coordinator, Defending Our Oceans expedition
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 143
00s 2006
Š Greenpeace / DANIEL BELTRĂ
An area twice the size of Belgium is given greater protection in the Amazon after a Presidential decree to create a 6.4 million hectare (around 16 million acres) conservation area. This is a great victory for the people of the Amazon who have been battling landgrabbers, cattle ranchers and loggers. The decree calls for around 1.6 million hectares to be permanently protected and totally off limits to logging and deforestation.
144 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 145
00s
French President Chirac announced the dramatic recall of the asbestos-laden warship Clemenceau - it will be turning around and going back to France. Greenpeace actions, emails to Chirac and an embarrassing international scandal leave France with little choice but to abandon the misguided attempt to dump its own toxic mess on India.
After months of pressure, consumer actions, online activism and more than 100,000 emails from Greenpeace’s ‘Ocean Defenders’ everywhere, seafood suppliers Gorton’s, Sealord and parent company Nissui withdraw their active support for Japanese whaling. Whalers announce that the 32% share in whaling operations owned by these commercial corporations will be transferred to a ‘public interest entity’. The retreat isolates whaling economically and probably scuppers plans to find new markets for whale products.
image 1 The French former aircraft carrier Clemenceau © Greenpeace / David Sims image 2 Greenpeace activists board the Clemenceau 50 nautical miles off the coast of Egypt © Greenpeace / David Sims image 3 Protest against the departure of the Clemenceau from the Port of Toulon © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 4 Port of Toulon; the decommissioned Clemenceau was bound for India where it was to be dismantled despite containing huge quantities of highly toxic asbestos © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes image 5 Inflatables from the Esperanza and Arctic Sunrise hindering the transfer of minke whales by a catcher ship of the Japanese whaling fleet to the Nisshin Maru factory ship during the 2005-2006 Southern Ocean Tour; banners on the inflatable bear the names of Gorton’s and Nissui, two companies actively supporting the whaling at the time © Greenpeace / Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert image 6 Nathan Santry holds a banner showing the Gorton logo in combination with a whaler’s harpoon © Greenpeace / Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert
146 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
00s Following Greenpeace actions around the world, McDonald’s agrees to stop selling chicken fed on soya grown in newly deforested areas of the Amazon rainforest. Furthermore, it becomes instrumental in getting other food companies and supermarkets, such as Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, ASDA and Waitrose, to sign up to a zero deforestation policy as well. But it goes even further than that, and pressure from all these companies forces their suppliers, the big multinational soya companies such as Cargill, to agree a two-year moratorium on buying soya from newly deforested areas.
image 1 Greenpeace volunteers dump nearly 4 tonnes of soya and chain themselves to a gate at Cargill’s UK HQ in protest at the company’s central role in the destruction of the Amazon rainforest © Nick Cobbing / Greenpeace image 2 Greenpeace activists paint ‘Forest Crime’ on Cargill’s silos in the Amsterdam harbour and block the unloading of cargo ship Flecha, coming from the Amazon rainforest © Greenpeace / Andrew Kerr image 3 Greenpeace blocks the W-One in the North Sea Canal to stop her offloading Amazon soya in Amsterdam © Greenpeace / Joël van Houdt image 4 The Arctic Sunrise blocks the path of a smaller Cargill ship containing Amazonian soya to prevent it leaving port in Santarém, Brazil © Greenpeace / Daniel Beltrá images 5 and 6 Seven-foot-tall chickens invade McDonald’s outlets in London, UK; chickens used in its products were being fed on soya coming from the Amazon © Jiri Rezac / Greenpeace
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 147
00s Estonia launches an investigation into the Probo Koala after three days of blockade by Greenpeace’s ship, the Arctic Sunrise. It is the first official action against the Probo Koala, which poisoned thousands and killed eight in the Ivory Coast when it dumped a cargo of toxic waste that had been refused by the Netherlands. After dumping its deadly cargo the ship simply sailed to Estonia unhindered, until Greenpeace took action.
The European Union approves a new chemical law REACH: Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals - to replace regulation that is over 40 years old. image 1 EU environmental commissioner Stavros Dimas, who says “I think what Greenpeace did was actually very important in filling the gaps in the implementation of European law” © Greenpeace / Christian Aslund image 2 Greenpeace campaigner Marietta Harjono takes the Ivorian drivers hired to dispose of toxic waste from the Probo Koala to the headquarters of Trafigura in Amsterdam, the Netherlands © Greenpeace / Bas Beentjes image 3 Doumbia Siaka and Amado Bakayoko went twice to Trafigura’s HQ demanding apologies from the company for not disclosing the toxic nature of the waste they were asked to dispose of © Greenpeace / Bas Beentjes image 4 Stavros Dimas on the Arctic Sunrise © Greenpeace / Christian Aslund image 5 Greenpeace blockade the Probo Koala in Estonia © Greenpeace / Christian Aslund image 6 Greenpeace activists brand the Panamanian-flagged vessel as an EU Toxic Crime scene © Greenpeace / Christian Aslund image 7 Greenpeace activist climbs the mooring lines of the Probo Koala with a banner in French saying ‘Toxic Trade Kills’ © Greenpeace / Christian Aslund
148 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
00s
2007 The New Zealand government announces cancellation of a proposed coal-burning power plant, Marsden B. Greenpeace and local activists mounted a 4-year struggle that involved a 9-day occupation, high court challenges, protest marches, a record number of public submissions, ‘Surfers Against Sulphur’, public meetings and a pirate radio station.
Apple announces a phase-out of the most dangerous chemicals in its product line in response to a Webby-award winning online campaign by Greenpeace and Apple fans worldwide. The campaign challenged Apple to become a green leader in addressing the electronic waste problem.
image 1 Action at the Marsden B power station in February 2005 © Greenpeace / Malcolm Pullman image 2 Over 500 Northland residents gather on Bream Bay beach beneath Marsden B power station to protest against the proposal to convert it into a coal-fired power station © Greenpeace / Young image 3 Greenpeace activist Raoni Hammer lowers himself into the waiting arms of the law following a nine-day occupation of the station © Greenpeace / Fotopress image 4 ‘Surfers Against Sulphur’ stage a protest © Greenpeace / Young image 5 Greenpeace divers at the toxic outflow zone of the proposed Marsden B station © Greenpeace / David Abbott image 6 Local Ruakaka builders erect signs and hazard tape aound the perimeter of the proposed site © Greenpeace / Young image 7 Greenpeace activists gather at the 5th Avenue Apple store in Manhattan, New York, USA, to shine a ‘green light’ on the emerging problem of electronic waste © Greenpeace / Salem Krieger image 8 Greenpeace volunteers man the high-profile ‘Green My Apple’ stall at the Mac Expo in London, UK © Greenpeace / Will Rose image 9 Greenpeace volunteers hand out biological apples to customers of the Apple store in Amsterdam © Greenpeace images 10 and 11 Apple action in Austria © Greenpeace / Kurt Prinz
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 149
00s After four years of Greenpeace campaigning to bring an end to deep-sea bottom trawling, representatives from countries around the world gathered in Chile to carve out a fisheries agreement for the South Pacific region, protecting it from this incredibly destructive fishing method. From September 2007, bottomtrawling vessels in the region will not be able to fish in areas that have, or are even likely to have, vulnerable marine ecosystems unless they complete an assessment showing that no damage will be caused.
Together with other environmental groups, Greenpeace gets 1.5 million signatures of support and pushes through Argentina’s first federal forest protection law. The new law includes a nationwide one-year moratorium on clearing of native forests while forest management regulations are put in place. After a year, any jurisdiction still lacking regulations will continue to be prohibited from issuing new logging and land clearing permits. The Forest Law also establishes environmental impact studies and public hearings - measures that will help protect forests where indigenous people live and small-scale farmers.
image 1 Commercial shrimp trawler in San Felipe; these trawlers pose a great threat to the marine environment as marine wildlife including sea lions get caught in their bottom-trawling nets © Greenpeace / Alex Hofford image 2 Crew meeting on the Sleipner, monitoring and campaigning at the Cleaver Bank in the North Sea © Greenpeace / Cris Olivares image 3 Evidence of bottom trawling, as seen at approximately 1000’ deep in the Pribilof Canyon in the Bering Sea © Greenpeace image 4 German pair trawler Reiderland bottom-trawling for North Sea cod © Greenpeace / Christian Aslund image 5 Evidence of bottom-trawling, captured by a manned deep submersible during undersea research in the Bering Sea © Greenpeace
150 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
00s 2008 Greenpeace confronts the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean for the third consecutive year. The whale hunt is disrupted for 15 days during the height of the southern summer when the Esperanza chases the Nisshin Maru across 4,300 miles of the whale sanctuary, shutting down the whole whaling operation for the entirety of the epic chase. After five months at sea, the Nisshin Maru will return to Japan having taken only half the number of whales from the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary as it planned – but still 551 whales too many.
“People ask me, why does Japan continue whaling, and I find it a really difficult question to answer. Japan’s whaling for research reasons is unnecessary and unwanted. Most of the whales end up in deep freezers because there is no market for whale meat in Japan or anywhere else in the world. Whaling is just plain wrong - you can’t get much simpler than that, yet still Japan continues its whaling.” - Jetske Nagtglas, Greenpeace activist
image 1 The radar screen on the bridge of the Esperanza helps the team on board search for the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary © Greenpeace / Jiri Rezac image 2 Captain Frank Kamp and other crew members on the bridge © Greenpeace / Jiri Rezac image 3 The Japanese whaling vessel Nisshin Maru flees from the Esperanza © Greenpeace / Jiri Rezac image 4 Jetske Nagtglas © Greenpeace / Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 151
152 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
00s
main image Chasing the Nisshin Maru image 1 The hunter vessel Yushin Maru No 2 manoeuvres at high speed, aiming for a Greenpeace inflatable image 2 Jetske Nagtglas, on a Greenpeace inflatable boat, tries to prevent the factory ship Nisshin Maru from refueling from the supply vessel Oriental Bluebird in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary image 3 Greenpeace Japan campaigner Sakyo Noda contacts the Japanese government whaling fleet via a radio from the Esperanza in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. All images Š Greenpeace / Jiri Rezac
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 153
00s
154 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
00s main image Five of the so-called Kingsnorth 6 © Will Rose / Greenpeace inset mage 1 The Kingsnorth six - Huw Williams, Kevin Drake, Ben Stewart, Tim Hewke, Emily Hall and Will Rose outside Maidstone Crown Court after a jury found them not guilty of criminal damage charges for their action at Kingsnorth power station the previous year © Jiri Rezac / Greenpeace image 2 On Kingsnorth power station © Will Rose / Greenpeace image 3 Abseiling down Kingsnorth coal-fired power station © Will Rose / Greenpeace
Six Greenpeace UK volunteers are acquitted of criminal damage by a Crown Court jury in a case that centres on the contribution made to climate change by burning coal. The charges arose after the six attempted to shut down the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent in 2007 by scaling the chimney and painting the UK Prime Minister’s name down the side. The defendants pleaded ‘not guilty’ and relied in court on the defence of ‘lawful excuse’ - claiming they shut the power station in order to defend property of a greater value from the global impact of climate change. The landmark case marks the first victory of the ‘lawful excuse’ defence in a climatechange case in the UK. Plans to build the Kingsnorth coal power plant are shelved towards the end of the year.
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 155
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odI7pQFyjso
00s After just three weeks of actions, a hugely popular spoof online advert and 115,000 online signatures, Unilever changes its position to support a moratorium on cutting down trees in Indonesia for palm oil plantations.
image 1 A volunteer in a full orangutan costume holds a banner reading in Italian “Unilever, authentic destruction” in front of the Unilever building in Rome © Greenpeace / Emiliano Cavicchi image 2 Greenpeace activists hang a huge banner rat the Unilever headquarters in Rotterdam, the Netherlands © Greenpeace / Gerard Til images 3, 4 and 6 Greenpeace volunteers, many in orang-utan costumes occupy the Unilever factory at Port Sunlight, near Liverpool, UK © Will Rose / Greenpeace images 5, 7 and 8 Unilever’s London headquarters © John Cobb / Greenpeace
156 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
00s 2009 Electronics giant Philips bows to pressure from Greenpeace and consumers and becomes a leader in environmentally friendly take-back policies for electronic waste. An ambitious policy of global takeback exceeds legal requirements in many countries. Apple clears the last hurdle to removing toxic PVC plastic in its new Macbook and iMac, capping the ‘Green my Apple’ campaign with a win and making Apple products safer, easier to recycle and causing less pollution at the end of their life. The construction of an open-pit coal mine in Poland, where Greenpeace set up a Climate Rescue Station in December 2008, is suspended, stopping around 50 million tonnes of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere. In a tremendous victory for ancient forests, Kimberly-Clark, the company known for its popular paper tissue brands such as Kleenex, Scott, and Cottonelle, announces a policy that places it among the industry leaders in sustainability. The announcement brings the five-year Greenpeace Kleercut campaign to a successful completion. After seven years of Greenpeace pressure, Finnish government-owned logging company Metsähallitus agrees to leave the tall trees of the old-growth forests of northern Lapland standing, and with them, the livelihood of the Sámi people.
image 1 Greenpeace activist gives information about their action to two men visiting the shareholders’ meeting of Philips in the Okura Hotel in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 2008 © Greenpeace / Laura Lombardi image 2 An 8 metre tall robot made of electronic waste © Greenpeace / Laura Lombardi image 3 A cake decorated with the Kleercut campaign logo during a celebration at Greenpeace USA after Kimberly-Clark news briefing © Greenpeace / Robert Meyers image 4 Greenpeace USA’s Scott Paul presents a Greenpeace tee shirt to Suhas Apte, Kimberly-Clark Vice President of Environment, Energy, Safety, Quality and Sustainability © Greenpeace / Robert Meyers image 5 Greenpeace Canada and Greenpeace USA Forest Campaigners Richard Brooks, Lindsey Allen, Christy Ferguson and Scott Paul © Greenpeace / Robert Meyers image 6 The Climate Rescue Station built by Greenpeace volunteers and activists next to the Jozwin IIB open-cast coal mine near Konin, Poland, to highlight climate issues in the run up to the United Nations COP 14 climate conference held in Poznan in December © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 157
The threat
© ANDREW WRIGHT / WWW.COLD-COAST.COM
It is one of the very few remaining temperate rainforests in the world. It is home to the grizzly, the rare white ‘spirit’ bears and wild salmon, as well as 1,000year old cedar trees and ancient spruce. It is one of Canada’s most beautiful forests. Yet, to those in charge of it, the Great Bear Rainforest was no more than ‘Timber Supply Area 43’, with millions of hectares of ancient forest earmarked for destruction.
158 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
Greenpeace in action The battle lines were drawn back in 1997, when environmentalists first coined the term Great Bear Forest and when Greenpeace called the five major corporations responsible for 80% of the damage ‘rainforest ravagers’. What followed were 10 years of campaigning. Thousands of activists from around the world sent emails or stood on the blockades or voted against the destruction with their wallets. Some were beaten, some were sued, some were arrested. Over time, the campaign to save the Great Bear Forest – which saw environmental organisations around the world work together – turned into a mass movement that kept gaining momentum and media attention.
00s Greenpeace activists blocked remote logging operations, closed the roads and prevented workers from entering and logs from leaving. Greenpeace International Executive Director Thilo Bode addressed the UN about the forest’s plight just as Canadian police were moving in to break up the protests. Two Greenpeace ships, the Moby Dick and the Arctic Sunrise, went into actions to help save the rainforest. At the same time, a markets campaign was in full swing in Europe and the US, targeting the customers of the logging firms. In 1999 this was supplemented with a campaign targeting the banking industry. Major banks began to divest their shareholdings in the companies involved. The combined result of all this work was to create a very uncertain business climate indeed, and the industry came to the table.
final agreement The final agreement was negotiated between environmental groups, First Nations, the British Columbian government and logging companies (some of whom were kept at the table only by resumed Greenpeace action). The forest’s protection is not just one of the greatest environmental victories in Canadian history; it also serves as a global model for possible solutions to land-use conflicts that arise out of concerns for social justice for indigenous people and their right to their traditional territories, environmental concerns over largescale industrial logging, and the need to provide sustainable livelihoods for people who inhabit those threatened lands. Today, the Great Bear Rainforest is one of the largest and best protected rainforests in the world.
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 159
00s In summer 2009, the Arctic Sunrise sails to the Arctic to document the dire effects climate change has on one of the most fragile environments in the world. Independent scientists use the ship, helicopter, boats and assistance of the crew, to collect data and research the impacts of climate change. This year the summer sea ice minimum is reported to be the third lowest on record. The depletion of Arctic sea ice has serious implications for many reasons. Loss of sea ice creates a positive feedback effect, when the darker ocean surface is exposed it absorbs more heat, melting the surrounding ice further. The loss of ice also threatens vulnerable species likes polar bears who depend on multi-year ice to hunt for seals; their primary food source.
“The support offered by the whole crew on board was amazing - unstinted, professional, and far better than I normally find on government-owned research ships.” - Dr Peter Wadhams, Cambridge University
image 1 The Arctic Sunrise manoeuvres carefully between ice debris and bergs calved from Helheim glacier on southeast Greenland image 2 A ‘mooring’ is lowered into Sermilik Fjord by scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute; these moorings gather salinity, temperature and depth data throughout the year, including the winter period when the fjord is inaccessible due to ice and harsh weather conditions image 3 Scientists measure the thickness of sea ice through a hole in the sea ice image 4 Greenpeace crew and scientists use a ‘hot water drill’ on sea ice in front of the Arctic Sunrise image 5 This polar bear appears to be in healthy condition, however the species is threatened with extinction because climate change is causing its sea ice habitat to melt away rapidly image 6 Polar oceanographer Dr Peter Wadhams, from the University of Cambridge, looks through the bridge window of the Arctic Sunrise. All images © Nick Cobbing / Greenpeace
160 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
00s Like all petroleum production, tar sands operations can adversely impact upon the environment. They can leave the land where bitumen is mined covered with large deposits of toxic chemicals, and extraction releases carbon dioxide and other emissions.
Greenpeace activists shut down two huge bitumen conveyor belts at a Suncor facility in the Canadian tar sands site. Another team of activists deploy a 30 x 7 metre floating banner reading “Dying for Climate Leadership” on the Athabasca river between a Suncor upgrader and mining site in the heart of the Canadian tar sands. The action sends a message to world leaders that the tar sands are a global climate crime, and must be stopped.
image 1 Aerial view of Syncrude upgrader in the Boreal forest north of Fort McMurray, northern Alberta, Canada © Greenpeace / Jiri Rezac image 2 Aerial view of the Suncor tar sands mining operation in the Boreal forest © Greenpeace / Jiri Rezac image 3 The Athabasca river between a Suncor upgrader and mining site in the heart of the Canadian tar sands © Greenpeace / Jiri Rezac image 4 A Greenpeace activist looks out from a smoke stack at the Shell Scotford upgrader expansion site near Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada © Greenpeace image 5 Greenpeace activists shut down two huge bitumen conveyor belts at the Suncor facility © Greenpeace image 6 The bitumen conveyor belts © Greenpeace / Jiri Rezac image 7 Greenpeace activists deploy a 30 x 7 metre floating banner reading ‘Dying for Climate Leadership’ on the Athabasca river © Greenpeace / Jiri Rezac
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 161
New Greenpeace offices in the ’10s
© Greenpeace / BAS BEENTJES
EAST ASIA – 2011 (Greenpeace China, plus new offices in Taiwan and South Korea)
164 162 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
10s
THE THE GREENPEACE GREENPEACE chronicles chronicles 163 165
10s 2010 The UK government axes plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport. Greenpeace opposed the plan because it ran contrary to efforts to reduce carbon emissions in the UK, and co-purchased, with 91,000 supporters, a plot of land that would have made the runway impossible to build.
In a significant win for forest protection, 80,000 hectares of pine forest in northern Finland has been declared off-limits to industrial logging following an eight-year campaign by Greenpeace and Finland’s indigenous Sami reindeer herders.
image 1 Airport campaigners head to Downing Street to present the new Prime Minister with a legal Deed of Trust containing the names of the people who jointly own the plot of land at Heathrow © John Cobb / Greenpeace image 2 Site of the planned third runway project © Jiri Rezac / Greenpeace image 3 British comedian Alistair McGowan lends his support to the Greenpeace UK protest © Jiri Rezac / Greenpeace mage 4 McGowan outside the Royal Courts of Justice at the start of the Judicial Review © Felix Clay / Greenpeace image 5 Children make a NO in Parliament Square during a protest against Heathrow expansion © Will Rose / Greenpeace image 6 Reindeer from the Muotkatunturi Reindeer co-operative, herded into a corral, Inari, Finland © Ojutkangas Kalervo / Greenpeace
164 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
10s The Greenpeace activists known as the ‘Tokyo Two’, who exposed the embezzlement of whale meat in Japan’s whaling industry, receive a one year suspended sentence. The District Court recognises the wrongdoing in the Japanese whaling programme regarding what it calls the ‘mishandling’ of whale meat. The reputation of the Japanese whaling programme is damaged further as a result.
image 1 Accompanied by Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace Japan activists Toru Suzuki and Junichi Sato depart Aomori Court after receiving a 1 year sentence suspended for 3 years, in their trial for trespass and theft of a box of whale meat © Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert / Greenpeace image 2 Jun Hoshikawa, Executive Director of Greenpeace Japan, talks at a press conference © Greenpeace / Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert image 3 Press conference together with legal counsel moments after submitting an appeal to the Public Inquest Committee © Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert / Greenpeace image 4 Greenpeace Japan staff hold banners outside the Aomori Court with a message reading wrongful conviction’ © Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert / Greenpeace image 5 Support around the world for the Tokyo Two; vigil in Stockholm, Sweden © Greenpeace / Johanna Hanno image 6 A large banner reading ‘Justice for Whales’ along the Tsim Sha Tsui harbour front in Hong Kong © Eden Man / Greenpeace image 7 Outside the Japanese embassy in Manila, Greenpeace activists show signs with whale symbols reading “Justice?” © Luis Liwanag / Greenpeace
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 165
by LAURA KENYON
10s the social network Four decades ago the first images of Greenpeace activists putting themselves between harpoons and whales were captured. They revealed the horrific reality of modern whaling: a fleet of harpoon ships running down and slaughtering entire pods of whales, from adults to babies. After being harpooned the carcasses were tagged and towed back to a mammoth factory vessel where the whales disappeared into the bowels of the ship - devoured. The activists who raced among the fleet in small inflatable boats had never seen anything like it before. They were horrified. This first confrontation took place far out at sea, with nobody present to witness the savage hunt or the peaceful protest but the activists, the whalers and the whales themselves. But this was 1975: the world had already entered the age of mass media, and fortunately this meant that more than just those present that day would bear witness to the industrialscale destruction whaling represented. The images captured by the Greenpeace activists out at sea travelled all over the world, as photographs via the wire services and as video footage aired on news broadcasts. A new understanding of whaling entered the minds of everyone who saw these images, and their impact hasn’t diminished over the years. These ‘David vs Goliath’ images: activists in small zodiacs dwarfed by whaling ships like floating factories, still hang on the walls of Greenpeace offices around the world, and they remain one of the most recognisable Greenpeace images in the minds of the general public.
166 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
The lesson learned from the impact of these first images was that mass media would be a powerful tool in the struggle against environmental destruction. A single picture - if it told a compelling story - could change people’s minds. Since those early days Greenpeace has used the tools mass media provides to extend the act of ‘bearing witness’ to more than just the individuals present at the scene of devastation, to expose those complicit in environmental crimes, to present alternatives to the status quo, and to send messages that solutions exist, that change is possible. Now we live (and campaign) in the age of the social network. An age where, with millions of others, you can watch the rallying cries of young Egyptian activists on YouTube; where you can show solidarity by posting their stories to your Facebook; where you can follow live updates from journalists or citizens on Twitter; where we can all witness the power of social media as a tool that has helped a determined people change their country. These same social media platforms are important for Greenpeace. Social networks not only provide new channels for reaching out to people, new chances to change people’s minds – they also allow people to react and act. Social media is not a one-way flow of information, it’s an ongoing conversation where people can engage with us and actively support our work anywhere in the world they can get online. We have been able to provide outlets for taking action in defence of the environment to more people than ever before, and to date we’ve involved millions of people in our online campaigning. But our presence on social media platforms is about more than keeping up with media trends and looking cool – it’s about winning campaign goals that benefit our planet.
10s
In 2009, a bored office worker bit into a Kit Kat bar and ended up chomping (with accompanying squirts of blood) on an orangutan finger. This bit of blood and gore exposed Nestlé’s connection to rainforest destruction in Indonesia to a vast online audience, attracting 1.6 million views on YouTube. Only 10 weeks later the largest food and drink company in the world agreed to remove products coming from rainforest destruction from its supply chains. It was a big victory for rainforests and it was achieved via social media. On the day that this campaign was launched, thousands of people watched our Kit Kat spoof on YouTube, learned about Nestlé’s use of palm oil from destroyed rainforests and sent an e-mail to CEO Paul Bulcke from our website. But they wanted to do more, so they acted via the quickest route available: they went to Nestlé’s Facebook fan page and left a few comments making clear exactly what they thought about Nestlé’s palm oil sourcing policies. Nestlé responded to their concerns with a wooden statement of its ‘official position’ and a decree that those who continued to use the Kit Kat ‘killer’ logo as their profile picture would be removed from the Facebook page.
The response? More people changed their profile pictures. More people left comments. ‘Nestlé takes a beating on social media sites’ was the headline in the Wall Street Journal. The Quaker values that are part of Greenpeace’s founding principles hold that the act of bearing witness ‘changes the level of commitment on the part of the witness’. By witnessing an act of injustice you are bestowed with a new responsibility, one that compels you to act in reflection of what you have witnessed. That action could take on many forms. It could be passing on that knowledge to family and friends, it could be changing some part of your lifestyle, or it could be taking direct action against that injustice.
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 167
the social network
The reaction of thousands of people to our Nestlé campaign reflects that notion of bearing witness. They saw injustice and they acted – and in this case social media was the channel for both. There’s no denying the appeal of putting a big, powerful corporation in its place (however briefly). Corporations are opening themselves up to social media more and more, so that you can ‘like’ your favourite coffee brand on Facebook and religiously follow each new product release from Apple on your Twitter account. But the free flow of information through social media networks means that corporations also have less control over how their brands and products are portrayed. People will talk about things they like on Facebook, but they’ll also talk about things they don’t like – and social media has given world public opinion a much bigger platform than it’s ever had before. The Kit Kat campaign wasn’t the first Nestlé had heard from us. Our campaigners had been in dialogue with Nestlé for years. We had done the research. We had outlined the problems with its supply chains. We had explained to Nestlé its links to the ongoing destruction of Indonesia’s carbon-rich peatlands and rainforests. When Nestlé didn’t act on this information itself, we passed it along to all of our friends on Facebook, all of our followers on Twitter, and everyone on our e-mail lists. Social media provided a platform where anyone could challenge Nestlé and its policies, and through this platform Nestlé was made to realise that people don’t want
168 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
to buy products that come at the cost of rainforests. It needed to change its policies to reflect public opinion and – eventually - it did. Today we use social media in much the same way Greenpeace has always used mass media tools: As a powerful channel to communicate with people, to win campaign goals, and to further our mission of giving the Earth a voice. Campaigning online gives us more chances to be creative, to involve more people in our campaigns – and, to put it simply, it’s fun. Media is a fast-moving, constantly evolving creature. We don’t know what it will look like in 10 years – or even next year. What we do know is that we are facing huge challenges in the environmental movement. There are powerful obstacles between us and our goals. We know that we will need every resource, every person, every tool, every channel available to us to keep moving forwards. But we will move forwards, and as we do so, social media will have many more important roles to play.
Nestlé agrees to stop purchasing palm-oil from sources which destroy Indonesian rainforests. The company concedes to the demands of a global campaign against its Kit Kat brand. The decision caps eight weeks of massive pressure from consumers via social media and non-violent direct action by Greenpeace activists.
image 1 Greenpeace activists protest with a 25 x 15 meter banner at the Nestle headquarters in Frankfurt/Main © Andreas Varnhorn / Greenpeace image 2 In front of the Nestlé headquarters in Amsterdam © Greenpeace / Gerard Til image 3 Banner on the London headquarters of confectionary giant Nestle © Jiri Rezac / Greenpeace image 4 Protest at Nestlé’s Jakarta headquarters © Abyan / Greenpeace image 5 Action in front of the Nestlé headquarters in Beijing © Greenpeace / Simon Lim image 6 Greenpeace activists dressed as orangutans swing by the Nestlé headquarters in Syne, Australia © Dean Sewell / Greenpeace image 7 Action in front of the Nestlé headquarters in Beijing © Greenpeace / Simon Lim image 8 Protest inside the Nestlé annual shareholders meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland © Greenpeace image 9 image 10 Greenpeace activists build a rainforest in downtown Vancouver to protest Nestlé’s use of palm oil from Indonesian rainforest destruction © Greenpeace image 11 KitKat chocolate bar with imitation orangutan finger, used in Greenpeace’s ‘Having a Break’ video © Greenpeace / John Novis image 12 Greenpeace activists dressed as orangutans protest in front of the building of the Nestlé annual shareholders meeting © Greenpeace / Ex-Press / Tanja Demarmels
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 169
10s
172 170 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
10s The BP (British Petroleum) leased oil platform Deepwater Horizon explodes on 20 April 20 and sinks after burning, leaking record amounts of crude oil from the broken pipeline into the sea. Eleven workers are missing, presumed dead. The Arctic Sunrise heads for the Gulf of Mexico and a Greenpeace team documents the aftermath of the disaster.
main image A ship cuts through some surface oil in the Gulf of Mexico where oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead continues to spread © Sean Gardner / Greenpeace image 1 Paul Horsman, a marine biologist and oil spill specialist for Greenpeace, inspects the oil which reached the shore of South Pass © Daniel Beltrá / Greenpeace image 2 Greenpeace activist Joao Talocchi shows his hands covered in crude oil washed ashore on Casse-tete Island on the Louisiana gulf coast near the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster © Chuck Cook / Greenpeace image 3 Adult brown pelicans wait in a holding pen to be cleaned by volunteers at the Fort Jackson International Bird Rescue Research Center in Buras. Members of the Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research team work to clean birds covered in oil from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead disaster © Greenpeace / Daniel Beltrá
THE THE GREENPEACE GREENPEACE chronicles chronicles 171 173
10s The CASTOR (Cask for Storage and Transport of Radioactive material) nuclear waste transport reaches its final destination at the interim storage facility in Gorleben, Germany, after the longest journey ever in the transport’s history. Over a period of around 92 hours the nuclear transport faces more resistance and peaceful direct action from the local population and their supporters than ever before, demanding that Germany confirm its commitment to a nuclear phase-out.
images 1 and 2 Thermography images showing in ‘red’ the heat emitted by nuclear waste transport containers in the railway station of Valognes, bound for storage in Gorleben, Germany. The CASTOR is a train convoy carrying eleven 100-tonne containers of radioactive waste © Greenpeace images 3 to 5 Greenpeace nuclear experts carry out radiation measurements near the CASTOR train railway line, only meters away from residential housing © Gordon Welters / Greenpeace images 6 and 7 Greenpeace activists who had fixed themselves to the railway line, attempting to stop the nuclear waste transport from La Hague to the intermediate storage in Gorleben, Germany, are removed by police © Martin Storz / Greenpeace image 8 Police officers at the site where Greenpeace activists are protesting against the train taking the CASTOR nuclear waste transport from La Hague to the intermediate storage in Gorleben, Germany © Pierre Gleizes / Greenpeace
172 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
10s
images 1 to 4 Measurements of these containers show that the radioactivity in each one is higher than what was released at Chernobyl in 1986 - this makes the CASTOR transport effectively a Chernobyl on wheels © Greenpeace images 5 and 6 A local elderly couple who live near Dahlenburg station asked Greenpeace to carry out radiation readings for fear of the CASTOR standing just 10 metres from their house © Gordon Welters / Greenpeace image 7 Greenpeace activists protest at the railway line before the passage of the train with the CASTOR nuclear waste transport from La Hague to the intermediate storage in Gorleben, Germany © Martin Storz / Greenpeace image 8 A Greenpeace activist who had fixed herself to the railway of the train taking the CASTOR nuclear waste transport from La Hague to the intermediate storage in Gorleben, is removed by police © Pierre Gleizes / Greenpeace images 9 and 10 Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo addresses protesters at an anti-nuclear demonstration in Dannenberg, Germany, opposing the transportation of reprocessed nuclear waste © Gordon Welters /Greenpeace
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 173
10s 2011 Princes, a leading tinned tuna brand, finally gets the message that canning ocean destruction is unacceptable. The company announces a plan to change the way it gets its tuna. After receiving over 80,000 emails from Greenpeace supporters, Princes says it will no longer rely on indiscriminate and destructive fishing methods that kill all kinds of marine creatures like sharks and rays. A Danish court recognises both the peaceful and political nature of a Greenpeace protest during the failed 2009 Copenhagen climate summit, by sentencing eleven activists to 14-day suspended sentences, considerably less than the harsh penalties demanded by the state. In December 2009, on the last evening of the Copenhagen Climate Summit, three Greenpeace activists walked up the red carpet at a state banquet, where they unfurled a banner calling on the 120 world leaders in attendance to take urgent climate action. The banner read ‘Politicians Talk, Leaders Act’. The three activists were immediately arrested, and along with a Greenpeace climate campaigner, spent 20 days in prison.
images 1 and 2 Greenpeace campaigners dressed as sharks protest outside the Liver Building in Liverpool, head office of Princes, the biggest tinned tuna company in the UK © Kristian Buus/ Greenpeace image 3 Greenpeace surveyed nine major tinned tuna brands and retailers on their environmental performance © John Cobb / Greenpeace image 4 Tuna products from Princes performed poorly in the ranking on sustainable fighing methods © Greenpeace / John Novis image 5 Protesters hold signs depicting one of the activists held in Copenhagen over the 2009 Christmas period © Greenpeace / Pedro Armestre image 6 The Greenpeace team that managed to crash the party of the delegates at the Gala Dinner at the Christiansborg Castle © Bas Beentjes / Greenpeace image 7 The ‘Red Carpet Four’ hold a large photo taken during their peaceful protest at the start of the State Banquet hosted by Queen Margrethe II for world leaders attending the COP15 UN Climate Conference © Santi Burgos / Greenpeace image 9 The ‘Red Carpet 11’ return to court in Copenhagen to stand trial for their part in a peaceful protest © Klaus Holsting / Greenpeace
174 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
10s Greenpeace criticises the Japanese government’s response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis, and its ongoing failure to protect the health and welfare of its people. Greenpeace radiation monitoring teams collected samples of marine life including fish, shellfish and seaweed outside Japan’s 12mile territorial waters and along the Fukushima coast. Detailed analysis by accredited laboratories in France and Belgium found high levels of radioactive iodine contamination and significantly high levels of radioactive caesium in the samples. Greenpeace believes that a long-term, comprehensive monitoring programme must be put in place, decisive action taken to protect the health of fishermen, farmers and consumers, and compensation given to all whose lives have been destroyed by the disaster. Greenpeace continues to highlight the dangers of nuclear energy around the world.
image 1 Greenpeace radiation expert Iryna Labunska checks radiation levels at a high school in Fukushima city © Noriko Hayashi / Greenpeace image 2 A Greenpeace team member holds a Geiger counter displaying radiation levels of 7.66 micro Sievert per hour Iitate village, 40km northwest of the crisis-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, and 20km beyond the official evacuation zone © Christian Åslund / Greenpeace image 3 One month after the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters hit Japan, Greenpeace activists project the anti-nuclear message onto the Cofrentes nuclear power plant; this and other actions at other operating Spanish nuclear power plants are carried out to demand an end to the nuclear age © Pedro Armestre / Greenpeace image 4 Sven Teske, director of the Renewable Energy Campaign at Greenpeace International, speaks at the end of the ‘Energy Revolution’ parade through the streets of downtown Tokyo, marking the 6 month anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake, resulting tsunami and the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant © Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert / Greenpeace
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 175
10s
The world’s top sportswear brands - Nike, Adidas, H&M and Puma - commit publicly to eliminate all discharges of hazardous chemicals throughout their supply chains and across the entire lifecycle of their products by 2020. The commitment is a milestone in Greenpeace’s campaign to stop industry poisoning waterways that millions of people in China and elsewhere, who depend on rivers for drinking water and agriculture, with hazardous, persistent and hormonedisrupting chemicals.
Mattel - maker of the Barbie doll recognises that toy packaging shouldn’t come at the costs of rainforests and tiger habitat. As part of its new commitments, Mattel instructs its suppliers to avoid wood fibre from controversial sources, including companies “that are known to be involved in deforestation”. Its policy also aims to increase the amount of recycled paper used in its business, as well as to boost the use of wood products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
image 1 Greenpeace volunteers surprise shoppers by performing a striptease outside the Adidas store in central Berlin © Gordon Welters / Greenpeace image 2 Greenpeace activists project messages at the Nou Camp Stadium, in Barcelona, where almost 100,000 fans are attending the Spanish Super Cup match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid © Pablo Blazquez / Greenpeace image 3 Greenpeace volunteers surprise shoppers by performing a striptease outside the Nike store in central Amsterdam © Greenpeace / Alex Yallop image 4 Greenpeace activist dressed as Barbie protests in central Helsinki with a banner reading ‘Barbaric’ © Greenpeace / Patrick Rastenberger image 5 Greenpeace used forensic testing to reveal that the packaging for Mattel’s Barbie dolls comes from Indonesia’s rainforests © Greenpeace / Patrick Rastenberger
176 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
10s Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo is deported from Greenland after four days in jail. Naidoo and a fellow activist Ulvar Arnkvaern were arrested after breaching an exclusion zone and scaling a controversial Cairn Energy oil rig 120km off the Greenland coast. Greenpeace is demanding that Cairn immediately halts drilling operations and leaves the Arctic. 50,000 people from across the world have emailed Cairn to demand it publish the rig’s secret oil spill response plan; the document has been at the centre of a month-long campaign of direct action in the Arctic.
image 1 Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo and activist Ulvar Arnkvaern from Norway board The Leiv Eiriksson. Naidoo and Arnkvaern enter an exclusion zone to scale a controversial Arctic oil rig 120km off the coast of Greenland © Jiri Rezac / Greenpeace image 2 They climb a 30 metre ladder up the outside of one of the platform’s giant legs to deliver a 50,000 signature petition demanding the public release of Cairn Energy’s oil spill response plan © Jiri Rezac / Greenpeace image 3 Kumi Naidoo greets his daughter Naomi at Schiphol Airport Amsterdam; Naidoo arrives in Amsterdam after spending 5 days in Nuuk’s Institution Prison, for scaling the Arctic drilling rig Leiv Eiriksson © Greenpeace / Alex Yallop
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 177
Ships: RAINBOW Warrior In service: From the end of 2011 Built: 2010 Type of ship: Motor sail yacht with helicopter landing deck Length: 58m Max. speed: 15 knots Crew: Max. 32 The newest Rainbow Warrior will be a virtual office at sea. A top-notch on-board communications centre will allow us to harness the power of social media while also transmitting images to the world’s media in minutes, so that people can witness the reality of what is happening and be invited to take action. A helicopter pad will give us air potential so that no place remains completely inaccessible, whether it be tracking illegal fishing operations, whalers or illegal wood transports. Ample space to store rigid inflatable boats means that our activists will be able to mount rapid response actions anywhere in the world. Beginning with our first action in 1971, when Greenpeace activists sailed towards the remote island of Amchitka to bear witness to the US government’s nuclear testing activities, we have always been prepared to travel to the furthermost reaches of our planet to stop environmental crime. Now, with offices all around the globe, Greenpeace continues to work for a green and peaceful future - and because so many environmental crimes happen at sea and in ports, in the global commons that have no voice of their own, ships continue to be an essential tool in our work.
All images © Oliver Tjaden / Greenpeace
178 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
This custom-designed Rainbow Warrior is also a sailing vessel and has been built with the latest advances in environmental construction, capitalising on wind power for much of her travels. In this way not only will we greatly reduce our own carbon footprint, but we will also serve as an example to others of smart environmental investment. The keel-laying ceremony took place at the Maritim Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland. As part of the ceremony, Pete Willcox, who was the captain of the first Rainbow Warrior on the night she was bombed, laid a wreath in memory of Fernando Pereira.
10s
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 179
The Rainbow Warrior was officially launched in Bremerhaven, Germany, on 14 October 2011. As with any ship, there was the bottle of champagne, and the naming was performed by one of our Climate and Energy campaigners – Melina Miyowapan Laboucan-Massimo from Canada – who is a member of the Cree community. She reminded us that while this ship may be made of new steel and canvass, she is part of a much longer story: “The Warriors of the Rainbow prophecy speaks of a time when people will gather from the four sacred directions, all distinctly separate but forever connected in the circle of life. And those who have kept their ancient knowledge, ceremonies, and stories alive shall be our teachers. People from diverse backgrounds and creed must truly begin to work together in honesty and respect – with a deep sense of solidarity with one another. The tasks are many and great for the Warriors of the Rainbow. There will be terrifying mountains of ignorance to conquer and they shall find prejudice and hatred. They must be dedicated, unwavering in their strength, and strong in spirit. They will find willing hearts and minds that will follow them on this road of returning to Mother Earth. And when we venture into the vast seas and enter the traditional territories of people that have lived in harmony with our Mother for thousands of years. I pray we enter in acknowledgement and respect of this sacred connection that they held with the land for time immemorial. For if we don’t enter with that knowledge and respect, how can we expect them to acknowledge and trust us to work in good faith with one another. I pray the Rainbow Warrior will touch the lives of people of all walks of life, all creeds, and all nations and inspire us to create the change we need in the world.”
182 180 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
image opposite Melina Laboucan-Massimo, godmother of the ship © Greenpeace / John Novis image 1 Greenpeace flag flutters in the wind © Oliver Tjaden / Greenpeace image 2 Melina and Kumi Naidoo in front of the new Rainbow Warrior at the official launch © Greenpeace / John Novis image 3 Rien Achterberg, ship’s cook on board previous Rainbow Warriors, at the launch © Oliver Tjaden / Greenpeace image 4 The Rainbow Warrior arrives in her home port, Amsterdam, on her maiden voyage © Greenpeace / Cris Olivares image 5 Activists from Greenpeace Netherlands greet the ship as she arrives in Amsterdam © Bas Beentjes / Greenpeace image 6 The new flagship passes through the Thames Barrier as she arrives in London – departure point for the first Rainbow Warrior’s voyages 33 years ago – for the first time © Nick Cobbing / Greenpeace
THE THE GREENPEACE GREENPEACE chronicles chronicles 181 183
by John Novis
40 years of photoactivism On 15 August 1973 a small boat called the Vega crewed by David McTaggart, Ann-Marie Horne, Mary Horne and Nigel Ingram sailed into the French nuclear test site area at Moruroa, French Polynesia in the southern Pacific Ocean. The French planned to detonate a hydrogen bomb that summer, and the Vega was there to protest peacefully against this. McTaggart saw a dinghy from the nearby French war ships heading towards them at speed. Within a flash, the commandoes were aboard the Vega, beating McTaggart and Ingram with truncheons. They confiscated AnneMarie’s camera, but in the confusion she had managed to hide a second camera in her cabin. She was later able to smuggle the film of the assault past the unsuspecting guards by concealing it on her person. When news of the incident broke, the French Navy was quick to relate its own version of events to the media, claiming that McTaggart had fallen while trying to repel the commandoes. However, Anne Marie’s revealing pictures showed the commandoes armed with knives and truncheons as they swarmed aboard the Vega; the violence they carried out was there in black and white, for all to see. The pictures made groundbreaking news and Canadian media ran the headline, ‘Film shows France told Outright Lie’. McTaggart was interviewed by a host of journalists eager to get to the bottom of the story.
182 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
Photographic documentation as evidence was shaking the entire world at this time, bringing far distant events into the lives and living rooms of ordinary people. Photojournalists were releasing numerous shocking pictures of the Vietnam War, later to become known as the first ‘media war’. Frontline photography of American soldiers was counter-claiming the government propaganda that the boys were in good shape, in control and alive and well. The public grew weary and disillusioned. With pictures streaming daily through the Associated Press, the voice of protest grew louder and stronger, debate became more transparent and the war was finally brought to an end. Following the Vega incident, Greenpeace made a pledge to photograph everything it did. It quickly learned how to harness the power and strength of emotive images. The Greenpeace ‘message’ became so successful it fed straight into Marshall McLuhan’s theories expounding on communication in the 60s and 70s. Rather than relying on written communication alone, Greenpeace was making its mark with powerful images in the medium of 35mm photography. Greenpeace brought the world shocking scenes of baby seals clubbed by hunters and the inspirational images of activists standing up to whaling ships. Its instinctive understanding of the new visual currency turned Greenpeace into an international force to be reckoned with. It is here we see the departure of photojournalism into a new genre: photoactivism. Images designed to inspire and motivate the viewer into action; an urgent wake-up call to save the world from big business and corporate self-interest.
image 1 Robert Keziere, photographer on board the the very first Greenpeace voyage to halt nuclear tests in Amchitka Island, 1971 © Greenpeace image 2 Recording events during Greenpeace’s protests against Icelandic whaling, 1978-79 © Greenpeace / Legrand image 3 Photographer Jean Deloffre, 1978-79 Icelandic anti-whaling tour © Greenpeace / Legrand image 4 Cameraman Tony Marriner in Greenpeace inflatavle, 1978-1979 Icelandic anti-whaling tour © Greenpeace / Currey image 5 Greenpeace activist takes footage of Russian whaling ship, 1975 © Greenpeace / Rex Weyler
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 183
40 years of photoactivism
It became clear in the mid 1980s that Greenpeace needed a communications division to professionally handle the growing archive of negatives and film rushes that were being stored on office floors, and a space dedicated to housing state-of-the-art image technology. A film production area, picture desk and darkroom was established in London; there was equipment ranging from the early AP Leefax transmitters to cutting edge teletext machines for news updates. Film processing, printing, editing, captioning and cataloging could all be done in house by a small, dedicated team. Greenpeace started to became well known to Reuters and AP, with the BBC and other influential news outlets clambering to get stories beyond their usual reach and understanding. A core team of great Greenpeace photographers emerged as a result; these indivduals were professionals in the industry with empathy for Greenpeace ethics and equipped mentally to deal with the hardship of the organisation’s ambitious campaigns.
184 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
In the early 90s Greenpeace images and, particularly, transmission was truly cutting edge. A ‘squasher’ transmission system was introduced, and as the digital age dawned film could now be scanned, compressed and filed straight to the agencies with greater speed. There were no real competitors and even the wire agencies marvelled at the groundbreaking technology. The Brent Spar campaign was one such example in 1995, where mobile squasher technology was installed on the Spar itself. Activists and photographers could send out daily update news pictures directly from the oil platform. The pictures were intimate and powerful, with stories emerging every day from ‘life as a Greenpeace activist’ to Shell driving the action with water cannons. The story became so controversial that Shell was forced to abandon the planned dumping at sea and was forced to dismantle the platform on land. Meanwhile, with Greenpeace growing more popular globally, newly opened national offices around the world were making their own images for their own national media in different, culturally-sensitive styles.
“The first time I had occasion to try and send pictures electronically from a remote location for Greenpeace was when I was asked to go on the Gondwana’s 88-89 Antarctica Tour - at that time, Greenpeace had no means to distribute images and pictures from ships. Of course, transmitting was the final stage in a long and usually uncomfortable process. Darkrooms on ships were generally an afterthought – usually converted toilets. Processing the film in the ship’s darkroom was obviously made a lot more difficult the worse the weather became; you were in the dark loading film in a metal box that was rolling, pitching and turning. Once the strip of 35mm film was processed to negative, you had to wash it then hang it up to dry, all the while trying desperately not to get it too dirty. Next came the process of printing the B/W negs through an enlarger and onto 10x8 photo paper. The Gondwana was always a challenge regarding printing. The darkroom was right up forward, and in a heavy sea the waves would slap under the Gondwana’s long stern sending a shuddering jolt through the entire ship, which sent the enlarger into wobbly jelly mode. You had to time the exposure between shudders, otherwise you ended up with a blurry mess.” - Steve Morgan, Greenpeace photographer image 1 Sealions in Antarctica image 2 Greenpeace inflatable from the Gondwana, in the Antarctic Ocean image 3 Flensing of a whale on board a Japeanese whaling ship in Antarctica image 4 Resupply of the World Park base at Cape Evans. Images 1 to 4 © Greenpeace / Steve Morgan. image 5 Steve Morgan, used with permission
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 185
40 years of photoactivism
With the beginning of the digital age and the increase in use of the internet new photographic avenues were opening up. Greenpeace championed environmental issues and its photography became diverse. The technology allowed teams to tackle rapid response situations such as oil spills, getting to the sites of a disaster and reporting it to media with Greenpeace panache. For events like the anniversaries of the Bhopal and Chernobyl disasters, very well-known photographers (Raghu Rai and Robert Knoth, respectively) were commissioned for in-depth investigative reportage, gathering powerful portraits of people with testimonies to impart. Actions became more ambitious and grand, with two or three photographers sometimes commissioned for one event – providing coverage from the air, under water, at ground level, or from the top of an industry chimney with an activist’s viewpoint. Offices experimented with street theatre, lampooning organisations or setting up symbolic gestures. Pictures of beauty and new technologies were made for the photo database to supply the campaigns with more and more sophisticated reports to show the world what we are trying to save and what we are striving for. In short, the core pool of great photographers grew larger, global and multi-skilled and the photography became shaped, directed, creative and commercial; every genre in the book was employed in order to win the campaigns.
186 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
In the last 10 years digital communication has transformed and turned the photo industry around. Many small agencies have not survived the changing media landscape generated by the vast consumption and over-saturation of photos available on the internet. Digital technology has created the potential for everybody to become a photographer. Indeed, it wasn’t photographers who took the most memorable and shocking ‘news’ pictures from 2004 at all - these were from the mobile phones and compact cameras of the US army personnel shooting ‘trophy’ pictures of the abuse and torture of Iraqi civilians in Abu Ghraib prison Baghdad. In news, hard paper copy is dying. The front page lead image is being replaced with detailed design focused images. Multimedia made possible with converging formats means audio, stills and movie are working as one new system. The viewer is privileged to know more about the issue, brought closer to the reality, can interact and play their own part in the story. Greenpeace pictures have played a pivotal role in bringing environmental issues up high on the daily news agenda. Climate change, extreme weather, human displacement, political struggle and even wars can be directly linked to environmental issues and are now subjects of intense debate. There are many agencies using photography and converged media, firing images though social networks, blogs and specialists sites to get state of human condition and environmental into the spotlight.
The Greenpeace International Picture Desk embraces all distribution portals - from its proven and established relationship with global wire agencies, AP and Reuters, to the new social networks Twitter and Facebook. Photographic technology and delivery has crossed the revolutionary analogue to digital threshold during Greenpeace’s 40 years, yet the fundamental principal behind photoactivism remains unchanged. The photographer skilfully captures a significant, controversial and groundbreaking event. The picture is brought to Greenpeace and a strategic decision is made as to when and how to release it to the world. The story is active and changes the course of events and people are moved into taking action. 37 years after David McTaggart, AnnMarie Horne, Mary Horne and Nigel Ingram sailed the Vega into the French nuclear test site area at Moruroa, Greenpeace East Asia discovered, through its networks, that there was an oil spill taking place at the seaport and city of Dalian, Liaoning Province, Northeast China. A small Greenpeace team, including China’s celebrated environmental photographer Lu Guang, went to Dalian to investigate. They discovered quickly that two pipelines had exploded on 16 July 2010, spilling oil into the Bohai Gulf - yet nothing, amazingly, was being reported in the national media. The team wanted to get close to the source of the explosion and document the clean-up operations, but were denied road access to the coastal site by the Petro China security guards. Undeterred, with the help of the team Lu Guang made his way across a dangerous coastal cliff and rocks detour away from the guards to get a shot of the crude depot in the early morning light.
When Lu Guang reached the spot he found, to his astonishment, two ‘firefighters’ attempting to fix an underwater pump, which was heavily clogged by petroleum and debris, with their hands. Suddenly, the firefighters were in trouble and one of them was fighting for his life as the thick crude dragged him under. Lu Guang started shooting the whole tragic event as it unfolded before his camera. Within a few minutes a 25-year old firefighter, Zhang Liang, died as his colleagues tried in vain to save him. Lu Guang captured it all on film, and he took his leave from the distressing scene. When he returned to the Greenpeace hotel base he was clearly shaken and confused. The team acted at once, informing and gaining permission from Zhang Liang’s family and the firefighters’ office to release the pictures in honour of a life lost in the line of duty. A press statement was prepared and the pictures were released to the international media. The oil spill at Dalian - still unreported in Chinese national news - quickly became an international story, fuelled by the fact that the spill followed the much-reported and controversial Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Lu Guang’s powerful, harrowing pictures of the death of the firefighter opened the doors for the China media; photojournalists and TV crews descended on Dalian. China was forced to make the Dalian oil spill disaster public, and there was huge coverage of Zhang Liang’s family and colleagues’ reaction to his death through negligence. Lu Guang’s pictures were highly acclaimed and earned him third prize in the Spot News category in the 2010 World Press Photo awards.
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 187
188 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
Just as Ann-Marie Horn’s photos of McTaggart being beaten by French commandoes had highlighted and exposed a nuclear practice that would eventually be banned forever, so Lu Guang’s pictures of Zhang Liang’s death revealed the Chinese oil industry to be dangerous, polluting and unregulated. It joined the ranks of a worldwide industry coming under increasing pressure to justify itself in the light of environmental pollution and carbon emissions fuelling climate change. Through the dedication of critical ecological campaigning, the bravery of activists, the professionalism of photographers and discerning communicators, Greenpeace - the pioneer of photoactivism - has remained committed to its core values of exposing environmental injustice though its imagery for the last 40 years. May it go on for the next 40!
image opposite An oil firefighter worker is rescued after being submerged underneath a thick oil slick. Another firefighter, Zhang Liang, died during this incident © Lu Guang / Greenpeace image above Lu Guang stands with John Novis in front of his pictures of the Dalian Oil Spill at the World Press Photo Exhibition in the Oudekerk, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 189
by KUMI NAIDOO Introduction foreword
40 years of inspiring action The seeds of Greenpeace were sown 40 years ago, when a small band of dedicated people set out to change the world, sailing from Vancouver to end US nuclear testing in the Aleutian Islands. While the first voyage failed to reach its destination, and the test went ahead, their nonviolent direct action captured the public imagination, caused the cancellation of future tests and sparked a movement that grew into the world’s largest independent environmental organisation. After four decades of putting environmental issues centre stage and achieving significant victories in defence of the planet, today we face a perfect storm of crises; economic, ecological and democratic. And none more challenging than climate change. No longer can we put up with politicians squabbling over and squandering opportunities to agree on how to avert the worst ravages of climate change. We need leaders with vision, who will take bold action to curb climate change and protect those most at risk from its effects. We need active citizens who will hold their political and corporate leaders to account. Greenpeace now has offices in more than 40 countries and on all continents, populated by activists from all cultures joining together in common cause – true warriors of the rainbow. We count 11.6 million people among our subscribers, we have 2.8 million financial donors and operate a fleet of ships allowing us to work to protect some of the world’s most vulnerable regions, such as the high seas, the Amazon rainforest and the Arctic.
190 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
In addition to a global presence, during those 40 years we have become an organisation made up from all sectors of society and a myriad of cultures. We have scientists, lawyers, doctors, journalists, students, engineers, parents and grandparents, a myriad of disciplines necessary for founding our campaigns in science, our communications in simple language, to keep our action daring and safe and our ships at sea. Greenpeace people understand that multinational corporations and international bodies will only respond to international pressure, applied at every level. People who understand that the pressures on our environment are transnational and the solutions are global. The Greenpeace founders proved how a small group of committed people can change the world, through peaceful protest and by bearing witness. By joining the words ‘green’ and ‘peace’, our founders realised all too well that to tackle one issue we have to tackle them all. This should be an inspiration for what we can all achieve if all of civil society works together through coalitions and alliances to demand a better future for our children, and for our planet. Greenpeace’s ultimate success will be measured when we are no longer necessary. Hopefully, in 40 years’ time we will have averted climate chaos, ecology and economy will be balanced with considerations of equity and our job will have been done.
Countless communities and activists around the world pay tribute to and derive inspiration from the vision of the founding ‘greenpeacers’ who set sail for Amchitka on 15 September 1971 to take on a superpower, halt nuclear testing, and won. Peace, and thanks to all of you who make Greenpeace what it is today. Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace International Executive Director Amsterdam, September 2011
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 191
➢ ➢ ➢ ➢ Fa Ma fro Sig Fo ce ke ht Su c m nu om bo fr llo tp bs yo p w :// cr /g ok ien ur on us re : h d ww ibe s e lo line on np ttp w w. to ca i : T o yo u ea //w th l G for w ut r Y ce u itt re ac ub o .in ww s o e en tio r u e.c T te .fa n @G pe n rn ce om ub ac ale re a b e e o rt tio oo /g ch en re a k. ffi s n p e a en nn ce a l ce pe el ac : e
Get involved: take action Donate:
Get a real job:
We do not accept funding from governments or corporations; instead we rely on the goodwill and generosity of people like you to continue our work. This ensures that we remain fiercely independent and able to act against any corporation or government without fear of our funding being cut off. With your support, we will work to prevent catastrophic climate change and incite an energy revolution; to protect and preserve our oceans and ancient forests; to keep genetically engineered ingredients out of our food and to create a peaceful and nuclear-free future.
Greenpeace is taking action all over the world for our planet’s future. We need individuals dedicated to the hard work and professional standards that millions of members worldwide expect of the world’s leading environmental campaigning organisation. Check out vacancies on the website of your national or regional Greenpeace office, or of Greenpeace International.
Volunteer: 15,000 volunteers worldwide help us do everything from licking envelopes to climbing smokestacks. In some countries we provide action and non-violence training to folks willing to become activists. To find out more, you’ll want to talk to your local Greenpeace office.
As a Greenpeace employee, you can expect to contribute to and be part of an important programme of work to stop climate change, save the ancient forests and protect our world’s oceans, earth and sky.
Sail aboard a Greenpeace ship: Sailing aboard a Greenpeace ship can be the experience of a lifetime. We are always looking for motivated, skilled and experienced crew. If you think you belong on the deck of a Greenpeace ship, there’s an application form at the Greenpeace International website.
image 1 Wouter Jetten,ship’s medic and Greenpeace climber/activist © Steve Morgan / Greenpeace image 2 Volunteers Nthabiseng Sekgothe and Rethabile Tlhoaele complete signs to be hung around the Public Viewing Area where residents of Jericho were able to watch the opening ceremony and the first match of World Cup 2010, all powered by solar energy © Andy Royal / Greenpeace
192 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
Make your life a little greener: Step more lightly on the Earth and reduce your carbon footprint. Your individual choices make a difference not only in their direct impact, but what they say to friends and family as well. Many Greenpeace websites provide handy tips for you to follow.
Spread the message! You can help us grow our network of people willing to take action for the environment. Tweet, blog, and feature our content on Facebook. Send action emails to your friends. Talk about our campaigns and victories in your own language, and make sure your friends know how you’re making a difference.
image 1 Crew on board the Esperanza © Steve Morgan / Greenpeace image 2 Greenpeace volunteers engage with public outside Airtel’s customer service centers in New Delhi, urging the people to ask Airtel to ‘go clean’ © Greenpeace / Sudhanshu Malhotra image 3 Daniel Bravo Garibi, cook on board the Esperanza © Steve Morgan / Greenpeace image 4 Banner painting © Steve Morgan / Greenpeace image 5 Activists from Greenpeace Netherlands greet the ship as she arrives in Amsterdam © Bas Beentjes / Greenpeace image 6 Hannah McHardy - and friend - painting banners © Steve Morgan / Greenpeace
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 193
Here are just some suggestions to add to your bookcase. Some of these books remain available for sale through online sellers, some are now out of print but can be purchased secondhand on the internet. Happy hunting and happy reading!
I. Histories Greenpeace: The Inside Story
III. Rainbow Warrior Bombing
How a group of ecologists, journalists and visionaries changed the world Rex Weyler
Eyes of Fire: the Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior David Robie
The Greenpeace to Amchitka
Death of the Rainbow Warrior Michael King
An Environmental Odyssey Robert Hunter (photography of Robert Keziere)
The Greenpeace Story Michael Brown & John May
Greenpeace – Witness
Twenty-Five Years on the Environmental Front Line Kieran Mulvaney & Mark Warford
Greenpeace - Changing the World Fouad Hamdan & Conny Boettger
II. (Auto)biographies Warriors of the Rainbow: A Chronicle of the Greenpeace Movement Robert Hunter
Making Waves: The Origin and Future of Greenpeace Jim Bohlen
A Bonfire in My Mouth
Life, Passion and the Rainbow Warrior Susi Newborn
Warrior
One Man’s Environmental Crusade Pete Wilkinson
Shadow Warrior
The Autobiography of David McTaggart, Founder of Greenpeace International David Fraser McTaggart
Greenpeace III: Journey into the Bomb David Fraser McTaggart and Robert Hunter
The Whaling Season
An Inside Account of the Struggle to Stop Commercial Whaling Kieran Mulvaney
194 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
Rainbow Warrior: The French Attempt to Sink Greenpeace Sunday Times Insight Team Sink the Rainbow!
An Enquiry into the ‘Greenpeace Affair’
John Dyson
IV. GREENPEACE ISSUES The Turning of the ‘Spar Chris Rose
Global Warming: The Greenpeace Report Edited by Jeremy Leggett Forest Planet: The Last Green Paradises
Markus Mauthe & Thomas Henningsen
Photo Stories from the ‘Defending Our Oceans’ Expedition Sara Holden
The Phenomenon of Baikal Various authors
Half life
Living with the effects of nuclear waste Photographs by Robert Knoth, Text by Antoinette de Jong
Certificate no. 000358
Nuclear devastation in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, the Urals and Siberia Robert Knoth, Antoinette de Jong
Exposure: Portrait of a Corporate Crime Photographs of Bhopal by Raghu Rai
FURTHER LISTENING Greenpeace Canada has produced a two-disc restored recording of the 1970 Greenpeace fundraiser concert – Amchitka, the 1970 concert that launched Greenpeace. The Stowe family were given permission by the artists to keep a recording of the concert and in 2009 the artists and their publishers gave permission for the recording to be made available to the public. On the CD you can hear the opening remarks by the late Irving Stowe, cofounder of Greenpeace; the passion and politics of Phil Ochs; James Taylor singing many of his early hits on the heels of the release of Sweet Baby James; Joni Mitchell singing a soaring Woodstock just over a year after the actual event; and a stunning, never-before-released Mitchell/ Taylor duet of Mr. Tambourine Man (by Bob Dylan). The CD is available exclusively through Greenpeace and all proceeds will benefit the organisation: CDs and electronic downloads are available from the Greenpeace/Amchitka website at www.amchitka-concert.com
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 195
198 196 THE GREENPEACE chronicles
Greenpeace International
Greenpeace CHILE
Greenpeace MEXICO
Ottho Heldringstraat 5, 1066 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands T +31 20 7182000 F +31 20 7182002 E [email protected]
Argomedo 50, Santiago Centro, Chile T +56 2 634 2120 F +56 2 634 8580 E [email protected]
Santa Margarita 227 Col. del Valle Delegación Benito Juárez, CP. 031000 Mexico, DF – Mexico T +5255 56879556 E [email protected]
European UNIT
Greenpeace CZECH REPUBLIC
Belliardstraat / Rue Belliard 199 – 1040 Brussels T +32 2 274 19 00 F +32 2 274 19 10 E [email protected]
Prvniho pluku 12/143, 186 00 Praha 8, Czech Republic T +420 224 320 448 F +420 222 313 777 E [email protected]
Greenpeace AFRICA
GREENPEACE EAST ASIA
> SENEGAL
2 Avenue Hassan II 6ème etage, Dakar > SOUTH AFRICA 10A &10B Clamart Road, Richmond 2092, Johannesburg, South Africa T +27 (0)11 482 4696 F +27 (0)11 482 8157 E [email protected]
Greenpeace ARGENTINA Zabala 3873 – (C1427DYG) Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina T +54 11 4551 8811 E [email protected]
Greenpeace Australia Pacific
> Australia Level 2, 33 Mountain Street Ultimo, NSW 2007 Australia T +61 2 9281 6100 F +61 2 9280 0380 > FIJI First Floor, Old Town Hall, Victoria Parade, Suva, Fiji T +679 3312 861 F +679 3312 784 > PAPUA NEW GUINEA P.O. Box48, University PO, NCD, Papua New Guinea T +67 5 3215 954 F +67 5 3215 954 > SOLOMON ISLANDS P.O. Box 147, Honiara, Solomon Islands T +677 20455 F +677 21131 E [email protected]
> Beijing Office 3/F, Julong Office Building, Block 7, Julong Gardens, 68 Xinzhong Street, Dongcheng District, Beijing China 100027. T +86 10 6554 6931 ext.132 F +86 10 6554 6932 E [email protected] > HONG KONG OFFICE 8/F, Pacific Plaza, 410-418 Des Voeux Road West, Hong Kong T +852 2854 8300 F +852 2745 2426 E [email protected] > TAIPEI OFFICE 1/F, No. 5, Alley 6 Lane 44, Jinmen Street, Zhongzheng District Taipei City 10088, Taiwan T +886 (2) 2365 2106 F +886 (2) 2365 2150 E [email protected]
Greenpeace FRANCE 13 rue d’Enghien, 75010 Paris, France T +33 1 80 96 96 96
Greenpeace GERMANY Grosse Elbstrasse 39, 22767 Hamburg, Germany T +49 40 306 180 F +49 40 306 18100 E [email protected] > Berlin political office Marienstrasse 19-20, 10117 Berlin, Germany T +49 303 088 990 F +49 303 088 9930
Greenpeace BELGIUM
Greenpeace GREECE
Haachtsesteenweg 159, 1030 Brussels, Belgium T +32 2 274 02 00 F +32 2 274 02 30 E [email protected]
Kleissovis 9, GR-106 77 Athens, Greece T +30 210 3840774 F +30 210 3804008
Greenpeace BRAZIL Rua Alvarenga, 2331, Butanta 05509-006, Sao Paulo/SP, Brazil T +55 11 3035 1155 F +55 11 3817 4600 E [email protected]
Greenpeace CANADA
> edmonton Office 6328 104 Street NW, Edmonton, Alberta T6H 2K9, Canada T +1 780 430 9202 F +1 780 430 9282 > Montreal Office 454 Laurier East, 3rd floor, Montreal, Quebec, H2J 1E7, Canada T +1 514 933 0021 F +1 514 933 1017 > ontario Office 33 Cecil St. Toronto, Ontario M5T 1N1 Canada T +1 416 597 8408 F +1 416 597 8422 > Vancouver Office 1726 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, British Columbia, V5N 4A3, Canada T +1 604 253 7701 F +1 604 253 0114 E [email protected]
GREENPEACE CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE
> Austria Fernkorngasse 10, A-1100 Vienna, Austria T +43 1 545 4580 F +43 1 545 458098 E [email protected] > HUNGARY 1143 Budapest, Zászlós Utca 54, Hungary T +36 1 392 7663 F +36 1 200 8484 E [email protected] > POLAND Lirowa 13 02-387, Warsaw, Poland T +48 22 659 8499 F +48 22 489 6064 E [email protected] > ROMANIA Strada Ing. Vasile Cristescu, nr. 18, Sector 2, Bucureflti, Romania T +40 21 310 5743 E [email protected] > SLOVAKIA Vancurova 7, P. O. Box 58, 814 99 Bratislava 1, Slovakia T +421 2 5477 1202 F + 421 2 5477 1151 E [email protected]
Greenpeace INDIA
> BANGALORE HEAD OFFICE 60 Wellington Road, Richmond Town Bangalore - 560025, India T +91 80 428 21010 F +91 80 4115 4862 > DELHI REGIONAL OFFICE T-95A, 1st Floor, C.L. House, Gautam Nagar, Gujjar Dairy, Behind Indian Oil Building, New Delhi 110049, India E [email protected]
Greenpeace ITALY VIa della Cordonata 7, 00187 – Rome, Italy T +39 06 68136061 F +39 06 45439793 E [email protected]
Greenpeace JAPAN N F Bldg. 2F 8-13-11 Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0023 Japan T +81 3 5338 9800 F +81 3 5338 9817 E [email protected]
Greenpeace LUXEMBOURG
Greenpeace NETHERLANDS Pakhuis Amsterdam, Jollemanhof 15-17, 1019 GW Amsterdam T +31 2062 61877 F +31 20 622 12 72 E [email protected]
Greenpeace NEW ZEALAND 11 Akiraho Street, Mount Eden, Auckland 1036, New Zealand T +64 9 630 63 17 F +64 9 630 71 21 E [email protected]
Greenpeace Nordic
> DENMARK Bredgade 20, Baghus 4, 1260 Copenhagen K, Denmark T +45 33 93 53 44 F +45 33 93 53 99 > FINLAND Iso Roobertinkatu 20-22 A, 00120 Helsinki, Finland T +358 9 684 37540 F +358 9 698 6317 > NORWAY Peder Claussøns gate 1, pb 6803 St. Olavsplass 1, 0130 Oslo T +47 22 205 101 F +47 22 205 114 > Sweden Hökens gata 2, PO Box 15164, 104 65 Stockholm, Sweden T +46 8 702 7070 F +46 8 694 9013 E [email protected]
Greenpeace RUSSIA
> Moscow Office New Bashilovka 6, 125040 Moscow, Russia T +7 495 988 7460 F +7 495 988 7460 > St Petersburg office Mendeleevskaya Street 9, Room 117 190000 St Petersburg, Russia T +7 812 347 7134 E [email protected]
Greenpeace Southeast Asia
> INDONESIA Jalan Kemang Utara No. 16B, Jakarta Selatan, Jakarta 12730, Indonesia T +62 21 718 2857 F +62 21 718 2858 E [email protected] > PHILIPPINES Room 301 JGS Building, #30 Scout Tuason Street, 1103 Quezon City, The Philippines T +63 2 332 1807 F +63 2 332 1806 E [email protected] > thailand 138/1, 2nd floor, Thong Building, Sutthisan Road, Samsen-Nai, Phayathai, Bangkok 10400, Thailand T +66 2 357 1921 F +66 2 357 1929 E [email protected]
Greenpeace SPAIN San Bernardo 107, 28015 Madrid, Spain T +34 91 444 14 00 F +34 91 187 4456 E [email protected]
GREENPEACE SWITZERLAND
34 Av. de la Gare, 4130 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg T +352 546 2521 F + 352 545 405 E [email protected]
Heinrichstrasse 147, CH-8031 Zurich, Switzerland T +41 1 447 4141 F +41 1 447 4199 E [email protected]
Greenpeace Mediterranean
GREENPEACE UK
> ISRAEL 4 Haarba’a St, P.O Box 14423, Tel Aviv 61143 Israel T +972 356 14014 F +972 356 10415 E [email protected] > LEBANON Bliss Str. Daouk Bldg. Facing Blom Bank, 1st Floor, Beirut, Lebanon P.O Box 13-6590 T +961 1 361 255 F +961 1 361 254 E [email protected] > TURKEY Asmali Mescit Mah, Istiklal Cad, Kallavi Sokak No 1 Kat 2 Beyoglu, Istanbul, Turkey T +90 212 292 76 19 F +90 212 292 76 22 E [email protected]
Canonbury Villas, London N1 2PN, United Kingdom T +44 207 865 8100 F +44 207 865 8200
Greenpeace USA
> washington Office 702 H Street NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20001, USA. T +1 202 462 1177 F +1 202 462 4507 > San Franciso Office San Franciso Office 75 Arkansas St. San Francisco, CA 94107 T: +1 415 255 9221
THE GREENPEACE chronicles 199
Greenpeace International Ottho Heldringstraat 5 1066 AZ Amsterdam The Netherlands Tel: +31 20 7182000 Fax: +31 20 7182002 For more information please contact [email protected]
JN 400 ISBN 978-90-73361-00-3
| i don't know |
The gardens at Sissinghurst Castle, Kent were created in the 1930's by which poet and gardening writer on the fringes of the 'Bloomsbury Group'? | Sissinghurst Castle Gardens | The garden at Sissinghurst Cas… | Flickr
Richard Watkins LRPS By: Richard Watkins LRPS
Sissinghurst Castle Gardens
The garden at Sissinghurst Castle in the Weald of Kent, near Sissinghurst village, is owned and maintained by the National Trust. It is among the most famous gardens in England.
Sissinghurst's garden was created in the 1930s by Vita Sackville-West, poet and gardening writer, and her husband Harold Nicolson, author and diplomat. Sackville-West was a writer on the fringes of the Bloomsbury Group who found her greatest popularity in the weekly columns she contributed as gardening correspondent of The Observer, which incidentally—for she never touted it—made her own garden famous. The garden itself is designed as a series of "rooms", each with a different character of colour and/or theme, the walls being high clipped hedges and many pink brick walls. The rooms and "doors" are so arranged that, as one enjoys the beauty in a given room, one suddenly discovers a new vista into another part of the garden, making a walk a series of discoveries that keeps leading one into yet another area of the garden. Nicolson spent his efforts coming up with interesting new interconnections, while Sackville-West focused on making the flowers in the interior of each room exciting.
For Sackville-West, Sissinghurst and its garden rooms came to be a poignant and romantic substitute for Knole, reputedly the largest house in Britain, which as the only child of Lionel, the 3rd Lord Sackville she would have inherited had she been a male, but which had passed to her cousin as the male heir.
The site is ancient— "hurst" is the Saxon term for "an enclosed wood". A manorhouse with a three-armed moat was built here in the Middle Ages. By 1305, Sissinghurst was impressive enough for King Edward I to spend the night. In 1490, Thomas Baker purchased Sissinghurst.The house was given a new brick gatehouse in the 1530s by Sir John Baker, one of Henry VIII's Privy Councillors, and hugely enlarged in the 1560s by his son Sir Richard Baker, when it became the centre of a 700-acre (2.8 km2) deer park. In 1573, Queen Elizabeth I spent three nights at Sissinghurst.
Done
| Vita Sackville-West |
What is the name of the Japanese martial art of fencing that uses bamboo swords called Shinai? | Sissinghurst Gardens 07.05.2010 - YouTube
Sissinghurst Gardens 07.05.2010
Want to watch this again later?
Sign in to add this video to a playlist.
Need to report the video?
Sign in to report inappropriate content.
Rating is available when the video has been rented.
This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.
Uploaded on May 10, 2010
Sissinghurst Castle Garden: Sissinghurst's garden was created in the 1930s by Vita Sackville-West, poet and gardening writer, and her husband Harold Nicolson, author and diplomat. Vita Sackville-West was a writer on the fringes of the Bloomsbury group who found her greatest popularity in the weekly columns she contributed as gardening correspondent of The Observer. Sissinghurst's garden is one of the best-loved in the whole of the United Kingdom, drawing visitors from all over the world. The garden itself is designed as a series of "rooms", each with a different character of colour and/or theme, divided by high clipped hedges and pink brick walls.
Category
| i don't know |
What name is given to the outermost part of the Sun's atmosphere, visible to the naked eye during a solar eclipse? | Sun's Outer Atmosphere Revealed By Total Solar Eclipse
Sun's Outer Atmosphere Revealed By Total Solar Eclipse
By Tariq Malik, Space.com Managing Editor |
July 16, 2010 12:06pm ET
MORE
The atmosphere of the sun blazes clearly in a new image from NASA that combines observations from Earth and space during the only total solar eclipse of this year.
The new solar eclipse photo used observations from two NASA space telescopes and ground-based astronomers from Williams College in Massachusetts to assemble a detailed look at the sun's ultra-hot corona when the moon completely blocked the sun during the July 11 total solar eclipse .
"The sky was wonderful," Williams College astronomer Jay Pasachoff told SPACE.com after the eclipse. Pasachoff led a Williams team that ventured to the remote Easter Island in the southern Pacific Ocean to study the sun's corona during the solar eclipse. [2010 Total Solar Eclipse Photos]
Atmosphere of the sun
The corona is the outer atmosphere of the sun and can be seen only during solar eclipses . While the surface of the sun is typically about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,538 degrees Celsius), the gas in the corona can be up to 100 times hotter.
During a total eclipse, when the disk of the sun is entirely blocked by the moon, the corona is suddenly visible as bright, wispy tendrils that can be safely viewed with the naked eye. (Protective glasses are required to watch the phases of the eclipse before and after totality. Viewing the sun?s disk directly can cause permanent eye damage.)
Sun's corona revealed
The NASA photo of the July 11 solar eclipse is a mosaic of three images layered on top of each other.
The photo's outer ring in red is a false-color view of the sun's outer corona recorded by the LASCO instrument on the SOHO space observatory (a joint project of NASA and the European Space Agency), which observes the sun at a stable point in space between the star and Earth. LASCO is a coronagraph that uses a disk to blot out the sun and inner corona so its faint outer corona can be observed.
Pasachoff's observing team took the gray-and-white image that makes up the eclipse photo's middle ring. The corona's tendrils are easily visible in this ring stretching out away from the sun.
In place of the moon at the center of the new image, NASA has added a view of the sun's surface as seen by the space agency's powerful Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). The SDO photo is actually an extreme ultraviolet light view of the sun, but was taken at about the same time as the others that make up the solar eclipse mosaic.
The July 11 solar eclipse was the only total solar eclipse for this year, but it was actually the second solar eclipse to occur in 2010. An annular solar eclipse, in which the sun was not completely covered by the moon, occurred on Jan. 15.
The total eclipse was touted as one of the most remote solar eclipses ever because it occurred over a hard-to-reach swath of the Pacific Ocean, visible on only a few islands and part of South America.
"An impossible eclipse at the end of the world," said skywatcher Daniel Fischer, who watched the solar eclipse from the Patagonia region of Argentina as the sun set behind the Andes mountains.
The next total solar eclipse will occur in November 2012.
Photos: Total Solar Eclipse of 2010
| Corona (satellite) |
What was the name of the South African student leader who died in 1977 whilst in police custody? | Astronomy Midterm #2 Flashcards - Cram.com
How many laws of motion did Newton develop?
Three
What is Newton's first law of motion?
A body continues at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless acted upon by a force.
What is Newton's second law of motion?
The amount of change in a body's motion is proportional to the force acting on it, and along the same direction as the force.
What is Newton's third law of motion?
When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body exerts an equal and opposite force back on the first body.
What is Newton's law of gravity?
Everything with MASS pulls on everything else with mass. Gravity is always attractive. The closer the object, the stronger the pull.
What is the electromagnetic spectrum?
The entire possible range of wavelengths or frequencies light can have.
What are particles of light called?
Photons. Each photon has a wavelength and a frequency. The energy of a photon depends on its frequencies.
What is light frequency?
Frequency is the number of times per second that a wave vibrates up and down.
What is light wavelength?
Wavelength is the distance between two wave peaks.
What is wave speed?
Wavelength x Frequency
What are Gamma Rays?
Gamma rays are very high in frequency. They also have very high energy. Damaging to humans. The atmosphere blocks Gamma rays. Can only be studied from space.
What are X-Rays?
Pretty high energy. Not as bad as gamma rays, too much is still bad. Medical uses. Can still only be studied from space. Gas in galaxy clusters, supernova remnants, or the suns corona.
What is Ultraviolet (UV) light?
Closer to visible light. Too much is a bad thing. Visible in supernova remnants and coming from very hot stars.
What is visible light?
Light our eyes can see. Wavelengths about as long as bacteria. About 400-700 nanometers. Produced in stars.
What is infrared light?
We glow in IR light. Beyond the range of human sight. Night-vision goggles. Given off by planets, some gases, and moons.
What are radio wavelengths?
Very wide range of wavelengths/frequencies. Used for TV, Radio, RADAR Mictrowaves.
What is focal length on a telescope?
The distance between the lens or mirror to the image formed of a distance light source, such as a star.
What is a refracting telescope?
A telescope that focuses light using a lens.
What is a reflecting telescope?
A telescope that focuses light using a mirror. The main mirror is called the primary mirror.
What does the eyepiece on a telescope do?
It magnifies the image making it easier to view.
What is chromatic aberration?
Color seperation that happens when you look through the refracting telescope. The lends bends shorter wavelengths more than longer wavelengths. Blue light comes to a focus closer to the lens than red light.
What is refraction?
Refraction is the bending of light. Our eyes uses refraction to focus light.
What does a telescopes diameter tell us?
The telescopes diameter tells us its light-collecting area.
What does magnification depend on?
Both the objective lens and the eyepiece lens.
What does a larger objective lens provide?
A brighter image.
What happens when an atom reaches a point of excitation?
Electron absorbs a photon and jumps up an energy level.
What is ionization?
Electron absorbs a photon and leaves. Only works if electron is in higher energy levels.
What happens when an atom reaches a point of de-excitation?
Electron emits a photon of energy.
What are the three basic types of spectra?
Continues Spectrum - All wavelengths, no breaks. Rainbows.
Emission Line Spectrum - Bright individual lines. Also called a bright-line spectrum. Electrons are moving to lower energy levels, emitting photons of light.
Absorption Spectrum
Describes relationship between temperature and peak wavelengths.
What is the Balmer Thermometer?
Temperature from spectral lines. Can't use just it, need other elements. Strength in various lines predicts temp. Temp. predicts strength of lines.
What is the Doppler Effect?
When something which is giving off light moves towards or away from you, the wavelength of the emitted light is changed or shifted. The closer the object gets, the smaller the wavelength gets. The further the object goes away, the wider the wavelength gets.
What are the seven spectral classes used, and what do they mean?
O, B, A, F, G, K, M. O classification is the hottest star, and it goes down the line to M being the coolest. There are also sub catagories for each one, so a star could be an A3, or a G6, and so on.
What is the sun's photosphere?
The visible surface of the sun. It appears to be solid, but in reality it is comprised entirely of gas.
What is are granules on the sun's surface?
Granules only last for 10 to 20 minutes, but are constantly forming on the sun surface. They are dark spots on the sun that are considerably hotter in the center then the rest of the surface. Doppler shifts reveal that the centers are rising while the edges are sinking. Granulation is caused by convection beneath the photosphere.
What is convection?
| i don't know |
Of the four stations that appear on a 'Monopoly' board, which is the busiest (in terms of passenger numbers) in real life? | London Underground: 150 fascinating Tube facts - Telegraph
Telegraph
150 London Underground facts (including the birth of Jerry Springer in East Finchley station)
It's closed today, but it's still interesting Credit: John Stillwell
Jolyon Attwooll , Travel writer
9 January 2017 • 11:00am
You can't ride it today, thanks to industrial action. But you can learn a few things about the Tube instead.
1. There is only one Tube station which does not have any letters of the word 'mackerel' in it: St John's Wood.
2. The average speed on the Underground is 20.5 miles per hour including station stops.
3. The busiest Tube station is Waterloo, which was used by around 95 million passengers in 2015. In 2014 Oxford Circus took top spot, in 2009 it was Victoria, and in 2005 it was King's Cross,
4. On the Metropolitan line, trains can reach over 60mph.
The Night Tube service started on August 19, 2016 Credit: AFP or licensors/DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS
5. The shortest distance between two adjacent stations on the underground network is only 260 metres. The tube journey between Leicester Square and Covent Garden on the Piccadilly Line takes only about 20 seconds, but costs £4.90 (cash fare). Yet it still remains one of the most popular journeys with tourists.
6. Many tube stations were used as air-raid shelters during the Second World War, but the Central Line was even converted into a fighter aircraft factory that stretched for over two miles, with its own railway system. Its existence remained an official secret until the 1980s.
7. Angel has the Underground's longest escalator at 60m/197ft, with a vertical rise of 27.5m.
8. The shortest escalator is Stratford, with a vertical rise of 4.1m.
9. Only 45 per cent of the Underground is actually in tunnels.
10. The longest distance between stations is on the Metropolitan line from Chesham to Chalfont & Latimer: a total of only 3.89 miles.
The history of the Tube in pictures
11. The longest continuous tunnel is on the Northern line and runs from East Finchley to Morden (via Bank), a total of 17.3 miles.
12. Aldgate Station, on the Circle and Metropolitan Lines, is built on a massive plague pit, where more than 1,000 bodies are buried.
13. The longest journey without change is on the Central line from West Ruislip to Epping, and is a total of 34.1 miles.
14. The deepest station is Hampstead on the Northern line, which runs down to 58.5 metres.
15. In Central London the deepest station below street level is also the Northern line. It is the DLR concourse at Bank, which is 41.4 metres below.
Only 45 per cent of the Underground is actually in tunnels
16. The TARDIS, (Dr Who’s transport) can be found outside Earl’s Court station. Or at least an old police call box can.
17. The London Underground manages about 10 per cent of all green spaces in London.
18. Wildlife observed on the Tube network includes woodpeckers, deer, sparrowhawk, bats, grass snakes, great crested newts, slow worms.
19. Over 47 million litres water are pumped from the Tube each day, enough to fill a standard leisure centre swimming pool (25 metres x 10 metres) every quarter of an hour.
20. The London Underground trains were originally steam powered.
21. The station with the most platforms is Baker Street with 10 (Moorgate also has 10 platforms but only six are used by Tube trains - others are used by overground trains).
22.The District Line has the most stations: 60.
There are 270 stations on the network Credit: Dominic Lipinski
23. The Waterloo and City Line has the fewest stations (no intermediate stations)
24. The Underground name first appeared on stations in 1908.
25. London Underground has been known as the Tube since 1890 due to the shape of the tunnels.
26. The first deep-level electric railway line also opened in 1890.
27. The Tube's logo is known as “the roundel” (a red circle crossed by a horizontal blue bar)
28. The station with the most escalators is Waterloo with 23.
29. The total number of passengers carried during 2013/14 was 1.265 billion – making it the world's 11th busiest metro.
30. The highest station above sea level is Amersham, at 147 metres.
What we love about the London Underground
31. Tube trains travelled 76.4 million kilometres last year.
32. The Northern line has the highest maximum number of trains required for scheduled peak period service: 91.
The Tube's logo is known as “the roundel” Credit: Reuters Photographer
33. The Waterloo & City line has the fewest scheduled for peak period service at just five.
34. The total length of the London Underground network is 250 miles.
35. In 1926, suicide pits were installed beneath tracks due to a rise in the numbers of passengers throwing themselves in front of trains.
36. The eastern extension of the Jubilee line is the only Underground line to feature glass screens to deter "jumpers".
37. The earliest trains run from Osterley to Heathrow on the Piccadilly line, starting at 4.45am.
38. The greatest elevation above the ground level is on the Northern line at Dollis Brook viaduct over Dollis road, Mill Hill: it rises a total of 18 metres (60ft).
39. One of the early names proposed for the Victoria Line was the Viking line.
40. In 1924, the first baby was born on the Underground, on a train at Elephant & Castle on the Bakerloo line.
The Tube's prettiest stations
41. The American talk show host Jerry Springer was born at East Finchley during the Second World War: his mother had taken shelter in the station from an air raid.
42. Builders working on the Bakerloo Line are reported to have suffered from the bends while tunnelling under the Thames.
43. The inaugural journey of the first Central line train in 1900 had the Prince of Wales and Mark Twain on board.
The total length of the London Underground network is 250 miles Credit: PA
44. The tunnels beneath the City curve significantly because they follow its medieval street plan.
45. The Central line introduced the first flat fare when it opened at the turn of the 20th century. The tuppence fare lasted until the end of June 1907 when a threepenny fare was introduced for longer journeys.
46. Charles Pearson, MP and Solicitor to the City of London, is credited with successfully campaigning for the introduction of the Underground. He died in 1862 shortly before the first train ran.
47. The first escalator on the Underground was installed at Earl's Court in 1911.
48. The first crash on the Tube occurred in 1938 when two trains collided between Waterloo and Charing Cross, injuring 12 passengers.
49. Harry Beck produced the well known Tube map diagram while working as an engineering draughtsman at the London Underground Signals Office. He was reportedly paid 10 guineas (£10.50) for his efforts.
50. Harry Beck’s map was considered too big a departure from the norm, but the public liked it and it became official in 1933.
51. Busking has been licensed on the Tube since 2003.
52. Sting and Paul McCartney are both rumoured to have busked on the Underground in disguise.
53. The phrase "Mind the gap" dates back to 1968. The recording that is broadcast on stations was first done by Peter Lodge, who had a recording company in Bayswater.
A photo posted by bologna|2001|galvani (@_f_r_e_0_1_) on
Aug 18, 2016 at 4:53am PDT
54. The Peter Lodge recording of “Mind the Gap” is still in use, but some lines use recordings by a Manchester voice artist Emma Clarke. On the Piccadilly line the recording is notable for being the voice of Tim Bentinck, who plays David Archer in The Archers.
55. The Jubilee Line was the only Underground Line to connect with all the others until the East London line ceased to be part of the Underground in 2007 (now the Central Line does too).
56. Approximately 50 passengers a year kill themselves on the Underground.
57. Fewer than 10 per cent of Tube stations lie south of the Thames.
58. The total number of lifts on the Underground, including four stair lifts, is 167.
Ye Olde London Underground Credit: Getty
59. Smoking was banned on the Underground as a result of the King's Cross fire in November 1987 which killed 31 people. A discarded match was thought to be the cause of that inferno.
60. An estimated half a million mice live in the Underground system.
London's lost Tube stations: in pictures
61. 1961 marked the end of steam and electric haulage of passenger trains on the London Underground.
62. One of the levels in Tomb Raider 3 is set in the disused Aldwych tube station, featuring scenes of Lara Croft killing rats.
63. In the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the Hogwarts headmaster has a scar that resembles a map of the London Underground on his knee.
64.There are only two tube station names that contain all five vowels: Mansion House, and South Ealing.
65. Edward Johnston designed the font for the London Underground in 1916. The font he came up with is still in use today.
66. Amersham is also the most westerly tube station, as well as the highest (see above).
67. A macabre statistic is that the most popular tube suicide time is around 11am.
68. In January 2005, in an attempt to alleviate a problem with loitering young people, the London Underground announced it would play classical music at problem stations.
Which buildings survived the Great Fire of London?
69. The Underground has the oldest section of underground railway in the world, which opened in 1863.
70. The first section of the Underground ran between Paddington (Bishop's Road) and Farringdon Street. The same section now forms part of the Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines.
London Underground: 10 of the funniest videos
71.The Underground was first used for air raid shelters in September 1940.
72. During the Second World War, part of the Piccadilly line (Holborn - Aldwych branch), was closed and British Museum treasures were stored in the empty spaces.
73. The London Passenger Transport Board was nationalised and became the London Transport Executive in 1948.
74. The first Tube tunnel was opened in 1880, running from the Tower of London to Bermondsey.
75. The Central Line used to be nicknamed as the 'Twopenny Tube' for its flat fare.
76. Dot matrix train destination indicators were introduced onto London Underground platforms in 1983.
77. The single worst accident in terms of fatalities on the Underground occurred on February 28, 1975 at Moorgate, when 42 people died.
78. The Piccadilly line extended to serve Heathrow Terminal 4 in 1986.
79. Penalty fares were only introduced in 1994.
80. The Tube carried one billion passengers in a year for the first time in 2007.
London Underground quiz
81.The last manually operated doors on Tube trains (replaced by air-operated doors) were phased out in 1929.
82.The Jubilee Line was named to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 – but the line did not open until 1979.
A photo posted by Merve (@lknmerve) on
Aug 1, 2016 at 12:25pm PDT
83. A census carried out on September 27, 1940, found that 177,500 Londoners were sleeping in Tube stations.
84. During the war, special supply trains ran, providing seven tonnes of food and 2,400 gallons of tea and cocoa every night to people staying in the Tube.
85. Covent Garden is believed to be haunted by the ghost of William Terris who met an untimely death near the station in 1897.
86. Another station that is believed to be haunted is Farringdon. The so-called Screaming Spectre is believed to have been a milliner.
87. The Seven Sisters Underground station is believed to have been named after a line of elm trees which stood nearby until the 1830s.
88. The fictitious station of Walford East, which features in the long-running soap opera Eastenders, is supposed to be on the District Line.
89. Every week, Underground escalators travel the equivalent distance of going twice around the world.
90. According to TFL, London Underground trains travel a total of 1,735 times around the world (or 90 trips to the moon and back) each year.
91. A spiral escalator was installed in 1907 at Holloway Road station, but linear escalators were favoured for the rest of the network. A small section of the spiral escalator is in the Acton depot.
92. A small section of the old London Wall survives in the trackside walls of Tower Hill station at platform level. One of the largest pieces of the wall also stands just outside this station.
93. Finsbury Park station has murals that show a pair of duelling pistols, harking back to a time when men would visit the park after hours to defend their honour.
The Jubilee line receives the most complaints Credit: © Pixel Youth movement / Alamy Stock Photo/Pixel Youth movement / Alamy Stock Photo
94. In 2012, the most complained about line was the Jubilee.
95. The London Underground is thought to be the third largest metro system in the world, in terms of miles, after the Beijing Subway and the Shanghai Metro.
96. The London Underground is the third busiest metro system in Europe, after Moscow and Paris.
97. The coffin of Dr. Thomas Barnardo was carried in funeral cortege on an underground train in 1905, one of only two occasions this is known to have happened.
98. The Underground helped over 200,000 children escape to the countryside during the Second World War.
99. During the war, some stations (now mostly disused) were converted into government offices: a station called Down Street was used for meetings of the Railway Executive Committee, as well as for the War Cabinet before the Cabinet War Rooms were built.
100. Brompton Road (now disused) on the Piccadilly, Line was apparently used as a control room for anti-aircraft guns.
101. Only five London Underground stations lie outside the M25 motorway
The Night Tube is finally here Credit: AFP or licensors/DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS
102. The Underground runs 24 hours a day at New Year, during special events (such as for the opening and closing ceremonies of the London Olympics), and on selected lines at the weekend.
103. According to a 2002 study air quality on the Underground was 73 times worse than at street level, with 20 minutes on the Northern Line having "the same effect as smoking a cigarette".
104. The former poet laureate John Betjeman created 'Metroland' series, a homage to the people and places served by the Metropolitan line in 1973.
Ride the Emirates Air Line cable car with this 360° video
105. The Oyster card was introduced in 2003.
106. The worst civilian death toll on the Underground occurred at Bethnal Green Tube tragedy in 1943, when 173 people died. It is the largest loss of life in a single incident on the London Underground network.
107. The largest number of people killed by a single wartime bomb was 68 at Balham Station.
108. The 100th anniversary of the roundel (the Tube Logo) was celebrated in 2008 by TfL commissioning 100 artists to produce works that celebrate the design.
109. The largest Tube car park is at Epping and has 599 parking spots.
110. The Central Line has the most tube stations with no surface building (Bank, Bethnal Green, Chancery Lane, Gants Hill, Notting Hill Gate)
111. Of the stations that have stairs, Hampstead Station has the most steps (320 in total).
112. There are 14 journeys between stations that take less than a minute on average.
113. King's Cross St Pancras tube station is served by more Underground lines than any other station on the network.
114. Seven London Boroughs are not served by the underground system, six of them being situated south of the River Thames.
115. The total number of carriages in London Underground's fleet, as of January 2013, was 4,134.
116. The total number of stations served on the network is 270.
117. London Underground transferred from the control of the Government to Transport for London (TfL) on July 15, 2003.
118. Scenes from the film Sliding Doors were shot at Waterloo station on the Waterloo & City Line and at Fulham Broadway tube station on the District Line.
119. Filming on location in the Underground costs £500 per hour (plus VAT) unless you have a crew of less than five.
120. You can now no longer go around the Circle Line in a full circle. From 2009, the Circle Line terminated at Edgware Road.
121. Greenford on the Central Line was the last Tube station to use wooden escalators. They were replaced in 2014.
122. Arsenal (originally Gillespie Road) on Piccadilly line is the only station named after a football team.
123. There are three tube stations on the Monopoly board: Liverpool Street Station, King’s Cross and Marylebone.
Watch | How to land at Britain's trickiest airport
03:57
124. The number of stations that only use escalators is 12
125. Nineteen stations just use lifts.
126. The River Westbourne was funnelled above a platform on Sloane Square in a large iron pipe suspended from girders. It remains in place today.
127. The first tube station to be demolished was Westbourne Park on the Metropolitan Line. It was re-sited in 1871.
128. There is a mosquito named after the Tube – the London Underground mosquito, which was found in the London Underground. It was notable for its assault of Londoners sleeping in the Underground during the Blitz.
129.The London Underground Film Office handles over 200 requests a month.
130. In Alfred Hitchcock’s first feature film The Lodger (1926) featured the director making a cameo on the Tube.
131. The record for visiting all the stations on the London Underground network – known as the Tube Challenge – is currently held by Ronan McDonald and Clive Burgess of the United Kingdom, who completed the challenge in 16 hours, 14 minutes and 10 seconds on February 19, 2015
132. The Tube Challenge record did not appear in the Guinness book of records until its eighth edition in 1960, when it stood at 18 hours, 35 minutes.
133. An interactive novel has been published, set on the London Underground. You can read it here .
134. In cockney rhyming slang, the London Underground is known as the Oxo (Cube/Tube).
135. Around 30,000 passengers went on The Metropolitan Line on its first day of public business – January 10, 1863.
136. There were claims the first baby born on the Underground was called Thelma Ursula Beatrice Eleanor (so that her initials would have read TUBE) but this story later proved false – her actual name was Marie Cordery.
London brunch
137. On August 3 2012, during the Olympic Games, the London Underground had its most hectic day ever, carrying 4.4 million passengers – but that record was beaten on Friday December 4 2015, when 4.82 million people used it.
138. St James is the only Underground Station to have Grade-I protected status. It includes 55 Broadway, the administrative headquarters of London’s Underground since the 1930s.
139. The most recent Tube birth – a boy – was in 2009.
140. The most common location for filming is Aldwych, a disused station.
141. As Princess Elizabeth, the Queen travelled on the Underground for the first time in May 1939, when she was 13 years old, with her governess Marion Crawford and Princess Margaret.
Apr 30, 2016 at 3:30pm PDT
142. Poems on the Underground was launched in 1986, the idea of American writer Judith Chernaik.
143. A series of animal shapes have also been highlighted in the London Underground map, first discovered by Paul Middlewick in 1988. They're created using the tube lines, stations and junctions of the London Underground map.
144. A fragrance known as Madeleine was trialled at St. James Park, Euston, and Piccadilly stations in 2001, intended to make the Tube more pleasant. It was stopped within days after complaints from people saying they felt ill.
145. There were eight deep-level shelters built under the London Underground in the Second World War. One of them in Stockwell is decorated as a war memorial.
146. After the war, the deep level shelter at Clapham South housed immigrants from the West Indies.
147. A 2011 study suggested 30 per cent of passengers take longer routes due to the out-of-scale distances on the Tube map.
148. The first ever air-conditioned, walk-through Underground train ran on the Metropolitan line in 2010.
149. The average distance travelled by each Tube train annually stands at around 114,500 miles.
150. Alcohol was banned on the Tube – and all London Transport – from June 2008.
Editor's note: Note that one or two facts have changed since this article was first published in 2014 and this has been updated to reflect those changes.
The Best Hotels In London
| Liverpool Street |
Now owned by Proton, which British car manufacturing company was formed by engineer Colin Chapman in 1952 and went on to produce models such as the 'Elise' and 'Exige'? | London Underground: 150 fascinating Tube facts - Telegraph
Telegraph
150 London Underground facts (including the birth of Jerry Springer in East Finchley station)
It's closed today, but it's still interesting Credit: John Stillwell
Jolyon Attwooll , Travel writer
9 January 2017 • 11:00am
You can't ride it today, thanks to industrial action. But you can learn a few things about the Tube instead.
1. There is only one Tube station which does not have any letters of the word 'mackerel' in it: St John's Wood.
2. The average speed on the Underground is 20.5 miles per hour including station stops.
3. The busiest Tube station is Waterloo, which was used by around 95 million passengers in 2015. In 2014 Oxford Circus took top spot, in 2009 it was Victoria, and in 2005 it was King's Cross,
4. On the Metropolitan line, trains can reach over 60mph.
The Night Tube service started on August 19, 2016 Credit: AFP or licensors/DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS
5. The shortest distance between two adjacent stations on the underground network is only 260 metres. The tube journey between Leicester Square and Covent Garden on the Piccadilly Line takes only about 20 seconds, but costs £4.90 (cash fare). Yet it still remains one of the most popular journeys with tourists.
6. Many tube stations were used as air-raid shelters during the Second World War, but the Central Line was even converted into a fighter aircraft factory that stretched for over two miles, with its own railway system. Its existence remained an official secret until the 1980s.
7. Angel has the Underground's longest escalator at 60m/197ft, with a vertical rise of 27.5m.
8. The shortest escalator is Stratford, with a vertical rise of 4.1m.
9. Only 45 per cent of the Underground is actually in tunnels.
10. The longest distance between stations is on the Metropolitan line from Chesham to Chalfont & Latimer: a total of only 3.89 miles.
The history of the Tube in pictures
11. The longest continuous tunnel is on the Northern line and runs from East Finchley to Morden (via Bank), a total of 17.3 miles.
12. Aldgate Station, on the Circle and Metropolitan Lines, is built on a massive plague pit, where more than 1,000 bodies are buried.
13. The longest journey without change is on the Central line from West Ruislip to Epping, and is a total of 34.1 miles.
14. The deepest station is Hampstead on the Northern line, which runs down to 58.5 metres.
15. In Central London the deepest station below street level is also the Northern line. It is the DLR concourse at Bank, which is 41.4 metres below.
Only 45 per cent of the Underground is actually in tunnels
16. The TARDIS, (Dr Who’s transport) can be found outside Earl’s Court station. Or at least an old police call box can.
17. The London Underground manages about 10 per cent of all green spaces in London.
18. Wildlife observed on the Tube network includes woodpeckers, deer, sparrowhawk, bats, grass snakes, great crested newts, slow worms.
19. Over 47 million litres water are pumped from the Tube each day, enough to fill a standard leisure centre swimming pool (25 metres x 10 metres) every quarter of an hour.
20. The London Underground trains were originally steam powered.
21. The station with the most platforms is Baker Street with 10 (Moorgate also has 10 platforms but only six are used by Tube trains - others are used by overground trains).
22.The District Line has the most stations: 60.
There are 270 stations on the network Credit: Dominic Lipinski
23. The Waterloo and City Line has the fewest stations (no intermediate stations)
24. The Underground name first appeared on stations in 1908.
25. London Underground has been known as the Tube since 1890 due to the shape of the tunnels.
26. The first deep-level electric railway line also opened in 1890.
27. The Tube's logo is known as “the roundel” (a red circle crossed by a horizontal blue bar)
28. The station with the most escalators is Waterloo with 23.
29. The total number of passengers carried during 2013/14 was 1.265 billion – making it the world's 11th busiest metro.
30. The highest station above sea level is Amersham, at 147 metres.
What we love about the London Underground
31. Tube trains travelled 76.4 million kilometres last year.
32. The Northern line has the highest maximum number of trains required for scheduled peak period service: 91.
The Tube's logo is known as “the roundel” Credit: Reuters Photographer
33. The Waterloo & City line has the fewest scheduled for peak period service at just five.
34. The total length of the London Underground network is 250 miles.
35. In 1926, suicide pits were installed beneath tracks due to a rise in the numbers of passengers throwing themselves in front of trains.
36. The eastern extension of the Jubilee line is the only Underground line to feature glass screens to deter "jumpers".
37. The earliest trains run from Osterley to Heathrow on the Piccadilly line, starting at 4.45am.
38. The greatest elevation above the ground level is on the Northern line at Dollis Brook viaduct over Dollis road, Mill Hill: it rises a total of 18 metres (60ft).
39. One of the early names proposed for the Victoria Line was the Viking line.
40. In 1924, the first baby was born on the Underground, on a train at Elephant & Castle on the Bakerloo line.
The Tube's prettiest stations
41. The American talk show host Jerry Springer was born at East Finchley during the Second World War: his mother had taken shelter in the station from an air raid.
42. Builders working on the Bakerloo Line are reported to have suffered from the bends while tunnelling under the Thames.
43. The inaugural journey of the first Central line train in 1900 had the Prince of Wales and Mark Twain on board.
The total length of the London Underground network is 250 miles Credit: PA
44. The tunnels beneath the City curve significantly because they follow its medieval street plan.
45. The Central line introduced the first flat fare when it opened at the turn of the 20th century. The tuppence fare lasted until the end of June 1907 when a threepenny fare was introduced for longer journeys.
46. Charles Pearson, MP and Solicitor to the City of London, is credited with successfully campaigning for the introduction of the Underground. He died in 1862 shortly before the first train ran.
47. The first escalator on the Underground was installed at Earl's Court in 1911.
48. The first crash on the Tube occurred in 1938 when two trains collided between Waterloo and Charing Cross, injuring 12 passengers.
49. Harry Beck produced the well known Tube map diagram while working as an engineering draughtsman at the London Underground Signals Office. He was reportedly paid 10 guineas (£10.50) for his efforts.
50. Harry Beck’s map was considered too big a departure from the norm, but the public liked it and it became official in 1933.
51. Busking has been licensed on the Tube since 2003.
52. Sting and Paul McCartney are both rumoured to have busked on the Underground in disguise.
53. The phrase "Mind the gap" dates back to 1968. The recording that is broadcast on stations was first done by Peter Lodge, who had a recording company in Bayswater.
A photo posted by bologna|2001|galvani (@_f_r_e_0_1_) on
Aug 18, 2016 at 4:53am PDT
54. The Peter Lodge recording of “Mind the Gap” is still in use, but some lines use recordings by a Manchester voice artist Emma Clarke. On the Piccadilly line the recording is notable for being the voice of Tim Bentinck, who plays David Archer in The Archers.
55. The Jubilee Line was the only Underground Line to connect with all the others until the East London line ceased to be part of the Underground in 2007 (now the Central Line does too).
56. Approximately 50 passengers a year kill themselves on the Underground.
57. Fewer than 10 per cent of Tube stations lie south of the Thames.
58. The total number of lifts on the Underground, including four stair lifts, is 167.
Ye Olde London Underground Credit: Getty
59. Smoking was banned on the Underground as a result of the King's Cross fire in November 1987 which killed 31 people. A discarded match was thought to be the cause of that inferno.
60. An estimated half a million mice live in the Underground system.
London's lost Tube stations: in pictures
61. 1961 marked the end of steam and electric haulage of passenger trains on the London Underground.
62. One of the levels in Tomb Raider 3 is set in the disused Aldwych tube station, featuring scenes of Lara Croft killing rats.
63. In the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the Hogwarts headmaster has a scar that resembles a map of the London Underground on his knee.
64.There are only two tube station names that contain all five vowels: Mansion House, and South Ealing.
65. Edward Johnston designed the font for the London Underground in 1916. The font he came up with is still in use today.
66. Amersham is also the most westerly tube station, as well as the highest (see above).
67. A macabre statistic is that the most popular tube suicide time is around 11am.
68. In January 2005, in an attempt to alleviate a problem with loitering young people, the London Underground announced it would play classical music at problem stations.
Which buildings survived the Great Fire of London?
69. The Underground has the oldest section of underground railway in the world, which opened in 1863.
70. The first section of the Underground ran between Paddington (Bishop's Road) and Farringdon Street. The same section now forms part of the Circle, Hammersmith & City, and Metropolitan lines.
London Underground: 10 of the funniest videos
71.The Underground was first used for air raid shelters in September 1940.
72. During the Second World War, part of the Piccadilly line (Holborn - Aldwych branch), was closed and British Museum treasures were stored in the empty spaces.
73. The London Passenger Transport Board was nationalised and became the London Transport Executive in 1948.
74. The first Tube tunnel was opened in 1880, running from the Tower of London to Bermondsey.
75. The Central Line used to be nicknamed as the 'Twopenny Tube' for its flat fare.
76. Dot matrix train destination indicators were introduced onto London Underground platforms in 1983.
77. The single worst accident in terms of fatalities on the Underground occurred on February 28, 1975 at Moorgate, when 42 people died.
78. The Piccadilly line extended to serve Heathrow Terminal 4 in 1986.
79. Penalty fares were only introduced in 1994.
80. The Tube carried one billion passengers in a year for the first time in 2007.
London Underground quiz
81.The last manually operated doors on Tube trains (replaced by air-operated doors) were phased out in 1929.
82.The Jubilee Line was named to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 – but the line did not open until 1979.
A photo posted by Merve (@lknmerve) on
Aug 1, 2016 at 12:25pm PDT
83. A census carried out on September 27, 1940, found that 177,500 Londoners were sleeping in Tube stations.
84. During the war, special supply trains ran, providing seven tonnes of food and 2,400 gallons of tea and cocoa every night to people staying in the Tube.
85. Covent Garden is believed to be haunted by the ghost of William Terris who met an untimely death near the station in 1897.
86. Another station that is believed to be haunted is Farringdon. The so-called Screaming Spectre is believed to have been a milliner.
87. The Seven Sisters Underground station is believed to have been named after a line of elm trees which stood nearby until the 1830s.
88. The fictitious station of Walford East, which features in the long-running soap opera Eastenders, is supposed to be on the District Line.
89. Every week, Underground escalators travel the equivalent distance of going twice around the world.
90. According to TFL, London Underground trains travel a total of 1,735 times around the world (or 90 trips to the moon and back) each year.
91. A spiral escalator was installed in 1907 at Holloway Road station, but linear escalators were favoured for the rest of the network. A small section of the spiral escalator is in the Acton depot.
92. A small section of the old London Wall survives in the trackside walls of Tower Hill station at platform level. One of the largest pieces of the wall also stands just outside this station.
93. Finsbury Park station has murals that show a pair of duelling pistols, harking back to a time when men would visit the park after hours to defend their honour.
The Jubilee line receives the most complaints Credit: © Pixel Youth movement / Alamy Stock Photo/Pixel Youth movement / Alamy Stock Photo
94. In 2012, the most complained about line was the Jubilee.
95. The London Underground is thought to be the third largest metro system in the world, in terms of miles, after the Beijing Subway and the Shanghai Metro.
96. The London Underground is the third busiest metro system in Europe, after Moscow and Paris.
97. The coffin of Dr. Thomas Barnardo was carried in funeral cortege on an underground train in 1905, one of only two occasions this is known to have happened.
98. The Underground helped over 200,000 children escape to the countryside during the Second World War.
99. During the war, some stations (now mostly disused) were converted into government offices: a station called Down Street was used for meetings of the Railway Executive Committee, as well as for the War Cabinet before the Cabinet War Rooms were built.
100. Brompton Road (now disused) on the Piccadilly, Line was apparently used as a control room for anti-aircraft guns.
101. Only five London Underground stations lie outside the M25 motorway
The Night Tube is finally here Credit: AFP or licensors/DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS
102. The Underground runs 24 hours a day at New Year, during special events (such as for the opening and closing ceremonies of the London Olympics), and on selected lines at the weekend.
103. According to a 2002 study air quality on the Underground was 73 times worse than at street level, with 20 minutes on the Northern Line having "the same effect as smoking a cigarette".
104. The former poet laureate John Betjeman created 'Metroland' series, a homage to the people and places served by the Metropolitan line in 1973.
Ride the Emirates Air Line cable car with this 360° video
105. The Oyster card was introduced in 2003.
106. The worst civilian death toll on the Underground occurred at Bethnal Green Tube tragedy in 1943, when 173 people died. It is the largest loss of life in a single incident on the London Underground network.
107. The largest number of people killed by a single wartime bomb was 68 at Balham Station.
108. The 100th anniversary of the roundel (the Tube Logo) was celebrated in 2008 by TfL commissioning 100 artists to produce works that celebrate the design.
109. The largest Tube car park is at Epping and has 599 parking spots.
110. The Central Line has the most tube stations with no surface building (Bank, Bethnal Green, Chancery Lane, Gants Hill, Notting Hill Gate)
111. Of the stations that have stairs, Hampstead Station has the most steps (320 in total).
112. There are 14 journeys between stations that take less than a minute on average.
113. King's Cross St Pancras tube station is served by more Underground lines than any other station on the network.
114. Seven London Boroughs are not served by the underground system, six of them being situated south of the River Thames.
115. The total number of carriages in London Underground's fleet, as of January 2013, was 4,134.
116. The total number of stations served on the network is 270.
117. London Underground transferred from the control of the Government to Transport for London (TfL) on July 15, 2003.
118. Scenes from the film Sliding Doors were shot at Waterloo station on the Waterloo & City Line and at Fulham Broadway tube station on the District Line.
119. Filming on location in the Underground costs £500 per hour (plus VAT) unless you have a crew of less than five.
120. You can now no longer go around the Circle Line in a full circle. From 2009, the Circle Line terminated at Edgware Road.
121. Greenford on the Central Line was the last Tube station to use wooden escalators. They were replaced in 2014.
122. Arsenal (originally Gillespie Road) on Piccadilly line is the only station named after a football team.
123. There are three tube stations on the Monopoly board: Liverpool Street Station, King’s Cross and Marylebone.
Watch | How to land at Britain's trickiest airport
03:57
124. The number of stations that only use escalators is 12
125. Nineteen stations just use lifts.
126. The River Westbourne was funnelled above a platform on Sloane Square in a large iron pipe suspended from girders. It remains in place today.
127. The first tube station to be demolished was Westbourne Park on the Metropolitan Line. It was re-sited in 1871.
128. There is a mosquito named after the Tube – the London Underground mosquito, which was found in the London Underground. It was notable for its assault of Londoners sleeping in the Underground during the Blitz.
129.The London Underground Film Office handles over 200 requests a month.
130. In Alfred Hitchcock’s first feature film The Lodger (1926) featured the director making a cameo on the Tube.
131. The record for visiting all the stations on the London Underground network – known as the Tube Challenge – is currently held by Ronan McDonald and Clive Burgess of the United Kingdom, who completed the challenge in 16 hours, 14 minutes and 10 seconds on February 19, 2015
132. The Tube Challenge record did not appear in the Guinness book of records until its eighth edition in 1960, when it stood at 18 hours, 35 minutes.
133. An interactive novel has been published, set on the London Underground. You can read it here .
134. In cockney rhyming slang, the London Underground is known as the Oxo (Cube/Tube).
135. Around 30,000 passengers went on The Metropolitan Line on its first day of public business – January 10, 1863.
136. There were claims the first baby born on the Underground was called Thelma Ursula Beatrice Eleanor (so that her initials would have read TUBE) but this story later proved false – her actual name was Marie Cordery.
London brunch
137. On August 3 2012, during the Olympic Games, the London Underground had its most hectic day ever, carrying 4.4 million passengers – but that record was beaten on Friday December 4 2015, when 4.82 million people used it.
138. St James is the only Underground Station to have Grade-I protected status. It includes 55 Broadway, the administrative headquarters of London’s Underground since the 1930s.
139. The most recent Tube birth – a boy – was in 2009.
140. The most common location for filming is Aldwych, a disused station.
141. As Princess Elizabeth, the Queen travelled on the Underground for the first time in May 1939, when she was 13 years old, with her governess Marion Crawford and Princess Margaret.
Apr 30, 2016 at 3:30pm PDT
142. Poems on the Underground was launched in 1986, the idea of American writer Judith Chernaik.
143. A series of animal shapes have also been highlighted in the London Underground map, first discovered by Paul Middlewick in 1988. They're created using the tube lines, stations and junctions of the London Underground map.
144. A fragrance known as Madeleine was trialled at St. James Park, Euston, and Piccadilly stations in 2001, intended to make the Tube more pleasant. It was stopped within days after complaints from people saying they felt ill.
145. There were eight deep-level shelters built under the London Underground in the Second World War. One of them in Stockwell is decorated as a war memorial.
146. After the war, the deep level shelter at Clapham South housed immigrants from the West Indies.
147. A 2011 study suggested 30 per cent of passengers take longer routes due to the out-of-scale distances on the Tube map.
148. The first ever air-conditioned, walk-through Underground train ran on the Metropolitan line in 2010.
149. The average distance travelled by each Tube train annually stands at around 114,500 miles.
150. Alcohol was banned on the Tube – and all London Transport – from June 2008.
Editor's note: Note that one or two facts have changed since this article was first published in 2014 and this has been updated to reflect those changes.
The Best Hotels In London
| i don't know |
Describing events in its capital of 'Laurania', as unrest against the dictatorial government turns to revolution, 'Savrola' published in 1899, was the only novel written by which Nobel Prize winner? | Savrola - WOW.com
Savrola
Lua error in Module:Wikidata at line 288: invalid escape sequence near '"^'.
Publisher
Lua error in Module:Wikidata at line 288: invalid escape sequence near '"^'.
Media type
LC Class
Lua error in Module:Wikidata at line 288: invalid escape sequence near '"^'.
Savrola: A Tale of the Revolution in Laurania is the only major fictional work of Sir Winston S. Churchill . The story describes events in the capital of Laurania, a fictional European state, as unrest against the dictatorial government of president Antonia Molara turns to violent revolution.
Churchill began writing the novel on his voyage from Britain to India to take part in the Malakand campaign in August 1897. Churchill was on leave from his posting with the army in India when he had news of fighting in Malakand, and immediately arranged to return. The book was started before, and completed after, writing The Story of the Malakand Field Force about his experiences there. He wrote to his brother in May 1898 that the book had been completed. The working title for the book was Affairs of State. It was initially published as a serialisation in Macmillan's Magazine between May and December 1898, and was then published as a book in February 1900. [1]
Contents
6 External links
Background
Savrola is in many respects a conventional example of the "Ruritanian" genre, being published just four years after the classic The Prisoner of Zenda , by Anthony Hope . The politics and institutions of Laurania reflect the values of England as Churchill experienced them. A comparison has been drawn between Molara and Oliver Cromwell , against whom an ancestor of Churchill's, also named Winston Churchill, fought as a captain of horse, something which would have been familiar to Churchill as part of his family history. The capital and its institutions are a miniature of London, so the State ball follows the etiquette of the great society gatherings in London which Churchill would have attended. [2]
The heroine of the story, Lucile, is believed to have been modelled upon Churchill's mother, Lady Randolph Churchill . Lucile is the wife of the out-of-touch ruler of Laurania, Molara. Lucile abandons Molara for the charms of Savrola, a character more like Churchill himself. One of the characters, Tiro, an officer in the republican guard, discusses his life in conversation with Savrola, mirroring the life of a subaltern officer in the Indian Army which Churchill had experienced. Savrola himself is described as "vehement, high and daring", and the sort of man who could "know rest only in action, contentment only in danger, and in confusion find their only peace... Ambition was the motive force, and he was powerless to resist it". The story contains a nurse, who again has been compared to Churchill's own nurse, Mrs Everest. The book is dedicated to the officers of the 4th Hussars , Churchill's regiment. [1]
Critical reception
Churchill first sought the opinion of friends and relations about the book. He asked his grandmother, Frances, Duchess of Marlborough, to comment, with particular reference to the character of Lucile. She responded that she felt the book was worthy of publication, particularly since it already had the prospect of a reasonable financial return, but felt the plot might be improved. She was impressed by the descriptions of fighting, but agreed with Churchill's concerns about Lucile, suggesting that the character betrayed his lack of experience of women. However, an offer of £100 from the Morning Post for the right to serialise the book left Churchill no time for amendments, and it was published as it stood. [3]
The book was reviewed by the newspaper, The Star , which was modestly impressed. The reviewer considered that it was clearly inferior to The River War , which Churchill had already published, although this book was written earlier, but would otherwise have been a promising start. It was compared to the works of Benjamin Disraeli , a politician who also wrote novels containing significant amounts of social comment. The reviewer observed that in both cases the books served to maintain public interest in their authors. The characters were described as "stock puppets of brisk romance", but the fighting scenes were impressive and full of suspense.
The Echo was less impressed. While acknowledging that the book showed promise and was interesting, it was critical of the lack of detail in the plot and in love scenes. Unlike some other reviews, which had been entertained by the philosophy and political comment, this considered the "desperate efforts after intellectuality" as simply dull. It felt the book was overly dependent on fighting and bloodshed to carry it along. [4]
The book was not an enormous success, but has persisted. In 1965 a review by Bryan Magee for Encounter observed that the book had hung on in libraries as an adventure tale for children, but regretted that it was neglected by adults. The review recognised that perhaps its greatest interest was now the insight it gave as to Churchill's beliefs as a young man. The character of Savrola identified precisely with Churchill himself, with what he wished to be and what he later became. [5]
Plot
Events take place in a fictional country called Laurania, located somewhere on the Mediterranean sea, which is similar to Italy or Spain, but with an overlay of Victorian England. Laurania has an African colony which can be reached via the Suez Canal . It has been a republic for many years, and has a well established constitution. Five years previously (stated to be in 1883) the country was split by a civil war, as a result of which General Antonio Molara became President and Dictator. Unrest has arisen because of Molara's refusal to restore parliamentary rule, and the final events of his dictatorship are described in the book.
The story opens with a description of the capital and fast-moving political events there. Molara has bowed to popular pressure for elections, but intends to do so on the basis of a grossly amended electoral register. Savrola is seen as the leader of the revolutionaries, deciding what they are to do, and presiding over conflicting factions with differing aims. Despite the unrest, society still proceeds on the surface in a genteel course, with state balls and society events. Molara decides to ask his young and beautiful wife, Lucile, to attempt to seduce Savrola and discover anything she can about his plans. Unfortunately for him, Lucile finds herself attracted to Savrola and her loyalties become confused.
Events move from political manoeuvring to street fighting when a rebel army invades Laurania. While Savrola knows about the army and intended invasion, he has poor control over it, so the invasion has started without his knowledge or proper preparations. Both sides scramble for a fight, as Molara finds the country's regular troops refuse to obey his orders. He is obliged to despatch most of the loyal Republican Guard from the capital to oppose the invaders, leaving him with a much reduced force to hold the capital. Fierce street fighting takes place in the capital between the revolutionaries of the Popular Party and the Republican Guard. The revolution culminates in the storming of the Presidential Palace and the death on the steps of his palace of General Molara. The revolutionary allies start to break apart in the face of a threat by the Lauranian navy (which remains loyal to the president), to bombard the city unless Savrola is handed over to them. The council of public safety decides the most expedient position would be to agree to this, but Savrola escapes attempts to arrest him and flees with Lucile. The city is subsequently bombarded when Savrola is not produced, and the last scene is of Savrola watching the destruction from outside the city.
Editions
Savrola was initially published as a book of 345 pages and 70,000 words by Longman Green and Co. The serial rights were sold to Macmillan's Magazine for £100. Overall, by serialisation and publication in the Longman editions in different countries it earned approximately £700 for Churchill. It was serialised again in the Sunday Dispatch in 1954 on the occasion of Churchill's 80th birthday. [6] A dramatisation of the story was broadcast in 1964 as part of Saturday Night Theatre by BBC Radio , [7] while it was televised in the States in 1956 in a brief version which Churchill himself criticised as lacking the original's status as “a thorough-going rip-roaring melodrama ”. [8]
The first edition was published in the USA by Longmans in November 1899, with a print run of 4,000 copies and a price of $1.25. This was shortly followed in January 1900 by the UK edition of 1,500 copies priced 6 shillings. 4,500 copies were issued of a colonial edition distributed throughout the empire, although a separate edition was issued in Canada by Copp Clark using the same Longman's imprint.
In 1908 a paperback illustrated edition of 128 pages was published in the UK by George Newnes for 6d. In 1915 a new hardback edition of 25,000 copies and 260 pages was issued by Hodder and Stoughton for 7d. In 1956 a second American edition of 241 pages was published by Random house, now risen to $3.50. In 1957 a paperback edition of 222 pages was issued in the UK by Beacon books for 2s 6d. In 1973 a hardback edition of 260 pages was published by Cedric Chivers Ltd. on behalf of the library association for £2.20. Another USA edition was produced in 1976 by Amereon House. In 1990 Leo Cooper published a further UK edition, and others have been produced. There have been a number of editions translated into foreign languages. [9]
References
| Winston Churchill as writer |
Which 1971 film starring Vincent Price tells the story of a disfigured musical genius seeking to avenge the death of his wife? | Savrola - Wikipedia, Photos and Videos
Savrola
NEXT GO TO RESULTS [51 .. 100]
WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE
4900630
Savrola: A Tale of the Revolution in Laurania is the only major fictional work of Sir Winston S. Churchill . The story describes events in the capital of Laurania, a fictional European state, as unrest against the dictatorial government of president Antonia Molara turns to violent revolution.
Churchill began writing the novel on his voyage from Britain to India to take part in the Malakand campaign in August 1897. Churchill was on leave from his posting with the army in India when he had news of fighting in Malakand, and immediately arranged to return. The book was started before, and completed after, writing The Story of the Malakand Field Force about his experiences there. He wrote to his brother in May 1898 that the book had been completed. The working title for the book was Affairs of State. It was initially published as a serialisation in Macmillan's Magazine between May and December 1898, and was then published as a book in February 1900. [1]
Contents
Background[ edit ]
Savrola is in many respects a conventional example of the "Ruritanian" genre, being published just four years after the classic The Prisoner of Zenda , by Anthony Hope . The politics and institutions of Laurania reflect the values of England as Churchill experienced them. A comparison has been drawn between Molara and Oliver Cromwell , against whom an ancestor of Churchill's, also named Winston Churchill, fought as a captain of horse, something which would have been familiar to Churchill as part of his family history. The capital and its institutions are a miniature of London, so the State ball follows the etiquette of the great society gatherings in London which Churchill would have attended. [2]
The heroine of the story, Lucile, is believed to have been modelled upon Churchill's mother, Lady Randolph Churchill . Lucile is the wife of the out-of-touch ruler of Laurania, Molara. Lucile abandons Molara for the charms of Savrola, a character more like Churchill himself. One of the characters, Tiro, an officer in the republican guard, discusses his life in conversation with Savrola, mirroring the life of a subaltern officer in the Indian Army which Churchill had experienced. Savrola himself is described as "vehement, high and daring", and the sort of man who could "know rest only in action, contentment only in danger, and in confusion find their only peace... Ambition was the motive force, and he was powerless to resist it". The story contains a nurse, who again has been compared to Churchill's own nurse, Mrs Everest. The book is dedicated to the officers of the 4th Hussars , Churchill's regiment. [1]
Critical reception[ edit ]
Churchill first sought the opinion of friends and relations about the book. He asked his grandmother, Frances, Duchess of Marlborough, to comment, with particular reference to the character of Lucile. She responded that she felt the book was worthy of publication, particularly since it already had the prospect of a reasonable financial return, but felt the plot might be improved. She was impressed by the descriptions of fighting, but agreed with Churchill's concerns about Lucile, suggesting that the character betrayed his lack of experience of women. However, an offer of £100 from the Morning Post for the right to serialise the book left Churchill no time for amendments, and it was published as it stood. [3]
The book was reviewed by the newspaper, The Star , which was modestly impressed. The reviewer considered that it was clearly inferior to The River War , which Churchill had already published, although this book was written earlier, but would otherwise have been a promising start. It was compared to the works of Benjamin Disraeli , a politician who also wrote novels containing significant amounts of social comment. The reviewer observed that in both cases the books served to maintain public interest in their authors. The characters were described as "stock puppets of brisk romance", but the fighting scenes were impressive and full of suspense.
The Echo was less impressed. While acknowledging that the book showed promise and was interesting, it was critical of the lack of detail in the plot and in love scenes. Unlike some other reviews, which had been entertained by the philosophy and political comment, this considered the "desperate efforts after intellectuality" as simply dull. It felt the book was overly dependent on fighting and bloodshed to carry it along. [4]
The book was not an enormous success, but has persisted. In 1965 a review by Bryan Magee for Encounter observed that the book had hung on in libraries as an adventure tale for children, but regretted that it was neglected by adults. The review recognised that perhaps its greatest interest was now the insight it gave as to Churchill's beliefs as a young man. The character of Savrola identified precisely with Churchill himself, with what he wished to be and what he later became. [5]
Plot[ edit ]
Events take place in a fictional country called Laurania, located somewhere on the Mediterranean sea, which is similar to Italy or Spain, but with an overlay of Victorian England. Laurania has an African colony which can be reached via the Suez Canal . It has been a republic for many years, and has a well established constitution. Five years previously (stated to be in 1883) the country was split by a civil war, as a result of which General Antonio Molara became President and Dictator. Unrest has arisen because of Molara's refusal to restore parliamentary rule, and the final events of his dictatorship are described in the book.
The story opens with a description of the capital and fast-moving political events there. Molara has bowed to popular pressure for elections, but intends to do so on the basis of a grossly amended electoral register. Savrola is seen as the leader of the revolutionaries, deciding what they are to do, and presiding over conflicting factions with differing aims. Despite the unrest, society still proceeds on the surface in a genteel course, with state balls and society events. Molara decides to ask his young and beautiful wife, Lucile, to attempt to seduce Savrola and discover anything she can about his plans. Unfortunately for him, Lucile finds herself attracted to Savrola and her loyalties become confused.
Events move from political manoeuvring to street fighting when a rebel army invades Laurania. While Savrola knows about the army and intended invasion, he has poor control over it, so the invasion has started without his knowledge or proper preparations. Both sides scramble for a fight, as Molara finds the country's regular troops refuse to obey his orders. He is obliged to despatch most of the loyal Republican Guard from the capital to oppose the invaders, leaving him with a much reduced force to hold the capital. Fierce street fighting takes place in the capital between the revolutionaries of the Popular Party and the Republican Guard. The revolution culminates in the storming of the Presidential Palace and the death on the steps of his palace of General Molara. The revolutionary allies start to break apart in the face of a threat by the Lauranian navy (which remains loyal to the president), to bombard the city unless Savrola is handed over to them. The council of public safety decides the most expedient position would be to agree to this, but Savrola escapes attempts to arrest him and flees with Lucile. The city is subsequently bombarded when Savrola is not produced, and the last scene is of Savrola watching the destruction from outside the city.
Editions[ edit ]
Savrola was initially published as a book of 345 pages and 70,000 words by Longman Green and Co. The serial rights were sold to Macmillan's Magazine for £100. Overall, by serialisation and publication in the Longman editions in different countries it earned approximately £700 for Churchill. It was serialised again in the Sunday Dispatch in 1954 on the occasion of Churchill's 80th birthday. [6] A dramatisation of the story was broadcast in 1964 as part of Saturday Night Theatre by BBC Radio , [7] while it was televised in the States in 1956 in a brief version which Churchill himself criticised as lacking the original's status as “a thorough-going rip-roaring melodrama ”. [8]
The first edition was published in the USA by Longmans in November 1899, with a print run of 4,000 copies and a price of $1.25. This was shortly followed in January 1900 by the UK edition of 1,500 copies priced 6 shillings. 4,500 copies were issued of a colonial edition distributed throughout the empire, although a separate edition was issued in Canada by Copp Clark using the same Longman's imprint.
In 1908 a paperback illustrated edition of 128 pages was published in the UK by George Newnes for 6d. In 1915 a new hardback edition of 25,000 copies and 260 pages was issued by Hodder and Stoughton for 7d. In 1956 a second American edition of 241 pages was published by Random house, now risen to $3.50. In 1957 a paperback edition of 222 pages was issued in the UK by Beacon books for 2s 6d. In 1973 a hardback edition of 260 pages was published by Cedric Chivers Ltd. on behalf of the library association for £2.20. Another USA edition was produced in 1976 by Amereon House. In 1990 Leo Cooper published a further UK edition, and others have been produced. There have been a number of editions translated into foreign languages. [9]
| i don't know |
What name is given to a substance that breaks up into free ions when dissolved, to produce an electrical conductor? | BBC - GCSE Bitesize: What is electrolysis?
Electrolysis is the process by which ionic substances are broken down into simpler substances using electricity. During electrolysis, metals and gases may form at the electrodes.
What is electrolysis?
Ionic substancesionic substance: Ionic substances form when a metal reacts with a non-metal. They contain charged particles called ions. contain charged particlescharged particle: A particle that carries an electric charge. called ions [ion: Positively- or negatively-charged particles - eg positively charged hydrogen, sodium and potassium atoms. Ion charge helps determine a substance's acidity or alkalinity ]. For example, lead bromide contains positively charged lead ions and negatively charged bromide ions.
Electrolysis is the process by which ionic substances are decomposed (broken down) into simpler substances when an electric current is passed through them.
For electrolysis to work, the ions must be free to move. Ions are free to move when an ionic substance is dissolved in water or when melted. For example, if electricity is passed through moltenmolten: Molten means reduced to liquid form by heating. It is mainly used to describe rock, glass or metal. lead bromide, the lead bromide is broken down to form lead and bromine.
Electrolysis
Here is what happens during electrolysis:
Positively charged ions move to the negative electrodeelectrode: Electrodes are conductors used to establish electrical contact with a circuit. The electrode attached to the negative terminal of a battery is called a negative electrode, or cathode. The electrode attached to the positive terminal of a battery is the positive electrode, or anode. during electrolysis. They receive electrons [electron: An electron is a very small negatively-charged particle found in an atom in the space surrounding the nucleus. ] and are reducedreduction: Reduction is a reaction in which oxygen is removed from a substance. Reduction also means a gain in electrons..
Negatively charged ions move to the positive electrode during electrolysis. They lose electrons and are oxidisedoxidation: Oxidation is a reaction in which oxygen combines with a substance. Oxidation also means a loss of electrons..
The substance that is broken down is called the electrolyteelectrolyte: An electrolyte is a substance which in solution will conduct an electric current..
Page:
| Electrolyte |
Which battle of August 4798 was fought in the spacious Abu Qir Bay? | Electrolysis of Water
Definition: electrolysis is the passage of a direct electric current through an ion-containing solution (for us, water and electrolyte). Electrolysis produces chemical changes at the electrodes.
When an electric current passes across a solid conductor, a magnetic field is created around the conductor and the conductor is heated by the passage of the current. Both the magnetic field and the heat bear a definite relationship to the magnitude of the current passing; the stronger the current the stronger the magnetic field; the stronger the current the more heat. Some liquids are conductors of electricity; mercury for one. The passage of a current through such a conductor produces identical results with those produced in solid conductors. Other liquids are also conductors, but besides passing of current creating a magnetic field and a heating effect, a portion of the liquid is split into two parts which may each be a chemical element, or one, or either may be a chemical group.
In the image above, two platinum plates are placed as shown, one plate is connected to the positive pole of the battery and the other to the negative. If a strong aqueous solution of hydrochloric acid is added, decomposition of the liquid will take place: hydrogen will be given off at the negative plate or cathode, and chlorine at the positive or anode. If the solution of hydrochloric acid is replaced by one of caustic soda, the caustic soda is split up by the current into oxygen, which is liberated at the anode, positive, and metallic sodium which is deposited on the cathode; but since metallic sodium cannot exist in contact with water, the following reaction takes place at the cathode: 2Na + 2 H 2O = 2NaOH + H2 Thus, by a secondary reaction, hydrogen is liberated at the cathode, or, in other words, water is split into its constituents, while the caustic soda is reformed.
Now, let the caustic soda solution be replaced by an aqueous solution of sulphuric acid. In this case hydrogen will be liberated at the cathode and the group SO4 at the anode, but the group SO4 cannot exist in contact with water, as the following reaction takes place: 2SO4 + 2H2O = 2H2SO4 + O2 Thus by a secondary reaction, oxygen is liberated at the anode, or, in other words, water is split into its constituents while the sulphuric acid is reformed.
Liquids which, under the influence of the electric current, behave in the manner of the above are termed "Electrolytes",
The laws relating to this decomposition of liquids by the electric current were enunciated by Faraday as follows:
The quantity of an electrolyte decomposed is proportional to the quantity of electricity which passes.
The mass of any substance liberated by a given quantity of electricity is proportional to the chemical equivalent weight of the substance.
By the chemical equivalent weight of a substance is meant, in the case of elements, the figure which is obtained by dividing its atomic weight by its valency, which in the case of compounds, it is the molecular weight divided by the valency of the compound. However, many elements have more than one valency, therefore they have more than one chemical equivalent weight.
Electrolysis is a process in which an electric current is passed through a liquid, causing a chemical reaction to take place. If the liquid is water, electrolysis "breaks up" the water into two gases--hydrogen and oxygen. If the liquid is a solution that contains a metal, electrolysis breaks up the solution so that the metal is removed. The electrolysis of metallic solutions is useful in putting metal coatings on objects, and in refining, or purifying, metals.
How electrolysis works.
To produce electrolysis, two solid electrical conductors, such as metal or graphite rods, are placed into a liquid. The rods are called electrodes. Wires connect the electrodes to the terminals of a battery or to a direct current generator. The liquid must contain a substance, called an electrolyte, that enables it to carry the current and complete the electrical circuit. For example, distilled water cannot be electrolysed because it does not conduct electricity well. But it can be electrolysed if a little table salt (sodium chloride), which is an electrolyte, is added to it. The electrodes, the liquid, and the container that holds them make up an electrolytic cell.
The electrode connected to the battery's negative pole is the cathode. It carries electrons from the battery to the electrolytic cell. The electrode connected to the battery's positive pole is the anode. It carries electrons from the electrolytic cell back to the battery.
As the current flows through the electrolytic cell, chemical changes take place at the surfaces of the electrodes. At the cathode, the electrolysed liquid combines with electrons supplied by the battery. This process is called reduction. At the anode, the liquid gives electrons to the anode. This process is called oxidation.
In the electrolysis of water, the water combines with electrons at the cathode and is reduced to hydrogen gas. At the anode, water gives up electrons and is oxidized to oxygen gas. The volume of the hydrogen produced is always twice the volume of the oxygen produced, because water contains two atoms of hydrogen for each atom of oxygen.
In the electrolysis of solutions containing ions (charged atoms) of such metals as copper and silver, the reduction of the metal at the cathode causes the metal to be deposited, or to plate out, on the cathode.
Uses of electrolysis.
| i don't know |
In the poem by Edgar Allen Poe, which word is repeatedly spoken by 'The Raven'? | The Raven - Poem by Edgar Allan Poe
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more."
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore -
Nameless here for evermore.
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,
"'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door -
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -
This it is, and nothing more."
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you"- here I opened wide the door; -
Darkness there, and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?"
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!" -
Merely this, and nothing more.
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
"Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice:
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore -
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -
'Tis the wind and nothing more."
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore;
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore.
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore -
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning- little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blest with seeing bird above his chamber door -
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as "Nevermore."
But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered- not a feather then he fluttered -
Till I scarcely more than muttered, "other friends have flown before -
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before."
Then the bird said, "Nevermore."
Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore -
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore
Of 'Never - nevermore'."
But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;
Then upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore -
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking "Nevermore."
This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamplight gloated o'er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamplight gloating o'er,
She shall press, ah, nevermore!
Then methought the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose footfalls tinkled on the tufted floor.
"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he hath sent thee
Respite - respite and nepenthe, from thy memories of Lenore:
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! -
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted -
On this home by horror haunted- tell me truly, I implore -
Is there - is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil - prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore -
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore."
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
"Be that word our sign in parting, bird or fiend," I shrieked, upstarting -
"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken!- quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,
And the lamplight o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted - nevermore!
| Nevermore |
In which English county is the small village of Burnham Thorpe, famous for being the birthplace of Admiral Nelson? | Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - The Raven [Text-16]
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore —
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“ ’Tis some visiter,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door —
Only this and nothing more.”
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; — vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow — sorrow for the lost Lenore —
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore —
Nameless here for evermore.
And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me — filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
“ ’Tis some visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door —
Some late visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door; —
This it is and nothing more.”
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
“Sir,” said I, “or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you” — here I opened wide the door; ——
Darkness there and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore?”
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!” —
Merely this and nothing more.
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
“Surely,” said I, “surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore —
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;—
‘Tis the wind and nothing more!”
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore;
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door —
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door —
Perched, and sat, and nothing more. [column 5:]
Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I said, “art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore —
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!”
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”
Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning — little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door —
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as “Nevermore.”
But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing farther then he uttered — not a feather then he fluttered —
Till I scarcely more than muttered “Other friends have flown before —
On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before.”
Then the bird said “Nevermore.”
Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
“Doubtless,” said I, “what it utters is its only stock and store
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore —
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore
Of ‘Never — nevermore’.”
But the Raven still beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore —
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking “Nevermore.”
This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom’s core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion’s velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o’er,
But whose velvet-violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o’er,
She shall press, ah, nevermore!
Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
“Wretch,” I cried, “thy God hath lent thee — by these angels he hath sent thee
Respite — respite and nepenthe, from thy memories of Lenore;
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!”
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”
“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil! — prophet still, if bird or devil! —
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted —
On this home by Horror haunted — tell me truly, I implore —
Is there — is there balm in Gilead? — tell me — tell me, I implore!”
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”
“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil! — prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us — by that God we both adore —
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore —
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.”
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”
“Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!” I shrieked, upstarting —
“Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken! — quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!”
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”
And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted — nevermore!
| i don't know |
Which former New Zealand Rugby Union international, who made his debut in 1957, was nicknamed 'Pine Tree'? | Colin Meads | NZHistory, New Zealand history online
Colin Meads
Biography
Colin ‘Pinetree’ Meads played 133 games for the All Blacks between 1957 and 1971. In his 55 test matches he scored seven tries and was captain on four occasions.
In 1999 he was named as New Zealand's Player of the Century and the International Rugby Hall of Fame rated him ‘the most famous forward in world rugby throughout the 1960s.’ For many New Zealanders, this humble sheep farmer has come to symbolise a bygone era of New Zealand society and rugby.
Meads was born in Cambridge in 1936 and grew up on a King Country farm. His playing style was physical and uncompromising. Like all players prior to the professional era he did not become rich playing rugby. He also played in an era when substitutes were not allowed. During the 1970 tour of South Africa he broke his arm against Eastern Transvaal but continued playing. At the end of the match Meads muttered, ‘At least we won the bloody game.’ Exploits like this made him a folk hero.
The nickname ‘Pinetree’ was given to him by team-mate Ken Briscoe when he toured Japan in 1958 with the New Zealand Under-23 team. At 1.92 m tall and tipping the scales at 100kg, Meads was no bigger than many of his fellow players – the name was more a recognition of his overall physical presence. His son Glynn, who later played rugby for King Country, became known as ‘Pinecone’.
Meads gained a reputation as the team ‘enforcer’. This did not endear him to all. In 1967 he became only the second All Black ordered off in a test for dangerous play against Scotland at Murrayfield. Some also accused him of ending Wallaby halfback Ken Catchpole's career in 1968 when he grabbed and wrenched Catchpole's leg while he was pinned under other players in a ruck.
After making his debut in 1955, Meads played his entire provincial career – 139 games – for his home province of King Country. His All Black debut came on the 1957 tour of Australia. He played in both tests (not in his preferred position of lock but as a flanker and No. 8). From that point on he became an almost permanent fixture in the test line up until 1971 when he captained an inexperienced All Black team to their first series loss to the British Lions. Meads hung up his boots following two President's XV matches against the All Blacks. At Athletic Park Meads led the President's XV to victory over an All Blacks side led by Ian Kirkpatrick.
After hanging up his boots Meads became involved with administration and coaching in King Country. He became a coach and selector of North Island sides before becoming a national selector in 1986. He fell foul of the New Zealand Rugby Union hierarchy when he went to South Africa as coach of the unauthorised Cavaliers team. Meads opposed the sporting boycott of apartheid South Africa, believing politics had no place in sport. He was dumped as a national selector as a result. In 1992 he achieved some form of redemption when he was elected to the NZRU council. He was All Black manager at the 1995 World Cup in South Africa.
Meads's iconic status in New Zealand society was recognised in the 2001 New Year's honours list. He was made a New Zealand Companion of Merit (the equivalent of a knighthood). In 2009 the government reintroduced the former system of titles and Colin Meads accepted the title ‘Sir’. He stated that he didn't want to be called 'Sir' like other rugby knights and team-mates Sir Wilson Whineray and Sir Brian Lochore. They, he argued, deserved the title as they were ‘perfect gentlemen’, whereas he was ‘a bit rougher’.
By Steve Watters
| Colin Meads |
Which British comedy actor, whose father took part in the 1948 Olympic Games, took part in the 1980 Oxford/Cambridge Boat Race? | Questions and answers - New Zealand - Sets & series - Celestial Crown Cap
2. Sean Fitzpatrick refer 12 bottle pack for entry detail
Lion Red Beer: 20 caps.
Q. At 22 Jerry Lee Lewis married for the third time, who did he marry? A. His 13yr old cousin
Q. How long did it take for Led Zeppelin to create it's first album? A. 9 days
Q. How loud is the world's loudest speaker? A. 130 db (a shuttle launch is 150 db)
Q. How many people attended Woodstock? A. 450,000
Q. Tim Finn rejoined Crowded House in what year? A. 1991
Q. What day was Eminem's daughter born? A. Christmas Day
Q. What did both Finn brothers receive in 1991? A. OBE's
Q. What is the quickest recorded consumption of a 2.5 pint yard glass? A. 5 seconds
Q. What movie did Anthony of the Chilli Peppers appear in? A. Point Break
Q. What movie lead role did Jon Bon Jovi turn down? A. Footloose
Q. What was Crowded House's most successful single? A. Don't dream it's over
Q. What was James brown known as? A. Ambassador of Soul
Q. What was the biggest selling British album of all time? A. Pink Floyd - Dark side of the Moon
Q. What was the name of Dave Dobbyn's first solo album? A. Loyal
Q. What was the name of the band that was formed before Crowded House? A. The Mullanes
Q. What was the name of The Feelers debut album? A. Supersystem
Q. What year did Split Enz last play? A. 1984
Q. When were the beach boys formed? A. 1961
Q. Where are the Exponents from? A. Christchurch
Q. Which Pink Floyd band member appears on all of the bands albums? A. Nick Manson
Speight's Gold Medal Ale Pride of the South Twist Off Only: 109 caps.
Q. Against who did the All Blacks last remain scoreless in a test match? A. Scotland (1963/64)
Q. Aussie netball coach Norma Plummer described the world champ Silver Fems as a bunch of what? A. Scrubbers
Q. Buzkashi, the sport of Afghanistan, involves fighting on horseback for the possession of what? A. A headless goat or calf
Q. How many All Blacks started in all seven tests in 1998? A. 5
Q. How many drop goals were scored in the baby blacks V France test in 1963? A. 6
Q. How many innings does a team have to play in a full game of softball? A. 7
Q. How many olympic gold medals did Peter Snell win? A. 3
Q. How many players took the field for NZ in its 1987 rugby world cup campaign? A. 23
Q. How many points are awarded for potting the brown ball in snooker? A. 4
Q. How many points did Simon Culhane score on his All Black debut? A. 45
Q. How many sports did NZ take part in at the the 1980 olympics? A. 2
Q. How many times have the All Blacks exceeded 100 points in a match? A. 4
Q. How many unions contest the Seddon shield? A. 4
Q. In what calendar year did the All Blacks play 40 matches? A. 1905
Q. In what sport is the Saville cup contested? A. Polo
Q. In what year did Counties first win the NPC? A. 1979
Q. In what year did NZ first win the world netball title? A. 1967
Q. In what year did NZ record its first win in test cricket? A. 1956
Q. In what year did princess Anne compete at the olympic games? A. 1976
Q. In what year was Colin Meads dropped from the All Blacks? A. 1962
Q. In what year was the mens cricket world cup first played? A. 1975
Q. In which 2 events did Danyon Loader win gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics? A. 200m & 400m freestyle
Q. In which 2 events did Danyon Loader win gold at the 1996 Olympics? A. 200m & 400m freestyle
Q. In which city was the first sub 4 minute mile run in NZ? A. Wanganui
Q. In which event did Mike Ryan win an olympic bronze medal in 1968? A. Marathon
Q. In which sport did Greg Louganis dominate the world? A. Diving
Q. In which sport did Harry Kent win commonwealth games gold? A. Cycling
Q. In which sport did Steve McDowell win an Oceania title in 1979? A. Judo
Q. In which year did Chris Lewis make it to the Wimbledon men's final? A. 1983
Q. In which year did NZ first win a cricket test against Australia? A. 1974
Q. In which year did Stacey Jones win league's prestigious Golden Boot Award? A. 2002
Q. In which year was the 5 point try introduced into NZ rugby? A. 1992
Q. Name NZ's only world professional biliards champion? A. Clark McConachy
Q. Name the 2 sons of an All Black captain who have played test rugby in the same team? A. Martin & John Leslie
Q. On which ground did Jeff Wilson make his All Black debut? A. Twickenham
Q. On which ground did the NZ men's cricket team first win a test against England? A. Basin Reserve (1978)
Q. Rower Sonia Waddell is the daughter of which All Black? A. Alistair Scown
Q. Sarah Ulmer won her 2004 Olympic gold medal in which event? A. Individual pursuit
Q. What boat did NZ race against to win the America's cup final in 1995? A. Young America
Q. What club won the Nth Harbour U19 rugby champs in 1999? A. East Coast Bays
Q. What country caused an upset win over the NZ rugy league team in 1963? A. South Africa
Q. What horse did Mark Todd ride at the 1984 & 1988 olympics? A. Charisma
Q. What is the longest swimming race in the olympic games? A. 1500m
Q. What is the main home ground of the Northland rugby team? A. Lowe Walker stadium
Q. What is the most goals scored by a player in a Chatham cup soccer final? A. 6
Q. What is the most number of penalties scored by the All Blacks in a test? A. 7 (Western Samoa)
Q. What NZ athlete won the 3000m at the 1982 commonwealth games? A. Anne Audain
Q. What was the score in the 1998 soccer world cup final? A. France 3 - Brazil 0
Q. What yacht did Peter Blake sail to win round the world race in 1990? A. Steinlager 11
Q. Which All Black scored a record 230 points on a tour to Britain & France? A. Billy Wallace
Q. Which All Black was sinbinned and scored 2 tries in the 3rd test against the 2005 Lions? A. Tana Umaga
Q. Which All Black's middle name is �Tali�? A. Jonah Lomu
Q. Which back has played the most games for the All Blacks? A. Bryan Williams
Q. Which country did Connie Francis play netball for? A. Jamaica
Q. Which country did Rebecca Perrott swim for at the 1974 commonwealth games? A. Fiji
Q. Which county cricket team has Egbaston as a home ground? A. Warwickshire
Q. Which Fijian was ordered off against the All Blacks in 1997? A. Bill Cavubati
Q. Which former Warriors league star's name is Samoan for Hydrogen Oxygen? A. Hitro Okesene
Q. Which horse was harness racing's 1st million dollar earner? A. Cardigan Bay
Q. Which Kiwi had to pull out of the men's walk at the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games? A. Craig Barrett
Q. Which New Zealand Maori lock is known as the Orange Roughy? A. Paul Tito
Q. Which New Zealand referee last refereed the All Blacks? A. David Bishop
Q. Which NZ athlete won bronze in the 800m at the 1964 olympic games? A. Marise Chamberlain
Q. Which Otago No 8 in the 1980s and 90s was a children's book writer? A. Brent Pope
Q. Which province has the shortest tenure of the ranfurly shield? A. Wellington (7 days)
Q. Which Springbok flanker inspired a diagonal running drill still used in NZ rugby training? A. Hennie Muller
Q. Which team has conceded the most points in a Ranfurly shield match? A. North Otago (139)
Q. Which yacht did Chris Bouzaid sail to win the one ton cup in 1969? A. Rainbow 11
Q. Who beat Jahangir Khan to win the world squash title in 1986? A. Ross Norman
Q. Who beat Jim Ryan to win the olympic 1500m in 1968? A. Kip Keino
Q. Who captained the 1977 British Lions to NZ? A. Phil Bennett
Q. Who captained the 1998 Otago Highlanders in Taine Randell's absense? A. Jeff Wilson
Q. Who captained the All Blacks against Australia in 1964? A. John Graham
Q. Who captained the All Blacks against the 1971 British Lions? A. Colin Meads
Q. Who captained the NZ netball team at the 1967 world champs? A. Judy Blair
Q. Who captained the world cricket X1 against England in 1965? A. John Reid
Q. Who captioned the 1983 British Lions to NZ? A. Cairan Fitzgerald
Q. Who coached the 1997 Fiji rugby teamto NZ? A. Brad Johnstone
Q. Who did Canterbury defeat in the 1997 NPC final? A. Counties
Q. Who did Chris Lewis lose to in the 1983 Winbledon final? A. John McEnroe
Q. Who did NZ beat in the final of the 1984 world softball championships? A. Canada
Q. Who did Phillipa Baker win two double sculls world rowing titles with in 1993 and 1994? A. Brenda Lawson
Q. Who has made the most appearances in Ranfurly Shield rugby? A. Grant Fox (57)
Q. Who has played the most games for the Waikato rugby team? A. Ian Foster (148)
Q. Who has played the most matches for the All Blacks? A. Colin Meads (133)
Q. Who has scored 3 successive test centuries for NZ? A. Andrew Jones
Q. Who is NZ's only men's Wimbledon singles champion? A. Anthony Wilding
Q. Who is the only NZ'er to win a world Formula one drivers championship? A. Denny Hulme
Q. Who is the youngest player to play test cricket for NZ? A. Daniel Vettori
Q. Who is the youngest player to play test cricket for the All Blacks? A. Jonah Lomu
Q. Who played his last four games for the All Blacks in different positions? A. Bob Barber
Q. Who replaced Eddie Tonks as chairman of the NZRFU? A. Richie Guy
Q. Who rode great sensation to 3 Wellington cup wins in the 1960's? A. Bob Skelton
Q. Who scored 44 tries for the All Blacks on an overseas tour? A. Jimmy Hunter (1905)
Q. Who scored the All Blacks' 1st try at the 2003 World Cup? A. Brad Thorn
Q. Who trained the winning horse in the 2008 Melbourne Cup? A. Bart Cummings
Q. Who was named NZ sportsman of the 1970s? A. John Walker
Q. Who was NZ's first rugby test captain? A. Jimmy Duncan
Q. Who was the first All Black fullback to score a try in a test? A. Don Clarke
Q. Who was the first family combination to win the NZ sportsman of the year? A. Williams (Yvette & Roy)
Q. Who was the first NZ'er to win an olympic winter games medal? A. Annelise Coberger
Q. Who was the first rugby player to win the NZ sportsman of the year? A. Ron Jarden
Q. Who was the first South Island player to win the Tom French cup? A. Tane Norton (1973)
Q. Who was the NZ super 12 player of the year in 1998? A. Andrew Mehrtens
Q. Who was the top try scorer on the All Black tour to South Africa in 1970? A. Grahame Thorne (17)
Q. Who was voted MVP at the women's rugby world cup in 1998? A. Annaleah Rush
Q. Who won NZ's first olympic track & field gold medal? A. Jack Lovelock
Q. With which sport is the Jules Rimet trophy associated? A. World cup soccer
Q. Wynton Rufer won the European Cup Winners Cup with which German soccer club? A. Werder Bremen
Speight's Master Brewers: 2 caps.
Q. In which sport would you 'loop', 'chop', 'double-bounce' and 'sidespin'? A. Table Tennis
Q. Who succeeded Alex Wylie as the All Blacks coach in 1992? A. Laurie Mains
Speight's Gold Medal Ale Pride of the South: 4 caps.
Q. How many All Blacks started in all seven tests in 1998? A. 5
Q. Who has scored 3 successive test centuries for NZ? A. Andrew Jones
Q. Who was the Black Ferns captain in 1998? A. Farrah Palmer
Q. With which sport was coach Cyrli Walter associated? A. Hockey
Tui: 485 caps.
'Down Under' is a song on which Men at Work album? A. Business as Usual
'Nobody puts baby in the corner' is a line from which movie? A. Dirty Dancing
10 o'clock closing for pubs was introduced in which year? A. 1967
68% of players have lost at least 1 tooth in what professional sport? A. Ice Hockey
A baseball has exactly how many stitches? A. 108
An ant can lift items how many times heavier than its weight? A. 50
Ancient Egyptians mourned the death of cats by? A. Shaving eyebrowns.
At which Olympics was NZ's biggest gold medal haul? A. LA 1984
Before Blondie, what sort of job did Deborah Harry have? A. Playboy Bunny
Blow, Hail and Melt are three albums by which NZ band? A. Straitjacket Fits
Bob Parker was famous for hosting which show? A. This is Your life
Bruno Lawrence and Greer Robson co starred in which movie? A. Smash palace
Charlie Watt's is the drummer of what band? A. The Rolling Stones
Check out the Miss tui competition on www.tui.co.nz
Chris Carter created which TV series? A. The X Files
Did Phar Lap ever race in New Zealand? A. No
Drew Barrymore starred as a child with which Alien? A. ET
Eagle Rock is a 1971 number one single by which Australian Band? A. Daddy Cool
Foil, �p�e, and sabre are the three weapons used in what sport? A. Fencing
For many centuries, billiard balls were made out of what? A. Ivory
For what band did Charles Manson audition in the 60s? A. The Monkees
For which province did Justin Marshall first play for? A. Southland
Former snooker champion Stephen Hendry was from which country? A. Scotland
Frank Bunce played test rygby for NZ and which other country? A. Samoa
Fred Dagg had 7 sons, what were their names? A. All 7 were named Trev
From 1971 to 1991, how many points was a try worth in Rugby Union? A. Four
Gate Pa is a suburb of which NZ city? A. Tauranga
Gizmo was a furry creature in which movie? A. The Gremlins
Hawke's Bay first held the Ranfurly Shield in what year? A. 1922
Heartland was a New Zealand documentary hosted by whoom? A. Gary McCormick
How did Sir Edmund Hillary and his team travel to the South Pole? A. By Tractor
How does a Kiwi bird hunt? A. By smell
How far from NZ to the South Pole? A. 5340km
How far is the running leg of a Triathlon World Championship? A. 10 km
How fast can a chichken run? A. Up to 15km/h
How long can a Cockroach live for without a head? A. 10 days
How long is the line that an average pencil will draw? A. 35 miles
How long must a cowboy hold on in a Rodeo competition? A. 8 seconds
How many 'Police Academy' movies were made? A. Six
How many ABs were in the Manawatu side when they won NPC in 1980? A. 8
How many albums were officially released by the Sex Pistols? A. One
How many arcade games are there in a Pacman arcade game? A. 240
How many bones in the adult human body? A. 206
How many bridges are there in NZ? A. 16,772
How many casinos were operating in NZ in 2002? A. 5
How many compartments are there on a roulette wheel? A. 37
How many crew members are in an Olympic rowing eight? A. Nine
How many different languages are there in the world? A. 6900
How many dimples on a regulation golf ball. A. 336
How many eggs does the Kiwi lay in a year? A. 4 per season
How many gold medels did Danyon Loader win at the 1996 Olympics? A. Two
How many grooves are on the edge of a NZ 20 cent coin? A. 7
How many Jason movies are there? A. 10
How many kgs is the average bail of wool supposed to be? A. 180kg
How many Kiwis competed at the Beijing Olympics? A. A record 182
How many km of roads are there in NZ? A. 95,000km
How many lakes are in the vicinity of Rotorua? A. 16
How many languages was Baywatch translated into? A. 44
How many laps do drivers race in the Indianapolis 500? A. 200
How many litres in a standard yard glass? A. 3
How many major golf championships has Jack Nicklaus won? A. 18
How many majors did Jack Nicklaus win? A. 18
How many members in Salmonelle Dub? A. 5
How many miles per hour can the 'Shortfin Mako' shark swim? A. 60mph
How many million dollars were made from the 2003 RWC in ticket sales? A. $A202
How many mls in a Quart bottle? A. 745ml
How many NZ mile titles did Peter Snell win? A. 1
How many of Walter Hadlee's sons played first class cricket? A. 3
How many people in a jury? A. 12
How many players compete on an equestrian polo team? A. 4
How many pounds of skin do we shed in a lifetime? A. 40 pounds
How many sheep was NZ estimated to have in 1997? A. 47.7 million
How many species of spider in NZ? A. 2500
How many statutory holidays in NZ every year? A. 10
How many storeys does the Beehive building have? A. 14
How many sweat glands do your feet have? A. Approximately 250,000
How many terms did Helen Clark serve as Prime Minister? A. 3
How many times can you fold a square piece of paper? A. No more than 7
How many times is the F-word said in the movie Scarface? A. 207 times
How many tonnes of vegetation do NZ's possums eat yearly? A. 21,000
How many tries has Jonah Lomu scored for the All Blacks? A. 37
How many versions of 'Yesterday' by the Beatles have been recorded? A. 2500
How many world records did Peter Snell break in 1964? A. Two
How many yards long is a cricket pitch? A. 22
How much does Mexico City sink per year? A. Approx 10 inches
How much is the +75 years women's weight lifting record? A. 285kg
How old was Daniel Vettori when he made his test debut? A. 18 years
How old was Susan Devoy when she first became world number one? A. 20
How old were Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison when they died? A. 27
How tall is the Auckland Sky Tower? A. 328 metres
How tall is the bottle of L&P in the town of Paeroa? A. 7 metres
Humans and what animal have sex for pleasure? A. Dolphins
If it is 3pm in NZ, what time is it in the Chatham Islands? A. 3.45pm
In 'Three Men and a Baby' what was the baby's name? A. Mary
In 1935 who set a land speed record in a car named Bluebird? A. Malcolm Campbell
In 1961, Barmaids were re-introduced, how old did they have to be? A. 25
In 1982, John Belushi died of an overdose of what? A. Cocaine & Heroin
In 1985 Live Aid concert played in what London stadium? A. Wembley
In a game of chess, which colour moves first? A. White
In basketball how long do you have on the shot clock? A. 24 sec
In cricket, what is a dolly? A. An easy catch
In cricket, who was nicknamed the Mantis? A. Jeremy Coney
In Ferris Buellers Day Off who is Cameron going to marry? A. The first girl he lays
In Footrot Flats, what type of animal is Horse? A. Cat
In France a 'French kiss' is called a what? A. English kiss
In Ghostbusters what was the giant at the end called? A. Staypuft marshmallow man
In golf, a green jacket is awarded to the winner of which tournament? A. US Masters
In snooker what coloured ball is worth four points? A. Brown
In Southpark-what did Hanky the xmas poo flood the town with? A. Sewage
In Southpark, what is Kyle's little brothers name? A. Ike
In tennis, which is the only grand slam tournament played on clay? A. French Open
In the film 'The Endless Summer' what are they searching for? A. the perfect wave
In the film Tin Cup who was the male lead? A. Kevin Costner
In the last 2 Matrix movies, who protects 'that which matters most'? A. Seraph
In the Lone Ranger, what was the name of Tonto's horse? A. Scout
In the movie 'Grease' what was the gang of gilrs called? A. Pink Ladies
In what country did coffee originate from? A. Ethiopia
In what movie did Arnold Schwarzenegger get pregnant? A. Junior
In what movie did Tobey Maguire play a jockey? A. Seabiscuit
In what NZ town was Goodbye Pork Pie filmed? A. Raetihi
In what sport do you throw stones? A. Curling
In what sport was Andy Fordhammer the 2003 World Champion? A. Darts
In what sport was Murray Walker a commentator? A. Motor Racing
In what year did Mt Tarawera Erupt? A. 1886
In what year was New Zealand's first telethon? A. 1975
In what year was Sunday trading of liquor abolished? A. 1881
In what year was television 3 launched in New Zealand? A. 1988
In what year were the first awards for NZ music presented? A. 1965
In which American city was Hill Street Blues set? A. New York
In which ball game are players supposed to keep off the field of play? A. Polo
In which cartoon was Officer Dibble an official? A. Top Cat
In which comedy series did Robin Williams play an alien? A. Mork and Mindy
In which country did tennis originate? A. France
In which country did the Silver Ferne win the 2003 Netball Champs? A. Jamaica
In which country was an Air NZ 747 hijacked? A. Fiji
In which country was England cricketer Nasser Hussain born? A. India
In which decade were the first Oscars awarded? A. 1920's
In which sport was the Plunket shield contested for? A. Cricket
In which sport would you abide by the Cartwright rules? A. Baseball
In which sport would you do an O'Brien shift? A. Shot put
In which year was the first official television broadcast in Auckland? A. 1969
Jimmy Hendrix died, the Beatles broke up, what year was it? A. 1970
Lesat is the name of a vampire in which novel? A. Interview with the Vampire
Lions cannot roar until they are how many years old? A. 2
Major Tom is a character in which 1969 David Bowie song? A. Space Oddity
Mickey Mouse was originally named what? A. Mortimer
Name Keanu Reeve's character in the movie Point Break? A. Johnny Utah
Name of the famous artwork on the New Plymounth foreshore? A. Windwand
Name the Christmas Poo in Southpark? A. Hanky
Name the first rap song to hit #1? A. 'Ice Ice Baby' Vanilla Ice
Name the incredible Hulks alter ego? A. Bruce Banner
Name the lead singer of The Exponents? A. Jordan Luck
Name the Mr's in Reservoir Dogs? A. Brown, Blue, Blonde, Whita, Orange, Pink
Name the tiny people who tied up Gulliver? A. Lilliputians
Nasty is a song title from which member of the Jackson family? A. Janet
New Zealand crickets only Polynesian international? A. Murphy Sua
New Zealand's first permanent lighthouse was built where? A. Pencarrow Head
Of which type of Ferrari were only 349 produced? A. F50
On 'Star Trek,' what colour is Mr. Spock's blood? A. Green
On average a human has how many million sweat glands? A. 2 million
On average how many trees can a beaver cut down per year? A. 200
On what Hawajian island is the Bonsai Pipeline located? A. Oahu
On which 1985 single did David Bowie and Mick Jagger collaborate? A. Fame
Over 200,000 pounds of what is surgically removed every year? A. Fat
Q. Alex Wyllie made his test debut in which year? A. 1970
Q. Alex Wyllie scored test tries against Ireland and which other country? A. Scotland
Q. Andy Earl played rugby for Glenmark & which other canty club? A. Culverden
Q. CDHB is an abbreviation for? A. Canterbury District Health Board
Q. Chris Nicholson won NZ titles in cycling and which other sport? A. Ice-skating
Q. Danyon Loader won gold medals at Atlanta in 1996 over what distances? A. 200m & 400m
Q. Denny Hulme won the Formula 1 world championship in which year? A. 1967
Q. How many gold medals did Ian Ferguson win at the '1984 Olympics? A. 3
Q. In what year did Canterbury first defend the Ranfurly Shield? A. 1927
Q. On average Tiger Woods took how many putts per round in 2002? A. 29
Q. The Canterbury rugby team beat which international side 11-9 in 1957? A. All Blacks
Q. Which country did Alex Wyllie coach in the 1999 World Cup? A. Argentina
Q. Who did Canterbury beat to claim the Ranfurly shield in 1982? A. Wellington
Q. Who was the only Cantabrian in the 2003 NZ 7's squad in Wellington? A. Jason Tiatia
Q. Who was the only Canty player, a wing, when NZ v Lions in 1966 at Chch? A. Tony Steel
Robert Allen Zimmermann is better known as whom? A. Bob Dylan
Sauron is an evil character in which book/movie? A. Lord of the Rings
Saving Private Ryan was a movie directed by whom? A. Steven Spielberg
Siad Aoulta was a former champion in which sport? A. Athletics (running)
Simpsons creator Matt Groening's father and son are both named what? A. Homer
Sir Edmund Hillary is on which New Zealand currency? A. $5 note
The average lifespan of a tornado is how many minutes? A. 15
The Footrot Flat characters starred in which film? A. A Dogs Tail
The House of the Rising Sun refers to what? A. A brothel in New Orleans
The Live Aid concert was held in 1985 in which London stadium? A. Wembley Stadium
The Strokes are from which city? A. New York
Tina Turner sang the title song for which Bond movie? A. Goldfinger
Tony Barry and Bruno Lawrence starred in which film? A. Good Bye Pork Pie
U2's Angel of Harlem was written about what singer? A. Billie Holiday
Wal, Cheeky, Horse were created by who? A. Murray Ball
Western Suburbs League club had the mascot name of what? A. Magpies
What 2 ball sports use the term ace? A. Golf & Tennis
What 3 main gases make up a fart? A. Hydrogen, Carbon Dioxide & Methane
What actor was famous for the line 'nanoo nanoo'? A. Robin Williams
What age did the world's youngest mother give birth? A. 5 years old
What animal can clean its ears with a 21 inch tongue? A. Giraffe
What animal can go up stairs but not down? A. Cow
What animal has the largest tongue in the world? A. Giraffe (45-50cm)
What are New Zealand banknotes made from? A. Plastic polymer
What are Sean Fitzpatrick's middle names? A. Brian Thomas
What are the NZ Music Awards colloquially know as? A. The Tuis
What band member from Split Enz grew up in Paekakariki? A. Noel Crombie
What band released the album 'louder than love'? A. Soundgarden
What beverage is made from a plant & was once named 'Octil'? A. Tequila
What bird can reproduce without mating? A. Turkey
What breed of dog is Scooby Doo? A. Great Dane
What building is commonly called The Beehive? A. The Executive Wing
What car name translates to people's car in English? A. Volkswagen
What cartoon featured toad licking & sniffing paint thinner? A. Beavis & Butthead
What colour are the stars on a NZ Flag? A. Red & White
What composer's life was highlighted in the movie Amadeus? A. Mozart
What country has the most individual beer brands? A. Belgium
What country was Greg Rusedski born in? A. Canada
What decade did the Titanic sink? A. 1910s
What did businessman Anthony Yock introduce into NZ? A. Jandals
What did Cheech and Chong most like to do? A. Smoke dope
What did John Britten invent? A. The Britten Motorcycle
What do you do when you 'nictate'? A. Blink
What do you fear if you have Cenosillicaphobia? A. An emtpy glass
What does 'Polynesia' mean? A. Many islands
What does a 'sculler' have, that other rowers dont? A. Two oars
What does a cricketer shout when he appeals? A. Howzat?
What does a polyorchid man have at least three of? A. Testicles
What does ALF stand for? A. Alian Life Form
What does the B stand for in B L Cairns? A. Bernard
What does the R stand for in G R Larsen? A. Rolf
What does the S stand for in I D S Smith? A. Stockey
What does the Spaceballs bumber sticker say? A. I love Uranus
What does the V stand for in J V Coney? A. Vernon
What English rugby player did Jonah Lomu run over in 1995? A. Mike Catt
What ethnicity is Bic Runga? A. Maori/Chinese
What extreme sport did New Zealand invent? A. Bungee Jumping
What famous pop star owns a studio named Paisley Park? A. Prince
What film holds the world record for 'number of cars crashed'? A. The Blues Brothers
What former NZ cricketer was known as the postman? A. Gavin Larsen
What former NZ wicketkeeper also coached the Black Caps? A. Warren Lees
What ground held the first TAB betting rugby match? A. Athletic Park
What ground is known as the theatre of dreams? A. Old Trafford
What height is the world's tallest person? A. 2.72 metres
What household spread can help remove chewing gum? A. Peanut Butter
What is a baby oyster called? A. A spat
What is a Boneshaker A. An early bicycle witout pneumatic tyres
What is a Hurley? A. A hockey stick
What is Alice Cooper's main hobby? A. Collecting old watches
What is another name for 'ER' in hospital? A. Casualty
What is Barbies full name? A. Barbara Millicent Roberts
What is Bart Simpson's pet dog named? A. Santa's little helper
What is Bono's real name? A. Paul Hewson
What is converted into alcohol during brewing? A. Sugar
What is David Boon's record for drinking beer cans on a flight? A. 52
What is David Bowie's real name? A. David Jones
What is Homer Simpson's middle name? A. J
What is impossible to keep open while sneezing? A. Your eyes
What is Magic Johnson's actual first name? A. Earvin
What is Marge Simpsons maiden name? A. Bouvier
What is Mr Burns' first name in The Simpsons? A. Montgomery
What is Napier's main sporting ground called? A. McLean Park
What is New Zealand's longest runnig show? A. Country Calendar
What is NZ's second highest mountain? A. Tasman (3497m)
What is Rubin Carters nickname? A. Hurricane
What is South Park character Cartmans' first name? A. Eric
What is Spiderman's real name? A. Peter Parker
What is the 'Japanese Tree Bear' more commonly known as? A. Possum
What is the best Selling book ever published in New Zealand? A. Edmonds cookbook
What is the biggest animal in the world? A. Blue Whale
What is the biggest participant sport in the world? A. Fishing
What is the brightest constellation in the Southern skies? A. Southern Cross
What is the colour of the #5 ball in pool? A. Orange
What is the common name for an 'Alligator Pear'? A. Avocado
What is the common name for sodium chloride? A. Salt
What is the fastest try scored in a Rugby Union World Cup match from kick-off? A. 18 secs.
What is the first city in the world to see the sun daily? A. Gisborne
What is the highest mainland volcanic cone in Auckland? A. Mt Eden
What is the highest recorded temperature in NZ? A. 42.4C
What is the last name of all the members of the Datsuns? A. Datsun
What is the lenght of NZ? A. 1600 km
What is the longest lake in NZ? A. Lake Wakatipu
What is the lowest recorded temperature in NZ? A. -21.6 Ophir (Central Otago)
What is the main ingredient in beer? A. Water
What is the main ingredient of the ANZAC biscuits? A. Rolled Oats
What is the Maori name for the North Island of NZ? A. Te Ika a Maui
What is the more commonly known name for the Parson Bird? A. Tui
What is the most common element of Earth? A. Hydrogen
What is the most re-recorded song in history? A. Yesterday by The Beatles
What is the most venomous fish known to man? A. Stonefish
What is the most widely viewed TV series ever? A. Baywatch
What is the mountain of Aoraki also known as? A. Mt Cook
What is the name of Morpheus' ship in the Matrix? A. Nebuchadnezzer
What is the name of Rubicon debut album? A. Primary
What is the name of the Dukes of Hazzard car? A. General Lee
What is the name of the talking dog in 'Men in Black'? A. Frank
What is the nickname of the Manawatu rugby team? A. Turbos
What is the official language of Brazil? A. Portugese
What is the oldest written recipe in the world for? A. Beer
What is the only animal that cannot jump? A. Elephant
What is the only bird to have nostrils at the end of it's nose? A. The kiwi
What is the only bird with a penis? A. Swan
What is the only human body part that does not age? A. Tongue
What is the only planet not named after a god? A. Earth
What is the only word in English that ends with 'mt'? A. Dreamt
What is the quickest breed of dog in the world? A. The Greyhound
What is the real name of former Pixies front man? A. Charles Thopson III
What is the scientific name for a tomato? A. Wolf peach (lycopersicum)
What is the second most consumed vegetable in the world? A. Tomato
What is the singer Meatloaf's birt name? A. Marvin Lee Aday
What is the straight between the South Island and Stewart Island called? A. Foveaux
What is the title of Bic Runga's 1997 debut album? A. Drive
What is the Wizard's Real name? A. Ian Brackenbury Channell
What is the world's largest hot water spring in NZ? A. Frying Pan Lake
What is the world's most southern wine producing region? A. Otago
What job did a 'nob thatcher' do in the olden days? A. Make wigs
What kind of tourism is Queenstown famous for? A. Adventure tourism
What Kiwi sang in the Phantom of the Opera? A. Rob Guest
What magazine did Kim Basinger bare all when she was 17? A. Playboy
What make and model car was 'Christine'? A. 1958 Plymouoth Fury
What movie did Antonio Banderas play a dance teacher? A. Take the lead
What movie did Nicole Kidman win an Oscar for in 2003? A. The Hours
What movie was the song 'Duelling Banjos' from? A. Deliverance
What nationality are Tatu? A. Russian
What nationality were the first Europeans to immigrate to NZ? A. German
What NZ band sang about a girl called Sophie? A. Goodshirt
What NZ disaster happened in 1953? A. The Tangiwai train crash
What occurs more often in December than any other month? A. Conception
What percent of NZ'ers have a TV? A. 98%
What pop group rose to fame singing songs written by Dave Dobbyn? A. D. D. Smash
What rock band had hit with Fast Lip, Motivation & what we're all say about? A. Sum 41
What shape is Dunedins city centre? A. Octagon
What sport can you obtain a 'turkey'? A. 10 pin bowling
What superhero is in every episode of Seinfeld? A. Superman
What volcanic plates do NZ lie on? A. Indo-Australian and Pacific
What was Adam Sandler's occupation in 'Big Daddy'? A. Tollbooth worker
What was Iggy Pop's first band was called? A. Iguanas
What was Jim Morrison arrested for in Miami 1969? A. Indecent exposure
What was NZ's open-road speed limit before it became 100kph? A. 80Kph
What was Sir Basil Spence famous for? A. Designing The Beehive
What was Steve McQueen driving in the movie Bullit? A. 1968 Mustang Fastback
What was the band 'Linkin Park' originally called? A. Xero
What was the first capital of New Zealand? A. Russell
What was the former name of the Green Party? A. Values Party
What was the name of the dog on Danny Watson's TV show? A. Sniff
What was the shortest term for a NZ Prime Minister? A. 7 days
What was the super-continent which NZ was once a part of? A. Gondwana
What was the world's most valuable brand in 2008? A. Google
What was visible in the NZ sky in 1985? A. Halley's Comet
What weight division would a 52kg boxer be fighting in? A. Bantamweight
What were 'The Exponents' originally called? A. The Dance Exponents
What were the Canterbury Bulldogs formally known as? A. The Berries
What year did Billy T James die? A. 1991
What year did Sir Edmund Hillary climb Mt. Everest? A. 1953
What year did the drummer from Def Leopard loose his arm? A. 1984
What year did Tulmato Sauce launch in New Zealand? A. 2008
What year was Buzzy Bee first launched? A. 1947
What year was corporal punishment banned in schools? A. 1990
What year was Muhammad Ali's last as heavyweight champion? A. 1979
What year was the Wahine disaster? A. 1968
What year were the first Paralympic Games held? A. 1960
What years did the Canberra Raiders win the Winfield Cup? A. 1988-1989
What's a surfer called who rides with his right foot forward? A. Goofy
What's Jarrod Bear's middle name? A. Matthew
What's the international phone dialling code for Antarctica? A. +672
What's the most common kind of deer in NZ? A. The red deer
When did Kiwibank open? A. Feb 2002
When did NZ become the world's first anti-nuclear country? A. 1985
When did NZ gain full independence from Britain? A. 1947
When did Rugby Union in New Zealand become professional? A. 1995
When did the first Lebanese immigrate to NZ? A. The 1890's
When was 6 o'clock closing of pubs introduced? A. 1917
When was the first New Zealand Rugby Union founded? A. 1879
When was Tui launched in 375ml cans? A. 1988
Where can you find the Pink & White Terraces? A. Tarawera
Where did the name 'East India Pale Ale' originate? A. England
Where is an octopuses testicles located? A. In its head
Where is Frying Pan Lake located in New Zealand? A. Walmangu
Where is New Zealand's biggest railway junction located? A. Hamilton
Where is the Art Deco capital of the world? A. Napier
Where is the deepest part of the Ocean? A. Marianas Trench
Where is the largest beer festival in the world held? A. Germany
Where is the rugby stadium known as the 'House of Pain'? A. Dunedin
Where is the town Piltz, after which Pilsener is named? A. Czech Republic
Where was NZ's first capital city locateD? A. Kororareka (Russell)
Where was the U.S. Marines' first recruiting station? A. In a bar
Which brewery once bottled 'Empire Bitter'? A. Tui Brewery
Which character does James Grandolfini play in a TV series? A. Tony Soprano
Which country has the largest hotel in the world? A. Malaysia
Which country was the AB's largest win of 145-17 against? A. Japan
Which country won the most gold medals at Beijing Olympics? A. China
Which current NZ dollar note has Ernest Rutherford on it? A. $100 note
Which famous artist cut off his ear? A. Vincent Van Gogh
Which fast food company did Dave Thomas found? A. Wendys
Which female tennis star once stabbed on court? A. Monica Seles
Which fingernail grows the slowest? A. Thumbnail
Which former All Black broke the nose of Wallaby Paul Carozza? A. Richard Loe
Which former All Black captain ripped a scrotum during a game? A. Buck Shelford
Which hemisphere contains the most countries? A. Northern
Which Irish band sand the song 'I don't like Mondays'? A. Boomtown Rats
Which Jamaican father & son had separate hit singles? A. Bob and Ziggy Marley
Which kills more people a year coconuts or sharks? A. Coconuts
Which King in a deck of cards doesn't have a moustache? A. King of Hearts
Which large Auckland street has a song named after it? A. Dominion Rd.
Which member of the 7 dwarfs doesn't have a beard? A. Dopey
Which motor company produces the Pajero? A. Mitsubishi
Which museum is built on top of Moa Bones? A. Canterbury Museum
Which NBA player wears the largest shoes? A. Shaquille O'Neal, size 23
Which New Zealand song was the first hit on overseas charts? A. She's a Mod
Which New Zealander is famous for advertising Toyota Hilux? A. Barry Crume
Which NZ actor starred in the movie 'Gladiator'? A. Russell Crowe
Which NZ band did Dave Dobbyn sing 'Slice of Heaven' with? A. Herbs
Which NZ comedian was born as William Taitoko? A. Billy T James
Which NZ cricketer once held the record for most number of ducks? A. Danny Morrison
Which NZ island was once called New Leinster? A. Stewart Island
Which NZ model once starred in an ad for 'Trumpets'? A. Rachel Hunter
Which NZ province did Colin Meads once coach? A. King County
Which NZ university was established in 1963? A. Massey
Which planet is fifth from the sun? A. Jupiter
Which plant symbolises St. Patrick's Day? A. A shamrock
Which pro-surfer dated Pamela Anderson? A. Kelly Slater
Which sex has a higher proportion of left handed people? A. Males
Which side of a woman's blouse are the buttons on? A. Left
Which species of jellyfish is the most deadly? A. Australian Box Jellyfish
Which Star Wars movie did Ewocks first appear in? A. Return of the Jedi
Which state highway is the Tui Brewery on? A. SH 2
Which superhero did Adam West play on TV? A. Batman
Which TV character was based in a telephone box? A. Dr Who
Which U2 album was the first to sell a million copies? A. Joshua Tree
Which was the first single released on Nirvana's In Utero? A. Heart shaped box
Which way does the Jack of Hearts usually face? A. Right
Which whale will beach itself in order to catch seal lions? A. Killer Whale
Which year did the All Blacks first tour South Africa? A. 1928
Who became boxings youngest world heavyweight titleholder in 1987? A. Mike Tyson
Who coached Wellington to their 2000 NPC title? A. Dave Rennie
Who created the Far Side cartoons? A. Gary Larson
Who did NZ score a century against in the 1998 Rugby World Cup? A. Italy
Who directed the 'World's Fastest Indian' movie? A. Roger Donaldson
Who has played for the Brisbane Broncos & the Crusaders? A. Brad Thorn
Who has scored the most points in test rugby? A. Jonny Wilkinson
Who has scored the most tries in a single test for the All Blacks? A. Marc Ellis (6)
Who has the fastest tennis serve to date? A. Andy Roddick
Who has thrown the most NFL touchdown passes? A. Brett Farve
Who invented the automobile? A. Karl Benz
Who invented the game 'cribbage'? A. Sir John Suckling
Who invented the toilet? A. Thomas Crapper
Who made 133 appearances for the All Blacks? A. Colin Meads
Who ousted the All Blacks from the '99 World Cup? A. France
Who owns the 'News Limited Empire'? A. Rupert Murdoch
Who played fullback in the 1924 All Black 'invincibles'? A. George Nepia
Who played Rambo? A. Sylvester Stallone
Who played the character Happy Gilmour? A. Adam Sandler
Who plays James Bond in the 1987 movie The Living Daylights? A. Timothy Dalton
Who said 'An openside likes having his mates up his backside'? A. Murray Mexted
Who said 'Facts are stupid things'? A. Ronald Reagan
Who said 'He was a wise man who invented beer'? A. Plato
Who said 'I've been pumping Martin Leslie for a couple of years'? A. Murray Mexted
Who said 'My mum is not a washing machine, say it'? A. Robocop
Who said 'You don't like to see hookers going down on players like that'? A. Murray Mexted
Who sang 'The Gambler'? A. Kenny Rogers
Who sang of doing 'the crocodile rock'? A. Elton John
Who scored the most points on test debut for the All Blacks? A. Simon Culhane (45)
Who sings the Kiwi hit song 'Brother'? A. Smashproof feat. Gin
Who starred alongside Neve Campbell in the movie 'Wild Things'? A. Denise Richards
Who starred with Jim Carrey in 'Dump and Dumber'? A. Jeff Daniels
Who was Fred Flintstone's best mate in the TV show? A. Barney Rubble
Who was Hugh Grant caught out with? A. Devine Brown
Who was Jason Gunn's puppet buddy at the start of his career? A. Thingee
Who was named Greatest All Black of the 20th century? A. Colin Meads
Who was New Zealand's first Olympic medallist? A. Harry Kerr (1908)
Who was the 'butt' of all jokes in 2001? A. John Hopoate
Who was the AB coach when they won the 1987 Rugby WC? A. Brian Lochore
Who was the American president during the Gulf War? A. George Bush
Who was the first ever cricket player to take 400 test wickets? A. Sir Richard Hadles
Who was the first German to win a men's single title at Wimbledon? A. Boris Becker
Who was the first male to appear on the cover of Playboy? A. Peter Sellers
Who was the first player to appear in four Rugby WCs? A. Gareth Reece
Who was the first team to win the Ranfurly Shield? A. Wellington
Who was the leader of the good Transformers? A. Optimus Prime
Who was the leading try scorer at the 2007 Rygby WC? A. Drew Mitchell
Who was the NZ netball captain in 1999? A. Belinda Colling
Who wears the Fisherman's Ring? A. The Pope
Who were Team NZ led by in their 1993 America's Cup win? A. Sir Peter Blake
Who won the Halberg Award in '98, '99 and 2000? A. Rob Waddell
Whose life-long ambition is it to catch road runner? A. Wile E. Coyote
You are more likely to be killed by a Champagne cork than what? A. A Spider
CD Canterbury Draught: 15 caps.
Q. Alex Wyllie made his test debut in which year? A. 1970
Q. Alex Wyllie scored test tries against Ireland and which other country? A. Scotland
Q. Andy Earl played rugby for Glenmark & which other canty club? A. Culverden
Q. CDHB is an abbreviation for? A. Canterbury District Health Board
Q. Chris Nicholson won NZ titles in cycling and which other sport? A. Ice-skating
Q. Danyon Loader won gold medals at Atlanta in 1996 over what distances? A. 200m & 400m
Q. Denny Hulme won the Formula 1 world championship in which year? A. 1967
Q. How many gold medals did Ian Ferguson win at the '1984 Olympics? A. 3
Q. In what year did Canterbury first defend the Ranfurly Shield? A. 1927
Q. On average Tiger Woods took how many putts per round in 2002? A. 29
Q. The Canterbury rugby team beat which international side 11-9 in 1957? A. All Blacks
Q. Which country did Alex Wyllie coach in the 1999 World Cup? A. Argentina
Q. Who did Canterbury beat to claim the Ranfurly shield in 1982? A. Wellington
Q. Who was the only Cantabrian in the 2003 NZ 7's squad in Wellington? A. Jason Tiatia
Q. Who was the only Canty player, a wing, when NZ v Lions in 1966 at Chch? A. Tony Steel
Twist Off Only: 3 caps.
Q. In which year was Sunline born? A. 1995
Q. Who recorded the song 'My Old Man's an All Black'? A. Howard Morrison Quartet
Q. Who won the 2003 inter Dominion racing final? A. Baltic Eagle
1 cap.
Q. Where did NZ race car driver Scott Dixon place in the 2008 Indy 500? A. First
| i don't know |
In the Bible, who was the mother of Samuel? | Lesson 1: The Mother Who Gave Away Her Son (1 Samuel 1-2) | Bible.org
Lesson 1: The Mother Who Gave Away Her Son (1 Samuel 1-2)
Related Media
Sometimes we mistakenly think that good Christians don’t have any problems. We come to church and see others smiling and looking happy, and we think that they must have it all together. We wonder why we have problems.
Some Bible teachers convey that if you will just learn the secret of the abundant Christian life, temptations will just glance off you without a struggle. Your Christian life will be effortless. If you are struggling, they teach, you’re not abiding in Christ. I once heard a well-known Bible teacher say that his devotional times were always rich and rewarding. After his message, I asked him if he never struggled or went through dry times with the Lord. He wagged his finger under my nose and said, “Young man, expect nothing from God and you’ll get it every time!” In other words, my dry devotional times were due to my lack of faith!
We’re going to look at a devout family that had problems. They worshiped God faithfully, yet even in the middle of the worship service, there were tensions. The wife got so upset that she couldn’t even participate in the worship service. She went out to the car and cried her eyes out and refused to come in and eat at the potluck supper. The husband tried the best he could to comfort her, but he really didn’t understand why she was crying. But underneath it all, the wife really was a godly woman and she has much to teach us about how to deal with our problems through prayer.
Their story is in 1 Samuel 1 & 2. Elkanah, the husband, had two wives, which was a major source of conflict in his family. Although in Old Testament times God tolerated polygamy, the Bible never portrays it in a good light. God’s original plan is for one man and one woman to be committed in marriage for life. Any violation of that plan, whether several wives at the same time or a succession of wives (or husbands) due to divorce, creates problems.
In Elkanah’s situation, the tension was increased because one of the wives had many children (a clear sign of God’s blessing in that culture), while the other wife had none. To complicate matters, Elkanah favored the wife without children over the wife who had all the children. This led to jealousy and rivalry between the two women. When they went to worship at the tabernacle, as they did faithfully each year at the appointed time, Elkanah tried to balance the rivalry by giving double portions of food to Hannah, the wife without children.
But this only made things worse because Peninnah, the wife with all the children, would say to Hannah, the barren one, “You’ve got the food, but I’ve got the children!” Hannah would cry and Elkanah would wring his hands and try to comfort her by saying, “Am I not better to you than ten sons?” (1:8). Hannah graciously would not answer that question! All she could think about was, “Why doesn’t God bless me with children? Why has He blessed this mean-spirited woman above me?”
So here you have this devout, “church-going” family with problems. Poor Elkanah never knew whether he would come home to an all-out civil war or to a temporary cease-fire. But on the best of days, there was just a tense truce. He always walked on tiptoe, ready to take cover, not knowing when another spark would set off another round of explosions.
Perhaps some of you relate to this family. But whether your problems are in the realm of family relationships or somewhere else, I know one thing for certain: Each one here has a set of problems. It goes with the turf of being human. And it is critical that we think biblically about our problems and learn to handle them as Hannah did. The first thing we need to see is that …
1. God graciously gives us problems.
Granted, some problems are of our own making. But whatever the immediate source, God is the ultimate sovereign over the problems we face. You cannot escape this conclusion in Hannah’s situation. The text repeats it twice so we won’t miss it: “The Lord had closed her womb” (1:5, 6). Hannah emphasizes it in her prayer: “The Lord kills … He brings down to Sheol … The Lord makes poor … He brings low …” (2:6-7). It wasn’t just an accident of nature that Hannah was not able to conceive children. If modern medicine had been available then, the doctors may have found a reason. But behind the medical reason was the clear action of God: “The Lord had closed her womb.”
Many don’t like to give God this much sovereignty. We don’t like to think that God gives us problems, so we say, “God allowed this problem, but He didn’t cause it.” If that helps you mentally to get God off the hook, I guess that’s okay. But even if God allows a natural disaster to kill all our children, as He did with Job, we need to join Job in affirming that we must not only accept good from God, but also adversity (Job 2:10). Otherwise, we will not properly submit to Him as the Sovereign Lord and we will not view Him as adequately powerful to deal with our situation; thus we will not trust Him as we should. We must recognize that our problems come from God’s gracious, loving hand.
But that’s the rub, isn’t it? How could a loving and good God allow a small child to die or a young mother to get cancer? How could He permit a godly missionary to be brutally murdered? How can He permit tragedies such as wars, earthquakes, famines, and floods, where thousands of people are killed? But if God is not sovereign over such tragedies (Job 1-2; Isa. 45:7; Exod. 4:11), then either Satan is of equal power with God (= dualism, with no guarantee that God will ever defeat Satan); or you have a nice God who wishes that He could eliminate such terrible suffering, but He can’t because He gave us free will. Free will, not God, is sovereign!
Be careful here, because the Bible attributes the origin of evil to Satan, not to God. To the question, “Did God cause Satan to sin?” the answer is that in His inscrutable wisdom, God included Satan’s (and man’s) sin in His eternal plan. And yet both Satan and sinful people are fully responsible for their sin. Once Satan rebelled against God and caused the human race to rebel, God uses Satan and evil people to fulfill His ultimate purpose of being glorified (see The Westminster Confession of Faith, chap. V).
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). That “working together for good” will not be accomplished until eternity. We may not understand in this life how God can possibly do it. But unless we hold to His absolute goodness, sovereignty and power, even over the forces of evil, we cannot believe that He will be able to work it all together for good.
So when we face problems, even though intermediately they may stem from human wickedness or from satanic forces, we must recognize that ultimately the problem comes from the Lord. Otherwise we will not seek and trust Him as we should. Problems are God’s gracious way of teaching us to seek Him in a deeper way than we ever have before. Peninnah did not seek God as Hannah did, because Peninnah didn’t have the need.
We also need to keep in mind that being godly does not exempt us from suffering. Of these two women, clearly Hannah was the more godly. Yet she was the one with the problem. “Whom the Lord loves, He disciplines” (Prov. 3:12; Heb. 12:6). Such discipline is not necessarily the direct result of some sin in our lives. Even Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered (Heb. 5:8). Our problems are God’s gracious way of training us to become like His Son. So, what should we do with our problems? Hannah’s problem led to Hannah’s prayer (1:10-11).
2. We should take our problems to God in prayer.
As Christians, we all believe in prayer. But in practice, prayer is not our natural first response. Consider some of the other ways, besides prayer, Hannah could have dealt with her problem.
She could have become angry at God and blamed Him for closing her womb: “God, this isn’t fair! Peninnah has provoked me, but I haven’t provoked her. I’ve come to Your tabernacle every year and offered sacrifices. Why haven’t You given me a son? See if I serve You anymore!” She could have blamed everyone else: “Elkanah, if you hadn’t married this other woman, I wouldn’t be having these problems!” Or, “Peninnah gets me so stressed out! It’s her fault!”
Hannah could have accused Peninnah of being unfaithful and spread the lie all over town, hoping that Elkanah would divorce Peninnah. Hannah could have issued an ultimatum: “Take your pick, Elkanah! One of us has to go!” She could have drowned in self-pity and become a bitter, disagreeable, woman.
Hannah could have gone to a Christian therapist, who would have said, “You’re crying all the time. You’re depressed. You have an eating disorder. It’s obvious that you’re sitting on a lot of anger and suffering from low self-esteem. You need to let out all of your rage toward God. Hannah, you’re co-dependent and you need to set some boundaries. You’re enabling your husband and this other woman to carry on. You can’t really love your husband until you learn to love yourself. You need to start looking out for your own needs for a change. Let’s get you started on Prozac.”
Don’t misunderstand: I’m not against Christian counselors who help people understand their problems from a biblical perspective. Nor am I suggesting that all you need to do to solve your problems is to pray. But there are many counselors who claim to be Christian but who are telling God’s people that prayer, Bible study, and trusting God “don’t work” in dealing with life’s problems. I’m saying that learning to lay hold of God in prayer as your refuge and strength is a very real help in times of trouble (Ps. 46:1).
Hannah poured out her soul to the Lord of hosts (1:11, 15) and the Lord met her need. “The Lord of hosts” is a common name for God in the Old Testament. But it’s significant that Hannah was the first to address God in prayer with this title. It emphasizes the fact that God is the sovereign of the universe who rules all the powers of heaven and earth, visible and invisible. If that’s who God is, then learning to come to Him in prayer is not just a nice, but impractical and impotent, thing to do when it comes to dealing with our problems. Prayer is our means of access to the all-sufficient God who alone can meet our needs!
Yes, we should seek godly counsel concerning our problems. Yes, we should get medical help if the problem is medically related. Yes, there may be some practical steps that will help resolve our problems. But prayer should permeate the whole process. Prayer isn’t just a tip of the hat to God before we get down to the real solutions. Prayer is laying hold of the living God who understands our deepest needs. Prayer is acknowledging that we are depending totally on Him. Prayer is the God-ordained way for believing people to deal with their problems.
By nature, we’re all self-sufficient. We think we can handle things by ourselves, with an occasional boost from God. So we keep Him tucked away in our back pocket for emergencies. But then God brings us up against something we can’t handle by ourselves. He wants us to draw near to Him, to learn to depend on Him in ways we never would if we didn’t have these problems. If we don’t learn to pray in our problems, we’re missing how God is seeking to work in our lives.
But we need to go deeper. Note that Hannah didn’t just pray, “Lord, give me a son.” So God gave her a son and she lived happily ever after. No, Hannah prayed something radical: “Lord of hosts, if you will give your maidservant a son, then I’ll give him to the Lord all the days of his life and a razor shall never come on his head” (1:11). That meant that she was dedicating her son to God as a Nazirite, one separated to serve God (Num. 6:1-21). This tells us that not only should we pray about our problems, but, also,
3. We should pray according to God’s purpose.
Hannah had a need and her prayer was directed to meet her need, to be sure. There is nothing wrong with that, as far as it goes. But if we stop there, we do not understand prayer. Jesus said that we are to pray for our daily bread (to meet our need), but even before that, we are to pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” The purpose of prayer is not to solve all our problems so that we can live happy, trouble-free, self-centered lives. The purpose of prayer is to get God’s will done, to glorify Him.
To understand Hannah’s radical prayer to give her son back to God, we need to remember that she lived in a spiritually desperate time. It was the day of the judges, when every man in Israel did what was right in his own eyes. Word from the Lord was rare in those days, visions were infrequent (1 Sam. 3:1). Eli’s wicked sons, who were serving as priests, committed immorality with women at the door of the tabernacle (2:22)!
God wanted to raise up a man who would hear from Him and speak His word faithfully. Hannah understood that God’s purpose for His people was to raise up His Anointed as King (2:10). “Anointed” is the Hebrew word transliterated “Messiah.” Through Hannah’s prayer, God raised up her son Samuel as the first of the prophets. Samuel anointed David the King and from David came God’s true Anointed, Jesus Christ.
Hannah knew that God’s purpose for His people superceded her personal desire for a son. So, while she prayed for a son, she also prayed for God’s greater purpose and willingly yielded her son to meet that purpose. That’s how God wants us to pray—not just to meet our needs, but for His purpose to be fulfilled through the answers to our prayers.
For example, let’s say that, like Hannah, you are unable to have children and you’re praying for children. That’s fine. But how about praying, “Lord, if you give us children, we’ll do our best to instill in them a vision for those who have never heard the name of Jesus. We’ll yield them to You to serve as missionaries some day”? The old hymn, “O Zion Haste,” has a verse that goes,
Give of thy sons to bear the message glorious;
Give of thy wealth to speed them on their way;
Pour out thy soul for them in pray’r victorious;
And all thou spendest Jesus will repay.
Note 1 Sam. 2:21. It tells us that after Hannah gave her precious Samuel to serve God, He graciously gave her three more sons and two daughters. You can never give more to God than He gives back to you, in some form or another!
Or, perhaps you’re out of work and praying for a job. That’s legitimate. But, also, pray that when God gives you that job, you’ll be His ambassador there and you’ll give generously from each paycheck to further His work. Or, perhaps you’re sick and you’re praying for health. That’s fine. But, also, pray that when God restores your health, you’ll give of your time and energy to serve His church in some capacity. Perhaps you’re single and praying for a mate. A godly mate is a wonderful gift! But, also, pray that God will give you a mate, not just so you’ll be happy, but so that the two of you can serve God in some capacity.
I think you get the idea. But, remember, it’s always easier to make such promises to God than it is to carry them out. Can you imagine Hannah’s feelings when she had to leave her little boy (probably between three and five-years-old) at the tabernacle with Eli and return home childless again? God hadn’t given her the other children yet. What faith on Hannah’s part to keep her promise and give that much-wanted, much-loved little boy back to the Lord! So when God grants your prayer, don’t forget to be obedient in yielding the answer back to Him to fulfill His purposes!
Thus, God gives us problems so that we will pray in accordance with His purposes. The final result is:
4. God’s answers to our prayers should lead us to praise Him.
When God answered Hannah’s prayer and she kept her promise and gave Samuel back to the Lord, instead of being depressed about the loss of her son, Hannah breaks forth in a hymn of praise to God (2:1-10). Her psalm exalts God’s greatness and human weakness. The theme is that God works through the weak, not the strong. Note (2:6), “the Lord kills [He brings our problems] and makes alive [He delivers us].” And, (2:9), “For not by might shall a man prevail.” How do we prevail? By going to God in our absolute weakness and calling out to Him, so that the answer is clearly His doing. Then He gets all the praise.
If God was looking for a prophet, why didn’t He pick one of Peninnah’s sons? She had plenty to spare. Why did He close (rather than open) the womb of a woman from whom He wanted to produce His man? Because God doesn’t help the strong. He doesn’t help those who help themselves. God helps those who are helpless who call out to Him. That’s what grace means, that God showers His favor, not on those who deserve it, but on those who do not. By the way, the name Hannah, in Hebrew, means “grace.”
Our problem is not usually that we are too weak for God to work, but that we are too strong. We trust in ourselves; we think we can do it with just a boost from God. Sure, we ask God’s blessing, but then we use the latest methods that are guaranteed to work. Sure enough, the methods work and God gets a tip of the hat, but the methods get the glory. We tell others, “You’ve got to try this! It worked for me; it will work for you!” But where is the praise to God that comes from saying, “I was helpless and hopeless. I cried out to God and He delivered me! Glory to God alone!”
Conclusion
Hannah didn’t learn how to deal with her problems in this way from the religious establishment of her day. Eli, the priest, didn’t even recognize what Hannah was doing when she prayed. He thought she was drunk (1:13-14)! Eli’s sons were worse than he was. They didn’t even know the Lord (2:12). They were in the ministry for what they could get out of it in terms of material compensation (2:13-17) and sensual pleasure (2:22). Eli was too passive to confront their sin.
Today, we’ve got all sorts of seminars telling pastors how to have successful churches and telling Christians how to find happiness and success. But what we all desperately need is to learn how to come to God in prayer in our helplessness, so that He gets all the glory and praise when He delivers us. God is still looking for men and women like Hannah: People with problems, who will take their problems to God in prayer according to His purpose so that He gets the praise. We need to apply this both to our personal problems and to our problems as a church. This mother who gave away her son teaches us:
God gives us problems so that we will pray according to His purpose, resulting in praise to Him.
Hannah was just one woman out of thousands in Israel in her day. Yet the whole nation was blessed because this godly woman had a problem and prayed according to God’s purpose, unto His praise. Everyone benefited from Samuel’s ministry. Our nation desperately needs a godly remnant that will stand against the tide of even the religious establishment as people of prayer. Where do you start? What is your problem? Start there!
Discussion Questions
How can God be good and yet give us problems (Exod. 4:11; 1 Sam. 2:6-7; Job 1 & 2; Ps. 119:67-68, 71, 75; Isa. 45:7)?
How can we know whether to live with a problem or to pray for deliverance (2 Cor. 12:7-10)?
How do we find the right balance between prayer and proper methods?
How do we know whether a method is right or wrong?
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2002, All Rights Reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation
| Hannah |
Which Palestinian organisation murdered 11 Israelis at the 1972 Olympics? | 8 Famous Bible Mothers
8 Famous Bible Mothers
Tweet
Being a mother was something that every Jewish girl dreamed of. The very first promise in the Bible of a future Redeemer said that He would be born through a woman. The thought of being the mother of the Messiah was something that inspired women in the Bible. The Promised One was known to be a baby boy. If a lady had a son she could hope that he would be the Messiah. If she had a girl, she dreamed that her grandson might be the coming Redeemer. Motherhood was a wonderful thing to look forward to during Bible times.
Here are eight famous Bible mothers. There are certainly many other women in the Bible that could be mentioned. These are some we know a good deal about, though we may not know very much about their skills as a mother.
Eve
Found in the Bible: Genesis 1-4
Called the mother of all living, Eve is an important Bible mother. We don’t know much about her roll as a mother, but we do know the names of some of her children. Her three most well-known children are Cain, Abel and Seth. Adam and Eve would have been responsible for teaching their children about God and His plans for the world. After they left the garden there is no indication that God communed with them on a personal level. Eve had a great responsibility as a mother, and as someone who personally knew God, to pass along her knowledge of God to her children.
The Bible says that children are a heritage from the Lord (Psalm 127:3). They are a blessing or a gift from God.
Sarah
Found in the Bible: Genesis 12-23
God’s promise of a redeemer was specifically said to come through Sarah. Though she doubted when God said she would be a mother in her old age, she did indeed bare a son. When she was 90 years old she had Isaac. It should be remembered that all the wonderful promises and expectations that were put on Abraham also extended to Sarah. She was beside him the whole time. She had her doubts at times, but she allowed God to work in her life and use her.
Rebekah
Found in the Bible: Genesis 26-27
Rebekah had twin boys named Esau and Jacob. Her husband was Isaac, the son of Abraham and Sarah. Rebekah’s two boys could not have been more different. Esau was a hunter and great outdoorsman. Jacob preferred to stay at home and be close to his mother. Their personalities endeared the boys to their parents in different ways. Rebekah showed great favor to Jacob while Isaac preferred Esau. Rebekah taught Jacob to cook in a way that pleased everyone in the family. Unfortunately she tried using her love for Jacob to manipulate God and His purposes for the family.
Rachel
Found In The Bible: Genesis 29-35
Jacob’s two wives were sisters, Leah and Rachel . Rachel was the younger of the two and seemed to have to compete with Leah in many ways. Though her sister Leah had 3 times as many children as she did, Rachel gave to Jacob his two favorite children, Joseph and Benjamin. We don’t know much about Rachel as a mother, but she took great pride in being able to bear children for her husband.
Jochebed
Found in the Bible: Exodus 1-2
One of the bravest mothers in the Bible was the mother of Moses. Her name was Jochebed. Though ordered by the Pharaoh to murder her baby boy at birth, she hid him away as long as she could. When he was a little older she made a small boat for him and placed him in the river. God directed the small ark and baby Moses to the Pharaoh’s daughter. The ruler’s daughter took up baby Moses as her own child, but hired Jochebed to nurse the baby. Jochebed apparently taught Moses many things in the time she was with him. Moses knew clearly who he was in relation to the Egyptians and Hebrews. Jochebed apparently taught Moses about God.
Naomi
Found in the Bible: Ruth 1-4
Naomi is best known as the mother-in-law to Ruth. She had two sons. The family moved away from Bethlehem to Moab. Naomi’s two boys married Moabite women. Her husband and sons died leaving Naomi with her two daughters-in-law. Naomi decided to return to Bethlehem. Her daughter-in-law Ruth followed her. Naomi had taught Ruth enough about God and His people that Ruth wanted to make Naomi’s God her personal God.
Hannah
Found in the Bible: 1 Samuel 1-2
Hannah is the mother of Samuel the prophet. He became a godly man. While much of his piety can be traced back to his growing up in the Temple with Eli the priest, we can also see that Samuel’s mother Hannah had a great influence on him. Hannah prayed for his birth. Before Samuel was born Hannah had promised God that she would dedicate him to God. She loved God and her son. She visited him yearly at the Temple and undoubtedly prayed for him regularly.
Mary
Found in the Bible: Matthew 1, Luke 1-2 along with many other chapters
Mary was given the great privilege of being the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. Imagine raising the son of God as your child! God chose her for a reason. She displayed a godly character and trust in God . She was told clearly who her son was. She understood the great responsibility God placed on her. She was faithful to God’s plan.
Motherhood Today
It is still a wonderful privilege to be a mother today. The Bible says that children are a heritage from the Lord (Psalm 127:3). They are a blessing or a gift from God. Whether mother or father, we should all strive to be like these ladies and teach our children about God and His Word.
Interested in more related articles
Tale a look at these from our archives:
| i don't know |
To which family of birds do Robins belong? | The RSPB: Browse bird families: Chats and thrushes
Browse bird families
Image: Ben Hall
'Chats' are small, quite slender or robin-like birds with fine bills and slender legs, slim and sometimes colourful tails and short, round wings. 'Thrushes' are generally larger, often spotted underneath, but in some species, males are unspotted and clearly different from females. Many are superb songsters.
There are many thrushes worldwide; four breed in the UK and two others are regular in winter, but several more have appeared on rare occasions; chats include six regular breeders and several rare visitors.
| Thrush |
Which 1998 film was released with the advertising tagline “The mission is a man”? | Robins - Living with Wildlife | Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife
Robins
For more information on the Living With Wildlife series, contact the WDFW Wildlife Program
360-902-2515
Print Version
Figure 1. Adult male robins are dark gray above and brick red below. Their heads and tails are black and their beaks are yellow. Females are similar, but have duller coloring. Young robins have a freckling of white dots on their reddish fronts. Partial albino robins are uncommon, but are seen each year. (Image by Maury Tosi.)
•
The American robin (Turdus migratorius, Fig. 1), or robin, is one of the most familiar and widely distributed songbirds in Washington. It is equally at home in city parks and gardens, rural farms, woodland edges, and subalpine meadows. This North American “robin” is actually a thrush, and the English robin (Erithacus rubecula) of children’s stories is in a completely different family of birds.
In late summer and continuing on up until the breeding season begins in spring, robins form nomadic flocks that roost together at night and feed together by day.
Robins remain in the same area year-round, or migrate short distances in the spring and fall. Often the robins you see in winter come from their northern breeding grounds, which may be 300 miles away.
Facts about Robins
Food and Feeding Behavior
During the breeding season robins mostly eat animal material, including earthworms, beetles, grasshoppers, ants, caterpillars, spiders, and snails (Fig. 2).
Robins hunt on lawns, pastures, fields, and meadows, standing still with their heads cocked to one side as though listening for their prey, but actually discovering it by sight.
With the decrease of available insects in fall and winter, robins feed on ripe fruits and berries in trees and shrubs.
Figure 2. During the breeding season, American robins forage primarily on soft invertebrates such as earthworms and ground-dwelling insects. Both parents feed the young. (Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.)
Nest Sites
Robins nest in deciduous and evergreen trees, shrubs, and hedges, as well as under bridges and on windowsills and other ledges.
Robins nest early in the year. Their first nests are often placed in evergreens for protection, since deciduous trees and shrubs may not yet have leafed out.
Females select the nest site and do the majority of nest building over a two- to six- day period.
Nests are often placed in the crotch of a branch, or saddled on a branch next to the trunk.
The nest is a bulky structure of twigs, weed and grass stems, and sometimes string or cloth. It contains a smooth inner cup of mud, with a thin lining of fine grasses.
Robins often nest in the same area, or a nearby area, year after year.
Reproduction
Breeding activity begins in early spring in lowland areas, later at higher elevations.
The female incubates three to four glossy, light blue eggs for 12 to 14 days.
The young leave the nest after 14 to 16 days and continue to be cared for by the parents for up to four weeks.
Robins have two and sometimes three clutches of eggs each year. Nests may be used for multiple clutches; first-clutch nests may be built on top of nests from the previous year.
Mortality
Robins have a high mortality rate, with up to 80 percent of the young dying each year.
Tree squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, magpies, crows, ravens, and jays eat robin eggs and nestlings.
In winter roosting areas, great horned and barred owls take a toll on adult robins. Hawks and falcons catch adults in flight.
Because robins feed on the ground, young and adult birds are vulnerable to attacks by domestic cats.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, robins suffered from exposure to the insecticide DDT because they ate earthworms that accumulated high levels of DDT in their bodies.
Viewing Robins
Robins running over lawns in search of worms, perching and singing from utility wires, and bathing in rain puddles are familiar sights to most people. Robins sometimes nest on window ledges, beams under porches, in gutters, and on nest platforms provided for them (Fig. 4).
After breeding season is over, robins gather for the night in communal roosts. Roosts are located in trees, under bridges, and in large open barns, and may contain a few birds or several hundred. In fall and winter, watch for the daily movement of robins to and from a roost after sunset and before sunrise. Robins generally remain in flocks through the winter, and the breakup of these flocks in spring signals the start of their breeding season.
Territories
The size of a robin’s territory is one-third of an acre to several acres. The breeding pair spends most of their time there, on the nest or searching for food. The male actively defends the territory through all clutches. If another male intrudes, he will fly at the intruder to try to scare him away.
If that fails, he will dive-bomb the intruder and try to hit him chest to chest. This behavior is also seen when a male robin mistakes his image in a window for an opponent; homeowners often watch in amazement as the male robin beats himself silly against the glass, under the impression that he is attacking another robin (see “ Are Robins Attacking your Windows… or Vehicle? ”).
You know you are in a robin’s territory when a bird of either sex sounds its alarm call at your approach. Robins are particularly protective of their nest sites when young are in their nests. Nest predators, such as crows, will be mobbed by several robins in an area where there are a number of robin nests.
Nest Sites
When you see a robin perched or flying in midair with a wad of mud or grass in its beak, it’s a sign of nest building. Another sign of nest building is a line of mud across the female’s breast—she works mud into place with her feet and bill, molding it with her body. When foraging on a lawn, if a robin doesn’t eat a worm or other prey immediately, but flies off with food in its beak, you can be fairly sure that it has young in a nearby nest.
Figure 3. Two visual displays given by robins. (From Stokes, “A Guide to Bird Behavior.”)
Displays
If you watch robins over a period of 15 to 30 minutes in the spring, you are likely to see several different displays associated with courtship and territorial behavior (Fig. 3).
The tail-lift display is presented in situations of possible danger (Fig. 3a). The male or female robin lowers its head, raises its tail to a 45-degree angle, and repeatedly flicks its tail sharply while giving the tuk tuk tuk call.
The wing-droop display occurs just before or after an aggressive encounter (Fig. 3b). The wingtips are lowered so they droop below the level of the tail, and the breast feathers may be puffed out.
Calls
The male’s song is a series of rich caroling notes, rising and falling in pitch: cheer-up, cheerily, cheer-up, cheerily. It is sung early and late in the day during the breeding season. Some people confuse the song of the black-headed grosbeak with the song of the robin.
The teeek teeek or tuk tuk tuk call is given by either sex as an alarm call and in situations of possible danger. It is often accompanied by a tail-flick display.
Male robins stop singing after the breeding season and, except for a brief time when the shortness of daylight fools them into thinking it is time to breed again, do not sing again until the following spring. Alarm calls continue throughout the year. Female robins do not sing, but give alarm notes during the breeding season
Droppings
Droppings contain seeds and have the coloring of the foods being eaten at the time. Droppings are most conspicuous when robins are eating dark-colored berries.
Attracting Robins to Your Property
Figure 4. A nesting platform designed for robins and barn swallows.(Landscaping for Wildlife in the Pacific Northwest.)
Click image to enlarge.
Ways to enhance your property for robins include:
Avoid using insecticides. Nearly 70 percent of the breeding birds (including robins) in Washington eat insects as a primary part of their diet during the nesting season.
Protect and plant trees and shrubs that produce fruits and berries eaten by robins. Examples include salmonberry, madrone, serviceberry, and hawthorn.
Leave some “forest floor” in open soil, or mulched with leaf litter, to provide for ground foraging.
Offer wild or cultivated fruits and berries on a platform feeder. Robins learn to take currants, raisins, small pieces of dates, and other dried or fresh fruits.
Supplement the birds’ supply of nest materials by allowing muddy areas to remain for mud collecting.
Install a nest platform where it is safe from house cats and can be observed from inside the house (Fig. 4 or project plans ).
Install a birdbath in an area where it can easily be observed and maintained.
Avoid pruning trees, shrubs, brambles, and other likely nesting spots in the spring and early summer when robins are nesting. If you must prune at this time, carefully examine the area for nests before you begin, and listen for an alarm call given by robins.
Keep your cats indoors and discourage other cats from visiting your property.
Preventing Conflicts
Because robins congregate in close proximity to people and their homes, conflicts occasionally arise. The following are suggestions on how to prevent and remedy these conflicts:
Robins eating fruits and vegetables: Home gardens, commercial fruit-growing farms, vineyards, and orchards often attract migrating robins. A small flock can quickly ruin or remove the year’s fruit or young vegetable crop.
Figure 5. Protect fruit crops with flexible bird netting. Secure the netting at the base of the shrub or tree to prevent starlings from gaining access from below. (Drawing by Jenifer Rees.)
Protect fruit crops with flexible bird netting, which can be purchased in a variety of lengths and widths at garden and hardware stores; professional quality materials and hardware are available from bird-control companies and over the Internet. Secure the base of the shrub or the tree to prevent robins from gaining access from below (Fig. 5). Individual small branches containing fruit can be protected with an onion sack or similar mesh covering.
Row crops, such as strawberries, can be completely covered during the fruiting season. If the netting is to be used for several harvest seasons, it may be worth the extra effort to construct a frame to support the netting.
Scare devices, such as pie tins and commercially available Mylar balloons or Mylar scare tape, are known to provide temporary protection. Suspend balloons at least 3 feet above trees or bushes, or from lines between posts. Use tethers at least 3 feet long.
Attach commercially available red and silver bird-scare tape to stakes and stretch it 18 inches above the areas that need protection, such as newly seeded or planted garden beds. Twist the tape several times before attaching it to stakes so that the visible interval of red/silver is 16 inches. The tape should move freely, so that when a slight breeze blows it will flash in the sun. The space between tapes will have to be no more than 5 feet to be effective.
Because most robins will fly into a strawberry patch, land on the ground between the plants and eat the ripe strawberries from there, scare devices placed above the patch are not effective. Instead, place the scare tape between the rows. The tape should sag slightly but should not be less than 3 inches or more than 5 inches from the ground.
Scare devices need to be moved weekly (daily if possible) so birds don’t become accustomed to them; they are also most successful if put in place before the birds become a problem. Always harvest ripe fruit immediately.
Figure 6. A barrier designed to prevent birds from hitting windows is basically a taut-net trampoline held out about 4 inches from the glass. Many variations for mounting the net are possible. The simplest is to use thumbtacks to attach black bird-netting from below the eaves to below the windows. Alternatives are to install 1 x 4 inch boards along the top and sides of the window frame. Stretch the netting over the boards, stapling as you go. You may also build a four-sided frame that you can put on over the window, much as you would with a storm window. (Drawing by Jenifer Rees.)
Robins and windows—Tips to ensure safe flight: Many robins are stunned, injured, or killed each year by flying into windows. This unfortunate event seems to occur because the birds have seen the reflection of landscape or sky in the glass, and have the illusion of space beyond the window. Problems with window collisions may increase after a robin has indulged in a binge of fermented berries, or when a hawk or other predator appears suddenly and causes a bird, or flock of birds, to rush to escape.
Catalogs and stores selling bird-feeding supplies offer silhouettes of falcons or owls to be attached to windows to frighten birds or cover the reflection. But these silhouettes rarely accomplish either job. Robins quickly lose their fear of a silhouette, and because it covers only a small area, it has little effect on birds heading for other parts of the window.
For silhouettes to be effective, you must cover the outside surface of the window with them (the shapes really aren’t important), or use other patterns placed no more than 6 inches apart.
It is important that whatever you place on the window be on the outside surface; anything on the inside of the glass will lose its effect because it won’t interfere with the reflection. Other ways to prevent window collisions include:
Create bird barriers by covering windows with black bird-netting, available from nurseries and hardware stores (Fig. 6). From inside the house, the netting will be barely noticeable, and will not impair bird-watching.
Rub a bar of soap on the exterior surface of windows, using a design that leaves no area 6 inches or larger uncovered. Dusty windows also help to cut down on reflections.
Turn windows into works of art by installing commercially available window film on the exterior of the windows to give the appearance of acid etching or sandblasting.
Install exterior blinds or sun shields.
Hang strips of Mylar tape, string, or other material no more than 6 inches apart on the outside of windows for the full width of the glass.
A robin that is able to see the landscape through a window that faces another window is likely to try to fly through the house, crashing into the glass. Closing curtains or blinds on one of the two windows can prevent this.
Note: These tips will not completely stop collisions, as the windows may still reflect the outside, giving the impression that it is possible to fly through them. But they do seem to help prevent at least some collisions.
Are Robins Attacking your Windows… or Vehicle?
Robins may fly into windows for a variety of reasons. Sometimes birds simply don’t see the glass and attempt to fly through it. This can happen at any time of the year; however, window “attacking” birds are more common in spring because they become territorial during the breeding season.
Male robins in particular will drive away intruders with great ferocity. When they see their own reflection in a window, they may attack. Males have attacked red objects, including socks, handkerchiefs, and other items hanging on a clothesline, and ornaments and discarded toys on the lawn. Apparently they mistake the red object for a trespasser.
Although the above behavior can be repeated for days or weeks, usually the bird does not injure itself seriously. What seems to be more bothersome is watching these disturbances! So what can you do to prevent them? Some people place small paper sacks over the mirrors of their vehicles when these are parked; using a protective cover for a vehicle also solves the problem. Where birds are striking windows, see the suggestions previously listed.
Fortunately, these remedies are generally only necessary during the spring breeding season. After this period of hectic romance, birds usually come to their senses.
Caring for robins that hit windows: A robin that hits a window and falls to the ground may simply be stunned. On warm days, it is best to leave the bird alone; it will likely fly off after a few minutes.
However, if the weather is cool or if house cats are in your area, pick the bird up immediately. Stunned birds are subject to hypothermia and many cats recognize the sound of a bird striking a window and will quickly come investigate. Place the bird upright in the palm of your hand, cup your other hand over the bird, and hold it for about five minutes. When the bird starts moving, lift your hand and release it near a tree or large shrub so it will have a safe place to fully recuperate. Wash your hands immediately.
If the bird is large or doesn’t revive within 20 minutes, place it in a brown paper bag or container with air holes and put it in a quiet place. Then, when you hear the bird moving, open the container outside near a tree or shrub and give it a chance to fly away.
If the bird doesn’t fly off, contact a wildlife rehabilitation facility. Look under “Animal” or “Wildlife” in your phone book or search the web for “wildlife rehabilitator.” If a rehabilitator isn’t available, follow the menu options provided on their phone message or on their Web site. (See Wildlife Rehabilitators and Wildlife Rehabilitation for additional information.)
Baby Birds Out of the Nest
Figure 7. Young birds, such as the robins shown here are referred to as “fledglings” or “branchers,” and typically leave the nest and move about on the ground and on low branches for a few days before they can fly. (Drawing by Elva Hamerstrom Paulson.)
Sooner or later, no matter where you live, you’ll come across a baby bird on the ground. You’ll have to decide whether you should rescue it or leave it to fend for itself. In most cases, it is best not to interfere. The natural parents do a much better job at raising their young than we could ever do. A baby bird that is featherless must be fed every 15 to 20 minutes from about sunrise to 10 p.m.! This obviously requires a large time commitment on the part of the foster parent.
Finding fully feathered birds: If the bird is fully or partially feathered, chances are it doesn't need your help. As young birds develop they soon outgrow the limited space of a nest. The young birds, referred to as “fledglings” or “branchers” at this stage, typically leave the nest and move about on the ground and on low branches for a few days before they can fly (Fig. 7). Their parents are nearby and continue to care for the birds, answering their demanding calls with regular deliveries of food. The scolding calls coming from the nearby tree are likely the adult birds, voicing their disapproval while they wait for you to leave.
Unless injured, the fledgling bird should be left where it is. Efforts should be made to keep cats, dogs, and curious children away from the bird so the mother can continue to feed it.
Unfortunately, this is when people often interfere and take a healthy bird out of the wild. Not only is this illegal (except in the case of starlings, house sparrows, and domestic pigeons), but it also deprives the growing bird of essential care it needs from its parents.
Finding naked birds or birds with beginning feathers: If you find an uninjured nestling that has fallen or been pushed out of its nest, replace it in the nest (Fig. 8). (Note that this behavior is actually adaptive for some species. This way, only the strongest of the brood survive and go on to raise young themselves.) If the nest has fallen down (common after windstorms), replace the nest in a tree with the baby bird(s) in it. (It is not true that birds abandon their chicks if a person touches them. Birds have a poor sense of smell.)
Figure 8. If you find an uninjured nestling that has fallen or been pushed out of its nest, replace it in the nest. It is not true that birds abandon their chicks if a person touches them. Birds have a poor sense of smell.
(Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.)
If you can’t find the nest or accessing it is too dangerous, put the baby bird where its parents can find it but where it will be safe from cats. Use a small plastic berry basket, margarine tub, or similar container lined with shredded paper towels (no cotton products, which tend to tangle up in birds’ feet). With a nail or wire, fasten the makeshift nest to a shady spot in a tree or tall shrub near where the bird was found. Next, place the nestling inside, tucking the feet underneath the body.
The parents will usually come back in a short time and will feed the babies in the container just as if it were the original nest. (Often, you will see the mother going back and forth between each “nest,” feeding both sets of babies.)
Legal Status
Robins are federally protected. Any permit to lethally control these species would need to be issued from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and would likely only be issued in very extreme cases.
Books
Ehrlich, Paul R., et al. The Birder’s Handbook: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.
Nehls, Harry B. Familiar Birds of the Northwest: Covering Birds Commonly found in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Northern California, and Western Canada. Portland, OR: Audubon Society of Portland, 1989.
Morse, Robert W., et al. Birds of the Puget Sound Region, R.W. Morse Company, 2003.
Peterson, Roger Tory. A Field Guide to Western Birds. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001.
Udvardy, Miklos D. F. Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds--Western Region. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977.
Internet Resources
| i don't know |
What is the tallest building in Europe? | The 10 Tallest Buildings In Europe
The 10 Tallest Buildings In Europe
Ahmad Raza
Updated:
25 October 2016
One of the central attractions for tourists who want to experience the marvel of human engineering and ingenuity are skyscrapers. Towering thousands of feet into the air, they dominate the skyline of the city, their peaks often hidden in clouds. The heights of these superstructures will often leave you feeling more dizzy than amazed, and with designers and engineers looking to outdo each other every year, it seems that even the sky is not the limit! Check out the list of the top 10 mega-structures that pierce through the European skies.
Mercury City Tower | Igor508 / Wikimedia
Mercury City Tower, Moscow
The Mercury City Tower is a multipurpose, bronze tinted, mirrored edifice that is comprised of residential and commercial zones. It took almost 4 years (2009-2013) to develop this building, and it is now located on plot 14 of the MIBC (Moscow International Business Centre). An estimated $1 billion was used to fund this 338.8 meter tall tower which has 80 floors, with a total provision of 31 elevators. The high-rise was designed by Frank William and Partners and structurally engineered by MOsproject 2.
The amazingly distinct shape and colored tower exhibits a constant glow that makes it stand out amongst the busy Moscow skyline and consistently fascinates the public. Every year a huge number of tourists visit this incredible structure.
Eiffel Tower | Xtof / Wikimedia
Eiffel Tower, Paris
Named after its engineer Gustave Eiffel, the Eiffel Tow er is a globally recognized symbol of France and one of the most visited monuments around the world. It is 324 meters tall and was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over four decades until 1930 when the Chrysler Building was built. Later in 1957, the tower beat the Chrysler Building’s height with the addition of a 5.2 meter aerial. Altogether, there are 300 steps to reach the top floor, but mainly nine elevators are employed.
The triple floor tower was built within two years (1887-1889) in Paris’ seventh arrondissement. The first two floors mainly house restaurants for the visitors. Almost 25,000 tickets are sold every day for visitors to climb to the top; although the original plan was to dismantle it after 20 years, the tower proved incredibly beneficial for France’s tourism industry.
The Shard | © Arch_Sam / Flickr
The Shard, London
This 309.6 meter-high, 95 storied skyscraper in Southwark is referred to as the Shard or Shard of Glass, and was built in 2012. However, its deck, known as The View from the Shard, was publicly opened on 1 February 2013. The pyramidal tower, designed by Italian Renzo Piano and owned by the state of Qatar, mainly consists of 72 residential floors, a viewing balcony and, last but not least, an open air platform for sightseeing.
The highest viewpoints are at the top floors (68, 69 and 72), where tourists can enjoy the astonishing 360 degree vista for up to 40 miles. These can be accessed by the 44 elevators in the high rise. The total contracted cost of just the construction project was £435 million. This iconic London structure is the tallest building in London and one of the tallest in Europe.
COMMERZBANK TOWER | Norbert Nagel / Wikimedia
Commerzbank Tower, Frankfurt
The Commerzbank is the tallest building in Germany. It is a 259 meter-high skyscraper which, when you add on the antenna and light, extends to 300.1 meters. The construction of the tower commenced in the year 1994 and was finished in 1997. Commerzbank Tower was designed by Foster & Partners and is located in Kaiserplatz, Frankfurt. It consists of 56 floors. Thomas Ende, who won the contest for lighting this incredible monument, lit it with a golden scheme that can be viewed at night.
This glowing effect, coupled with the conspicuous architecture and conception, enchants many art professionals and tourists. This landmark of the Frankfurt skyline is a unique example of contexture-friendly and energy-saving infrastructure, for which it was also awarded the ‘Green Building Frankfurt’ award in 2009.
ISTANBUL SAPPHIRE | jrgcastro / Flickr
Istanbul Sapphire, Istanbul
Consisting of 54 levels, the Istanbul Sapphire rises to 238 meters, which, with the spire, adds up to 261 meters. The project was developed by Biskon Yapi. It is a commercial and luxurious residential building that was inaugurated in 2011 at Buyukdere Avenue Levent, Istanbul. This high tech structure has 10 basement floors and provides a natural ambiance for its inhabitants, thus protecting them from drastic weather conditions and external noise pollution.
A computerized system is installed in the building that controls the amount of UV rays and sunlight entering and absorbed inside the premises, depending on weather conditions of the day or season. The power-saving building also makes it highly suitable for golfing in Istanbul. Istanbul Sapphire is ranked locally as the second tallest building after the Diamond of Istanbul in the Maslak Business district. Many people travel to Istanbul Sapphire for its extensive mall, that is located right in the central business area.
TORRE CEPSA | Zaratemam / Wikimedia
Torre Cepsa, Madrid
Previously known as the Torre Bankia, the Torre Cepsa is the tallest building in Spain, at a height of 250 meters. Located in Cuatro Torres Business Area, the building has 45 floors and is the largest in length of the four buildings located in the area. It was designed by Norman Foster and was opened in 2009. The iconic building envisages the financial might of the country and serves as an international business center.
Cespa was previously supposed to be the headquarters for Repsol YPF Oil and Gas Company, but was later purchased by financial institution Caja Madrid. The skyscraper is built on the former training grounds for the Real Madrid football. The building also boasts five underground levels of parking.
UNICREDIT TOWER | Ale Desiderio / Flickr
Unicredit Tower, Milan
This elegantly designed building is the tallest skyscraper in all of Italy. Towering at 231 meters or 758 feet, the high rise was designed with true Italian finesse by architect Cesar Pelli and is an attraction for many. Located in Milan’s Porta Nuova district, it serves as the headquarters for Italy’s largest bank UniCredit, and also serves as a residential zone and office for businesses.
The building’s sleek, stylish construction was awarded for its aesthetically appealing and practical design. The skyscraper can be viewed from as far as six miles. A fascinating spire on top of the building contains an LED light sequence that can change colors especially on important national days.
DC TOWER | Rftblr / Wikimedia
DC Tower, Vienna
The DC or Donau City Towers are a set of high rise buildings known as DC Tower 1 and DC Tower 2. DC Tower 1 is 220 meters or 722 feet in length, making it the tallest tower in Austria. The skyscraper mainly houses offices but also includes a four-star hotel, residential apartments, restaurants and a fitness center.
DC Tower was built in 2013 and was designed by French architect Dominique Perralt. The building is a perfect blend of aesthetic appeal with a practicality that can easily cater to the business requirements of the city.
South Tower | TheJRB / Flickr
South Tower, Brussels
The South Tower, Tour du Midi in French, or Zuidertoren in Dutch, is the largest high rise in Belgium. Standing at 148 meters or 486 feet high, the skyscraper consists of 38 floors. Constructed in 1967, the South Tower was the tallest building in the European Union from 1967-1972 until it was surpassed by the Tour Montparnasse in Paris. The building was renovated by Michel Jaspers and Partners where it was equipped with unitized glass panels.
The building can house 2200-2500 workers and has been used by the Belgian Pension Administrations since its construction back in the day. In fact, the skyscraper is such an important landmark of the city that the exact address of the area is the building’s name itself.
PALACE OF CULTURE AND SCIENCE | Jorge Lascar / Flickr
Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw
Originally known as Joseph Stalin Palace of Culture and Science, the Palace of Culture and Science is the most eminent landmark of Poland, and was gifted to the country from the Soviet Union. As the tallest building in Poland, the architectural masterpiece stands at 231 meters or 758 feet.
The building is home to a number of institutions such as cinemas, theaters, libraries, sports clubs and the Polish Academy of Science. Constructed in 1955, the building, with its diverse establishments, was the brainchild of Soviet architect Lev Rudnev. His vision, encompassing Polish history and a love for American high rise buildings, culminated in the formation of this Palace.
| The Shard |
What is the name of the thick soup popular in the southern states of the USA? One of the main ingredients is Okra which gives the dish its smooth silky texture. | Paris to trump London's Shard with Europe's tallest buildings - Telegraph
France
Paris to trump London's Shard with Europe's tallest buildings
Paris will become home to Europe's highest building after it announced it will build 1,059ft high twin towers that will trump London's Shard.
Hermitage Plaza was designed by British artchitects Foster and Partners
Photo: BARCROFT/Jason Hawkes
1:16PM GMT 09 Mar 2012
The two skyscrapers will 40ft taller than the Shard, which is currently under construction in the British capital.
Planning permission for the French project called Hermitage Plaza - designed by British artchitects Foster and Partners - was granted by Paris officials this week.
The two buildings - which will house offices, luxury apartments, a shopping complex and a hotel - will dominate the skyline in the western business district of La Defense.
Work began on the Shard at London Bridge in February 2009 and it is already Europe's highest construction project at a cost so far of around £450 million.
The 87-storey building is due for completion in May this year, when it will stand at 1,017 feet tall and offer uninterrupted 360-degree views of London for 40 miles in every direction.
Related Articles
| i don't know |
Who was awarded the Nobel Peace Price in 1948 for his role in establishing the United Nations? | The Nobel Peace Prize 1901-2000
Lists of Nobel Prizes and Laureates
Lists of Nobel Prizes and Laureates
The Nobel Peace Prize, 1901-2000
by Geir Lundestad *
Secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, 1990 -
Introduction
This article is intended to serve as a basic survey of the history of the Nobel Peace Prize during its first 100 years. Since all the 107 Laureates selected from 1901 to 2000 are to be mentioned, the emphasis will be on facts and names. At the same time, however, I shall try to deal with two central questions about the Nobel Peace Prize. First, why does the Peace Prize have the prestige it actually has? Second, what explains the nature of the historical record the Norwegian Nobel Committee has established over these 100 years?
There are more than 300 peace prizes in the world. None is in any way as well known and as highly respected as the Nobel Peace Prize. The Oxford Dictionary of Twentieth Century World History, to cite just one example, states that the Nobel Peace Prize is "The world's most prestigious prize awarded for the 'preservation of peace'." Personally, I think there are many reasons for this prestige: the long history of the Peace Prize; the fact that it belongs to a family of prizes, i.e. the Nobel family, where all the family members benefit from the relationship; the growing political independence of the Norwegian Nobel Committee; the monetary value of the prize, particularly in the early and in the most recent years of its history. In this context, however, I am going to concentrate on the historical record of the Nobel Peace Prize. In my opinion, the prize would never have enjoyed the kind of position it has today had it not been for the decent, even highly respectable, record the Norwegian Nobel Committee has established in its selections over these 100 years. One important element of this record has been the committee's broad definition of peace, enough to take in virtually any relevant field of peace work.
On the second point, the selections of the Norwegian Nobel Committee reflected the insights primarily of the committee members and secondarily of its secretaries and advisors.
But, on a deeper level, they also generally reflected Norwegian definitions of the broader, Western values of an idealist, the often slightly left-of-center kind, but rarely so far left that the choices were not acceptable to Western liberal-internationalist opinion in general. The Norwegian government did not determine the choices of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, but these choices reflected the same mixture of idealism and realism that characterized Norwegian, and Scandinavian, foreign policy in general. As we shall see, some of the most controversial choices occurred when the Norwegian Nobel Committee suddenly awarded prizes to rather hard-line realist politicians.
Nobel's Will and the Peace Prize
When Alfred Nobel died on December 10, 1896, it was discovered that he had left a will, dated November 27, 1895, according to which most of his vast wealth was to be used for five prizes, including one for peace. The prize for peace was to be awarded to the person who "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding of peace congresses." The prize was to be awarded "by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting."
Nobel left no explanation as to why the prize for peace was to be awarded by a Norwegian committee while the other four prizes were to be handled by Swedish committees. On this point, therefore, we are dealing only with educated inferences. These are some of the most likely ones: Nobel, who lived most of his life abroad and who wrote his will at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, may have been influenced by the fact that, until 1905, Norway was in union with Sweden. Since the scientific prizes were to be awarded by the most competent, i.e. Swedish, committees at least the remaining prize for peace ought to be awarded by a Norwegian committee. Nobel may have been aware of the strong interest of the Norwegian Storting (Parliament) in the peaceful solution of international disputes in the 1890s. He might have in fact, considered Norway a more peace-oriented and more democratic country than Sweden. Finally, Nobel may have been influenced by his admiration for Norwegian fiction, particularly by the author Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson , who was a well-known peace activist in the 1890s. Or it may have been a combination of all these factors.
While there was a great deal of controversy surrounding Nobel's will in Sweden and that of the role of the designated prize-awarding institutions, certainly including the fact that the rebellious Norwegians were to award the Peace Prize, the Norwegian Storting quickly accepted its role as awarder of the Nobel Peace Prize. On April 26, 1897, a month after it had received formal notification from the executors of the will, the Storting voted to accept the responsibility, more than a year before the designated Swedish bodies took similar action. It was to take three years of various legal actions before the first Nobel Prizes could actually be awarded.
1901-1913: The Peace Prize to the Organized Peace Movement
Although there was nothing in the statutes that prevented the Storting from naming international members, the members of the Nobel Committee of the Storting (as the committee was called until 1977) have all been Norwegians from the very beginning. They were selected by the Storting to reflect the strengths of the various parties, but the members elected their own chairman. From December 1901 and until his death in 1922, Jørgen Løvland was the chairman of the Nobel Committee. He was one of the leaders of the Venstre (Left) party and served briefly as Foreign Minister (1905-1907), and then as Prime Minister (1907-1908). A majority of the five committee members in this period consistently represented that party.
Initially, Venstre represented a broad democratic-nationalist coalition, emphasizing universal suffrage, first for men, later for women, and independence from Sweden. The party strongly wanted to isolate Norway from Great Power politics; not only did it want Norway's full independence, but also some form of guaranteed permanent neutrality, based on the Swiss model. Yet at the same time, the party had a definite interest in international peace work in the form of mediation, arbitration and the peaceful solution of disputes. Small countries, certainly including Norway, were to show the world the way from Great Power politics to a world based on law and norms.
Norwegian parliamentarians, particularly from Venstre, took a strong interest in the Inter-Parliamentary Union formed in 1889. After Switzerland, Norway was the first country to pledge an annual contribution, first for its general operations (1895), and then for its office in Bern (1897). Norway was to have hosted the Union's conference in 1893, but because of the tense situation vis-à-vis Sweden the conference in Oslo was held only in 1899. These same liberal politicians were also highly sympathetic to the peace groups and societies that sprang up in many countries in the last decades of the 1800s, groups which starting in 1889 were internationally organized in the more or less annual Universal Peace Congress. The Permanent International Peace Bureau, founded in 1891 in Bern, became the international headquarters of this popular movement. (The movement long struggled with difficult finances, despite small fixed annual grants from Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.) A third element in the peace work of this period was the more official movement, culminating in the Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907, called by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, to the enormous surprise of the governments of most other major powers. (The tsar was never seriously considered for the Peace Prize.)
Those few members of the Nobel Committee who did not represent Venstre tended to be jurists who took a special interest in building peace through international law, a desire shared by Venstre. Thus, former conservative Prime Minister and law professor Francis Hagerup was a committee member from 1907 to 1920. He was also chairman of the Norwegian delegation to the second Hague Conference in 1907.
With this composition of the Nobel Committee in mind, the list of the Nobel Laureates for the years 1901 to 1914 comes as no big surprise. Of the 19 prizes awarded during this period, only two went to persons who did not represent the Inter-Parliamentary Union, popular peace groups or the international legal tradition. The first two elements may also be said to have reflected the point in Nobel's will about the prize being awarded for "the holding and promotion of peace congresses."
The first prize in 1901 was awarded to Frédéric Passy (and Jean Henry Dunant ). Passy was an obvious choice for the first prize since he had been one of the main founders of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and also the main organizer of the first Universal Peace Congress. He was himself the leader of the French peace movement. In his own person, he thus brought together the two branches of the international organized peace movement, the parliamentary one and the broader peace societies.
In 1902, the Peace Prize was awarded to Élie Ducommun , veteran peace advocate and the first honorary secretary of the International Peace Bureau, and to Charles Albert Gobat , first Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and who later became Secretary General of the International Peace Bureau. (In 1906-1908 Gobat coordinated both groups, further underlining the close relationship between them.) In 1903 the prize went to William Randal Cremer , the "first father" of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. In 1889, Bertha von Suttner had published her anti-war novel Lay Down Your Arms. After that, she was drawn into the international peace movement. She undoubtedly exercised considerable influence on Alfred Nobel, whom she had known since 1876, when he later decided to include the Peace Prize as one of the five prizes mentioned in his will. In 1905, she was awarded the Peace Prize, the first woman to receive such a distinction. Her supporters strongly felt that the prize had come too late, since she had had such an influence on Nobel. In 1907, the prize was awarded to Ernesto Teodoro Moneta , a key leader of the Italian peace movement. In 1908, the prize was divided between Fredrik Bajer , the foremost peace advocate in Scandinavia, combining work in the Inter-Parliamentary Union with being the first president of the International Peace Bureau, and Klas Pontus Arnoldson , founder of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration League. In 1910, the Permanent International Peace Bureau itself received the prize. In 1911, Alfred Hermann Fried , founder of the German Peace Society, leading peace publisher/educator and a close collaborator, shared it with Tobias Michael Carel Asser . In 1913, Henri La Fontaine was the first socialist to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. He was head of the International Peace Bureau from 1907 until his death in 1943. He was also active in the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
International legal work for peace represented the third road to the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1904, the Institute of International Law , the first organization or institution to receive the Peace Prize, was honored for its efforts as an unofficial body to formulate the general principles of the science of international law. In 1907, Louis Renault , leading French international jurist and a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, shared the Peace Prize with Ernesto Teodoro Moneta . In 1909, the prize was shared between Paul Henri Benjamin Balluet, Baron d’Estournelles de Constant de Rebecque , who combined diplomatic work for Franco-German and Franco-British understanding with a distinguished career in international arbitration, and Auguste Marie François Beernaert , former Belgian Prime Minister, representative to the two Hague conferences, and a leading figure in the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Like d'Estournelles and Renault, Beernaert was also a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Thus, few if any of the Laureates summed up the different stands of the early peace movement in the way Beernaert did. The Laureate of 1911, Tobias Michael Carel Asser, was also a member of the Court of Arbitration as well as the initiator of the Conferences on International Private Law. When America's Elihu Root received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912, he had served both as U.S. Secretary of War and Secretary of State. But he was awarded the prize primarily for his strong interest in international arbitration and for his plan for a world court, which was finally established in 1920.
Jean Henry Dunant (1901) and Theodore Roosevelt (1906) are the two Laureates who clearly fall outside any of the categories mentioned so far. Dunant, who founded the International Red Cross in 1863, had been more or less forgotten until a campaign secured him several international prizes, including the first Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee thus established a broad definition of peace, arguing that even humanitarian work embodied "the fraternity between nations" that Nobel had referred to in his will. Roosevelt was the twenty-sixth president of the United States and the first in a long series of statesmen to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He received the prize for his successful mediation to end the Russo-Japanese war and for his interest in arbitration, having provided the Hague arbitration court with its very first case. Internationally, however, he was best known for a rather bellicose posture, which certainly included the use of force. It is known that both the secretary and the relevant adviser of the Nobel Committee at that time were highly critical of an award to Roosevelt. It is thus tempting to speculate that the American president was honored at least in part because Norway, as a new state on the international arena, "needed a large, friendly neighbor - even if he is far away," as one Norwegian newspaper put it. Even if, or perhaps rather because, the prize to Roosevelt was controversial, it did in some ways constitute a breakthrough in international media interest in the Nobel Peace Prize.
1914-1918: The First World War and the Red Cross
The First World War signified the collapse of the peaceful world which so many of the peace activists honored by the Nobel Peace Prize had worked so hard to establish. During the war, the number of nominations for the prize diminished somewhat, although a substantial number was still put forward. During the difficult war years, the Nobel Committee in neutral Norway decided to award no prize, except the one in 1917 to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The ICRC had been established in 1863 as a Swiss committee; the preceding year, the Convention for the Amelioration of the Conditions of the Wounded in Armies in the Field (the Geneva Convention) had been signed. During the First World War, the ICRC undertook the tremendous task of trying to protect the rights of the many prisoners of war on all sides, including their right to establish contacts with their families.
1919-1939: The League of Nations and the Work for Peace
In the 1920s, Venstre's domination of the Nobel Committee continued even after the death of Jørgen Løvland and despite the choice of Conservative law professor Fredrik Stang (1922-1941) as the new chairman of the committee and the inclusion of Labor party historian Halvdan Koht in 1919. Old-timers Hans Jakob Horst and Bernhard Hanssen served on the committee from 1901 to 1931 and from 1913 to 1939, respectively. They were joined by Johan Ludwig Mowinckel (1925-1936) who meanwhile served as both Norway's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister during three separate periods. In the 1930s, the membership of the committee became more mixed, but the Venstre members now maintained the balance between more conservative and social democratic members. Still, during the period from 1919 to 1939, the growing political tension within the committee and the presence of certain stubborn individuals, resulted in as many as nine "irregular" years, when either no prize was awarded or it was awarded one year late, compared to only one such year in the period from 1901 to 1913.
After the First World War, Norway became a member of the League of Nations. This break with the past was smaller than it might seem. In the Storting, 20 members, largely Social Democrats, voted against membership. Even most of the 100 who voted in favor came to insist on the right to withdraw from the sanctions regime of the League in case of war. Norway basically still perceived itself as a neutral state. The old ideals of mediation, arbitration, and the establishment of international legal norms definitely survived, only slightly tempered by the experiences of the war and the membership in the League. Yet at the same time, some states and some statesmen were definitely regarded as better than others. Most Norwegian foreign policy leaders felt closest to Great Britain and the United States, despite significant fishery disputes with the former and the geographical distance and isolationism of the latter.
At least eight of the 21 Laureates in the period from 1919 to 1939 had a clear connection with the League of Nations. For the Nobel Committee the League came to represent the enhancement of the Inter-Parliamentary Union tradition from before 1914. In 1919, the Peace Prize was awarded to the President of the United States, Thomas Woodrow Wilson for his crucial role in establishing the League. Wilson had been nominated by many, including Venstre Prime Minister Gunnar Knudsen. In a certain sense the prize to Wilson was obvious; what still made it controversial, also among committee members, was that the League was part of the Versailles Treaty, which was regarded as diverging from the president's own ideal of "peace without victory." The prize in 1920 to Léon Victor Auguste Bourgeois , a prominent French politician and peace activist, showed the continuity between the pre-1914 peace movement and the League. Bourgeois had participated in both the Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907; in 1918-1919 he pushed for what became the League to such an extent that he was frequently called its "spiritual father."
Swedish Social Democratic leader Karl Hjalmar Branting had also done long service for peace, but was particularly honored in 1921 with the Peace Prize for his work in the League of Nations. His fellow Laureate, Norway's Christian Lous Lange , the first secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, had been the secretary-general of the Inter-Parliamentary Union since 1909 and had done important work in keeping the Union alive even during the war. After the war he was active in the League until his death in 1938. In 1922, the Norwegian Nobel Committee honored another Norwegian, Fridtjof Nansen , for his humanitarian work in Russia, which was done outside the League, but even more importantly for his work on behalf of the League to repatriate a great number of prisoners of war. From 1921, he was the League's High Commissioner for Refugees. The refugee problem proved rather intractable. The Nansen International Office for Refugees was authorized by the League in 1930 and was closed only in 1938. For its work, it received that year's Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1934, British Labour leader Arthur Henderson received the Peace Prize for his work for the League, particularly its efforts in disarmament. No single individual was more closely identified with the League from its beginning to its end than Viscount Cecil of Chelwood who was honored with the prize in 1937. Only Koht's threat of resignation from the committee prevented the Peace Prize from being awarded directly to the League of Nations. In 1924, the committee even discussed awarding the prize to the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
In the years 1919-1939, the Nobel Committee also continued to honor the less official workers for peace. Since the peace societies of the pre-1914 period had lost most of their importance, this category of Laureates was now considerably more mixed than it had been in the earlier period. The clearest connection to the past was found in the shared prize for 1927 to Ludwig Quidde and Ferdinand Buisson . Buisson had joined his first peace society as early as 1867 and he had also been active in the Inter-Parliamentary Union, while the younger Quidde had joined the German Peace Society in 1892. In 1927, they were honored for their contributions to Franco-German popular reconciliation. In 1930, Lars Olof Nathan Söderblom was the first church leader to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to involve the churches not only in work for ecumenical unity, but also for world peace. In 1931, Jane Addams was honored for her social reform work, but even more for establishing in 1919, and then leading the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). Sharing the prize with Jane Addams was Nicholas Murray Butler , president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, promoter of the Briand-Kellogg pact and leader of the more establishment-oriented part of the American peace movement. Sir Norman Angell , who received the Peace Prize for 1933, had written his famous book The Great Illusion as early as 1910. In the book he argued that war did not pay, not that it was impossible as it was frequently understood to have stated. In the inter-war years, he was a strong supporter of the League of Nations as well as an influential publicist/educator for peace in general.
The most clear-cut representative in this period of the legal tradition to limit or even end war was the former American Secretary of State, Frank Billings Kellogg . He was awarded the 1929 Peace Prize for the Kellogg-Briand pact, whose signatories agreed to settle all conflicts by peaceful means and renounced war as an instrument of national policy.
While Theodore Roosevelt and, to a lesser extent, Elihu Root, were the only prominent international politicians to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in the years before 1914, at least five prominent politicians in addition to Kellogg were to be so honored between 1919 and 1939. In 1926 alone, the Nobel Committee actually awarded the reserved prize for 1925 to Vice President Charles Gates Dawes of the United States and Foreign Secretary Sir Austen Chamberlain of Great Britain and the 1926 prize to Foreign Minister Aristide Briand of France and Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann of Germany. Dawes was responsible for the Dawes Plan for German reparations which was seen as having provided the economic underpinning of the Locarno Pact of 1925, under which Germany accepted its western borders as final. The four prizes reflected recognition of the changed international political climate, particularly between Germany and France, which Locarno helped bring about. It was probably also an effort by the committee to strengthen Norway's relations with the four international powers that mattered most for its interests. In 1936, the prize was awarded to Argentine Foreign Minister Carlos Saavedra Lamas for his mediation of an end to the Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia. Lamas also played a significant role in the League of Nations.
The most controversial award of the inter-war period was undoubtedly the one for 1935 to Carl von Ossietzky , the anti-militarist German journalist held by the Nazis in a concentration camp who had become an important international symbol for the struggle against Germany's rearmament. The prospect of a prize to Ossietzky led to the withdrawal from the committee of both Koht, at that time Norway's Foreign Minister, and Mowinckel, who served several times as Prime Minister. This was done to establish a separation between Norway as a state and the Norwegian Nobel Committee. At least Koht was also skeptical of the choice of Ossietzky as a Laureate. This was the first such withdrawal in the committee's history. The Storting then decided that no government minister could serve on the committee while in office. Hitler's reaction to the award was strong. He issued an order under which no German could receive any of the Nobel Prizes. (This affected two Chemistry Laureates, Richard Kuhn in 1938 and Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt in 1939 and Medicine Laureate Gerhard Domagk in 1939.) Ossietzky was not permitted to go to Oslo to receive the prize; he was transferred to a private sanatorium, but died 17 months later. The prize to Ossietzky illustrated how controversy could be combined with prestige for the prize, although this became much clearer over time than it was in 1936.
1940-1945: The Second World War and Another Prize to the Red Cross
On April 9, 1940, Germany attacked Norway and two months later the entire country was occupied. The Norwegian government fled to London. Committee meetings were actually held during the first years of the war, but from 1943 with the committee members scattered, no further meetings were held. The early meetings focused on non-prize business. By underlining the Swedish nature of the Nobel Foundation, the Nobel Committee in Oslo escaped a German takeover of its Institute building.
No Peace Prize had been awarded for 1939 since the war had broken out well before the prize was normally announced. Later, during the war virtually no nominations came in. When the committee was able to meet again after the war, it decided to give the Peace Prize for 1944 to the International Committee of the Red Cross , the same Laureate as in 1917, with much the same reasoning. In the darkest hour the ICRC had "held aloft the fundamental conceptions of the solidarity of the human race." In so doing it had promoted the "fraternity between nations" which Nobel had referred to in his will.
1945-1966: The Cold War and the United Nations
In 1945, Norway joined the United Nations with considerable enthusiasm. There was little of the division and hesitancy that had characterized Norway's policy toward the League of Nations. The German attack on Norway had destroyed most of the earlier confidence in neutrality; so when the Cold War began and Norway felt it had to make a choice between East and West it definitely chose the West, first in the form of the Marshall Plan and then NATO. Norway became quite a loyal member of NATO, but remnants of the more traditional attitudes could be found in the policy of no foreign troops and no atomic weapons on Norwegian soil, in its negative attitude toward European and even Nordic integration and in a lingering skepticism toward Great Power politics and arms build-ups. The idealist component in Norwegian foreign policy now moved away from arbitration and mediation and more toward arms control and disarmament, aid to poor countries, and, increasingly, questions of human rights, certainly including those in Allied countries.
From 1945 to 1965 the Labor party dominated Norwegian politics. From 1949 to 1965 it also held a majority on the Nobel Committee, but the three Labor members rarely behaved as a group, since two were strongly Western-oriented (Martin Tranmæl and Aase Lionæs) and one was more neutral (Gustav Natvig Pedersen). The chairman of the committee from 1942, in effect from 1945 to 1966, Gunnar Jahn, was a stubborn Venstre politician; the Conservative leader C.J. Hambro was equally stubborn and had strong links back to the inter-war years. From 1949 to 1964 membership on the committee remained entirely unchanged. Again, tension within the committee was one strong factor behind the large number of years with no prize or postponed prizes (eight) during this period.
Of the 20 prizes awarded in this period, nine were in some way or other related to the United Nations, thus reflecting both the strong Norwegian support for the organization as such and the continuation of the long committee line going back to the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the League of Nations. Long-time U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull was given the 1945 award primarily for his, and America's, strong leadership in the creation of the UN. In 1949 Lord John Boyd Orr of Brechin was honored as the founding director-general of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, the first scientist to win the Peace Prize, not for his scientific discoveries as such, but for the way in which they were employed to "promote cooperation between nations." In 1950 the prize went to Ralph Bunche , the principal secretary of the UN Palestine Commission, for his mediation of the 1949 armistice between the warring parties. Bunche was also the first black person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. More loosely connected to the UN, in 1951 veteran French and international labor leader Léon Jouhaux was the recipient of the Peace Prize. He had helped found the International Labor Organization in 1919 and had been active in the League of Nations. After the war he was a French delegate to the UN General Assembly. In 1954 the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees , established in 1951, was honored, thereby underlining the long-standing interest of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in the question of refugees.
The Peace Prize in 1957 to Canada's Lester Bowles Pearson was given primarily for his role in trying to end the Suez conflict and to solve the Middle East question through the United Nations. As Foreign Minister of Canada he had become one of the leading UN statesmen of his period. In 1961, the prize was awarded to the second Secretary General of the UN, Dag Hammarskjöld , for strengthening the organization. Hammarskjöld is the only person to have received the prize posthumously, a few months after his death in a plane crash in the Congo; the Nobel statutes were later changed to make a posthumous prize virtually impossible. (In 1965 and 1966 a majority of the committee clearly favored giving the prize to the third Secretary General, U Thant, and even to the first, Norway's Trygve Lie, but chairman Jahn more or less vetoed this.) The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) , established by the UN General Assembly in 1946, was awarded the Peace Prize in 1965.
Most of the politicians who were given prizes related to the UN combined their UN work with a clear Western orientation in the Cold War. This went for Hull, Bunche, Jouhaux, and Pearson and, to a lesser extent, also Hammarskjöld. In this period no Communist politician was ever seriously considered for the prize. (Soviet diplomat and feminist Alexandra Kollontay was discussed in 1946-1947, but quickly rejected.) A whole series of Indians - Gandhi and Nehru, but also other politicians, philosophers and scholars - were considered, but all were found wanting in one way or another. Still the committee was reluctant to give the prize to politicians who were seen as too exclusively Western in their orientation. The only exception was George Catlett Marshall , Peace Laureate of 1953. Marshall's name was of course closely linked with the famous Marshall Plan, but the Cold War nature of his work was played down by the committee in favor of his role during the Second World War and his humanitarian work in general.
During this period too, the Norwegian Nobel Committee continued to honor individuals and organizations that had worked to strengthen the ethical underpinnings of peace. At least four of the awards fall under this category: the 1946 joint awards to Emily Greene Balch , co-founder and long-time leader of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and the acknowledged dean of the American peace movement, and to John Raleigh Mott , long-time executive of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and world ecumenical leader working for peace on the basis of the Bible. Thus, Balch followed closely in the footsteps of Jane Addams and Mott somewhat less closely than in those of Nathan Söderblom. In 1947 the prize went to two arms of the Quaker movement, the Friends Service Council in Britain and the American Friends Service Committee , for their work for social justice and peace, certainly including their relief work during and after the Second World War.
The humanitarian category of Peace Prize Laureates was well established through the prizes to Dunant, the two to the ICRC, to Nansen and to the Nansen Office. In this period it could be argued that at least in part, the prizes to Mott and to the Quakers and certainly the prize to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees fell in this category. Another clear-cut example was the prize for 1952 to Albert Schweitzer , the well-known medical missionary in Gabon who had started his work there as early as 1913. Schweitzer's ethical philosophy rested on the concept of "reverence for life." In the same category was the prize in 1958 to Georges Pire , Dominican priest and theologian, honored for his work on behalf of European refugees and even more for the spirit that animated his work. On the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Red Cross, the 1963 prize was divided between the Swiss International Committee of the Red Cross and the international League of Red Cross Societies , representing the two major arms of the Red Cross movement.
Neither was the disarmament category a new one. Possibly the prizes to Suttner and Arnoldson (who had favored an appeal stating, among other things, that "I want all armed forces to be abolished") and certainly to Henderson and Ossietzky could be seen as falling in this category. The continuity with the past was most clearly seen in the award in 1959 to Philip J. Noel-Baker . Noel-Baker had helped found both the League of Nations and the United Nations. His special interest was still disarmament and he had participated in the League's Conference on Disarmament in 1932. With the introduction of nuclear weapons, his work for disarmament became even more insistent. The biggest surprise in this category was the prize for 1962, awarded in 1963, to Linus Carl Pauling . Pauling had won the Nobel Chemistry Prize in 1954 , but he then became increasingly preoccupied with the hazards of the nuclear arms race. He worked hard to bring about a test-ban treaty and the respect accorded him was strengthened by the signing of the partial test-ban treaty of 1963. Still, in many American circles Pauling was considered to harbor pro-Communist sympathies. The Western-oriented majority of the Norwegian Nobel Committee was actually against giving him the prize. What secured him the prize was chairman Jahn's threat to resign from the committee unless Pauling got it. Jahn, too, had become increasingly preoccupied with the danger of nuclear weapons.
One important category of Peace Prize Laureates was fully established in this period - those who worked for human rights. Some of the earlier Laureates had touched upon elements of human rights, although they had been primarily honored for other contributions. This went for Buisson, founder of the French League of the Rights of Man, Ossietzky, honored also for his right to speak out on the armament question, and Jouhaux, champion of economic and social rights. The first definite human rights prize was probably still the one for 1960 to Albert John Lutuli . The Zulu chief had been elected president-general of the African National Congress in 1952 and held this position until his death in 1967. He was thus in the very forefront of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, a struggle which was receiving added international attention after the Sharpville massacre of March 1960. In a period when the ANC was about to change its tactics, Lutuli stood explicitly for non-violence. The Peace Prize to Lutuli is also often seen as signaling a change in the selection of Laureates in a more global direction. (More about this shortly.) In 1964 American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. received the Peace Prize for his non-violent struggle against segregation, the American version of apartheid.
1967-1989: The Cold War and the Globalization of the Prize
In the mid-1960s the membership of the Norwegian Nobel Committee changed. The Labor party lost its majority in 1965, and Jahn retired at the end of 1966. Labor held the chairmanship under Nils Langhelle (1967), Aase Lionæs (1968-1978), the first woman leader, and John Sanness (1979-1981). Lionæs had become a member of the committee as early as 1949; she was in fact the only woman on the committee until 1979. She was also the only one of the pre-1965 members continuing on the committee. Lionæs had tried to secure the Peace Prize for Eleanor Roosevelt, but failed; in general she did not particularly push female candidates. The non-Socialist majority held the chairmanship under conservative Bernt Ingvaldsen (1967) and Egil Aarvik (1983-1990) of the Christian People's Party, but it too rarely acted in unison. So, as in the earlier period, personal views were more important than party loyalties. In this period there were only three irregular prizes.
After 1965 political power fluctuated between Labor and non-socialist governments, but differences between the major parties were small on most foreign policy questions, with the primary exception of the very divisive issue of Norwegian membership in the European Community. In the Middle East, traditionally strong sympathies for Israel were increasingly balanced by a growing understanding of the Palestinian/Arab cause. Support for the UN remained very strong; the same was the case with backing for NATO, although the Vietnam war was to accelerate a more critical attitude to the United States, particularly among youth and the increasingly important women groups. Impatience with the limited results achieved in arms control and disarmament, particularly on the nuclear side, was growing. On the Norwegian Nobel Committee this impatience was reflected in Chairman Aarvik's personal views. Norway's interest in human rights in most corners of the world was clearly also rising.
In this period four prizes were awarded to UN-related activities. In 1968, during the UN International Rights Year, and exactly twenty years after the approval by the UN General Assembly of the Declaration of Human Rights, René Cassin received the Peace Prize. Cassin was generally considered the father of the declaration, but had also served as vice-president and then as president of the European Court of Human Rights. (He had also been a French delegate to the League of Nations.) In 1969 the International Labour Organization (ILO) was honored. ILO was established in 1919 and it was the only organization associated with the League of Nations to outlive it; as a specialized agency of the UN, its work rested on the principle that peace had to be based on social justice. In 1981, on its thirtieth anniversary, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees received its second Peace Prize. Norway as a country had long made the largest per capita contribution of any country to this UN office. In 1988 the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces were honored. There was a strong feeling that as the Cold War was coming to an end, the UN ought to become more important and that this would be reflected in a new role for peacekeeping. In addition, the 1982 Peace Prize to Sweden's Alva Myrdal and Mexico's Alfonso García Robles could be considered at least in part a UN prize, since much of their disarmament work had been done in various UN negotiations.
Again no Communist politician was awarded the Peace Prize. Instead the human rights prizes to the Soviet dissident, and one-time creator of the Soviet hydrogen bomb, Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov in 1975, to Polish labor leader Lech Walesa in 1983, and to the 14th Dalai Lama in Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso , in 1989, the year of the Tiananmen Square massacre, were severely criticized by the Communist leadership in the three countries involved. Again the neutralist movement as such went unrecognized. On the Western side, German Chancellor Willy Brandt received the prize in 1971 for his Ostpolitik, an effort to bring East and West Germany, as well as Eastern and Western Europe, closer together. Brandt had spent the years from 1933 to 1945 in exile in Norway and Sweden, had excellent connections with Norwegian politicians and spoke perfect Norwegian. In 1974 former Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato received the Peace Prize for his renunciation of the nuclear option for Japan and his efforts to further regional reconciliation. Sato was the first Asian to accept the Peace Prize, to the surprise of many in that part of the world, including even in Japan, who saw him as a rather conventional politician.
In 1973 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to US National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and North Vietnamese leader and negotiator Le Duc Tho for the 1973 Paris agreement intended to bring about a cease-fire in the Vietnam war and a withdrawal of the American forces. This award is definitely the most controversial one in the history of the Nobel Peace Prize. Le Duc Tho declined the Peace Prize, the only person to have done so, since there was still no peace agreement. Kissinger did not come to Oslo to receive the prize in person and soon indicated he wanted to return it, but was told the statutes did not permit this; two of the committee members resigned after it had become known that there had been disagreement and that they had in fact been against the award. (They supported Brazilian archbishop Helder Camara, who received a Norwegian people's prize instead.) Public reaction to the prize, both in Norway and internationally, was largely negative.
The 1973 controversy may have influenced the Storting to establish a new precedent under which the legislators themselves could no longer be members of the newly re-named Norwegian Nobel Committee. The members now tended to be either ex-politicians or persons not so explicitly connected with party politics. The most important reason behind the change, however, was a general desire to distinguish more clearly between the Storting itself and the non-parliamentary committees it appointed.
Regional crises represented nothing new in the Cold War. The Nobel Committee had previously awarded prizes to those who had worked to solve such crises, whether this be the crucial Franco-German conflict or the war between Paraguay and Bolivia. With the Cold War and the end of Western colonial rule over large parts of the world, such crises took on added prominence, also for the Nobel Committee. The situation in the Middle East was particularly difficult. In 1950 Ralph Bunche and in 1957 Lester Pearson had received the Peace Prize for their efforts there. In 1978, Egyptian President Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin were honored for the Camp David Agreement, which brought about a negotiated peace between Egypt and Israel. This agreement too, proved controversial. Only Begin came to Oslo to receive the award. A technicality prevented the American president, Jimmy Carter, from being the third Laureate; the committee actually wanted to include him, but he had not been nominated when the deadline expired on February 1 of that year.
In Western Europe the situation in Northern Ireland represented the bloodiest ethnic-national conflict. The Peace Prize for 1976 was awarded to Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan for their efforts to end that conflict through a popular mobilization against violence. In Norway the Nobel Committee was strongly criticized for being late in recognizing the two women; they had in fact been given a Norwegian people's peace prize before the Nobel one. In 1987 Oscar Arias Sánchez , Costa Rica's president, was honored for his leadership in having the five presidents of Central America sign a peace agreement for the area. Both of these awards could be seen as the intervention of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in conflicts where progress toward peace had definitely been made, but conflicts had been far from resolved. The committee clearly hoped that the prize itself would provide an added impetus for peace. This effect was very limited in Northern Ireland, but more significant in Central America, although it still took years before all the many conflicts there were more or less resolved.
On the issue of arms control and disarmament, referred to as "the reduction of standing armies" in Nobel's will, the Nobel Committee, by general Western standards, again proved relatively radical. This was seen in the 1982 Peace Prize to Alva Myrdal and Alfonso García Robles, but even more clearly in the 1985 prize to International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) . The committee had been so impressed by the cooperation between Soviet and American physicians within the IPPNW that it explicitly invited founders Evgeny Chazov and Bernard Lown to receive the award on behalf of the organization. Conservatives in West Germany, Britain, and the United States particularly criticized the committee's decision. (So did former committee chair Lionæs.)
In this, as in other periods, some humanitarians were also honored. Somewhat in the tradition of Boyd Orr, Norman Borlaug , an American of Norwegian descent, was selected in 1970 for his contributions to the "green revolution" that was having such an impact on food production particularly in Asia and in Latin America. In 1979 Mother Teresa received the prize. She came from a family of Catholic Albanians, but lived most of her life in Calcutta, working for the poorest of the poor through her order, the Missionaries of Charity.
Among the more general peace advocates in this period, several have already been mentioned: Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan, Alva Myrdal and the Dalai Lama. The best example was perhaps still the 1986 Laureate, Elie Wiesel . Wiesel was a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust and had become the leading interpreter of the relevance of this event for contemporary generations.
Human rights represented the fastest growing field of interest for the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The awards to the ILO and the Dalai Lama and, even more, to René Cassin, Andrei Sakharov and Lech Walesa have already been mentioned. In 1974, Seán MacBride shared the prize with Eisaku Sato. MacBride had a multi-faceted background, but was honored primarily for his strong interest in human rights: piloting the European Convention on Human Rights through the Council of Europe, helping found and then lead Amnesty International and serving as secretary-general of the International Commission of Jurists. In 1977 the prize was awarded to Amnesty International itself. Founded in 1961, it was an increasingly important organization aimed particularly at protecting the human rights of prisoners of conscience. In 1980 the Argentinian human rights activist Adolfo Peréz Esquivel was honored. Esquivel had founded non-violent human rights organizations to fight the military junta that was ruling his country. His message was also seen as relevant for much of the rest of Latin America. The apartheid regime in South Africa continued to preoccupy the Nobel Committee and the Norwegian public. In 1984 Bishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu was recognized for his non-violent struggle to bring apartheid to an end. The South African government strongly disliked the award, as it had Lutuli's, but again it let the Laureate travel to Oslo to receive it.
It was only in this period that the Nobel Peace Prize became truly global in its approach. The first Peace Prize to a person not from Europe and North America had been the one to Lamas in 1936. The next one was Lutuli's in 1960. Yet, even Lutuli's prize did not really signal an unmistakable trend, since only from the 1970s onwards did the Nobel Committee regularly award Asians (Le Duc Tho, Eisaku Sato, the Dalai Lama, in a sense also Mother Teresa), Africans (Anwar Sadat, Desmond Tutu) and Latin Americans (Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Alfonso García Robles, Oscar Arias Sánchez). Thus, in the 1970s and 1980s there were as many Laureates from Africa, Asia, and Latin America combined as from North America and Western Europe combined. (In addition there were Andrei Sakharov and Lech Walesa from Eastern Europe and Menachem Begin from Israel.)
One may ask why it took the Norwegian Nobel Committee so long to recognize persons from these other continents. The answer has several elements. For centuries Europe and North America dominated the rest of the world. There were few other independent actors. Reflecting this, very few nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize were submitted by persons from Asia, Africa and Latin America. In addition, most Western politicians simply did not pay much attention to what was going on in these vast regions; some even considered those who lived there inferior. Such feelings certainly affected Norwegians too, probably also some of the members of the Nobel Committee.
Mohandas Gandhi was, however, nominated five times and he was put on the committee's short list three times. In 1948 the committee awarded no prize; it indicated that it had found "no suitable living candidate", a reference to Gandhi. It thus seems likely that he would have been awarded the prize if he had not been assassinated in January 1948. Still, the committee had had earlier opportunities to honor the man who, in hindsight, is generally seen as the leading spokesman of non-violence in the 20th century. Under the statutes then in force, Gandhi could have been awarded even the 1948 prize, as seen by the posthumous prize awarded to Hammarskjöld in 1961. Yet, a posthumous prize was an obvious complication. Gandhi had his supporters on the committee, but the majority felt that despite his own non-violence, violence had sometimes resulted from his actions, even before the bloody division between India and Pakistan; he was also perceived as too much of an Indian nationalist. Such feelings might have been affected by Norway's traditionally very close relationship to Britain, by a rapidly growing skepticism to neutrality in the Cold War and even by a more general underestimation of individuals from "underdeveloped" parts of the world.
The reaction to apartheid in South Africa after the Sharpeville massacre was to modify such underestimation, but, as we have seen, this happened rather slowly. The decolonization process in Asia and Africa certainly also had an impact. All forms of racial stereotyping were banned from civilized public discourse. The growing emphasis on human rights furthered the globalization of the prize, as did the emphasis on finding a solution to regional crises in different parts of the world.
1990 - : Pluralist Globalization
Around 1990 huge changes were taking place internationally. The Cold War came to an end, with the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989 and of the Soviet Union itself in 1991. Expectations were high for the new post-Cold War world, but it soon became obvious that an end to the Cold War did not signal the end of war and conflict. The arms race slowed down considerably, but it still continued in various parts of the world. Old conflicts lingered; many new ones arose. Human rights advanced greatly, with the emergence of new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe, in Latin America and Asia, and even in Africa, but almost half the world's population still lived under some form of dictatorship. The composition of the Norwegian Nobel Committee underwent few dramatic changes in the 1990s. The committee majority again moved left of center in terms of Norwegian politics, with the Labor party having two representatives and the Socialist Left one. After Aarvik's death in 1990, Labor's Gidske Anderson served as chair of the committee for only half a year, until illness forced her to step down. The committee chairman from 1991 to 1999, Francis Sejersted, was a Conservative professor of history. In 2000 former Labor cabinet minister Gunnar Berge became the new chairman. From 1979 the committee regularly had two women members; from 2000 it even had a female majority. In the 1990s the prize was awarded on a regular basis every year.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee celebrated the end of the Cold War with the 1990 Peace Prize to Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev , President of the Soviet Union, the person who, in the Committee's opinion, had done more than any one else to bring the Cold War to an end. Encouraged by the end of the Cold War, the committee was also prepared to intervene even more frequently than before in regional conflicts around the world in the hope that the Nobel Peace Prize could not only award deeds done, but also provide an added incentive for peace. The prize in 1993 to Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk could be regarded as a success in that respect, although it came at a stage when most of the transition from apartheid to democracy had already been accomplished.
In 1994, the Peace Prize was awarded to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres for the Oslo Agreement, which brought about a mutual recognition and a framework for peace between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel. The three politicians had accomplished much, but they were still far from establishing a final peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The award resulted in one member leaving the committee, the leading spokesman in Norway for the Likud party in Israel. This was the third resignation in the history of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. In 1996, the prize was awarded to East Timorese leaders Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and José Ramos-Horta. The tragic situation in East Timor after the Indonesian invasion in 1975 had been almost forgotten internationally. Due to the effect of the Nobel Peace Prize and, even more, of the Indonesian economic and political collapse in 1997-1998, East Timor was able to start on the road toward independence. In 1998 the committee honored Northern Irish leaders John Hume and David Trimble . Through the Good Friday Agreement of that year, the major parties to that protracted conflict agreed on the principles for its resolution, although it might take years before the agreement is fully implemented. In 2000 the Peace Prize was awarded to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung , both for his "sunshine policy" of contacts and cooperation with North Korea and his long-standing commitment to human rights in South Korea and elsewhere.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee also further strengthened its somewhat radical profile within the field of arms control and disarmament. Two such prizes were awarded in the 1990s. The first one came in 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs . Rotblat had initially worked on the Manhattan Project, which created the bombs, but had left the project to take up a life-long struggle against nuclear weapons. He had helped create the Pugwash Conferences where since 1957, scientists from the United States, the Soviet Union and many other countries had met in an effort to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in international relations. The second prize came in 1997 when the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) and its coordinator, Jody Williams , were honored for their work to ban and remove anti-personnel land mines and to support the victims of such mines.
In the 1990s the human rights tradition was extended by prizes to two women. In 1991 the Peace Prize was awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi , the leader of the opposition against the Burmese military regime. Her party won an overwhelming victory in the 1990 election, but she was then confined to house arrest. While her cause now came to receive broad international support, the military regime continued in power. Somewhat more controversial was the 1992 award, on the 500th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America, to Rigoberta Menchú Tum , the Maya Indian campaigner for human, particularly indigenous, rights in Guatemala and the rest of Latin America. The humanitarian tradition was continued through the 1999 award to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) - or Doctors Without Borders - for its "pioneering humanitarian efforts on several continents." The work of MSF clearly had a human rights dimension in addition to the humanitarian one. As already mentioned, the 2000 award to Kim Dae Jung also combined two traditional elements in the history of the Peace Prize.
The Nobel Peace Prize through 100 Years: Some Conclusions
Thus, some lines of development can be distinguished in the almost 100 year history of the Nobel Peace Prize. First, although the Norwegian Nobel Committee never formally defined "peace," in practice it came to interpret the term ever more broadly. This approach could have its pitfalls, but avoided the danger of locking the committee into fixed categories and gave the committee flexibility to adapt to new concerns. In the early years, the emphasis was definitely on the organized peace movement and the codification of international law, but even in the very first year of the Peace Prize the first humanitarian, and five years later, the first statesman were selected. Later the balance shifted away from the organized peace movement and international jurists, although some of them continued to be selected and the category came to include church leaders and even a Holocaust interpreter. Humanitarians became more numerous, and this category came to include scientists who worked to alleviate hunger. Disarmers became more numerous too, and this category came to include those who supported limited arms control and not necessarily full disarmament. Different kinds of statesmen were awarded the Peace Prize, some for addressing global concerns, others for helping to solve regional crises, still others for the general principles they espoused. The human rights category was added to the list and gradually became perhaps the most numerous one.
Second, from a slow start, the list of Laureates became increasingly global, so that by the 1970s all continents except Australia and Oceania were represented. In the nominations and correspondence to the committee, it is easy to see how a prize to one continent stimulated interest in the prize in this area. Third, although Bertha von Suttner was awarded the Peace Prize in 1905, particularly in the early decades few women were selected. In recent decades, this too has changed, although not as dramatically as the geographical distribution of the Laureates, so that by 2000 ten women have received the Nobel Peace Prize. Fourth, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has increasingly come to use the Peace Prize not only as a reward for achievements accomplished, but also as an incentive for the Laureates to achieve even more. This may be said to reflect the growing courage of the committee members or, perhaps more accurately, the increasing stature of the Nobel Peace Prize.
No prize will be able to establish a "perfect" historical record, whatever that might be. Most observers will agree that the omission of Gandhi from the list of Nobel Laureates is a serious one, but it might be the only one of such a nature. There may well have been some Laureates that perhaps should not have received the prize, but still did. But there is not much of a consensus on which ones these Laureates are. Controversy is certainly no good judge in this respect. (These days, when even Mother Teresa is considered controversial by some, it may also be difficult to know what is controversial.) In historical hindsight, several of the more controversial prizes are now considered among the most successful ones (Ossietzky, Lutuli, Sakharov, the Dalai Lama, Gorbachev). On the other hand, the prize to Kissinger and Le Duc Tho shows that controversy is no guarantee of historical success. On the whole, however, after taking into consideration what a treacherous field "peace" is and also the record of the many other peace prizes, it can certainly be argued that the standing of the Nobel Peace Prize would not have been what it is if it had not been for its highly respectable record.
This essay has attempted to place the history of the prize within a Norwegian context. This is natural since the committee members through these 100 years have all been Norwegians. Until 1936 they sometimes included even prominent members of the Norwegian government; until the 1970s they were frequently members of the Storting. Later they were often ex-politicians, many of them having served in prominent positions. Some of the politicians honored, from Roosevelt to Arafat, Peres and Rabin, may well have served Norwegian state interests in the sense that their selection fitted well into government policy. On the more speculative side, the non-award to Gandhi may also have been influenced by Norway's close relationship to Britain, and after the Second World War any award to the leading figures behind the movement toward European economic and political integration was clearly difficult in a country as divided on that issue as was Norway. (Brandt was only a partial exception.) On the other hand, some of the committee's selections were clearly problematic from the point of view of the Norwegian government. The best illustrations of this were probably the awards to Ossietzky and the Dalai Lama.
In principle almost everyone would prefer a Nobel Committee with an international membership. In practice, however, an international committee would have faced serious problems. (What would such a committee have done during the Cold War?) The connections to Norwegian values, as well as to Norwegian politics, may be regarded as questionable for the prestige of the Peace Prize, but it may in fact have had its advantages. Thus, after the Second World War hardly any term has been and still is more popular in Norwegian foreign policy parlance than "bridge-building." While an increasingly rich Northern state firmly attached to the West and with strong sympathies for Israel, Norway has been concerned with building bridges to the East, to the South, and increasingly to the Palestinians and other Arabs. It is a separate question how realistic such attitudes are as a basis for a country's foreign policy, but as a basis for prize selections, a blend of idealism and realism may not be so bad.
The values that underpinned the Nobel Peace Prize were concretely defined by Norwegians, but they were part of a wider Scandinavian and Western context. They represented the Norwegian version of Western liberal internationalism. Thus, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has been a strong believer in international organizations, from the Inter-Parliamentary Union to the League of Nations and the United Nations. Organizations and rules had been employed to contain conflicts within Norway; they could also temper international strife. Small nations almost instinctively prefer international law to the might they do not possess, and they believe in the arbitration, mediation and peaceful solution of international disputes. In a similar way, the Nobel Committee believed in humanitarian assistance to the weak and the poor, in arms control and disarmament, and, more and more fervently, in human rights generally.
When we look at the nationalities of the Laureates, we also get an idea of where liberal internationalism has been most strongly represented (or has been perceived by the Norwegian Nobel Committee as being most strongly represented). Virtually all of the organizations honored had clear roots in this Western ideology. Although liberal internationalism was in many ways ideally suited for smaller powers, it also had many supporters in the Great Powers. On the individual side, nineteen of the Laureates have come from the United States, representing both leading politicians - two presidents, one vice-president, five secretaries of state - and those more distant from and skeptical to the centers of power (Addams, Balch, Pauling, King, Williams); twelve have come from Great Britain, again reflecting both traditions, Austen Chamberlain and Joseph Rotblat perhaps representing the extremes; eight have been French, four have been German. Five have been Swedish (Arnoldson, Branting, Söderblom, Hammarskjöld and Myrdal). Two have been Norwegian (Lange, Nansen).
Thus, perhaps, in compiling its record through these 100 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has actually been able to be both very Norwegian and quite international at the same time.
* Published as a chapter of the book: "The Nobel Prize: The First 100 Years", Agneta Wallin Levinovitz and Nils Ringertz, eds., Imperial College Press and World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. , 2001.
Geir Lundestad has been Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo and Secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee since 1990. He was born in Sulitjelma, a mining community in Northern Norway, in 1945. He received his MA (Cand. philol.) in history from the University of Oslo in 1970, PhD from the University of Tromsø in 1976.
Lundestad held positions at the University of Tromsø from 1974: Associate Professor of History, Professor of American Civilization 1979-88, Professor of History 1988-90. He has also been a research fellow at Harvard University (1978-79, 1983) and at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. (1988-89). While being the Director of the Nobel Institute, Lundestad is also Adjunct Professor of International History at the University of Oslo.
His main publications are: The American Non-Policy Towards Eastern Europe 1943-1947 (1975), America, Scandinavia and the Cold War 1945-1949 (1980), East, West, North, South. Major Developments in International Politics since 1945. (First Norwegian Edition in 1985, later revised, Fourth Edition 1999), 'Empire' by integration: the United States and European integration 1945-1997 (1998).
First published 15 March 2001
Share this:
To cite this page
MLA style: "The Nobel Peace Prize 1901-2000". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Web. 18 Jan 2017. <http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/themes/peace/lundestad-review/>
| Cordell Hull |
Who is the famous mother of TV presenter Claudia Winkelman? | Putin, Hitler and Stalin: Least Deserving Nobel Peace Prize Nominations
Putin, Hitler and Stalin: Least Deserving Nobel Peace Prize Nominations
March 5, 2014 14:33 GMT
Vladimir Putin seized Ukraine's Crimea region prompting confrontation between Moscow and the WestReuters
Russian president Vladimir Putin has been nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, one of a record 278 candidates for this year's award.
However, the Nobel committee's agenda is likely to include the recent conflict in Ukraine. Last month, Russia seized control of Ukraine's Crimea region after President Viktor Yanukovich was ousted, prompting the most serious confrontation between the West and Moscow since the Cold War.
Geir Lundestad, the Norwegian Nobel Institute's director, said: "Part of the purpose of the committee's first meeting is to take into account recent events, and committee members try to anticipate what could be the potential developments in political hotspots."
Edward Snowden, the former US National Security Agency contractor responsible for the leak of classified material exposing internet surveillance systems, has also been nominated for the 2014 peace prize. Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager and women's educational rights activist who was shot in the head by the Taliban, is believed to be on the list of candidates although this has yet to be confirmed.
Nominees such as Yousafzai, as well as previous candidates such as Mahatma Gandhi and Eleanor Roosevelt, brook little argument. However the prize has seen several contentious nominations since its launch in 1901.
IBTimes UK now examines the most controversial nominees and winners.
The former German chancellor was nominated for the Peace Prize in 1939IBT Au
Adolf Hitler
The former Führer of Germany was nominated for the 1939 Peace Prize by E.G.C Brandt, a member of the Swedish parliament. However Brandt nominated Hitler as a hoax to protest the nomination of Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister between 1937 and 1939.
Brandt was railing against Chamberlain's foreign policy, which included signed the Munich Pact in 1938. Hitler's nomination was withdrawn in February 1939.
Josef Stalin
The former leader of the Soviet Union was nominated for the Peace Prize in 1948 by Wladislav Rieger, a Prague University professor. As well as being the mind behind the campaign of political repression known as the Great Terror, Stalin ordered the execution of 25,700 Polish POWs in March 1940, known as the Katyn Massacre. Stalin personally told a Polish general they had "lost track" of the officers in Manchuria, yet Polish railroad workers found the mass grave after the 1941 Nazi invasion.
Henry Kissinger
Kissinger was one of the most influential architects of US foreign policy between 1969 and 1977. He pioneered the policy of 'detente' - easy relations - with the Soviet Union, and helped end the American involvement in the Vietnam War. Kissinger was nominated for the prize in 1977, but earlier that year it was revealed he was overseeing the killing of hundreds of thousands of people in an illegal secret bombing campaign against Cambodia.
Cordell Hull
Franklin Roosevelt's Secretary of State rejected reports of the Holocaust and sent Jewish refugees back to Germany. In 1939, Hull advised President Roosevelt to reject a ship called the SS. St Louis, which was carrying 936 Jews seeking asylum.
Hull received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945 for his role in establishing the United Nations.
Fidel Castro
Under the rule of the Cuban communist revolutionary, socialist reforms introducing central economic planning and education were accompanied by state control of the press and the suppression of internal dissent. Human rights in the country are under the scrutiny of Human Rights Watch, which accuses the government of systematic abuses, including torture, unfair trials and abitrary imprisonment. Despite the the elimination of the press and the terrorisation of dissenters, Castro was nominated for the prize in 2001 by a Norwegian parliamentarian for his "efforts to help developing nations".
Related
| i don't know |
Which British monarch put the “Regis” into Bognor? | The House of Windsor / Useful Notes - TV Tropes
May she defend our laws,
And never give us pause
To sing with heart and voice:
"God save the Queen!"
— "God Save the Queen", third verse
On 8 February 1960, the Queen confirmed that she and her children would continue to be known as the House and Family of Windsor. Though the Royal House is named Windsor, it was decreed, via a 1960 Order-in-Council, that those male-line descendants of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip who were not Princes or Princesses of the United Kingdom should have the personal surname Mountbatten-Windsor. In practice all of their children, in honour of their father, have used Mountbatten-Windsor as their surname (although Princes William and Harry have "Wales" on their military uniforms, reflecting the long-standing tradition that when a surname is required, as for military service, a royal will use his most prestigious title as if it were a surname). Since becoming Queen, she is Elizabeth II, all other names are not used officially. There was a minor flap about her being the first Elizabeth to rule over Scotland (thus making her Elizabeth I there, if that rule were to be believed), but the Royal Family decided that when Scotland and England had different numbers of rulers of the same name, they would follow the higher one whether it was Scottish or English. As it happens, that is the rule that had (accidentally) been followed since the Act of Union 1707. A consequence of this is that if there were to be another King James, he would be James VIII (since James II of England was James VII of Scotland).
The Windsors were also monarchs of Ireland (till 1949 or 1937, depending on how one interprets the Irish constitution), India (till 1950), and Pakistan (till 1956). As noted below, the family was originally known as the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha), the name of the ducal house to which Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, belonged; this family also holds the monarchy of Belgium and is descended from the late medieval Wettin Dukes of Saxony (the ones who, most famously, protected Martin Luther during the Reformation).note The House of Wettin is split into two main branches ever since Ernest, Elector of Saxony, Landgrave of Thuringia and Margrave of Meissen, divided up the Wettin territories between himself and his younger brother Albrecht (Albert III) in 1485. Paradoxically, Queen Victoria's consort Prince Albert comes from the Ernestine (ducal), not the Albertine (royal) branch. The Ernestine Wettins continued to divide the lands of a ruler amongst his sons longer than most other ruling houses, which meant that Ernestine territory became fragmented into different lines; when a line died out its territory was inherited by or divided up between Ernestine relatives. This is why the name Saxe-Coburg and Gotha only started with Albert's father Ernest (Ernst). His line had previously been known as Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, but in 1825 the Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg line died out; in the subsequent re-partitioning Ernest inherited Saxe-Gotha through his consort Louise, but he had to give up Saalfeld to the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. Consequently Prince Albert and King Leopold I (Ernest's younger brother) are called Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, while Ernest's sister Victoire (Queen Victoria's mother), who married the Duke of Kent in 1818, years before the re-partitioning, is called Victoria, Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. George V later changed the name during World War One to appease anti-German sentiment (his Belgian cousins did the same).
The House of Windsor, then, from most recent death to earliest:
Born: 21 April 1926 note Her 'Official Birthday' is in June in the UK, May in Canada
Parents: King George VI and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
Reigned: Since 6 February 1952
Consort: Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
The current monarch, and her family . Elizabeth is quite popular, to the point that some of the nations of the commonwealth have actually rejected movements towards republicanism, preferring to retain her as their Head of State (even if only a ceremonial one). She is the longest-living British monarch in history, and as of September 9, 2015 the longest-reigning British monarch, beating the record formerly held by Queen Victoria .
Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother
Lived: 4 August 1900 — 30 March 2002
Parents: Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck
Consort: George VI
Pre-marital name Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, having been born the daughter of the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne.note A title in the Peerage of Scotland , created in 1606 for her ancestor the Lord of Glamis; before that, her ancestors had been Lords and still before that Thanes of Glamis since 1372 . Better known as "The Queen Mum", she lived for over 100 years
and died with a bank overdraft of ten million pounds, an impressive feat in these modern times—and an amusing one, since the press and the bank seemed to treat it as a kind of national joke once revealed rather than an indication of trouble. Well known for her dry wit and being a particularly lovable figure. Spitting Image gave her a Birmingham accent—despite being ethnically Scottish —and she was invariably caricatured as being mad keen on horse-racing and gin . Which isn't actually that far wrong; by a conservative estimate, she had ten drinks a day minimum.note (This is reckoned in British standard drinks, which are half the size and therefore potency of American standard drinks which are also similar in size to the rest of the world's, so by the reckoning of almost everyone else, she had more like 5 units of alcohol per day) Gin and Dubonnet at noon, red wine with lunch a few hours later, a port and martini at six, and two glasses of champagne at dinner, plus a nightcap. Note that these sorts of drinking habits have not historically been uncommon for the British aristocracy, or indeed any aristocracy; it's simply that, unlike others of her era, she managed to live until 2002. Also... Upon being told by a nervous host, "I've heard you like gin," she said, "Make it a double." Upon being presented with a Nebuchadnezzar—the equivalent of 20 bottles—of champagne, she said, "I suppose I'll just finish it off myself." Then-Prince Albert had to propose to her three times before she said yes; she was afraid of the restrictions of royal life, but eventually decided he was worth it and agreed to marry him. It was her popularity that swung the decision in her husband's favour during the abdication crisis; Albert's younger brother Prince George was under serious consideration but it was ultimately decided that with Elizabeth beside him, Bertie could handle the job. (As noted below, Prince Albert chose "George" as his regal name when he was crowned, and so became King George VI.)
She earned longstanding devotion from the Blitz Generation for her and George VI's refusal to flee the country during WWII ; when asked to send her children to Canada for safekeeping, she famously replied, "The girls won't leave without me, I won't leave without the King and the King will never leave ". After Buckingham Palace was bombed during the Blitz, she quipped, "Finally. Now I can look the East End in the face."note The East End was the most devastated by aerial bombing during the war. She also a cruise liner named after her,note the Cunard ocean liner RMS Queen Elizabeth, sister ship and running mate to RMS Queen Mary (which, incidentally, was named after her mother-in-law) as well as a famous expressway in Canada
(which you take to get to Niagara Fallsnote And Buffalo .). After her death it was discovered that she owned an impressive library of ska music. She has been played by Sylvia Syms in The Queen (2006), Juliet Aubrey in Bertie and Elizabeth (2002) and Helena Bonham-Carter note Fun fact: the Queen Mum may have met Bonham Carter's great-grandfather Herbert Henry Asquith , as she was after all the daughter of an earl while he was PM, and by the time "Squiffy" was elevated to the Peerage, the King doing the elevating was her father-in-law. in The King's Speech .
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon
Lived: 21 August 1930 — 9 February 2002
Parents: King George VI and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
Consort: Antony Armstrong Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon
The Queen's little sister and in many ways her complete opposite . In 1953 she wanted to marry her father's equerry, Group Captain Peter Townsend ( not that one , although frankly he would have been right up her alley; keep reading to see why). The only problem was that he was divorced, and at this time such a marriage would have been a Very Big Deal Indeed. She eventually decided against marrying Townsend and, years later, married a society photographer named Antony Armstrong-Jones (who was made the Earl of Snowdon on his marriage to her); ironically, they themselves divorced in 1978 after years of bitter acrimony and mutual recriminations. Famously a good-time girl in her younger days—one of her closest friends was Peter Sellers - the rumour of her having an affair with Mick Jagger is 'unconfirmed'.note If true, it would appear that Jagger has a thing for high-placed women named Margaret: he also had an 'unconfirmed' affair with Margaret Trudeau, wife of then- Canadian PM Pierre Elliott Trudeau , although we should say that Mrs Trudeau was a bit more age-appropriate for him. Margaret died shortly before her mother in 2002. She once said that her greatest regret in life was not having been allowed to attend school; it has been remarked that her great tragedy was to be born with frightening intelligence and no outlet for it whatsoever. No wonder she drank.
Diana, Princess of Wales
Lived: 1 July 1961 — 31 August 1997
Parents: John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer and Frances Shand Kydd
Consort: Prince Charles, Prince of Wales
Pre-marital name Lady Diana Spencer. You've almost certainly heard of her, often as the technically incorrect 'Princess Diana'.note inspiring numerous cartoons in which she and Wonder Woman received each other's outfits back from the cleaners, &c. She was a member of the ancient and venerable Spencer family (making her a distant relative of Sir Winston Churchill )note For our Assassin's Creed fans: she's also a distant relative of Caterina Sforza, and a member of the Sloane Rangers
, a 1980s group of young Tory upper-crust and professionals. She married Charles in 1981 and bore him two children, cheated on him with half the army list and the England rugby captain, divorced him, and then hooked up with Dodi al Fayed. Beloved by the public both in life and in death, but more recent looks into The British Royal Family have some people believing that she was never really suited for life as royaltynote the Royal Family favors a subdued life devoted to duty no matter their personal opinions. Diana had her own causes she wished to promote, but was also famously jet-set and openly despised having to participate in events and rituals that didn't interest her. Diana was killed in a car crash in 1997; since then numerous conspiracy theories have arisen. The details of her death and the latest conspiracy theories are regularly featured in the Daily Express up to this day.
She was technically no longer an HRH or a member of the royal family when she died, having given up the styling and position when she divorced Prince Charles. But she remained Princess Diana in the minds of the public, which led to a furore because people didn't realize that Queen Elizabeth wasn't making any statements because Diana was essentially a private citizen and that the Spencers should have been handling the arrangements.
George VI of the United Kingdom
Lived: 14 December 1895 — 6 February 1952
Parents: King George V and Princess Mary of Teck
Reigned: 11 December 1936 — 6 February 1952
Consort: Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
Father of the current queen, husband of the late Queen Mum. Last King of Ireland and last Emperor of India. A well meaning but painfully shy and socially awkward man (rather like his grandson Charles) who led Britain through World War II. Had the misfortune to suffer a dreadful stammer which required considerable therapy, and coaching during public addresses, by Australian speech expert Lionel Logue. Only came to the throne due to the abdication of Edward VIII (which would partly explain the shyness, as he was never groomed and trained for kingship; he had expected to have a career as a military officer—in his case, in the Navy—as was the tradition for second sons). Until then he had been known as Prince Albert, Duke of York, and remained "Bertie" to the family. One of England's most beloved monarchs due to his steadfast leadership during the War, including his famous refusal to leave the country during the Blitz. Colin Firth plays him in the 2010 film The King's Speech , about him and his speech therapist. James Wilby played him in the 2002 feature Bertie and Elizabeth , which was part of the celebration of Her Majesty's 50th year as Queen. Samuel West played him in the movie Hyde Park on Hudson. Jared Harris played him in the The Crown 2016 .
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
Lived: 23 June 1894 — 28 May 1972
Parents: King George V and Princess Mary of Teck
Reigned: 20 January 1936 — 11 December 1936
Consort: Wallis Simpson
Elder brother of George VI and uncle of Elizabeth II. Much more forceful than his brother, caused a constitutional crisis by his desire to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson. Abdicated after less than a year on the throne and became Duke of Windsor. Pathologically hated by quite a number of people, largely due to his being, by all accounts, both selfish and an absolute jerk. Often accused of latent (or less than latent) fascist sympathies
◊
. Despite his regnal name, the family consistently called him David. He is played by Guy Pearce in The King's Speech .
It was this anomaly in the succession that inspired the 1930s setting for Ian McKellen's film adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard III. Other elements of the story appear in the film; Richard's regime is unmistakably fascist, while Edward IV's wife is given an American accent.
George V of the United Kingdom
Lived: 3 June 1865 — 20 January 1936
Parents: King Edward VII and Princess Alexandra of Denmark
Reigned: 6 May 1910 — 20 January 1936
Consort: Princess Mary of Teck
Father of Edward and George, grandfather of Elizabeth II. Solid, reliable, conservative monarch, by no means intellectually brilliant but a steady capable hand (rather like Elizabeth II in fact). Also a keen philatelist. Last British monarch with facial hair . He led Britain through World War One . Infamously denied his cousin (Nicholas II of Russia) asylum. Tragic personal life includes the premature death of a brother (Prince Albert Victor), and his youngest son (Prince John). Technically the first Windsor - he changed the family name from the bulky "Wettin von Saxe-Coburg and Gotha" during the war to appease anti-German sentiment (particularly after the name "Gotha" became infamous due to German bombers of the same attacking London
), despite ironically being as German as his cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm II. When H.G. Wells referred to Britain's "alien and uninspiring court" before the name shift, George is said to have responded " I may be uninspiring, but I'll be damned if I'm an alien! "note Supposedly, the Kaiser retaliated to this by commissioning a performance of The Merry Wives of Wettin von Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Masterminded the royal family's media image.
Famous for having last words that may or may not be a Beam Me Up, Scotty! : during his terminal illness, one of his advisors is supposed to have said that he would soon be well enough to visit Bognor Regis. George's response? " Bugger Bognor ."
He looked freaking identical to his cousin Nicholas II
◊
, but historians are rather disagreeing on the matter.note During the celebrations of George's wedding to Mary, at which Nicholas was in attendance, guests are reported to have congratulated Nicholas on his marriage and asked George how he was enjoying his stay in England. Was originally a Spare to the Throne , his elder brother Albert Victor died of influenza shortly before his wedding to...
Queen Mary
Lived: 26 May 1867 — 24 March 1953
Parents: Francis, Duke of Teck and Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge
Consort: George V
Her full name being hugely bulky even by royal standards,note Victoria Mary Augusta Louise Olga Pauline Claudine Agnes her family was technically a junior branch of the royal family of Württemberg in southwestern Germany, but she was born and raised in Britain—which is why Victoria thought her a suitable wife for her grandson, as she was thoroughly English but also of royal blood. She was originally intended to marry Albert Victor, but when he died and she and George hit it off, the Royal Family decided Why Waste a Wedding? Thus she ended up the Queen Mum to the Queen Mum. She was a kleptomaniac and a fanatic jewel collector. Was described by one politician as "magnificent, [...] worldly, in fact nearly sublime, but cold and hard", making it appropriate that she had an ocean liner named after her.note RMS Queen Mary, a Cunard liner and, as noted above, running mate to RMS Queen Elizabeth, named after then-Queen Consort Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
Queen Alexandra
Lived: 1 December 1844 — 20 November 1925
Parents: King Christian IX of Denmark and Princess Louise of Hesse-Kassel
Consort: Edward VII
Wife of Edward VII, she was a Danish princess before she married into the British royal family. Despite being related to German royalty, she was not a fan of Kaiser Wilhelm and firmly supported the British in World War I —indeed, relations between Prussia and Denmark often led to tension within the family, particularly as Kaiser Wilhelm was her nephew (his father Frederick III was married to Edward's elder sister Victoria) and Alexandra did not forget that Denmark had lost Schleswig-Holstein in the German-Danish War of 1864. Other than that, she was most notable for her charitable work, for her status as a fashion icon, for her deafness, and for being the great-grandmother of the current queen. Physically she was in great shape and it is said that the lissome queen once almost split her sides laughing when she saw her portly husband and his fat mistress Alice Keppel taking a walk in the garden through the window. Oh, and for Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, formed in 1902, which served with distinction in both World Wars and was eventually folded into the British military itself.
If you've ever seen a Victorian play where a female character affects a fake limp, you can thank Alexandra for that. A post-partum bout with rheumatic fever left her lame in one leg; within days the "Alexandra Limp" had become fashionable.
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Lived: 9 November 1841 — 6 May 1910
Parents: Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Queen Victoria
Reigned: 22 January 1901 — 6 May 1910
Consort: Princess Alexandra of Denmark
Great grandfather of Elizabeth II. Lent his name to The Edwardian Era . Prior to his coronation, known as Albert Edward, and called "Bertie" by the family even after he became King. In his fifty-nine years as Prince of Wales, he earned a reputation as a cigar smoking (he apparently once lit up from a church candle during a service), womanising, gambling, food-loving and generally lively playboy, and was widely expected to be utterly incapable of reigning properly , but surprised everyone by being a pretty good king.
A famous Francophile—he had loved France, the French, and French culture ever since coming with his mother and father on their only state visit abroad (to Paris in 1855), and regularly holidayed at the resort of Biarritz in the French Basque Countrynote This caused a minor scandal, as when Henry Campbell Bannerman died in 1908, the King was in Biarritz and had Herbert Henry Asquith come to France to kiss hands
rather than go up to London himself—paved the way for the British alliance with France (and ultimately Russia). As Prince of Wales, he also started the traditions of the British monarch and royals making public "make-a-speech-cut-the-ribbon-and-kiss-the-babies"-type public appearances and going on numerous state visits to strengthen Britain's ties with foreign states;note The former led to the latter; after laying the cornerstone for the Canadian Parliament at Ottawa during his visit in 1860, he went down to the United States, visiting Washington, D.C. —hopping over to Virginia to pay his respects to George Washington — Philadelphia , and New York City . in other words, it's fair to say he invented the modern role of the British monarch and royal family (since those two things occupy more of a modern royal's public exposure than anything else).
As noted, Edward was long noted for his love of a good time. He had a number of mistresses, many of them high profile (including the actress Lilly Langtry;note Who is alleged— probably wrongly —to have had this exchange with him: "Why should I spend any more money on you? I've spent enough on you to build a battleship." "And you've spent enough in me to float it." She also had dalliances with other high-placed figures—among them the maternal grandfather of Elizabeth II's consort Prince Philip. Daisy Greville, Countess of Warwick;note Who got the nickname "Babbling" Brooke because (1) her husband, as heir to the Earldom of Warwick, was Lord Brooke, and (2) she couldn't keep her mouth shut. This last proved to be her undoing as a royal mistress. She was also the inspiration for the ditty "Daisy, Daisy." and the society hostess Alice Keppelnote Great-grandmother of another mistress of a Prince of Wales, Camilla Parker-Bowles. Of course, Prince Charles was eventually allowed to marry her.) and a number of scandals (some involving his mistresses and some not) as Prince of Wales. He has the dubious distinction of having had to appear as a witness in not one but two high-profile and very scandalous trials, the first being the divorce trial of an MP
(where the issue was the MP's wife's cheating on him with the Prince while her husband was at sittings of Parliament) and the second case involved gambling
(and had the added indignity of his being forced to testify, rather than willingly taking the stand as he had the previous time). He was, outside of his mistresses, a truly notorious womanizer; he had liaisons with numerous society women (including Winston Churchill 's mother Lady Randolph Churchill and actress Sarah Bernhardt), and also had special rooms in some of the top brothels of Paris, including one with a specially-designed siège d'amour ("love chair") so even with his great weight he could take two prostitutes at once. In the end, though, all of that was, if not forgotten, then easily forgiven—more of a national joke than an embarrassment, especially given how the rest of the late Victorian upper classes carried on. It helped that his wife didn't really mind; for all the cheating, he appears that he was actually a pretty caring and decent husband otherwise (by her lights, anyway). He was also a great lover of food—especially French food—and ended up with a 50-plus-inch waist ; again, fate spared him, and of the whole long line of fat British monarchs (i.e. every single one from George I until him), he carried it best. He was also (thus far) the last fat British monarch; his marriage to the slender Alexandra of Denmark seems to have had the lasting effect of ensuring reasonably svelte monarchs for the next five generations. Also, peculiarly for someone so thoroughly in love with fine French cuisine, he was the one who cemented the English tradition of eating roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and potatoes for the Sunday roast . In the end, of his numerous vices, it was his smoking (twelve cigars daily, plus twenty cigarettes) that caught up to him, and he died of heart disease after nine years on the throne in 1910. His funeral was noted by Barbara Tuchman in The Guns of August to be the greatest assemblage of royalty in history. He was the longest-serving heir apparent in British history, until Charles beat Edward's record on 20 April 2011. Probably the only Windsor to actually enjoy being a monarch; the others seem to regard it largely as a duty.
He was also known to be a surprisingly liberal man for his time (though, considering his personal life, this is perhaps less surprising than it might be), famously taking a severe dislike to the way Indians were treated in the British Raj, saying that to the Foreign Minister of the time, Lord Granville, "because a man has a black face and a different religion than our own, there is no reason why he should be treated as a brute." At the same time, he happily included Catholics, Jews and the nouveau riche in his circle of friends, at a time when all three groups were very much persona non grata and was genuinely concerned by the plight of the poor (though, it should be noted, this was more a case of feeling feudal obligation than desiring reform). He tended to also be privately vaguely sympathetic to the Liberal Party; he counted William Gladstone as a personal friend and mentor (to the annoyance of his mother, who greatly preferred Disraeli and rather detested Gladstone on a personal level) and generally had better relationships with his Liberal PMs (Campbell-Bannerman and Asquith) than with his Tory ones (Lord Salisbury and Balfour).
Depictions in fiction
| George V |
What is the common name for the bird Alauda arvensis, which mounts the air almost vertically? | George V | Royal Family Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia
29 January 1936
St George's Chapel, Windsor
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 - 20 January 1936) was the first British monarch belonging to the House of Windsor, as a result of his creating it from the British branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. As well as being King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (from 1927, split into King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and King of Ireland) and the Commonwealth Realms, George was also the Emperor of India. George reigned from 6 May 1910 through World War I (1914-1918) until his death in 1936.
King George V is remembered for his role in World War I, during which he relinquished all German titles and styles on behalf of his relatives who were British subjects; and changed the name of the royal house from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor. Another significant event in his reign was the passing of the Statute of Westminster which separated the crown so that George ruled the dominions as separate kingdoms.
Contents
Edit
George was born on 3 June 1865, at Marlborough House, London. His father was The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. His mother was The Princess of Wales (later Queen Alexandra), the eldest daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark. As a grandson of Queen Victoria in the male line, George was styled His Royal Highness Prince George of Wales at birth.
He was baptised in the Private Chapel of Windsor Castle on 7 July 1865 and his godparents were the King of Hanover, the Queen and Crown Prince of Denmark, the Prince of Leiningen, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Alice and the Duke of Cambridge. [1]
As a younger son of the Prince of Wales, there was no expectation that George would become King as his elder brother, Prince Albert Victor, was second in line to the throne after their father.
Education
Edit
Given that George was born only fifteen months after his brother Prince Albert Victor, it was decided to educate both royal princes together. The Prince of Wales appointed John Neale Dalton as their tutor, although neither excelled intellectually. In September 1877 both brothers joined the training ship HMS Britannia at Dartmouth. [2]
For three years from 1879 the royal brothers served as midshipmen on HMS Bacchante, accompanied by Dalton. They toured the British Empire, visiting Norfolk, Virginia, the colonies in the Caribbean, South Africa and Australia, as well as the Mediterranean, South America, the Far East and Egypt. Dalton wrote an account of their journey entitled The Cruise of HMS Bacchante. [3] Between Melbourne and Sydney, Dalton records a sighting of the Flying Dutchman (see entry for full account of sighting). When they returned to the UK, the brothers were parted with Albert Victor attending Trinity College, Cambridge and George continuing in the Royal Navy. He travelled the world and visited many areas of the British Empire, serving actively in the navy until his last command in 1891. From then on his naval rank was largely honorary. [4]
Marriage
Edit
As a young man destined to serve in the Navy, Prince George served for many years under the command of his uncle, Prince Alfred, who was stationed in Malta. There, he grew close to and fell in love with his uncle's daughter, his first cousin, Marie of Edinburgh. His grandmother, his father and his uncle all approved the match, but the mothers, the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Edinburgh both opposed it. When George proposed, Marie refused, guided by her mother. She later became Queen of Romania. [5]
In 1891, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence became engaged to his second cousin once removed, Princess Victoria Mary of Teck (always called "May"), the only daughter of Prince Francis, Duke of Teck and Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge. However, Albert Victor died of pneumonia six weeks later, leaving George second in line to the throne and likely to succeed after his father. [6] This effectively ended George's naval career.
Queen Victoria still favoured Princess May as a suitable candidate to marry a future king, so she persuaded George to propose to May. George duly proposed, and May accepted. This arranged marriage was a success, and unlike his father, George reportedly did not take a mistress. [6] Throughout their lives the couple exchanged notes of endearment and loving letters.
The marriage of George and May took place on 6 July 1893 at the Chapel Royal, St. James's Palace in London. It was claimed that at the wedding, the crowd were confused as to who was the Duke of York (later George V) and who was the Tsarevitch (later Nicholas II) of Russia, because their beards and dress made them look alike superficially. [7] However, their remaining facial features were quite different. [8]
Duke of York
Edit
In 1892, Queen Victoria created George, Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and Baron Killarney. After George's marriage to Mary, she was styled Her Royal Highness The Duchess of York.
The Duke and Duchess of York lived mainly at York Cottage [9] , Sandringham, Norfolk a relatively small house where their way of life mirrored that of a comfortable middle-class family rather than grand royalty. George preferred the simple, almost quiet, life in marked contrast to his parents. Even his official biographer dispaired of George's time as Duke of York, writing: "He may be all right as a young midshipman and a wise old king, but when he was Duke of York...he did nothing at all but shoot animals and stick in stamps." [10]
It has been claimed that George was a very strict father, to the extent that his children were terrified of him, and he is said to have remarked, "My father was frightened of his mother, I was frightened of my father, and I am damned well going to see to it that my children are frightened of me." In reality there is no direct source for the quote and it is likely that his parenting style was little different to that adopted by most people at the time. [11]
As Duke and Duchess of York, George and May carried out a wide variety of public duties. In 1901, they toured the British Empire, visiting Australia, where the Duke opened the first session of the Australian Parliament upon the creation of the Commonwealth of Australia. Their tour also included South Africa, Canada, and New Zealand, where (as they were now the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York) Cornwall Park in Auckland was named in their honour by its donor, John Logan Campbell, then Mayor of Auckland.
Prince of Wales
Edit
On 22 January, 1901, Queen Victoria died, and George's father, Albert Edward, ascended the throne as King Edward VII. At that point George inherited the titles of Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay. For the rest of that year, George was styled His Royal Highness The Duke of Cornwall and York, until 9 November 1901 when he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester.
King Edward VII wished his son to have more preparation and experience prior to his future role. In contrast with Queen Victoria, who excluded Edward from state affairs, George was given wide access to state documents and papers. He often read over the papers with his wife, whose intellect was considerably broader than his. May often helped write her husband's speeches.
King
Edit
In 1911, the King and Queen travelled to India for the Delhi Durbar on December 12, where they were presented to an assembled audience of Indian dignitaries and princes, as the Emperor and Empress of India. George wore the newly-created Imperial Crown of India at the ceremony. Later, the Emperor and Empress travelled throughout India, visiting their new subjects. George took the opportunity to indulge in hunting tigers, shooting 36. [12] Also during one season in Sandringham he shot 1,209 pheasants.
World War I
Edit
As King and Queen, George and Mary saw Britain through World War I, a difficult time for the Royal Family, as they had many German relatives. Although a female-line great granddaughter of King George III, Queen Mary was the daughter of the Duke of Teck, a morganatic section of the Royal House of Württemberg. King George's paternal grandfather was Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha; the King and his children bore the titles Prince and Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duke and Duchess of Saxony. The German Emperor Wilhelm II, who for the British public came to symbolise all the horrors of the war, was the king's first cousin, "Willy." The King had brothers-in-law and cousins who were British subjects but who bore German titles such as Duke and Duchess of Teck, Prince and Princess of Battenberg, Prince and Princess of Hesse and by Rhine, and Prince and Princess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sønderburg-Augustenberg. Writer H G Wells wrote about Britain's "alien and uninspiring court", and George famously replied: "I may be uninspiring, but I'll be damned if I'm alien." [13] )
On 7 July 1917, George V issued an Order in Council that changed the name of the British Royal House from the German-sounding House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to the House of Windsor, to appease British nationalist feelings. He specifically adopted Windsor as the surname for all descendants of Queen Victoria then living in the United Kingdom, excluding females who married into other families and their descendants. [14]
Finally, on behalf of his various relatives who were British subjects he relinquished the use of all German titles and styles, and adopted British-sounding surnames. George compensated several of his male relatives by creating them British peers. Thus, overnight his cousin, Prince Louis of Battenberg, became Louis Mountbatten, 1st Marquess of Milford Haven, while his brother-in-law, the Duke of Teck, became Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge. Others, such as Princess Marie Louise of Schleswig-Holstein and Princess Helena Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein , simply stopped using their territorial designations. In Letters Patent gazetted on 11 December 1917, the King restricted the style "His (or Her) Royal Highness" and the titular dignity of "Prince (or Princess) of Great Britain and Ireland" to the children of the Sovereign, the children of the sons of the Sovereign, and the eldest living son of the eldest living son of a Prince of Wales. [15]
The Letters Patent also stated that "the titles of Royal Highness, Highness or Serene Highness, and the titular dignity of Prince and Princess shall cease except those titles already granted and remaining unrevoked." Relatives of the British Royal Family who fought on the German side, such as Prince Ernst August of Hanover, 3rd Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale (the senior male-line great grandson of George III) and Prince Carl Eduard, Duke of Albany and the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (a male line grandson of Queen Victoria), were simply cut off; their British peerages were suspended by a 1919 Order in Council under the provisions of the Titles Deprivation Act 1917. George also removed their garter flags from St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle under pressure from his mother, Queen Alexandra.
When Tsar Nicholas II of Russia , a first cousin of George through his mother, Queen Alexandra (Nicholas II's mother was Queen Alexandra's sister) was overthrown in the Russian Revolution of 1917, the British Government offered asylum to the Tsar and his family but worsening conditions for the British people, and fears that revolution might come to the British Isles, led George to think that the presence of the Romanovs might seem inappropriate under the circumstances. [16] Despite the later claims of Lord Mountbatten of Burma that Lloyd George, the great Liberal, was opposed to the rescue of the Romanovs, records of the King's private secretary, Lord Stamfordham , suggest that George V opposed the rescue against the advice of Lloyd George. Advanced planning for a rescue was undertaken by MI1, a branch of the British secret service, [17] but possibly because of a strengthening of the Bolshevik guard, the plan was never put into operation. The Tsar and his immediate family thus remained in Russia and were murdered by Bolshevik revolutionaries in Yekaterinburg in 1918.
Later life
Edit
During and after World War I, many of the monarchies which had ruled most European countries fell. In addition to Russia, the monarchies of Austria, Germany, Greece, and Spain also fell to revolution and war, although the Greek monarchy was restored again shortly before George's death. Most of these countries were ruled by relatives of George. In 1922, a Royal Navy ship was sent to Greece to rescue his cousins, Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark and Princess Alice of Battenberg and their children, including Prince Philip , who would later marry George's granddaughter, Elizabeth II . George also took an interest in the political turmoil in Ireland, expressing his horror at government-sanctioned killings and reprisals to Prime Minister Lloyd George. [18]
During the General Strike of 1926 the King took exception to suggestions that the strikers were 'revolutionaries' saying, "Try living on their wages before you judge them." [19] He also advised the Government against taking inflammatory action. [20]
In 1932 George agreed to deliver a Royal Christmas speech on the radio, an event which was to become an annual event. He wasn't in favour of the innovation originally but was persuaded by the argument that it was what his people wanted. [21] By the silver jubilee of his reign in 1935, he had become a well-loved king, saying in response to the crowd's adulation, "I cannot understand it, after all I am only a very ordinary sort of fellow." [22] But George's relationship with his heir, Prince Edward deteriorated in these later years. George was disappointed in Edward's failure to settle down in life and disgusted by his many affairs with married women. He was reluctant to see Edward inherit the crown. In contrast, he was fond of his second eldest son, Prince Albert (later George VI) and doted on his eldest granddaughter, Princess Elizabeth ; he nicknamed her "Lilibet", and she affectionately called him "Grandpa England".
George was quoted as saying about his son Edward: "After I am dead the boy will ruin himself in 12 months," and later about Albert and Lilibet: "I pray to God that my eldest son Edward will never marry and have children, and that nothing will come between Bertie and Lilibet and the throne." [23]
Death
Edit
World War I took its toll on George's health, which began to deteriorate. He had always had a weak chest, a weakness exacerbated by heavy smoking. A bout of illness saw him retire to the sea, by Bognor Regis in West Sussex. [24] A myth later grew that the King's last words, upon being told that he would soon be well enough to revisit Bognor Regis, were "bugger Bognor!" [25] [26]
George never fully recovered his health. In the evening of 15 January 1936, the King took to his bedroom at Sandringham House complaining of a cold, he would never leave the room alive. [27] The King became gradually weaker, drifting in and out of consciousness. The diary of his physician, Lord Dawson of Penn , reveals that the King’s last words, a mumbled "God damn you!", were addressed to his nurse when she gave him a sedative on the night of the 20 January. When the King was already comatose and close to death, Dawson hastened the King’s end by giving him a lethal injection of cocaine and morphine, both to prevent further strain on the family and so that the news of his death could be announced in the morning edition of The Times newspaper. [28] [29] He died between 11.45 p.m. and 12.10 a.m., and is buried at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
At the King's lying in state in Westminster Hall, his four surviving sons, King Edward VIII , the Duke of York , the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent , mounted the guard at the catafalque on the night of 28 January, the day before the funeral as a mark of respect to their father.
At the procession to George’s Lying in State, as the cortege turned into New Palace Yard, the Maltese Cross had fallen from the Imperial Crown and landed in the gutter. The new King, Edward VIII , saw it fall and wondered whether this was a bad omen. [30] [31] He would abdicate before the year was out.
Titles, styles, honours and arms
| i don't know |
Which American actress, who won the 1965 Best Actress Oscar, had a father who won gold in the 1920 Olympic Games? | Your Recommendations | Modern Money
Your Recommendations
Your Recommendations
Your Recommendations
Our announcement last June sparked a robust national discussion. We have heard about countless great American women who have contributed to our history, and are making many of those names available below.
Last Name
1755
1831
Hannah Adams was an early-American author. Self-educated, she specialized in comparative religion and New England history and earned an international reputation as a writer. She is considered the first female professional author in the United States.
Bridgman
1829
1889
Laura Bridgman was the first deaf and blind person to learn a language. Living at the Perkins School for the Blind, she studied a full curriculum of subjects.
Burn
1873
1945
Febb Burn was the mother of Harry Thomas Burn, a member of the Tennessee General Assembly during the state's vote to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. She is credited with changing his vote on the measure. Burn voted for the amendment, breaking a tie vote.
Cather
1873
1947
Willa Cather was a novelist who wrote stories set in the Great Plains that explored the lives of nineteenth century settlers. In 1923, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
de Baca
1894
1991
Fabiola Cabeza de Baca was an educator and author. Starting as a school teacher, she went on to study home economics, becoming an Extension Agent for New Mexico. She was also involved in the early Hispanic civil rights movement and wrote novels that captured early life in New Mexico.
Fern
1811
1872
Fanny Fern, born Sara Willis, was a newspaper writer and novelist. She was the first woman to have a recurring newspaper column, which often dealt with women's issues.
Fitzgerald
1900
1948
Zelda Fitzgerald was an novelist, and the wife of author F. Scott Fitzgerald. A socialite in the 1920s, she was the typical Flapper and a symbol of the Jazz Age.
Graham
1894
1991
Martha Graham was a dancer and choreographer. With an award-winning career spanning decades, she reshaped the art of dance in the twentieth century, creating the Graham technique of dance that stressed drama and expression.
Lange
1895
1965
Dorothea Lange was perhaps America's greatest documentary photographer. Her work chronicled the lives of the unemployed and rural poor during the 1930s. Through her work, she shifted the nation's attention on the human cost of the Great Depression.
Lewis
1844
1907
Edmonia Lewis was a sculptor who incorporated Native American and African American themes into the Neoclassical style. She achieved international recognition and is considered the first woman of African American and Native American heritage to do so as a sculptor.
Martinez
1912
2006
Esther Martinez was a linguist, storyteller, and author mostly known for preserving the language of the Tewa people of New Mexico. In 2006, a Congressional Act was passed, bearing her name, to preserve Native American languages.
O'Connor
1925
1964
Flannery O'Connor was a writer who specialized in the short story form. Her writing stressed themes of southern life and the individual's relationship with God.
Parker
1893
1967
Dorothy Parker was an author known for her magazine articles and book reviews that contained her sharp wit. Also a poet and screenwriter, Parker rose to fame in the 1920s through her work on "The New Yorker" and the Algonquin Round Table.
Picotte
1865
1915
Susan La Flesche Picotte is considered to be the first Native American woman physician in the U.S. She worked on the Omaha Reservation, promoting temperance and establishing a hospital. She further served as an advocate for the Omaha with the Government.
Porter
1890
1980
Katherine Anne Porter was a Pulitzer prize-winning author well-known for her short stories and her novel, "Ship of Fools."
Schoolcraft
1800
1842
Jane Johnston Schoolcraft is considered the first Native American writer and poet, leaving a lasting impression on Native American literature.
Sexton
1928
1974
Anne Sexton was poet, known for writing about intensely personal issues. She won the Pulitzer Prize and numerous other awards for her poetry.
Stein
1874
1946
Gertrude Stein was a novelist, poet, and playwright. She later moved to Paris and opened an art and literary salon for many young writers and artists of the burgeoning modern art movement.
Welty
1909
2001
Eudora Welty was an author, writing both novels and short stories. Her novel "The Optimist's Daughter" won the Pulitzer Prize and Welty was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Whipple
1760
1846
Dinah Whipple was an educator who opened the first school for African American children in New Hampshire. Raised in slavery, she was freed at age 21 and married Prince Whipple, an African American Revolutionary War veteran and anti-slavery advocate.
Wilson
1825
1900
Harriet Wilson was considered the first African American novelist. Her novel, based on her experiences as an indentured servant and freedwoman in New England, was published in 1859.
Abzug
1920
1998
Bella Abzug was an activist, a leader in the Women's Movement and a member of the House of Representatives in the early 1970s.
Adams
1744
1818
Abigail Adams was the wife of President John Adams and the mother of President John Quincy Adams. She was her husband's unofficial political advisor, directing John Adams to "remember the ladies" while he was helping to form the new colonial government.
Adams
1775
1852
Louisa Adams was wife of John Quincy Adams and First Lady of the United States. After leaving the White House, she became an author and supporter of abolition and women's suffrage.
Addams
1860
1935
Jane Addams was a social reformer and a founder of the American settlement house movement. Founder of Hull House in Chicago and the occupation of social worker in the US, she was the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Alcott
1832
1888
Louisa May Alcott was a nineteenth-century novelist best known for her work, "Little Women," published in 1868. She also supported the abolition and women's rights movements.
Alden
1602
1680
Priscilla Alden was a Pilgrim colonist and wife of John Alden. Their marriage, one of the first in the Massachusetts's Plymouth Colony, was immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "The Courtship of Miles Standish."
Alston
1783
1813
Theodosia Burr Alston was the daughter of U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr and wife of South Carolina Governor Joseph Alston.
Andersen
1932
2013
Marjorie Ann "Marge" Anderson was the first woman to lead the Native American tribe Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. She led a successful fight for her people's treaty rights, winning a Supreme Court decision, and served in the tribal government for over 30 years.
Anderson
1897
1993
Marian Anderson was a famous contralto singer. She helped set the stage for the civil rights movement with her 1939 performance at the Lincoln Memorial. Anderson also served at the United Nations and won the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Angelou
1928
2014
Maya Angelou was a poet and award-winning author as well as an actor, lecturer, and civil rights activist. She is known for her autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings."
Anthony
1820
1906
Susan B. Anthony was a reformer, initially supporting the causes of abolition and temperance. After meeting Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anthony formed a lifelong partnership with her and led the fight for female suffrage for most of the late 1800s.
Apgar
1909
1974
Virginia Apgar was a physician specializing in obstetrical anesthesia. She was the first woman named a full professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She is widely known as the creator of the Apgar Score that evaluates the health of newborns.
Ayres
1880
1917
Edith Ayres and Helen Wood were the first female U.S. military casualties of World War I. While on board a troopship to France, the two nurses were killed by shrapnel from an accidental explosion, during anti-submarine target practice by the ship's guns.
Bacall
1924
2014
Lauren Bacall was a model and theater and film actress. In movies, she helped establish the genre of film noir, especially through the films in which she co-starred with Humphrey Bogart.
Baker
1903
1986
Ella Baker was a civil rights activist who focused on grassroots organizing as a way to gain civil rights. Organizer of the Young Negroes Cooperative League in New York, she also worked with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Baker
1873
1945
Sara Josephine Baker was a physician who pioneered the field of public health, becoming the first director of the newly created New York City Bureau of Child Hygiene. She focused on improving health in the immigrant community.
Balch
1867
1961
Emily Greene Balch was a leader in the international peace movement as well as a social worker and trade union supporter. A lifelong pacifist, she led the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. In 1946, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Ball
1911
1989
Lucille Ball was an actress known for the television comedy "I Love Lucy" that aired in the 1950s. She later established Desilu studios with her husband Desi Arnaz, making her the first woman to run such an enterprise.
Bari
1949
1997
Judi Bari was an environmentalist who led the campaign against the logging of old-growth redwood forests in Northern California. She was also a labor leader and feminist.
Barton
1821
1912
Clara Barton was a leading nurse during the Civil War who was known as "the angel of the battlefield." After the war, she served with the International Red Cross in Europe. Returning to the US, she founded the American Red Cross Society in 1881.
Bascom
1862
1945
Florence Bascom was a leading geologist. She was the first woman awarded a Ph.D. by Johns Hopkins University and the first woman hired by the United States Geological Survey.
Bates
1914
1999
Daisy Bates was a publisher and civil rights activist. With her husband, she published the "Arkansas State Press" in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1957, she aided nine African American students in desegregating Little Rock's Central High School.
Bates
1859
1929
Katharine Lee Bates was a poet and the head of the English Department at Wellesley College. Her most famous poem provided the words for the song "America the Beautiful."
Bethune
1875
1955
Mary McLeod Bethune was an American educator and civil rights activist known for starting a private school for African-American students in Daytona Beach, Florida. She also led the National Association of Colored Women and established the National Council of Negro Women. Bethune served as an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Bickerdyke
1817
1901
Mary Ann Bickerdyke was a Civil War nurse and advocate for veterans of the war. During the war, she established 300 military hospitals and tended to the wounded. After the war, she fought for veterans' rights.
Blackwell
1821
1910
Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to earn the M.D. degree in the United States. She went on to help form the New York Infirmary for Women and Children to aid not only female patients but also to provide training to female physicians.
Bly
1864
1922
Nellie Bly was the pen name of journalist Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, a pioneer in investigative, undercover, and participatory journalism. She investigated sweatshops and mental institutions. Also, with sponsorship by the "New York World," she traveled around the world in 72 days.
Boom
1892
1983
Cornelia "Corrie" ten Boom and her family worked to save Jews during the Holocaust. Living in the Netherlands, the Christian family helped save nearly 800 people. She eventually became an author, moving to the US.
Bourke-White
1904
1971
Margaret Bourke-White was a pioneering photographer. She was the first woman war correspondent, operating in dangerous World War II combat areas. She was also one of the founding photojournalists of "Life" magazine.
Bradley
1907
2002
Ruby Bradley was an Army nurse, serving in World War II and Korea, earning 34 medals and citations for bravery. During her time as a Japanese prisoner of war in the Philippines, she aided other prisoners, becoming known as an "Angel in Fatigues."
Bradstreet
1612
1672
Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan colonist and an American poet. Working in the Elizabethan literary tradition, she was the first woman writer to have a book published in the American colonies.
Brent
1601
1671
Margaret Brent was the first woman lawyer in America, representing the leaders of colonial Maryland. An excellent litigator, she used English law to assert her rights as an unmarried woman to property. She unsuccessfully petitioned the Maryland Assembly for the right to vote.
Broadwick
1893
1978
Georgia "Tiny" Broadwick was an early parachutist. She was the first woman to parachute from an airplane and the first to parachute into water. She is also considered the first person to jump freefall.
Brown
1922
2012
Helen Gurley Brown was an author and magazine editor, advocating women's sexual freedom. Her 1962 book, "Sex and the Single Girl," was a bestseller. Later, she became the editor of "Cosmopolitan," which celebrated the modern career woman.
Buck
1892
1973
Pearl S. Buck wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Good Earth," published in 1931. It also won the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first time the prize was given to an American woman. She later founded humanitarian organizations to aid Asian and Asian American children.
Burgin
unkwn
unkwn
Elizabeth Burgin aided American prisoners-of-war during the Revolutionary War. Besides providing relief supplies to prisoners held on prison ships in New York Harbor, she aided in a mass escape in 1778. She was later awarded a pension for her services to the country.
Burns
1879
1966
Lucy Burns was a leading suffragist. While studying in Europe, she became part of the British suffragette movement, participating in its radical methods. Returning to the U.S., she joined Alice Paul in founding the National Woman's Party.
Cabrini
1850
1917
Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini was a nun. In Italy, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart to care for poor children. She then emigrated to America to work among Italian immigrants and later became the first naturalized citizen of the United States to be canonized.
Caldwell
1924
2006
Sarah Caldwell was an opera conductor. She was the founding director of the Opera Company of Boston and the first woman to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera. She was also one of the first women to conduct the New York Philharmonic.
Cannon
1863
1941
Annie Jump Cannon was a pioneering astronomer. She discovered over 300 stars and helped develop the standard scheme for classifying stars by their temperature. Among her many firsts was being the first woman elected an officer of the American Astronomical Society.
Cannon
1857
1932
Martha Hughes Cannon was one of the country's first female physicians and the first female state senator in the United States, serving the State of Utah. While in the Utah Senate, she established the state board of health.
Caraway
1878
1950
Hattie Wyatt Caraway was the first woman elected to serve a full term as a United States Senator. She was also the first woman to preside over the Senate and to chair a Senate committee.
Carson
1907
1964
Rachel Carson was a marine biologist known for her book, "Silent Spring," that pointed out the dangers of fertilizers and pesticides to the environment. Her work led to the environmental movement and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Cash
1929
2003
June Carter Cash was a singer and songwriter. Part of the Carter Family, she helped transform the country music genre, becoming a famous singer and an influential songwriter. She later married Country Music star Johnny Cash, starting a second singing career.
Cassatt
1844
1926
Mary Cassatt was a leading painter of the late nineteenth-century Impressionist movement. Living much of her life in France, she concentrated on producing images of women in their domestic and maternal roles.
Catt
1859
1947
Carrie Chapman Catt was a leading suffragist. Leading the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she was instrumental in winning passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. She later founded the League of Women Voters and continued the fight for women's suffrage around the world.
Chadwick
1918
1995
Florence Chadwick was a record-setting long-distance swimmer. She set new records for swimming the English Channel and did so in both directions. She was the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel, the Bosporus, the Dardanelles, and the Straits of Gibraltar.
Child
1802
1880
Lydia Maria Child was a popular novelist in the early nineteenth century. Her works reflected her support for abolition as well as rights for women and Native Americans. She is known for her poem "Over the River and through the Woods."
Childress
1912
1994
Alice Childress was an actress, playwright, and author. An actor with the American Negro Theatre, she later became one of the first African American women to write and produce plays. Her written works deal with the problems and pressures facing urban African Americans.
Chisolm
1924
2005
Shirley Chisholm was the first African American woman to be a U.S. Representative and to run as a major-party candidate for President of the United States. While in Congress, she worked to aid inner-city children and championed education.
Clark
1898
1995
Georgia Neese Clark (Gray) was the first woman Treasurer of the United States. She had previously been president of the Richland State Bank in Kansas.
Cleveland
1864
1947
Frances Folsom Cleveland was the wife of President Grover Cleveland. Married in the White House, she became the youngest First Lady at age 21. She proved a media sensation, winning over America with her charm and flair for fashion.
Cline
1932
1963
Patsy Cline was a singer who excelled in the country music and popular music genres. In Country Music, she helped develop a new sound in the 1960s, utilizing strings and smooth vocals, that was able to transcend the genre into popular music.
Coachman
1923
2014
Alice Coachman was the first African American woman to win an Olympic gold medal. In 1948, she won the medal in the high jump. She later became a teacher and formed an organization to help young athletes.
Cochran
1906
1980
Jacqueline Cochran was a record-breaking racing pilot who established the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program in World War II. She was also the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic (1941) and to break the sound barrier (1953).
Cogswell
1805
1830
Alice Cogswell was a deaf child who spurred the creation of the American School for the Deaf. was the inspiration to Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet for the creation of the now American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut.
Colden
1724
1766
Jane Colden is considered the first female botanist in America. Using the Linnaean system of plant identification, she described and illustrated over 300 New York plant species.
Coleman
1892
1926
Bessie Coleman was a pioneer of women's aviation. She was the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license, and she made a living through stunt flying.
Conley
1869
1946
Eliza Burton Conley was a Native American of the Wyandotte Nation in Kansas and a lawyer. She was also the first woman admitted to the Kansas State Bar and the first Native American Woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court.
Cooper
unkwn
unkwn
Polly Cooper was part of a group of the Native American tribe Oneidas that carried corn from New York to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to supply the Continental Army headquartered there. Cooper taught the troops how to prepare the corn and nursed those who were sick.
Corbin
1751
1800
Margaret Corbin fought in the Revolutionary War battle of Manhattan Island. Following her husband into battle, she took over firing his cannon when he was killed, being seriously wounded in the process. She was the first woman to receive a military pension.
Cori
1896
1957
Gerty Cori was a biochemist who helped discover the cycle of carbohydrate metabolism. She became the first American woman to win a Nobel Prize in Science and the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Coyle
1892
1962
Grace Coyle was a sociologist specializing in group dynamics and the therapeutic benefits of a group experience. She pioneered the use of group work by social workers and advocated its integration with case work.
Croly
1829
1901
Jane Cunningham Croly was a journalist, author, and women's club founder. The first female syndicated columnist, she later became the first female professor of journalism. She also founded the Sorosis club that later expanded into the General Federation of Women's Clubs.
Crumpler
1831
1895
Rebecca Crumpler was the first African American woman to become a physician. After serving as a nurse a number of years, she was admitted to the New England Female Medical College and received her MD in 1864.
Daly
1921
2003
Marie Maynard Daly was a biochemist. She was the first African American woman to earn a doctorate in chemistry. Her research was focused on the effects of diet and smoking on the body.
Dawson
1894
1962
Mary Caldwell Dawson was a voice coach and piano instructor that founded the National Negro Opera Company in Pittsburgh. For over 20 years, she produced performances in major US cities. She was also president of the National Organization of Negro Musicians.
Day
1897
1980
Dorothy Day was a journalist and social activist. Through her actions and her writing, including in "The Catholic Worker," she fought for the rights of women and the poor. She is held in high esteem by the Catholic Church.
DeLille
1813
1862
Henriette DeLille was a New Orleans socialite who became a nun. She devoted herself to the care of slaves, the poor, and orphans. She founded the Sisters of the Holy Family, whose members were free women of color.
Dewson
1874
1962
Mary "Molly" Dewson was a social reformer and women's rights activist. She worked for better working conditions for women and children and led the Massachusetts Suffrage Association. Later, she became director of the Women's Division of the Democratic Party and an ally to the Franklin Roosevelt administration.
Dickinson
1830
1886
Emily Dickinson was an influential poet of the late nineteenth century. Her work was unconventional in form and path-breaking in influence. Published posthumously, her work was influential in the development of American poetry.
Dietrich
1901
1992
Marlene Dietrich was a German-born actress known for her work in film, playing strong, independent women living on the bounds of acceptable society. On the outbreak of World War II, she became a US citizen and became active in the war effort, supporting U.S. troops and European refugees.
Dix
1802
1887
Dorothea Dix was a champion of the mentally ill and a leading Civil War nurse. She created the first mental asylums through extensive lobbying of state governments and the U.S. Congress. During the Civil War, she was named Superintendent of Army Nurses.
Doyle
1924
2010
Geraldine Hoff Doyle is thought to be the model for the "We Can Do It!" poster of World War II. The poster, showing a working woman flexing her biceps, became a feminist symbol in the 1980s.
Drexel
1858
1955
Katharine Drexel was born into wealth but became a nun. She eventually founded the order of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, which was devoted to improving the lives of Native Americans and African Americans. She was canonized in 2000.
Dumont
1882
1962
Margaret Dumont was an actress trained in opera and stage acting and well known for her roles in Marx Brothers' films.
Dyer
1611
1660
Mary Barrett Dyer was a Puritan who became a Quaker. She was executed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony for refusing to obey a law banning Quakers from the colony. Her execution prompted King Charles to impose religious toleration in the colony.
Earhart
1897
1937
Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean and the first person to fly over both the Atlantic and Pacific. She was also a women's rights activist. Earhart disappeared over the Pacific while attempting to fly around the world.
Early
1918
2002
Charity Adams Earley was a soldier in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II. She was the first African American woman to hold an officer's rank, commanding the first African American WAAC unit, the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion.
Eddy
1821
1910
Mary Baker Eddy was the founder of Christian Science, a religious denomination that promotes healing through spiritual faith without the use of medications. She also began the printing of the "Christian Science Monitor," an award-winning international newspaper.
Egan
1877
1925
Eleanor Franklin Egan was a journalist known for her reporting on Europe and the Middle East in the early twentieth century. Working for "Leslie's Weekly", she covered the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Revolution, and British operations in the Middle East during World War I.
Eisenhower
1896
1979
Mamie Eisenhower was wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. As First Lady of the United States from 1953 to 1961, she was seen as a gracious hostess and a model of post-war American womanhood.
Etter
1844
1924
Maria Woodworth Etter was an evangelist that helped develop the Pentecostal movement and was widely known for her dynamic ministry style that emphasized conversions and healings.
Fitzerald
1917
1996
Ella Fitzgerald was a jazz singer and the first African American woman to win a Grammy Award. Known as the "First Lady of Song," she made lasting interpretations of the jazz standards and the Great American Songbook.
Follett
1868
1933
Mary Parker Follet was a leader in management theory. Developing pioneering ideas like participative decision-making, she expanded the fields of organizational theory and organizational behavior.
Ford
1918
2011
Betty Ford was the wife of President Gerald Ford and First Lady of the Unites States. She was known for her candid discussion of women's issues, including breast cancer, abortion, and equal rights. She also spoke of her fight with addiction and later established the Betty Ford Center for substance abuse.
Friedan
1921
2006
Betty Friedan was a writer and feminist. She is often credited with beginning the second wave of American feminism with her book "The Feminine Mystique." Friedan also helped found the National Organization for Women, serving as its first president.
Fuller
1810
1850
Margaret Fuller was an author and literary critic who furthered American literature by encouraging writers and interpreting modern European literature. Her best known work is "Woman in the Nineteenth Century" that puts forward feminist arguments.
Gage
1826
1898
Matilda Joslyn Gage was a suffragist who also fought for abolition, Native American rights, and secular government. She was a founding member of the National Woman Suffrage Association and creator of the Women's National Liberal Union.
Goeppert-Mayer
1906
1972
Maria Goeppert-Mayer was a theoretical physicist known for her work on the structure of the atomic nucleus. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics and only the second woman to be a Nobel Prize winner.
Goldman
1869
1940
Emma Goldman was a political activist and advocate of anarchism. Through speeches and writing, she supported draft resistance, the availability of birth control, and workers' rights.
Grable
1916
1973
Betty Grable was a dancer and film actress. She was a star of Hollywood musicals during the 1940s. During World War II, she was famous for her work for the war effort.
Graham
1917
2001
Katharine Graham led "The Washington Post" for decades, including the period of its famous investigation of the Watergate scandal. Her autobiography, "Personal History," won the Pulitzer Prize.
Graham
1920
2007
Ruth Graham was the wife of evangelist Billy Graham. Her own work as an evangelist was done primarily as an author of books and poetry. She and her husband were jointly awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1996.
Grasso
1919
1981
Ella Grasso was Governor of Connecticut. After service in the US House of Representatives, she was the first woman to become Governor of Connecticut and the first woman elected to be a governor of a state in her own right.
Green
1834
1916
Hetty Green was a financier who built a fortune through stock and land investing. She became known as the richest woman in America and opened the way for women in the financial industry.
Grimke
1792
1879
Sarah Grimke and Angelina Grimke were abolitionists. They broke social convention by speaking in public to mixed gender audiences. In their writings, they soon connected the fight for abolition with that for women's rights.
Hale
1788
1879
Sarah Josepha Hale was an author and editor. She was one of America's first female novelists and one of the earliest writers on slavery. She wrote the classic poem "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and edited a popular woman's magazine.
Hamer
1917
1977
Fannie Lou Hamer was a civil rights activist who focused on enabling African Americans to vote. She helped organize the 1964 Freedom Summer voter registration drive in Mississippi and co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to challenge the segregated politics of that state.
Hamilton
1757
1854
Elizabeth Hamilton was the wife of Alexander Hamilton and a philanthropist. She provided political advice to her husband and defended his reputation after his death. She also helped found and lead the New York Orphan Asylum Society. After moving to Washington, D.C., she founded an orphanage there.
Hamilton
1902
1985
Margaret Hamilton was a schoolteacher who turned to acting. She is well known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in the film, "The Wizard of Oz." She was also involved in education and promoted animal rights.
Harris
1924
1985
Patricia Roberts Harris was the first African American woman to hold a Cabinet post, that of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. She was also the first African American woman to serve as a U.S. ambassador, being posted to Luxembourg.
Hearst
1842
1919
Phoebe Apperson Hearst was a philanthropist and mother of William Randolph Hearst. Interested in education, she helped fund the development of the University of California at Berkeley and founded the first free kindergarten. She also founded the forerunner of the National Parent Teacher Association.
Hepburn
1907
2003
Katharine Hepburn was a stage and film actress. She soared to fame in the 1940s with characters that portrayed the modern woman. An actress with a broad range, she appeared in films for over 60 years, earning a record 4 Academy Awards for Best Actress.
Hobby
1905
1995
Oveta Culp Hobby was a journalist who became the first commanding officer of the Women's Army Corps during World War II. She later was appointed as the first Secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
Holiday
1915
1959
Billie Holiday was a unique and important jazz singer, being nicknamed "Lady Day." Her vocal experimentation had a lasting impact on jazz and pop singing.
Hopper
1906
1992
Grace Hopper was a pioneering computer scientist and a US Navy Rear Admiral. Besides being an early programmer, she is considered the original "debugger" for removing a moth from a computer. She also invented the programming language compiler.
Howe
1819
1910
Julia Ward Howe was an abolitionist and suffragist. She was an anti-slavery author who became famous for writing the words to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." As a suffragist, she helped found numerous organizations, including the American Woman Suffrage Association.
Hurston
1891
1960
Zora Neale Hurston was an author and part of the Harlem Renaissance. After working as a historian and folklorist, she turned to writing novels with characters located in the rural South. Her best known novel, published in 1937, is "Their Eyes Were Watching God."
Hutchinson
1591
1643
Anne Hutchinson was a religious leader in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. She led a revolt against the teachings of the Puritan leaders known as the Antinomian controversy. Banished from the colony, she moved on to help found Rhode Island.
Jackson
1911
1972
Mahalia Jackson, known as "The Queen of Gospel," was a gospel singer and civil rights activist. Internationally famous, she used her singing to support the civil rights movement, including singing at the March on Washington led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Johnson
1912
2007
Claudia Taylor "Lady Bird" Johnson was the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson and First Lady of the United States. She was her husband's political aide and campaign manager, helping him reach the Presidency and implement his policies. Her love and use of flowers led to the passage of the Highway Beautification Act.
Johnson-Brown
1927
2011
Hazel Johnson-Brown was an Army nurse who became the first African American woman to be promoted to the rank of general and to be chief of the Army Nurse Corps. She held a doctorate in education and held numerous military decorations.
Johnson
Marsha "Pay it no mind" Johnson was a transgender artist and civil rights activist
Jones
1837
1930
Mary Harris Jones, also known as "Mother Jones," was a union activist and organizer. Originally supporting mine workers, she also helped unions and strikers across the country. Jones also helped found the Social Democratic Party and the Industrial Workers of the World.
Jordan
1936
1996
Barbara Jordan was a Congresswoman and civil rights leader. After serving in the Texas legislature, she became the first Southern African American woman elected to the U.S. Congress. She became well known for her role in the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.
Keller
1880
1968
Helen Keller, despite being blind and deaf, was an author and lecturer, supporting women's and labor rights. She was the first blind and deaf person to earn a college degree, and she helped found the American Civil Liberties Union.
Kelley
1859
1932
Florence Kelley was a social reformer. For many years leading the National Consumers' League, she worked to end child labor and to protect women workers as well as to institute a minimum wage and an 8-hour workday.
Kelly
1929
1982
Grace Kelly was an Academy Award-winning actress. She started acting for the theater and transitioned to film, becoming a leading lady and winning the best actress Oscar. At age 26, she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco, becoming a princess and a philanthropist.
Kendrick
1890
1980
Pearl Kendrick with her partner Grace Eldering developed the vaccine for pertussis or whooping cough. They also developed the standard, single-dose vaccine for Diphtheria, Pertussis, and Tetanus.
Kennedy Onassis
1929
1994
Jacqueline Kennedy was the wife of President John F. Kennedy and First Lady of the United States. She was known for the grace and youth she brought to the White House. After her husband's assassination, she married shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. Eventually, she had a career in publishing as an editor.
Kepley
1847
1925
Ada Kepley was the first woman to graduate from law school. Rarely practicing law, she became a leader in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She was also ordained as a Unitarian minister.
Kierstede
1626
1693
Sara Roelofs Kierstede was a settler in colonial New Amsterdam. Fluent in Dutch, English, and Native American languages, she is reported to have acted as interpreter in the negotiations when Peter Stuyvesant purchased New York.
King
1927
2006
Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr., was a leader in the civil rights movement. She worked to secure equality for minorities and women, founding the Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
Kirkaldy
1917
2007
Irene Morgan Kirkaldy was an African American civil rights pioneer. In 1944, she was arrested for not giving up her seat on an interstate bus in Virginia. The Supreme Court overturned her conviction, serving as a precedent to later challenges to segregation.
Lacks
1920
1951
Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman who was the source of an enduring line of human cells used in medical research. Known as the HeLa cell line, the cells were used to develop the polio vaccine and were the first human cells successfully cloned.
Lamarr
1914
2000
Hedy Lamarr was an actress and inventor. She became a leading film actress in the 1940s. As a hobby, she was an inventor and received a patent for a radio-controlled torpedo, which used a new frequency hopping system that has become the basis of wireless technology.
Lange
1784
1882
Elizabeth Clovis Lange founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first African American Roman Catholic order in the United States. It was dedicated to the education of African American girls.
Lazarus
1849
1887
Emma Lazarus was a poet recognized in America and Europe for her work on the story of the Jewish people. Her most famous work is "The New Colossus," which appears on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
Leavitt
1868
1921
Henrietta Swan Leavitt was a pioneering astronomer. She invented a way to determine the absolute magnitudes of stars, which allowed astronomers to calculate their distance from Earth. This, in turn, allowed for calculations of the expansion and age of the universe.
Lili'uokalani
1838
1917
Lili'uokalani was Hawaii's first queen and the last head of the Hawaiian monarchy. She abdicated under pressure from United States' interests, and the islands were annexed in 1898.
Linton
1853
1915
Laura Alberta Linton was a chemist who discovered the gem stone Lintonite. She later studied medicine, becoming a physician who pioneered the use of occupational therapy among mental patients.
Livermore
1820
1905
Mary Livermore was a journalist and activist. She helped form the American Woman Suffrage Association and the Women's Christian Temperance Union. All the while, she wrote for and edited various newspapers and journals and became a famous lecturer.
Lockwood
1830
1917
Belva Lockwood was the first female attorney to gain the right to argue before the Supreme Court. She also founded the National Equal Rights Party and was twice its candidate for president, becoming the first woman to appear on a Presidential ballot.
Low
1860
1927
Juliette Gordon Low became acquainted with the Girl Guide movement while she lived in England. Returning to the United States, Low established the Girl Scouts of the USA.
Loy
1905
1993
Myrna Loy was an actress known for her work in "The Thin Man" films of the 1930s. During World War II, she held a high position in the Red Cross. After the war, she was part of the U.S. Commission to UNESCO.
Luce
1903
1987
Though a successful playwright and screenwriter, Clare Boothe Luce was also politically active. She served in the U.S. House of Representatives and became U.S. Ambassador to Italy. Booth Luce was the first woman to represent the U.S. to a major world power.
Ludington
1761
1839
Sybil Ludington was the daughter of a colonial militia leader. One night, she rode over 40 miles to alert militiamen to an attack on Danbury, Connecticut, in 1777. She is considered the female equivalent to Paul Revere.
Mabley
1894
1975
"Moms" Mabley was the stage name of comedian Loretta Aiken. Beginning in vaudeville, she moved into films and television and was a pioneering African American comic.
Madison
1768
1849
Dolley Madison was the wife of President James Madison and is credited with defining the role of the First Lady. During the War of 1812, Madison saved many important and historical items from the White House before it was burned by invading British forces.
Malone
1869
1957
Annie Malone was an African American entrepreneur who became a millionaire through the invention and sale of hair care products designed for African American women. She became a benefactor to the African American community in St. Louis, Missouri.
Mankiller
1945
2010
Wilma Mankiller was the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation. Active in the Native American Rights movement, she began working for the Cherokee Nation with a focus on economic development. Becoming principle chief in 1985, she built up the Cherokee community and preserved its traditions.
Mason
1818
1891
Bridget "Biddy" Mason was born a slave but was freed when her owner moved to California. She then worked as a nurse and invested in Los Angeles real estate, amassing a fortune. Her wealth was used to support charitable and religious work.
McAuliffe
1948
1986
Christa McAuliffe was a teacher and astronaut. A high school social studies teacher, she was chosen to be the first American civilian to go into space. However, she was killed when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff.
McCabe
1889
1971
Esther McCabe was the mother of 12 children, 11 of them boys. During World War II, all 11 sons served in the military. Consequently, she was recognized as the "Nation's Number 1 Mother" for having the most children in the military.
McClintock
1902
1992
Barbara McClintock was a geneticist who discovered how genes affect physical characteristics through transposition, changing position on the chromosome. In 1983, this discovery won her the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
McKinley
1847
1907
Ida McKinley was the wife of President William McKinley and First Lady of the United States from 1897 to 1901. She suffered from severe epilepsy but was known as an excellent hostess and a keen political observer.
McPherson
1890
1944
Aimee Semple McPherson was a Pentecostal evangelist who achieved great fame by pioneering the use of the radio to reach a large audience. She founded the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.
Mead
1901
1978
Margaret Mead was a cultural anthropologist who popularized the idea that a society's culture can shape individual experience and development. Her book, "Coming of Age in Samoa," made her famous and influenced American attitudes in the 1960s.
Merrill
1862
1951
Winifred Edgerton Merrill was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics, specializing in mathematical astronomy. She went on to found the Oaksmere School for Girls and helped to establish Barnard College.
Mink
1927
2002
Patsy Takemoto Mink was a long-serving member of the U.S. House of Representatives and the first woman of color and the first Asian American woman elected to Congress. She was the co-author of the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act.
Mitchell
1818
1889
Maria Mitchell was the country's first female professional astronomer. In 1847, she discovered a comet that was named after her. She co-founded the American Association for the Advancement of Women and became a professor at Vassar College.
Monroe
1926
1962
Marilyn Monroe was an actress who reached fame in the 1950s. She played serious as well as comedic roles on film, and eventually became a popular culture icon.
Moody
1586
1659
Lady Deborah Moody was a colonial settler. She led a group of religious dissenters to found the town of Gravesend in New York, becoming the first woman to found a town and be granted a land patent.
Moore
1871
1961
Anne Carroll Moore was a librarian that pioneered the creation of children's libraries. At the Pratt Institute and later the New York Public Library, she established collections of books for children as well as other initiatives to welcome children into libraries.
Morris
1814
1902
Esther Hobart Morris was a women's rights advocate. She is credited with spurring the Wyoming legislature to take up the matter of women's suffrage, which it later made law. She was also the first woman to become a Justice of the Peace.
Morton
1936
2003
Azie Taylor Morton served as United States Treasurer in the late 1970s. She is the only African American woman to hold the post. Previously, she had served for decades on the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity.
Moses
1860
1961
Anna Mary Robertson Moses, also known as "Grandma Moses," was a folk artist who began painting at age 78. Portraying nostalgic scenes of rural America with energy and realism, her paintings gained a wide following.
Mott
1793
1880
Lucretia Mott was a leader in the abolition movement. Mott also helped organize the Seneca Falls convention, sparking the women's right movement, and continued to fight for women's rights and suffrage until her death.
Musgrove
1700
1763
Mary Musgrove served as an intermediary between the Creek Indians and Georgia colonists. Partly of Creek ancestry, she worked to protect their interests while building her own business as a trader.
Nathan
1862
1946
Maud Nathan was a labor activist who helped to found the New York Consumers' League and later the National Consumers' League, which sought to improve the working conditions for working-class women. Nathan also fought for women's suffrage.
Nation
1846
1911
Carry Nation was a member of the temperance movement. She became famous for entering bars and saloons and destroying the fixtures and stock with a hatchet.
Nevelson
1899
1988
Louise Nevelson was an innovative artist that became one of the most important figures in 20th-century sculpture.
Nichols
1810
1885
Clarina Nichols was a journalist who was a pioneer in the women's rights movement and a fervent abolitionist. Moving to Kansas to stop the spread of slavery, she served on the Underground Railroad and pushed for the enfranchisement of women.
Nixon
1912
1993
Catherine "Pat" Nixon was the wife of President Richard Nixon. As First Lady, she traveled extensively. Known as "Madame Ambassador," she visited Africa, Peru, and Vietnam on her own. She also celebrated the nation's volunteers and encouraged wider participation in volunteer programs.
Oakley
1860
1926
Annie Oakley was a sharpshooter who toured with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. A gifted marksman, she became internationally famous. She and her husband raised money for the Red Cross during World War I.
O'Keefe
1887
1986
Georgia O'Keeffe was a painter. One of the founders of American Modernism, she combined abstraction and symbolism into visually compelling works.
Ostrom
1933
2012
Elinor Ostrom was a political scientist and the only woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Her work focused on how people interact with their ecosystems and how they work together to manage common natural resources.
Ovington
1865
1951
Mary White Ovington was a social reformer. She helped establish settlement houses in Brooklyn and came to focus on racial inequality. This led her to co-found the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Palmer
1807
1874
Phoebe Palmer was an evangelist who justified a woman's right to preach and laid the groundwork for modern Pentecostalism.
Parks
1913
2005
Rosa Parks was a civil rights pioneer, launching the Montgomery Bus Boycott and national efforts to end racial segregation. She was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a statue of her was installed in the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall.
Parsons
1628
1712
Mary Bliss Parsons was a founder of Northampton, Connecticut. She is known for repeatedly being tried for witchcraft and acquitted decades before the Salem witch trials.
Paul
1885
1977
Alice Paul was a suffragist and co-founder of the National Woman's Party. Paul's actions helped bring about the passage of the 19th Amendment.
Pearl
1912
1996
Minnie Pearl was the stage name of Sarah Cannon, a comedian on the Country Music circuit and television. Her humor was based on her hometown in the South and poked fun at Southern culture. Her long career and comedic style influenced many younger comics.
Peck
1850
1935
Annie Smith Peck was a mountaineer and writer. Leaving a career as a teacher, she became a mountain climber, setting various records and opening up the sport for women. She also traveled extensively and wrote of her adventures.
Peratrovich
1911
1958
Elizabeth Peratrovich was a Tlingit Native Alaskan who worked to end racial discrimination against Alaska Natives. She is credited with gaining passage of Alaska's Anti-Discrimination Act, the first anti-discrimination law in the United States.
Perkins
1880
1965
Frances Perkins was the first woman to serve as a cabinet secretary. Secretary of Labor during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, she was an architect of the New Deal and a champion of labor rights.
Pickens
1832
1899
Lucy Pickens was the First Lady of South Carolina during the Civil War. She was known as the "Queen of the Confederacy" and was the only woman to have her portrait appear on Confederate currency.
Pickersgill
1776
1857
Mary Pickersgill was a seamstress. She sewed the flag flown over Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812. The flag became known as the Star Spangled Banner in the poem by Francis Scott Key.
Pickford
1892
1979
Mary Pickford was a pioneering film actress who helped establish the motion picture industry. Extremely popular, she was the second woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress. She was also a co-founder of United Artists and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Piestewa
1979
2003
Lori Piestewa was a U.S. soldier involved in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. She was the first female soldier to die in the war. Also, as a member of the Hopi tribe, she was the first Native American woman U.S. soldier to die in combat.
Pitcher
1754
1832
Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley is generally considered to be Molly Pitcher who fought with her husband at the Revolutionary War Battle of Monmouth in 1778. She took over the operation of a cannon when her husband became incapacitated.
Plath
1932
1963
Sylvia Plath was a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet known for her works "The Colossus and Other Poems" and "Ariel." She helped introduce a type of poetry that focused on individual experience.
Pocahontas
1595
1617
Pocahontas was the daughter of Native American Chief Powhatan and was integral to relations between her people and the English at the Jamestown, Virginia, settlement. She eventually married Englishman John Rolfe.
Priest
1905
1975
Ivy Baker Priest was U.S. Treasurer during the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration. Previously, she served as assistant chairwoman of the women's division of the Republican National Committee. Later, she would serve as Treasurer of California under Governor Ronald Reagan.
Quimby
1875
1912
Harriet Quimby was journalist and screenwriter, but she is most famous as an aviator. She was the first woman to earn a pilot's license in the U.S. and the first woman to fly across the English Channel.
Rainey
1886
1939
Ma Rainey was an early blues singer known as "The Mother of the Blues." She introduced America to the blues through stage and tent shows and was one of the first blues singers to record their songs.
Rand
1905
1982
Ayn Rand was a novelist and philosopher known for her two best-selling novels "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged." These works espoused her philosophy known as Objectivism that stressed self-interest and individualism.
Rankin
1880
1973
Jeannette Rankin was a member of Congress and a pacifist. In 1916, she became the first woman elected to Congress. Representing Montana, she pushed passage of the 19th Amendment. She voted against U.S. entry into World War I and World War II.
Raye
1916
1994
Martha Raye was a singer, actress, and comedian. Leaving a nursing career, she became a Big Band singer and moved into comic roles in movies and television. During the Vietnam War, she was known as "Colonel Maggie" by the troops for her devotion to them.
Resnick
1949
1986
Judith Resnick was an engineer and astronaut killed in the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986. She was the second American woman to travel into space.
Richards
1842
1911
Ellen Swallow Richards was a chemist. The first woman admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she later studied the ecological impact of urbanization and helped develop sanitary sewer treatment systems. She also advocated the use of science in the household, creating the field of home economics.
Ride
1951
2012
Sally Ride was an astronaut and physicist. Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, she was the first American woman to travel into space and is considered one of the heroes of aviation.
Rincon de Gautier
1897
1994
Felisa Rincón de Gautier was mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Elected in 1946, she was the first woman to lead a capital city. After serving over twenty years as mayor, she became a Goodwill Ambassador for the United States.
Rivers
1933
2014
Joan Rivers was a comedian and writer. She developed a form of comedy that provided social critique from a woman's viewpoint. She wrote for various television shows, including the "Tonight Show" before launching a career in stand-up comedy.
Robinson
1911
2015
Amelia Robinson was a civil rights activist, playing an important role in the civil rights marches held in Alabama in 1965. She was also the first African American woman to run for a Congressional seat in Alabama.
Roebling
1905
1994
Mary Roebling was the first woman to head a major American bank, the Trenton Trust Company. She eventually became chair of the National State Bank and founded the Women's Bank of Denver. She was also the American Stock Exchange's first woman governor.
Roosevelt
1884
1962
Eleanor Roosevelt was the wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As the longest-serving First Lady, she championed the rights of the poor, women, and minorities. After her husband's death, she served as a delegate to the United Nations and helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Ross
1752
1836
Betsy Ross was an upholsterer and seamstress. During the Revolutionary War, she became widowed and ran the family upholstery business, doing other needle work to supplement her income. She is purported to have sewn the first American flag in 1776.
Ross
1904
1988
Esther Ross was a Native American rights activist. She spent her life fighting for federal recognition of the Stillaguamish tribe of Washington State. After the tribe was fully recognized in 1976, Ross was named Chairperson of the tribe.
Ross
1876
1977
Nellie Tayloe Ross became the first woman elected governor of a state when she succeeded her dead husband as Governor of Wyoming. She later became the first woman to be named Director of the U.S. Mint.
Rowlandson
1637
1711
Mary Rowlandson was a colonist captured by a group of Nipmunk and Narragansett Indians. She was held for 11 weeks before being ransomed. She later wrote an account of her ordeal that proved very popular and established the genre of "captivity narratives."
Rudolph
1940
1994
Wilma Rudolph was a track and field sprinter. At the 1960 Olympic Games held in Rome, she became the first American woman to win three gold medals at a single Olympic Games.
Sabin
1871
1953
Florence Sabin was a physician and medical researcher. She was the first woman professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Sacagawea
1788
1812
Sacagawea was a Shoshone woman who aided the Lewis and Clark Expedition in its exploration of the Louisiana Purchase between 1804 and 1806. Serving as an interpreter, she helped establish contacts with various Native American peoples and ensured the success of the expedition.
Sampson
1760
1827
Deborah Sampson served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War disguised as a man. Calling herself Robert Shurtlieff, she served 17 months in the army and was wounded in action. She received an honorable discharge.
Sanger
1879
1966
Margaret Sanger was an activist for women's rights. Trained as a nurse, she worked for the availability of contraceptives for women. She coined the term "birth control" and founded the American Birth Control League in 1921.
Schurz
1833
1876
Margarethe Meyer Schurz was a German immigrant. Before leaving Germany, she and her sister had established a number of kindergartens. Moving to Watertown, Wisconsin, she established the first American kindergarten there in 1856.
Seton
1774
1821
Elizabeth Ann Seton was an educator who established America's first Catholic girl's school and its first Catholic woman's religious order, the Sisters of Charity. Later, she was first native-born American to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.
Shriver
1921
2009
Eunice Kennedy Shriver was an advocate for children and people with intellectual disabilities. She was a founder of the Special Olympics and a winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Smith
1897
1995
Margaret Chase Smith was a U.S. Senator from Maine who had previously served as a U.S. Representative. She was the first woman to represent Maine in Congress, to serve in both houses, and to be nominated for president at a major party convention.
Smith
1907
1986
Kate Smith was a singer and pioneer in radio and television. Without formal training, she became one of America's most popular singers, especially for her performances of "God Bless America." She was known for her patriotism and support for the war effort during World War II.
Spencer
1879
1930
Fanny Bixby Spencer devoted herself to social reform and pacifism. Focusing on women's and children's cases, she worked with settlement houses and became Long Beach, California's first policewoman. She also fought for female suffrage and an end to war.
Stanton
1815
1902
Elizabeth Cady Stanton helped organize the conference at Seneca Falls in 1848 and drafted the Declaration of Sentiments adopted there. For the rest of her life she helped lead the fight for women's suffrage.
Stark
1737
1814
Molly Stark was a pioneer and wife of John Stark, a general during the American Revolution. Using her house as a hospital, she tended her husband's troops during a smallpox epidemic.
Stone
1818
1893
Lucy Stone was an abolitionist and suffragist. She co-founded the American Woman Suffrage Association that focused on state suffrage amendments. She was also the first woman to earn a college degree in Massachusetts.
Stout
1622
1732
Penelope Stout was a colonial settler repeatedly saved by Native Americans. She helped found the town of Middleton, New Jersey, and the first Baptist Church of New Jersey.
Stowe
1811
1883
Harriet Beecher Stowe was an author and abolitionist. Her popular novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" which portrayed the harshness of slavery became a best seller before the Civil War.
Strong
1740
1812
Anna Strong was an American spy during the Revolutionary War. She was a member of the Culper Spy Ring that gathered military intelligence on New York City during its occupation by British forces.
Sullivan
1866
1936
Anne Sullivan was a pioneering educator. She became famous for her teaching of Helen Keller who was deaf and blind. Dubbed "the miracle worker," Sullivan established the process used to educate children who are vision or hearing impaired.
Sullivan
1895
1972
Aletta Sullivan was the mother of the "Fighting Sullivan Brothers." During World War II, all five brothers served on the USS Juneau and were killed in action in 1942. She and her husband then toured the country speaking in support of the war effort.
Swain
1801
1880
Louisa Swain was a pioneer in women's rights. In 1870, at age 69, she was the first woman to vote in a U.S. general election. She cast her ballot in Wyoming, which had granted women's suffrage the year before.
Taft
1712
1778
Lydia Chapin Taft was a member of the Massachusetts Colony. In 1756, she became the first woman to legally vote in America, serving as a proxy for her son.
Tarbell
1857
1944
Ida Tarbell was a journalist and historian. She is best known for her pioneering investigative journalism that became known as muckraking and was focused on monopolistic industries in the late nineteenth century.
Temple
1928
2014
Shirley Temple (Black) was an actress famous for the films she made as a child. After some film roles as an adult, she became a diplomat. She served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, going on to become the ambassador to Ghana and later, ambassador to Czechoslovakia.
Truth
1797
1883
Born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree, Sojourner Truth changed her name after gaining her freedom. She campaigned for abolition and women's rights, becoming famous for her "Ain't I a Woman" speech.
Tubman
1822
1913
Harriet Tubman was born into slavery. After escaping to freedom, she became a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad. During the Civil War, she served as a Union Army scout and was the first woman to lead a military operation.
Tuchman
1912
1989
Barbara Tuchman was a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian. She won the prize twice, once for "The Guns of August" and once for "Stilwell and the American Experience in China."
Van Lew
1818
1900
Elizabeth Van Lew was an abolitionist who ran a spy ring during the Civil War. Operating in Richmond, Virginia, she gathered intelligence on Confederate troop movements for the Union and cared for prisoners of war.
Wade
1843
1863
Jennie Wade was the only civilian killed at the Battle of Gettysburg. During the battle, she aided Union troops near her home. On July 3, 1863, she was struck by a stray Confederate bullet.
Walker
1864
1934
Maggie Lena Walker was an African American entrepreneur, establishing various businesses. She was the first woman bank president. As grand secretary of the Independent Order of Saint Luke, she worked for the social and financial advancement of the African American community.
Walker
1832
1919
Mary Edwards Walker was a surgeon who served with the Union Army during the Civil War. For this work, she became the only woman ever awarded the Medal of Honor. She later became a strong supporter of women's suffrage.
Walker
1867
1919
Madam C.J. Walker, born Sarah Breedlove, was the first woman to become a self-made millionaire. She created a line of African-American hair care products and her success allowed her to become a noted philanthropist.
Walton
1829
1906
Mary Walton was an inventor. Her inventions included devices to reduce pollution from locomotive and factory chimneys and a noise deadening system for elevated railways.
Ward
1738
1822
Nancy Ward or Nanyehi was a councilwoman of the Cherokee. She acted as a negotiator with American colonists, striving for peace between them and the Cherokee.
Warren
1728
1814
Mercy Otis Warren was a political writer and historian during the American Revolution. She used her writing to support the war and later the inclusion of a Bill of Rights in the Constitution. She was the first woman to write a history of the American Revolution.
Washington
1731
1802
Martha Washington was the wife of President George Washington and the first woman to become First Lady of the United States. She established many of the social norms for the Office of the President, holding formal dinners and receptions.
Wauneka
1910
1997
Annie Dodge Wauneka was the first woman elected to serve on the Navajo Tribal Council. Heading the Council's Health and Welfare Committee, she worked to improve the health of her people through education, directing reforms, and political action.
Wells
1862
1931
Ida Bell Wells was a journalist and civil rights activist who used her writing, including a newspaper she founded, to mount an anti-lynching campaign. She also founded the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs and was a co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Wheatley
1753
1784
Phillis Wheatley was the first African American and the first U.S. slave to have her work published. She received great acclaim in colonial America and Europe for her poetry.
Wilder
1867
1957
Laura Ingalls Wilder was an author, best known for writing the "Little House" book series, an autobiographical account of her childhood in a settler family.
Willard
1787
1870
Emma Willard was a champion of women's education. After working in various schools for women, she opened the first school for the higher education of women—the Troy Female Seminary.
Willard
1839
1898
Frances Elizabeth Willard was an educator and temperance reformer. After years of teaching, she was named president of the Evanston College for Ladies. She left education to become a leader and eventually president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, advocating temperance and women's suffrage.
Wilson
1872
1961
Edith Wilson was the second wife of President Woodrow Wilson, marrying Wilson while he was in office. When the President suffered a stroke in 1919, she became the acting president until the end of his second term in 1921.
Winnemucca
1844
1891
Sarah Winnemucca was a member of the Paiute tribe who served as an interpreter and negotiator between her people and the U.S. Army in the 1860s and 1870s. She also fought for the rights of Native American communities.
Winslow
1607
1679
Mary Chilton Winslow was a Pilgrim who arrived in America on the "Mayflower." She is believed to have been the first woman ashore at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Woodhull
1838
1927
Victoria Woodhull was a journalist and activist. She established a radical journal that published ideas on social reforms and women's rights. She was the first woman to run a Wall Street brokerage firm and the first woman to run for the presidency of the United States.
Wood
1880
1917
Edith Ayres and Helen Wood were the first female U.S. military casualties of World War I. While on board a troopship to France, the two nurses were killed by shrapnel from an accidental explosion, during anti-submarine target practice by the ship's guns.
Woodward
1829
1921
Charlotte Woodward was a suffragist and the only signer of Declaration of Sentiments at Seneca Falls in 1848 to witness the passage of the 19th Amendment. She was a member of the American Woman Suffrage Association and a supporter of the National Woman's Party.
Wu
1912
1997
Chien-Shiung Wu, recognized as the "First Lady of Physics," was a specialist in nuclear fission that was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project, the Army's secret project to develop the atomic bomb.
Yalow
1921
2011
Rosalyn Yalow was a medical physicist who conducted groundbreaking research that revolutionized the field of endocrinology. In 1977, Yalow became the second woman to earn a Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Zaharias
1911
1956
Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias was one of the greatest athletes of the twentieth century. After winning various track and field medals at the 1932 Olympics, she went on to conquer the sport of golf, co-founding the Ladies Professional Golf Association.
Zane
| Grace Kelly |
Charlottetown is the capital of which Canadian province? | Your Recommendations | Modern Money
Your Recommendations
Your Recommendations
Your Recommendations
Our announcement last June sparked a robust national discussion. We have heard about countless great American women who have contributed to our history, and are making many of those names available below.
Last Name
1755
1831
Hannah Adams was an early-American author. Self-educated, she specialized in comparative religion and New England history and earned an international reputation as a writer. She is considered the first female professional author in the United States.
Bridgman
1829
1889
Laura Bridgman was the first deaf and blind person to learn a language. Living at the Perkins School for the Blind, she studied a full curriculum of subjects.
Burn
1873
1945
Febb Burn was the mother of Harry Thomas Burn, a member of the Tennessee General Assembly during the state's vote to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment. She is credited with changing his vote on the measure. Burn voted for the amendment, breaking a tie vote.
Cather
1873
1947
Willa Cather was a novelist who wrote stories set in the Great Plains that explored the lives of nineteenth century settlers. In 1923, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
de Baca
1894
1991
Fabiola Cabeza de Baca was an educator and author. Starting as a school teacher, she went on to study home economics, becoming an Extension Agent for New Mexico. She was also involved in the early Hispanic civil rights movement and wrote novels that captured early life in New Mexico.
Fern
1811
1872
Fanny Fern, born Sara Willis, was a newspaper writer and novelist. She was the first woman to have a recurring newspaper column, which often dealt with women's issues.
Fitzgerald
1900
1948
Zelda Fitzgerald was an novelist, and the wife of author F. Scott Fitzgerald. A socialite in the 1920s, she was the typical Flapper and a symbol of the Jazz Age.
Graham
1894
1991
Martha Graham was a dancer and choreographer. With an award-winning career spanning decades, she reshaped the art of dance in the twentieth century, creating the Graham technique of dance that stressed drama and expression.
Lange
1895
1965
Dorothea Lange was perhaps America's greatest documentary photographer. Her work chronicled the lives of the unemployed and rural poor during the 1930s. Through her work, she shifted the nation's attention on the human cost of the Great Depression.
Lewis
1844
1907
Edmonia Lewis was a sculptor who incorporated Native American and African American themes into the Neoclassical style. She achieved international recognition and is considered the first woman of African American and Native American heritage to do so as a sculptor.
Martinez
1912
2006
Esther Martinez was a linguist, storyteller, and author mostly known for preserving the language of the Tewa people of New Mexico. In 2006, a Congressional Act was passed, bearing her name, to preserve Native American languages.
O'Connor
1925
1964
Flannery O'Connor was a writer who specialized in the short story form. Her writing stressed themes of southern life and the individual's relationship with God.
Parker
1893
1967
Dorothy Parker was an author known for her magazine articles and book reviews that contained her sharp wit. Also a poet and screenwriter, Parker rose to fame in the 1920s through her work on "The New Yorker" and the Algonquin Round Table.
Picotte
1865
1915
Susan La Flesche Picotte is considered to be the first Native American woman physician in the U.S. She worked on the Omaha Reservation, promoting temperance and establishing a hospital. She further served as an advocate for the Omaha with the Government.
Porter
1890
1980
Katherine Anne Porter was a Pulitzer prize-winning author well-known for her short stories and her novel, "Ship of Fools."
Schoolcraft
1800
1842
Jane Johnston Schoolcraft is considered the first Native American writer and poet, leaving a lasting impression on Native American literature.
Sexton
1928
1974
Anne Sexton was poet, known for writing about intensely personal issues. She won the Pulitzer Prize and numerous other awards for her poetry.
Stein
1874
1946
Gertrude Stein was a novelist, poet, and playwright. She later moved to Paris and opened an art and literary salon for many young writers and artists of the burgeoning modern art movement.
Welty
1909
2001
Eudora Welty was an author, writing both novels and short stories. Her novel "The Optimist's Daughter" won the Pulitzer Prize and Welty was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Whipple
1760
1846
Dinah Whipple was an educator who opened the first school for African American children in New Hampshire. Raised in slavery, she was freed at age 21 and married Prince Whipple, an African American Revolutionary War veteran and anti-slavery advocate.
Wilson
1825
1900
Harriet Wilson was considered the first African American novelist. Her novel, based on her experiences as an indentured servant and freedwoman in New England, was published in 1859.
Abzug
1920
1998
Bella Abzug was an activist, a leader in the Women's Movement and a member of the House of Representatives in the early 1970s.
Adams
1744
1818
Abigail Adams was the wife of President John Adams and the mother of President John Quincy Adams. She was her husband's unofficial political advisor, directing John Adams to "remember the ladies" while he was helping to form the new colonial government.
Adams
1775
1852
Louisa Adams was wife of John Quincy Adams and First Lady of the United States. After leaving the White House, she became an author and supporter of abolition and women's suffrage.
Addams
1860
1935
Jane Addams was a social reformer and a founder of the American settlement house movement. Founder of Hull House in Chicago and the occupation of social worker in the US, she was the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Alcott
1832
1888
Louisa May Alcott was a nineteenth-century novelist best known for her work, "Little Women," published in 1868. She also supported the abolition and women's rights movements.
Alden
1602
1680
Priscilla Alden was a Pilgrim colonist and wife of John Alden. Their marriage, one of the first in the Massachusetts's Plymouth Colony, was immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, "The Courtship of Miles Standish."
Alston
1783
1813
Theodosia Burr Alston was the daughter of U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr and wife of South Carolina Governor Joseph Alston.
Andersen
1932
2013
Marjorie Ann "Marge" Anderson was the first woman to lead the Native American tribe Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. She led a successful fight for her people's treaty rights, winning a Supreme Court decision, and served in the tribal government for over 30 years.
Anderson
1897
1993
Marian Anderson was a famous contralto singer. She helped set the stage for the civil rights movement with her 1939 performance at the Lincoln Memorial. Anderson also served at the United Nations and won the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Angelou
1928
2014
Maya Angelou was a poet and award-winning author as well as an actor, lecturer, and civil rights activist. She is known for her autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings."
Anthony
1820
1906
Susan B. Anthony was a reformer, initially supporting the causes of abolition and temperance. After meeting Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anthony formed a lifelong partnership with her and led the fight for female suffrage for most of the late 1800s.
Apgar
1909
1974
Virginia Apgar was a physician specializing in obstetrical anesthesia. She was the first woman named a full professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She is widely known as the creator of the Apgar Score that evaluates the health of newborns.
Ayres
1880
1917
Edith Ayres and Helen Wood were the first female U.S. military casualties of World War I. While on board a troopship to France, the two nurses were killed by shrapnel from an accidental explosion, during anti-submarine target practice by the ship's guns.
Bacall
1924
2014
Lauren Bacall was a model and theater and film actress. In movies, she helped establish the genre of film noir, especially through the films in which she co-starred with Humphrey Bogart.
Baker
1903
1986
Ella Baker was a civil rights activist who focused on grassroots organizing as a way to gain civil rights. Organizer of the Young Negroes Cooperative League in New York, she also worked with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Baker
1873
1945
Sara Josephine Baker was a physician who pioneered the field of public health, becoming the first director of the newly created New York City Bureau of Child Hygiene. She focused on improving health in the immigrant community.
Balch
1867
1961
Emily Greene Balch was a leader in the international peace movement as well as a social worker and trade union supporter. A lifelong pacifist, she led the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. In 1946, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Ball
1911
1989
Lucille Ball was an actress known for the television comedy "I Love Lucy" that aired in the 1950s. She later established Desilu studios with her husband Desi Arnaz, making her the first woman to run such an enterprise.
Bari
1949
1997
Judi Bari was an environmentalist who led the campaign against the logging of old-growth redwood forests in Northern California. She was also a labor leader and feminist.
Barton
1821
1912
Clara Barton was a leading nurse during the Civil War who was known as "the angel of the battlefield." After the war, she served with the International Red Cross in Europe. Returning to the US, she founded the American Red Cross Society in 1881.
Bascom
1862
1945
Florence Bascom was a leading geologist. She was the first woman awarded a Ph.D. by Johns Hopkins University and the first woman hired by the United States Geological Survey.
Bates
1914
1999
Daisy Bates was a publisher and civil rights activist. With her husband, she published the "Arkansas State Press" in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1957, she aided nine African American students in desegregating Little Rock's Central High School.
Bates
1859
1929
Katharine Lee Bates was a poet and the head of the English Department at Wellesley College. Her most famous poem provided the words for the song "America the Beautiful."
Bethune
1875
1955
Mary McLeod Bethune was an American educator and civil rights activist known for starting a private school for African-American students in Daytona Beach, Florida. She also led the National Association of Colored Women and established the National Council of Negro Women. Bethune served as an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Bickerdyke
1817
1901
Mary Ann Bickerdyke was a Civil War nurse and advocate for veterans of the war. During the war, she established 300 military hospitals and tended to the wounded. After the war, she fought for veterans' rights.
Blackwell
1821
1910
Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to earn the M.D. degree in the United States. She went on to help form the New York Infirmary for Women and Children to aid not only female patients but also to provide training to female physicians.
Bly
1864
1922
Nellie Bly was the pen name of journalist Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman, a pioneer in investigative, undercover, and participatory journalism. She investigated sweatshops and mental institutions. Also, with sponsorship by the "New York World," she traveled around the world in 72 days.
Boom
1892
1983
Cornelia "Corrie" ten Boom and her family worked to save Jews during the Holocaust. Living in the Netherlands, the Christian family helped save nearly 800 people. She eventually became an author, moving to the US.
Bourke-White
1904
1971
Margaret Bourke-White was a pioneering photographer. She was the first woman war correspondent, operating in dangerous World War II combat areas. She was also one of the founding photojournalists of "Life" magazine.
Bradley
1907
2002
Ruby Bradley was an Army nurse, serving in World War II and Korea, earning 34 medals and citations for bravery. During her time as a Japanese prisoner of war in the Philippines, she aided other prisoners, becoming known as an "Angel in Fatigues."
Bradstreet
1612
1672
Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan colonist and an American poet. Working in the Elizabethan literary tradition, she was the first woman writer to have a book published in the American colonies.
Brent
1601
1671
Margaret Brent was the first woman lawyer in America, representing the leaders of colonial Maryland. An excellent litigator, she used English law to assert her rights as an unmarried woman to property. She unsuccessfully petitioned the Maryland Assembly for the right to vote.
Broadwick
1893
1978
Georgia "Tiny" Broadwick was an early parachutist. She was the first woman to parachute from an airplane and the first to parachute into water. She is also considered the first person to jump freefall.
Brown
1922
2012
Helen Gurley Brown was an author and magazine editor, advocating women's sexual freedom. Her 1962 book, "Sex and the Single Girl," was a bestseller. Later, she became the editor of "Cosmopolitan," which celebrated the modern career woman.
Buck
1892
1973
Pearl S. Buck wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Good Earth," published in 1931. It also won the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first time the prize was given to an American woman. She later founded humanitarian organizations to aid Asian and Asian American children.
Burgin
unkwn
unkwn
Elizabeth Burgin aided American prisoners-of-war during the Revolutionary War. Besides providing relief supplies to prisoners held on prison ships in New York Harbor, she aided in a mass escape in 1778. She was later awarded a pension for her services to the country.
Burns
1879
1966
Lucy Burns was a leading suffragist. While studying in Europe, she became part of the British suffragette movement, participating in its radical methods. Returning to the U.S., she joined Alice Paul in founding the National Woman's Party.
Cabrini
1850
1917
Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini was a nun. In Italy, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart to care for poor children. She then emigrated to America to work among Italian immigrants and later became the first naturalized citizen of the United States to be canonized.
Caldwell
1924
2006
Sarah Caldwell was an opera conductor. She was the founding director of the Opera Company of Boston and the first woman to conduct at the Metropolitan Opera. She was also one of the first women to conduct the New York Philharmonic.
Cannon
1863
1941
Annie Jump Cannon was a pioneering astronomer. She discovered over 300 stars and helped develop the standard scheme for classifying stars by their temperature. Among her many firsts was being the first woman elected an officer of the American Astronomical Society.
Cannon
1857
1932
Martha Hughes Cannon was one of the country's first female physicians and the first female state senator in the United States, serving the State of Utah. While in the Utah Senate, she established the state board of health.
Caraway
1878
1950
Hattie Wyatt Caraway was the first woman elected to serve a full term as a United States Senator. She was also the first woman to preside over the Senate and to chair a Senate committee.
Carson
1907
1964
Rachel Carson was a marine biologist known for her book, "Silent Spring," that pointed out the dangers of fertilizers and pesticides to the environment. Her work led to the environmental movement and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Cash
1929
2003
June Carter Cash was a singer and songwriter. Part of the Carter Family, she helped transform the country music genre, becoming a famous singer and an influential songwriter. She later married Country Music star Johnny Cash, starting a second singing career.
Cassatt
1844
1926
Mary Cassatt was a leading painter of the late nineteenth-century Impressionist movement. Living much of her life in France, she concentrated on producing images of women in their domestic and maternal roles.
Catt
1859
1947
Carrie Chapman Catt was a leading suffragist. Leading the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she was instrumental in winning passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. She later founded the League of Women Voters and continued the fight for women's suffrage around the world.
Chadwick
1918
1995
Florence Chadwick was a record-setting long-distance swimmer. She set new records for swimming the English Channel and did so in both directions. She was the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel, the Bosporus, the Dardanelles, and the Straits of Gibraltar.
Child
1802
1880
Lydia Maria Child was a popular novelist in the early nineteenth century. Her works reflected her support for abolition as well as rights for women and Native Americans. She is known for her poem "Over the River and through the Woods."
Childress
1912
1994
Alice Childress was an actress, playwright, and author. An actor with the American Negro Theatre, she later became one of the first African American women to write and produce plays. Her written works deal with the problems and pressures facing urban African Americans.
Chisolm
1924
2005
Shirley Chisholm was the first African American woman to be a U.S. Representative and to run as a major-party candidate for President of the United States. While in Congress, she worked to aid inner-city children and championed education.
Clark
1898
1995
Georgia Neese Clark (Gray) was the first woman Treasurer of the United States. She had previously been president of the Richland State Bank in Kansas.
Cleveland
1864
1947
Frances Folsom Cleveland was the wife of President Grover Cleveland. Married in the White House, she became the youngest First Lady at age 21. She proved a media sensation, winning over America with her charm and flair for fashion.
Cline
1932
1963
Patsy Cline was a singer who excelled in the country music and popular music genres. In Country Music, she helped develop a new sound in the 1960s, utilizing strings and smooth vocals, that was able to transcend the genre into popular music.
Coachman
1923
2014
Alice Coachman was the first African American woman to win an Olympic gold medal. In 1948, she won the medal in the high jump. She later became a teacher and formed an organization to help young athletes.
Cochran
1906
1980
Jacqueline Cochran was a record-breaking racing pilot who established the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program in World War II. She was also the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic (1941) and to break the sound barrier (1953).
Cogswell
1805
1830
Alice Cogswell was a deaf child who spurred the creation of the American School for the Deaf. was the inspiration to Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet for the creation of the now American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut.
Colden
1724
1766
Jane Colden is considered the first female botanist in America. Using the Linnaean system of plant identification, she described and illustrated over 300 New York plant species.
Coleman
1892
1926
Bessie Coleman was a pioneer of women's aviation. She was the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license, and she made a living through stunt flying.
Conley
1869
1946
Eliza Burton Conley was a Native American of the Wyandotte Nation in Kansas and a lawyer. She was also the first woman admitted to the Kansas State Bar and the first Native American Woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court.
Cooper
unkwn
unkwn
Polly Cooper was part of a group of the Native American tribe Oneidas that carried corn from New York to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, to supply the Continental Army headquartered there. Cooper taught the troops how to prepare the corn and nursed those who were sick.
Corbin
1751
1800
Margaret Corbin fought in the Revolutionary War battle of Manhattan Island. Following her husband into battle, she took over firing his cannon when he was killed, being seriously wounded in the process. She was the first woman to receive a military pension.
Cori
1896
1957
Gerty Cori was a biochemist who helped discover the cycle of carbohydrate metabolism. She became the first American woman to win a Nobel Prize in Science and the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Coyle
1892
1962
Grace Coyle was a sociologist specializing in group dynamics and the therapeutic benefits of a group experience. She pioneered the use of group work by social workers and advocated its integration with case work.
Croly
1829
1901
Jane Cunningham Croly was a journalist, author, and women's club founder. The first female syndicated columnist, she later became the first female professor of journalism. She also founded the Sorosis club that later expanded into the General Federation of Women's Clubs.
Crumpler
1831
1895
Rebecca Crumpler was the first African American woman to become a physician. After serving as a nurse a number of years, she was admitted to the New England Female Medical College and received her MD in 1864.
Daly
1921
2003
Marie Maynard Daly was a biochemist. She was the first African American woman to earn a doctorate in chemistry. Her research was focused on the effects of diet and smoking on the body.
Dawson
1894
1962
Mary Caldwell Dawson was a voice coach and piano instructor that founded the National Negro Opera Company in Pittsburgh. For over 20 years, she produced performances in major US cities. She was also president of the National Organization of Negro Musicians.
Day
1897
1980
Dorothy Day was a journalist and social activist. Through her actions and her writing, including in "The Catholic Worker," she fought for the rights of women and the poor. She is held in high esteem by the Catholic Church.
DeLille
1813
1862
Henriette DeLille was a New Orleans socialite who became a nun. She devoted herself to the care of slaves, the poor, and orphans. She founded the Sisters of the Holy Family, whose members were free women of color.
Dewson
1874
1962
Mary "Molly" Dewson was a social reformer and women's rights activist. She worked for better working conditions for women and children and led the Massachusetts Suffrage Association. Later, she became director of the Women's Division of the Democratic Party and an ally to the Franklin Roosevelt administration.
Dickinson
1830
1886
Emily Dickinson was an influential poet of the late nineteenth century. Her work was unconventional in form and path-breaking in influence. Published posthumously, her work was influential in the development of American poetry.
Dietrich
1901
1992
Marlene Dietrich was a German-born actress known for her work in film, playing strong, independent women living on the bounds of acceptable society. On the outbreak of World War II, she became a US citizen and became active in the war effort, supporting U.S. troops and European refugees.
Dix
1802
1887
Dorothea Dix was a champion of the mentally ill and a leading Civil War nurse. She created the first mental asylums through extensive lobbying of state governments and the U.S. Congress. During the Civil War, she was named Superintendent of Army Nurses.
Doyle
1924
2010
Geraldine Hoff Doyle is thought to be the model for the "We Can Do It!" poster of World War II. The poster, showing a working woman flexing her biceps, became a feminist symbol in the 1980s.
Drexel
1858
1955
Katharine Drexel was born into wealth but became a nun. She eventually founded the order of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, which was devoted to improving the lives of Native Americans and African Americans. She was canonized in 2000.
Dumont
1882
1962
Margaret Dumont was an actress trained in opera and stage acting and well known for her roles in Marx Brothers' films.
Dyer
1611
1660
Mary Barrett Dyer was a Puritan who became a Quaker. She was executed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony for refusing to obey a law banning Quakers from the colony. Her execution prompted King Charles to impose religious toleration in the colony.
Earhart
1897
1937
Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean and the first person to fly over both the Atlantic and Pacific. She was also a women's rights activist. Earhart disappeared over the Pacific while attempting to fly around the world.
Early
1918
2002
Charity Adams Earley was a soldier in the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II. She was the first African American woman to hold an officer's rank, commanding the first African American WAAC unit, the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion.
Eddy
1821
1910
Mary Baker Eddy was the founder of Christian Science, a religious denomination that promotes healing through spiritual faith without the use of medications. She also began the printing of the "Christian Science Monitor," an award-winning international newspaper.
Egan
1877
1925
Eleanor Franklin Egan was a journalist known for her reporting on Europe and the Middle East in the early twentieth century. Working for "Leslie's Weekly", she covered the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Revolution, and British operations in the Middle East during World War I.
Eisenhower
1896
1979
Mamie Eisenhower was wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. As First Lady of the United States from 1953 to 1961, she was seen as a gracious hostess and a model of post-war American womanhood.
Etter
1844
1924
Maria Woodworth Etter was an evangelist that helped develop the Pentecostal movement and was widely known for her dynamic ministry style that emphasized conversions and healings.
Fitzerald
1917
1996
Ella Fitzgerald was a jazz singer and the first African American woman to win a Grammy Award. Known as the "First Lady of Song," she made lasting interpretations of the jazz standards and the Great American Songbook.
Follett
1868
1933
Mary Parker Follet was a leader in management theory. Developing pioneering ideas like participative decision-making, she expanded the fields of organizational theory and organizational behavior.
Ford
1918
2011
Betty Ford was the wife of President Gerald Ford and First Lady of the Unites States. She was known for her candid discussion of women's issues, including breast cancer, abortion, and equal rights. She also spoke of her fight with addiction and later established the Betty Ford Center for substance abuse.
Friedan
1921
2006
Betty Friedan was a writer and feminist. She is often credited with beginning the second wave of American feminism with her book "The Feminine Mystique." Friedan also helped found the National Organization for Women, serving as its first president.
Fuller
1810
1850
Margaret Fuller was an author and literary critic who furthered American literature by encouraging writers and interpreting modern European literature. Her best known work is "Woman in the Nineteenth Century" that puts forward feminist arguments.
Gage
1826
1898
Matilda Joslyn Gage was a suffragist who also fought for abolition, Native American rights, and secular government. She was a founding member of the National Woman Suffrage Association and creator of the Women's National Liberal Union.
Goeppert-Mayer
1906
1972
Maria Goeppert-Mayer was a theoretical physicist known for her work on the structure of the atomic nucleus. She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics and only the second woman to be a Nobel Prize winner.
Goldman
1869
1940
Emma Goldman was a political activist and advocate of anarchism. Through speeches and writing, she supported draft resistance, the availability of birth control, and workers' rights.
Grable
1916
1973
Betty Grable was a dancer and film actress. She was a star of Hollywood musicals during the 1940s. During World War II, she was famous for her work for the war effort.
Graham
1917
2001
Katharine Graham led "The Washington Post" for decades, including the period of its famous investigation of the Watergate scandal. Her autobiography, "Personal History," won the Pulitzer Prize.
Graham
1920
2007
Ruth Graham was the wife of evangelist Billy Graham. Her own work as an evangelist was done primarily as an author of books and poetry. She and her husband were jointly awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1996.
Grasso
1919
1981
Ella Grasso was Governor of Connecticut. After service in the US House of Representatives, she was the first woman to become Governor of Connecticut and the first woman elected to be a governor of a state in her own right.
Green
1834
1916
Hetty Green was a financier who built a fortune through stock and land investing. She became known as the richest woman in America and opened the way for women in the financial industry.
Grimke
1792
1879
Sarah Grimke and Angelina Grimke were abolitionists. They broke social convention by speaking in public to mixed gender audiences. In their writings, they soon connected the fight for abolition with that for women's rights.
Hale
1788
1879
Sarah Josepha Hale was an author and editor. She was one of America's first female novelists and one of the earliest writers on slavery. She wrote the classic poem "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and edited a popular woman's magazine.
Hamer
1917
1977
Fannie Lou Hamer was a civil rights activist who focused on enabling African Americans to vote. She helped organize the 1964 Freedom Summer voter registration drive in Mississippi and co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to challenge the segregated politics of that state.
Hamilton
1757
1854
Elizabeth Hamilton was the wife of Alexander Hamilton and a philanthropist. She provided political advice to her husband and defended his reputation after his death. She also helped found and lead the New York Orphan Asylum Society. After moving to Washington, D.C., she founded an orphanage there.
Hamilton
1902
1985
Margaret Hamilton was a schoolteacher who turned to acting. She is well known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in the film, "The Wizard of Oz." She was also involved in education and promoted animal rights.
Harris
1924
1985
Patricia Roberts Harris was the first African American woman to hold a Cabinet post, that of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. She was also the first African American woman to serve as a U.S. ambassador, being posted to Luxembourg.
Hearst
1842
1919
Phoebe Apperson Hearst was a philanthropist and mother of William Randolph Hearst. Interested in education, she helped fund the development of the University of California at Berkeley and founded the first free kindergarten. She also founded the forerunner of the National Parent Teacher Association.
Hepburn
1907
2003
Katharine Hepburn was a stage and film actress. She soared to fame in the 1940s with characters that portrayed the modern woman. An actress with a broad range, she appeared in films for over 60 years, earning a record 4 Academy Awards for Best Actress.
Hobby
1905
1995
Oveta Culp Hobby was a journalist who became the first commanding officer of the Women's Army Corps during World War II. She later was appointed as the first Secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
Holiday
1915
1959
Billie Holiday was a unique and important jazz singer, being nicknamed "Lady Day." Her vocal experimentation had a lasting impact on jazz and pop singing.
Hopper
1906
1992
Grace Hopper was a pioneering computer scientist and a US Navy Rear Admiral. Besides being an early programmer, she is considered the original "debugger" for removing a moth from a computer. She also invented the programming language compiler.
Howe
1819
1910
Julia Ward Howe was an abolitionist and suffragist. She was an anti-slavery author who became famous for writing the words to the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." As a suffragist, she helped found numerous organizations, including the American Woman Suffrage Association.
Hurston
1891
1960
Zora Neale Hurston was an author and part of the Harlem Renaissance. After working as a historian and folklorist, she turned to writing novels with characters located in the rural South. Her best known novel, published in 1937, is "Their Eyes Were Watching God."
Hutchinson
1591
1643
Anne Hutchinson was a religious leader in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. She led a revolt against the teachings of the Puritan leaders known as the Antinomian controversy. Banished from the colony, she moved on to help found Rhode Island.
Jackson
1911
1972
Mahalia Jackson, known as "The Queen of Gospel," was a gospel singer and civil rights activist. Internationally famous, she used her singing to support the civil rights movement, including singing at the March on Washington led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Johnson
1912
2007
Claudia Taylor "Lady Bird" Johnson was the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson and First Lady of the United States. She was her husband's political aide and campaign manager, helping him reach the Presidency and implement his policies. Her love and use of flowers led to the passage of the Highway Beautification Act.
Johnson-Brown
1927
2011
Hazel Johnson-Brown was an Army nurse who became the first African American woman to be promoted to the rank of general and to be chief of the Army Nurse Corps. She held a doctorate in education and held numerous military decorations.
Johnson
Marsha "Pay it no mind" Johnson was a transgender artist and civil rights activist
Jones
1837
1930
Mary Harris Jones, also known as "Mother Jones," was a union activist and organizer. Originally supporting mine workers, she also helped unions and strikers across the country. Jones also helped found the Social Democratic Party and the Industrial Workers of the World.
Jordan
1936
1996
Barbara Jordan was a Congresswoman and civil rights leader. After serving in the Texas legislature, she became the first Southern African American woman elected to the U.S. Congress. She became well known for her role in the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.
Keller
1880
1968
Helen Keller, despite being blind and deaf, was an author and lecturer, supporting women's and labor rights. She was the first blind and deaf person to earn a college degree, and she helped found the American Civil Liberties Union.
Kelley
1859
1932
Florence Kelley was a social reformer. For many years leading the National Consumers' League, she worked to end child labor and to protect women workers as well as to institute a minimum wage and an 8-hour workday.
Kelly
1929
1982
Grace Kelly was an Academy Award-winning actress. She started acting for the theater and transitioned to film, becoming a leading lady and winning the best actress Oscar. At age 26, she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco, becoming a princess and a philanthropist.
Kendrick
1890
1980
Pearl Kendrick with her partner Grace Eldering developed the vaccine for pertussis or whooping cough. They also developed the standard, single-dose vaccine for Diphtheria, Pertussis, and Tetanus.
Kennedy Onassis
1929
1994
Jacqueline Kennedy was the wife of President John F. Kennedy and First Lady of the United States. She was known for the grace and youth she brought to the White House. After her husband's assassination, she married shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. Eventually, she had a career in publishing as an editor.
Kepley
1847
1925
Ada Kepley was the first woman to graduate from law school. Rarely practicing law, she became a leader in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She was also ordained as a Unitarian minister.
Kierstede
1626
1693
Sara Roelofs Kierstede was a settler in colonial New Amsterdam. Fluent in Dutch, English, and Native American languages, she is reported to have acted as interpreter in the negotiations when Peter Stuyvesant purchased New York.
King
1927
2006
Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr., was a leader in the civil rights movement. She worked to secure equality for minorities and women, founding the Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
Kirkaldy
1917
2007
Irene Morgan Kirkaldy was an African American civil rights pioneer. In 1944, she was arrested for not giving up her seat on an interstate bus in Virginia. The Supreme Court overturned her conviction, serving as a precedent to later challenges to segregation.
Lacks
1920
1951
Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman who was the source of an enduring line of human cells used in medical research. Known as the HeLa cell line, the cells were used to develop the polio vaccine and were the first human cells successfully cloned.
Lamarr
1914
2000
Hedy Lamarr was an actress and inventor. She became a leading film actress in the 1940s. As a hobby, she was an inventor and received a patent for a radio-controlled torpedo, which used a new frequency hopping system that has become the basis of wireless technology.
Lange
1784
1882
Elizabeth Clovis Lange founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first African American Roman Catholic order in the United States. It was dedicated to the education of African American girls.
Lazarus
1849
1887
Emma Lazarus was a poet recognized in America and Europe for her work on the story of the Jewish people. Her most famous work is "The New Colossus," which appears on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
Leavitt
1868
1921
Henrietta Swan Leavitt was a pioneering astronomer. She invented a way to determine the absolute magnitudes of stars, which allowed astronomers to calculate their distance from Earth. This, in turn, allowed for calculations of the expansion and age of the universe.
Lili'uokalani
1838
1917
Lili'uokalani was Hawaii's first queen and the last head of the Hawaiian monarchy. She abdicated under pressure from United States' interests, and the islands were annexed in 1898.
Linton
1853
1915
Laura Alberta Linton was a chemist who discovered the gem stone Lintonite. She later studied medicine, becoming a physician who pioneered the use of occupational therapy among mental patients.
Livermore
1820
1905
Mary Livermore was a journalist and activist. She helped form the American Woman Suffrage Association and the Women's Christian Temperance Union. All the while, she wrote for and edited various newspapers and journals and became a famous lecturer.
Lockwood
1830
1917
Belva Lockwood was the first female attorney to gain the right to argue before the Supreme Court. She also founded the National Equal Rights Party and was twice its candidate for president, becoming the first woman to appear on a Presidential ballot.
Low
1860
1927
Juliette Gordon Low became acquainted with the Girl Guide movement while she lived in England. Returning to the United States, Low established the Girl Scouts of the USA.
Loy
1905
1993
Myrna Loy was an actress known for her work in "The Thin Man" films of the 1930s. During World War II, she held a high position in the Red Cross. After the war, she was part of the U.S. Commission to UNESCO.
Luce
1903
1987
Though a successful playwright and screenwriter, Clare Boothe Luce was also politically active. She served in the U.S. House of Representatives and became U.S. Ambassador to Italy. Booth Luce was the first woman to represent the U.S. to a major world power.
Ludington
1761
1839
Sybil Ludington was the daughter of a colonial militia leader. One night, she rode over 40 miles to alert militiamen to an attack on Danbury, Connecticut, in 1777. She is considered the female equivalent to Paul Revere.
Mabley
1894
1975
"Moms" Mabley was the stage name of comedian Loretta Aiken. Beginning in vaudeville, she moved into films and television and was a pioneering African American comic.
Madison
1768
1849
Dolley Madison was the wife of President James Madison and is credited with defining the role of the First Lady. During the War of 1812, Madison saved many important and historical items from the White House before it was burned by invading British forces.
Malone
1869
1957
Annie Malone was an African American entrepreneur who became a millionaire through the invention and sale of hair care products designed for African American women. She became a benefactor to the African American community in St. Louis, Missouri.
Mankiller
1945
2010
Wilma Mankiller was the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation. Active in the Native American Rights movement, she began working for the Cherokee Nation with a focus on economic development. Becoming principle chief in 1985, she built up the Cherokee community and preserved its traditions.
Mason
1818
1891
Bridget "Biddy" Mason was born a slave but was freed when her owner moved to California. She then worked as a nurse and invested in Los Angeles real estate, amassing a fortune. Her wealth was used to support charitable and religious work.
McAuliffe
1948
1986
Christa McAuliffe was a teacher and astronaut. A high school social studies teacher, she was chosen to be the first American civilian to go into space. However, she was killed when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff.
McCabe
1889
1971
Esther McCabe was the mother of 12 children, 11 of them boys. During World War II, all 11 sons served in the military. Consequently, she was recognized as the "Nation's Number 1 Mother" for having the most children in the military.
McClintock
1902
1992
Barbara McClintock was a geneticist who discovered how genes affect physical characteristics through transposition, changing position on the chromosome. In 1983, this discovery won her the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
McKinley
1847
1907
Ida McKinley was the wife of President William McKinley and First Lady of the United States from 1897 to 1901. She suffered from severe epilepsy but was known as an excellent hostess and a keen political observer.
McPherson
1890
1944
Aimee Semple McPherson was a Pentecostal evangelist who achieved great fame by pioneering the use of the radio to reach a large audience. She founded the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.
Mead
1901
1978
Margaret Mead was a cultural anthropologist who popularized the idea that a society's culture can shape individual experience and development. Her book, "Coming of Age in Samoa," made her famous and influenced American attitudes in the 1960s.
Merrill
1862
1951
Winifred Edgerton Merrill was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics, specializing in mathematical astronomy. She went on to found the Oaksmere School for Girls and helped to establish Barnard College.
Mink
1927
2002
Patsy Takemoto Mink was a long-serving member of the U.S. House of Representatives and the first woman of color and the first Asian American woman elected to Congress. She was the co-author of the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act.
Mitchell
1818
1889
Maria Mitchell was the country's first female professional astronomer. In 1847, she discovered a comet that was named after her. She co-founded the American Association for the Advancement of Women and became a professor at Vassar College.
Monroe
1926
1962
Marilyn Monroe was an actress who reached fame in the 1950s. She played serious as well as comedic roles on film, and eventually became a popular culture icon.
Moody
1586
1659
Lady Deborah Moody was a colonial settler. She led a group of religious dissenters to found the town of Gravesend in New York, becoming the first woman to found a town and be granted a land patent.
Moore
1871
1961
Anne Carroll Moore was a librarian that pioneered the creation of children's libraries. At the Pratt Institute and later the New York Public Library, she established collections of books for children as well as other initiatives to welcome children into libraries.
Morris
1814
1902
Esther Hobart Morris was a women's rights advocate. She is credited with spurring the Wyoming legislature to take up the matter of women's suffrage, which it later made law. She was also the first woman to become a Justice of the Peace.
Morton
1936
2003
Azie Taylor Morton served as United States Treasurer in the late 1970s. She is the only African American woman to hold the post. Previously, she had served for decades on the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity.
Moses
1860
1961
Anna Mary Robertson Moses, also known as "Grandma Moses," was a folk artist who began painting at age 78. Portraying nostalgic scenes of rural America with energy and realism, her paintings gained a wide following.
Mott
1793
1880
Lucretia Mott was a leader in the abolition movement. Mott also helped organize the Seneca Falls convention, sparking the women's right movement, and continued to fight for women's rights and suffrage until her death.
Musgrove
1700
1763
Mary Musgrove served as an intermediary between the Creek Indians and Georgia colonists. Partly of Creek ancestry, she worked to protect their interests while building her own business as a trader.
Nathan
1862
1946
Maud Nathan was a labor activist who helped to found the New York Consumers' League and later the National Consumers' League, which sought to improve the working conditions for working-class women. Nathan also fought for women's suffrage.
Nation
1846
1911
Carry Nation was a member of the temperance movement. She became famous for entering bars and saloons and destroying the fixtures and stock with a hatchet.
Nevelson
1899
1988
Louise Nevelson was an innovative artist that became one of the most important figures in 20th-century sculpture.
Nichols
1810
1885
Clarina Nichols was a journalist who was a pioneer in the women's rights movement and a fervent abolitionist. Moving to Kansas to stop the spread of slavery, she served on the Underground Railroad and pushed for the enfranchisement of women.
Nixon
1912
1993
Catherine "Pat" Nixon was the wife of President Richard Nixon. As First Lady, she traveled extensively. Known as "Madame Ambassador," she visited Africa, Peru, and Vietnam on her own. She also celebrated the nation's volunteers and encouraged wider participation in volunteer programs.
Oakley
1860
1926
Annie Oakley was a sharpshooter who toured with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. A gifted marksman, she became internationally famous. She and her husband raised money for the Red Cross during World War I.
O'Keefe
1887
1986
Georgia O'Keeffe was a painter. One of the founders of American Modernism, she combined abstraction and symbolism into visually compelling works.
Ostrom
1933
2012
Elinor Ostrom was a political scientist and the only woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Her work focused on how people interact with their ecosystems and how they work together to manage common natural resources.
Ovington
1865
1951
Mary White Ovington was a social reformer. She helped establish settlement houses in Brooklyn and came to focus on racial inequality. This led her to co-found the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Palmer
1807
1874
Phoebe Palmer was an evangelist who justified a woman's right to preach and laid the groundwork for modern Pentecostalism.
Parks
1913
2005
Rosa Parks was a civil rights pioneer, launching the Montgomery Bus Boycott and national efforts to end racial segregation. She was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a statue of her was installed in the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall.
Parsons
1628
1712
Mary Bliss Parsons was a founder of Northampton, Connecticut. She is known for repeatedly being tried for witchcraft and acquitted decades before the Salem witch trials.
Paul
1885
1977
Alice Paul was a suffragist and co-founder of the National Woman's Party. Paul's actions helped bring about the passage of the 19th Amendment.
Pearl
1912
1996
Minnie Pearl was the stage name of Sarah Cannon, a comedian on the Country Music circuit and television. Her humor was based on her hometown in the South and poked fun at Southern culture. Her long career and comedic style influenced many younger comics.
Peck
1850
1935
Annie Smith Peck was a mountaineer and writer. Leaving a career as a teacher, she became a mountain climber, setting various records and opening up the sport for women. She also traveled extensively and wrote of her adventures.
Peratrovich
1911
1958
Elizabeth Peratrovich was a Tlingit Native Alaskan who worked to end racial discrimination against Alaska Natives. She is credited with gaining passage of Alaska's Anti-Discrimination Act, the first anti-discrimination law in the United States.
Perkins
1880
1965
Frances Perkins was the first woman to serve as a cabinet secretary. Secretary of Labor during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, she was an architect of the New Deal and a champion of labor rights.
Pickens
1832
1899
Lucy Pickens was the First Lady of South Carolina during the Civil War. She was known as the "Queen of the Confederacy" and was the only woman to have her portrait appear on Confederate currency.
Pickersgill
1776
1857
Mary Pickersgill was a seamstress. She sewed the flag flown over Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore during the War of 1812. The flag became known as the Star Spangled Banner in the poem by Francis Scott Key.
Pickford
1892
1979
Mary Pickford was a pioneering film actress who helped establish the motion picture industry. Extremely popular, she was the second woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress. She was also a co-founder of United Artists and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Piestewa
1979
2003
Lori Piestewa was a U.S. soldier involved in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. She was the first female soldier to die in the war. Also, as a member of the Hopi tribe, she was the first Native American woman U.S. soldier to die in combat.
Pitcher
1754
1832
Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley is generally considered to be Molly Pitcher who fought with her husband at the Revolutionary War Battle of Monmouth in 1778. She took over the operation of a cannon when her husband became incapacitated.
Plath
1932
1963
Sylvia Plath was a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet known for her works "The Colossus and Other Poems" and "Ariel." She helped introduce a type of poetry that focused on individual experience.
Pocahontas
1595
1617
Pocahontas was the daughter of Native American Chief Powhatan and was integral to relations between her people and the English at the Jamestown, Virginia, settlement. She eventually married Englishman John Rolfe.
Priest
1905
1975
Ivy Baker Priest was U.S. Treasurer during the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration. Previously, she served as assistant chairwoman of the women's division of the Republican National Committee. Later, she would serve as Treasurer of California under Governor Ronald Reagan.
Quimby
1875
1912
Harriet Quimby was journalist and screenwriter, but she is most famous as an aviator. She was the first woman to earn a pilot's license in the U.S. and the first woman to fly across the English Channel.
Rainey
1886
1939
Ma Rainey was an early blues singer known as "The Mother of the Blues." She introduced America to the blues through stage and tent shows and was one of the first blues singers to record their songs.
Rand
1905
1982
Ayn Rand was a novelist and philosopher known for her two best-selling novels "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged." These works espoused her philosophy known as Objectivism that stressed self-interest and individualism.
Rankin
1880
1973
Jeannette Rankin was a member of Congress and a pacifist. In 1916, she became the first woman elected to Congress. Representing Montana, she pushed passage of the 19th Amendment. She voted against U.S. entry into World War I and World War II.
Raye
1916
1994
Martha Raye was a singer, actress, and comedian. Leaving a nursing career, she became a Big Band singer and moved into comic roles in movies and television. During the Vietnam War, she was known as "Colonel Maggie" by the troops for her devotion to them.
Resnick
1949
1986
Judith Resnick was an engineer and astronaut killed in the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986. She was the second American woman to travel into space.
Richards
1842
1911
Ellen Swallow Richards was a chemist. The first woman admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she later studied the ecological impact of urbanization and helped develop sanitary sewer treatment systems. She also advocated the use of science in the household, creating the field of home economics.
Ride
1951
2012
Sally Ride was an astronaut and physicist. Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, she was the first American woman to travel into space and is considered one of the heroes of aviation.
Rincon de Gautier
1897
1994
Felisa Rincón de Gautier was mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Elected in 1946, she was the first woman to lead a capital city. After serving over twenty years as mayor, she became a Goodwill Ambassador for the United States.
Rivers
1933
2014
Joan Rivers was a comedian and writer. She developed a form of comedy that provided social critique from a woman's viewpoint. She wrote for various television shows, including the "Tonight Show" before launching a career in stand-up comedy.
Robinson
1911
2015
Amelia Robinson was a civil rights activist, playing an important role in the civil rights marches held in Alabama in 1965. She was also the first African American woman to run for a Congressional seat in Alabama.
Roebling
1905
1994
Mary Roebling was the first woman to head a major American bank, the Trenton Trust Company. She eventually became chair of the National State Bank and founded the Women's Bank of Denver. She was also the American Stock Exchange's first woman governor.
Roosevelt
1884
1962
Eleanor Roosevelt was the wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As the longest-serving First Lady, she championed the rights of the poor, women, and minorities. After her husband's death, she served as a delegate to the United Nations and helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Ross
1752
1836
Betsy Ross was an upholsterer and seamstress. During the Revolutionary War, she became widowed and ran the family upholstery business, doing other needle work to supplement her income. She is purported to have sewn the first American flag in 1776.
Ross
1904
1988
Esther Ross was a Native American rights activist. She spent her life fighting for federal recognition of the Stillaguamish tribe of Washington State. After the tribe was fully recognized in 1976, Ross was named Chairperson of the tribe.
Ross
1876
1977
Nellie Tayloe Ross became the first woman elected governor of a state when she succeeded her dead husband as Governor of Wyoming. She later became the first woman to be named Director of the U.S. Mint.
Rowlandson
1637
1711
Mary Rowlandson was a colonist captured by a group of Nipmunk and Narragansett Indians. She was held for 11 weeks before being ransomed. She later wrote an account of her ordeal that proved very popular and established the genre of "captivity narratives."
Rudolph
1940
1994
Wilma Rudolph was a track and field sprinter. At the 1960 Olympic Games held in Rome, she became the first American woman to win three gold medals at a single Olympic Games.
Sabin
1871
1953
Florence Sabin was a physician and medical researcher. She was the first woman professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Sacagawea
1788
1812
Sacagawea was a Shoshone woman who aided the Lewis and Clark Expedition in its exploration of the Louisiana Purchase between 1804 and 1806. Serving as an interpreter, she helped establish contacts with various Native American peoples and ensured the success of the expedition.
Sampson
1760
1827
Deborah Sampson served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War disguised as a man. Calling herself Robert Shurtlieff, she served 17 months in the army and was wounded in action. She received an honorable discharge.
Sanger
1879
1966
Margaret Sanger was an activist for women's rights. Trained as a nurse, she worked for the availability of contraceptives for women. She coined the term "birth control" and founded the American Birth Control League in 1921.
Schurz
1833
1876
Margarethe Meyer Schurz was a German immigrant. Before leaving Germany, she and her sister had established a number of kindergartens. Moving to Watertown, Wisconsin, she established the first American kindergarten there in 1856.
Seton
1774
1821
Elizabeth Ann Seton was an educator who established America's first Catholic girl's school and its first Catholic woman's religious order, the Sisters of Charity. Later, she was first native-born American to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church.
Shriver
1921
2009
Eunice Kennedy Shriver was an advocate for children and people with intellectual disabilities. She was a founder of the Special Olympics and a winner of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Smith
1897
1995
Margaret Chase Smith was a U.S. Senator from Maine who had previously served as a U.S. Representative. She was the first woman to represent Maine in Congress, to serve in both houses, and to be nominated for president at a major party convention.
Smith
1907
1986
Kate Smith was a singer and pioneer in radio and television. Without formal training, she became one of America's most popular singers, especially for her performances of "God Bless America." She was known for her patriotism and support for the war effort during World War II.
Spencer
1879
1930
Fanny Bixby Spencer devoted herself to social reform and pacifism. Focusing on women's and children's cases, she worked with settlement houses and became Long Beach, California's first policewoman. She also fought for female suffrage and an end to war.
Stanton
1815
1902
Elizabeth Cady Stanton helped organize the conference at Seneca Falls in 1848 and drafted the Declaration of Sentiments adopted there. For the rest of her life she helped lead the fight for women's suffrage.
Stark
1737
1814
Molly Stark was a pioneer and wife of John Stark, a general during the American Revolution. Using her house as a hospital, she tended her husband's troops during a smallpox epidemic.
Stone
1818
1893
Lucy Stone was an abolitionist and suffragist. She co-founded the American Woman Suffrage Association that focused on state suffrage amendments. She was also the first woman to earn a college degree in Massachusetts.
Stout
1622
1732
Penelope Stout was a colonial settler repeatedly saved by Native Americans. She helped found the town of Middleton, New Jersey, and the first Baptist Church of New Jersey.
Stowe
1811
1883
Harriet Beecher Stowe was an author and abolitionist. Her popular novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" which portrayed the harshness of slavery became a best seller before the Civil War.
Strong
1740
1812
Anna Strong was an American spy during the Revolutionary War. She was a member of the Culper Spy Ring that gathered military intelligence on New York City during its occupation by British forces.
Sullivan
1866
1936
Anne Sullivan was a pioneering educator. She became famous for her teaching of Helen Keller who was deaf and blind. Dubbed "the miracle worker," Sullivan established the process used to educate children who are vision or hearing impaired.
Sullivan
1895
1972
Aletta Sullivan was the mother of the "Fighting Sullivan Brothers." During World War II, all five brothers served on the USS Juneau and were killed in action in 1942. She and her husband then toured the country speaking in support of the war effort.
Swain
1801
1880
Louisa Swain was a pioneer in women's rights. In 1870, at age 69, she was the first woman to vote in a U.S. general election. She cast her ballot in Wyoming, which had granted women's suffrage the year before.
Taft
1712
1778
Lydia Chapin Taft was a member of the Massachusetts Colony. In 1756, she became the first woman to legally vote in America, serving as a proxy for her son.
Tarbell
1857
1944
Ida Tarbell was a journalist and historian. She is best known for her pioneering investigative journalism that became known as muckraking and was focused on monopolistic industries in the late nineteenth century.
Temple
1928
2014
Shirley Temple (Black) was an actress famous for the films she made as a child. After some film roles as an adult, she became a diplomat. She served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, going on to become the ambassador to Ghana and later, ambassador to Czechoslovakia.
Truth
1797
1883
Born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree, Sojourner Truth changed her name after gaining her freedom. She campaigned for abolition and women's rights, becoming famous for her "Ain't I a Woman" speech.
Tubman
1822
1913
Harriet Tubman was born into slavery. After escaping to freedom, she became a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad. During the Civil War, she served as a Union Army scout and was the first woman to lead a military operation.
Tuchman
1912
1989
Barbara Tuchman was a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian. She won the prize twice, once for "The Guns of August" and once for "Stilwell and the American Experience in China."
Van Lew
1818
1900
Elizabeth Van Lew was an abolitionist who ran a spy ring during the Civil War. Operating in Richmond, Virginia, she gathered intelligence on Confederate troop movements for the Union and cared for prisoners of war.
Wade
1843
1863
Jennie Wade was the only civilian killed at the Battle of Gettysburg. During the battle, she aided Union troops near her home. On July 3, 1863, she was struck by a stray Confederate bullet.
Walker
1864
1934
Maggie Lena Walker was an African American entrepreneur, establishing various businesses. She was the first woman bank president. As grand secretary of the Independent Order of Saint Luke, she worked for the social and financial advancement of the African American community.
Walker
1832
1919
Mary Edwards Walker was a surgeon who served with the Union Army during the Civil War. For this work, she became the only woman ever awarded the Medal of Honor. She later became a strong supporter of women's suffrage.
Walker
1867
1919
Madam C.J. Walker, born Sarah Breedlove, was the first woman to become a self-made millionaire. She created a line of African-American hair care products and her success allowed her to become a noted philanthropist.
Walton
1829
1906
Mary Walton was an inventor. Her inventions included devices to reduce pollution from locomotive and factory chimneys and a noise deadening system for elevated railways.
Ward
1738
1822
Nancy Ward or Nanyehi was a councilwoman of the Cherokee. She acted as a negotiator with American colonists, striving for peace between them and the Cherokee.
Warren
1728
1814
Mercy Otis Warren was a political writer and historian during the American Revolution. She used her writing to support the war and later the inclusion of a Bill of Rights in the Constitution. She was the first woman to write a history of the American Revolution.
Washington
1731
1802
Martha Washington was the wife of President George Washington and the first woman to become First Lady of the United States. She established many of the social norms for the Office of the President, holding formal dinners and receptions.
Wauneka
1910
1997
Annie Dodge Wauneka was the first woman elected to serve on the Navajo Tribal Council. Heading the Council's Health and Welfare Committee, she worked to improve the health of her people through education, directing reforms, and political action.
Wells
1862
1931
Ida Bell Wells was a journalist and civil rights activist who used her writing, including a newspaper she founded, to mount an anti-lynching campaign. She also founded the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs and was a co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Wheatley
1753
1784
Phillis Wheatley was the first African American and the first U.S. slave to have her work published. She received great acclaim in colonial America and Europe for her poetry.
Wilder
1867
1957
Laura Ingalls Wilder was an author, best known for writing the "Little House" book series, an autobiographical account of her childhood in a settler family.
Willard
1787
1870
Emma Willard was a champion of women's education. After working in various schools for women, she opened the first school for the higher education of women—the Troy Female Seminary.
Willard
1839
1898
Frances Elizabeth Willard was an educator and temperance reformer. After years of teaching, she was named president of the Evanston College for Ladies. She left education to become a leader and eventually president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, advocating temperance and women's suffrage.
Wilson
1872
1961
Edith Wilson was the second wife of President Woodrow Wilson, marrying Wilson while he was in office. When the President suffered a stroke in 1919, she became the acting president until the end of his second term in 1921.
Winnemucca
1844
1891
Sarah Winnemucca was a member of the Paiute tribe who served as an interpreter and negotiator between her people and the U.S. Army in the 1860s and 1870s. She also fought for the rights of Native American communities.
Winslow
1607
1679
Mary Chilton Winslow was a Pilgrim who arrived in America on the "Mayflower." She is believed to have been the first woman ashore at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Woodhull
1838
1927
Victoria Woodhull was a journalist and activist. She established a radical journal that published ideas on social reforms and women's rights. She was the first woman to run a Wall Street brokerage firm and the first woman to run for the presidency of the United States.
Wood
1880
1917
Edith Ayres and Helen Wood were the first female U.S. military casualties of World War I. While on board a troopship to France, the two nurses were killed by shrapnel from an accidental explosion, during anti-submarine target practice by the ship's guns.
Woodward
1829
1921
Charlotte Woodward was a suffragist and the only signer of Declaration of Sentiments at Seneca Falls in 1848 to witness the passage of the 19th Amendment. She was a member of the American Woman Suffrage Association and a supporter of the National Woman's Party.
Wu
1912
1997
Chien-Shiung Wu, recognized as the "First Lady of Physics," was a specialist in nuclear fission that was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project, the Army's secret project to develop the atomic bomb.
Yalow
1921
2011
Rosalyn Yalow was a medical physicist who conducted groundbreaking research that revolutionized the field of endocrinology. In 1977, Yalow became the second woman to earn a Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Zaharias
1911
1956
Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias was one of the greatest athletes of the twentieth century. After winning various track and field medals at the 1932 Olympics, she went on to conquer the sport of golf, co-founding the Ladies Professional Golf Association.
Zane
| i don't know |
“The evil that men do lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones” is a quote from which Shakespeare play? | No Fear Shakespeare: Julius Caesar: Act 3, Scene 2, Page 4
No Fear Shakespeare
Home → No Fear Shakespeare → Julius Caesar → Act 3, Scene 2, Page 4
Julius Caesar
What does he say of Brutus?
FOURTH PLEBEIAN
What does he say about Brutus?
THIRD PLEBEIAN
He says for Brutus' sake
He finds himself beholding to us all.
THIRD PLEBEIAN
He says that for Brutus’s sake he finds himself indebted to us all.
FOURTH PLEBEIAN
'Twere best he speak no harm of Brutus here.
FOURTH PLEBEIAN
He’d better not speak badly of Brutus here.
FIRST PLEBEIAN
This Caesar was a tyrant.
FIRST PLEBEIAN
We are blest that Rome is rid of him.
THIRD PLEBEIAN
That’s for sure. We’re lucky that Rome is rid of him.
70
Peace! Let us hear what Antony can say.
SECOND PLEBEIAN
Quiet! Let’s hear what Antony has to say.
ANTONY
Peace, ho! Let us hear him.
ALL
Quiet there! Let us hear him.
75
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interrèd with their bones.
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious.
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answered it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest—
For Brutus is an honorable man;
So are they all, all honorable men—
Come I to speak in Caesar’s funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me.
But Brutus says he was ambitious,
And Brutus is an honorable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill.
ANTONY
Friends, Romans, countrymen, give me your attention. I have come here to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do is remembered after their deaths, but the good is often buried with them. It might as well be the same with Caesar. The noble Brutus told you that Caesar was ambitious. If that’s true, it’s a serious fault, and Caesar has paid seriously for it. With the permission of Brutus and the others—for Brutus is an honorable man; they are all honorable men—I have come here to speak at Caesar’s funeral. He was my friend, he was faithful and just to me. But Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man. He brought many captives home to Rome whose ransoms brought wealth to the city.
| Julius Caesar |
In “Absolutely Fabulous”, who played Bubbles? | Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare: Act 3. Scene II
Enter BRUTUS and CASSIUS, and a throng of Citizens
Citizens
We will be satisfied; let us be satisfied.
BRUTUS
Then follow me, and give me audience, friends.
Cassius, go you into the other street,
And part the numbers.
Those that will hear me speak, let 'em stay here;
Those that will follow Cassius, go with him;
And public reasons shall be rendered
Of Caesar's death.
I will hear Brutus speak.
Second Citizen
I will hear Cassius; and compare their reasons,
When severally we hear them rendered.
Exit CASSIUS, with some of the Citizens. BRUTUS goes into the pulpit
Third Citizen
The noble Brutus is ascended: silence!
BRUTUS
Be patient till the last.
Romans, countrymen, and lovers! hear me for my
cause, and be silent, that you may hear: believe me
for mine honour, and have respect to mine honour, that
you may believe: censure me in your wisdom, and
awake your senses, that you may the better judge.
If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of
Caesar's, to him I say, that Brutus' love to Caesar
was no less than his. If then that friend demand
why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer:
--Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved
Rome more. Had you rather Caesar were living and
die all slaves, than that Caesar were dead, to live
all free men? As Caesar loved me, I weep for him;
as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was
valiant, I honour him: but, as he was ambitious, I
slew him. There is tears for his love; joy for his
fortune; honour for his valour; and death for his
ambition. Who is here so base that would be a
bondman? If any, speak; for him have I offended.
Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman? If
any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so
vile that will not love his country? If any, speak;
for him have I offended. I pause for a reply.
All
Then none have I offended. I have done no more to
Caesar than you shall do to Brutus. The question of
his death is enrolled in the Capitol; his glory not
extenuated, wherein he was worthy, nor his offences
enforced, for which he suffered death.
Enter ANTONY and others, with CAESAR's body
Here comes his body, mourned by Mark Antony: who,
though he had no hand in his death, shall receive
the benefit of his dying, a place in the
commonwealth; as which of you shall not? With this
I depart,--that, as I slew my best lover for the
good of Rome, I have the same dagger for myself,
when it shall please my country to need my death.
All
Good countrymen, let me depart alone,
And, for my sake, stay here with Antony:
Do grace to Caesar's corpse, and grace his speech
Tending to Caesar's glories; which Mark Antony,
By our permission, is allow'd to make.
I do entreat you, not a man depart,
Save I alone, till Antony have spoke.
Exit
Stay, ho! and let us hear Mark Antony.
Third Citizen
Let him go up into the public chair;
We'll hear him. Noble Antony, go up.
ANTONY
For Brutus' sake, I am beholding to you.
Goes into the pulpit
What does he say of Brutus?
Third Citizen
He says, for Brutus' sake,
He finds himself beholding to us all.
Fourth Citizen
'Twere best he speak no harm of Brutus here.
First Citizen
This Caesar was a tyrant.
Third Citizen
We are blest that Rome is rid of him.
Second Citizen
Peace! let us hear what Antony can say.
ANTONY
Peace, ho! let us hear him.
ANTONY
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest--
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men--
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
First Citizen
Methinks there is much reason in his sayings.
Second Citizen
If thou consider rightly of the matter,
Caesar has had great wrong.
Third Citizen
I fear there will a worse come in his place.
Fourth Citizen
Mark'd ye his words? He would not take the crown;
Therefore 'tis certain he was not ambitious.
First Citizen
If it be found so, some will dear abide it.
Second Citizen
Poor soul! his eyes are red as fire with weeping.
Third Citizen
There's not a nobler man in Rome than Antony.
Fourth Citizen
Now mark him, he begins again to speak.
ANTONY
But yesterday the word of Caesar might
Have stood against the world; now lies he there.
And none so poor to do him reverence.
O masters, if I were disposed to stir
Your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage,
I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong,
Who, you all know, are honourable men:
I will not do them wrong; I rather choose
To wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you,
Than I will wrong such honourable men.
But here's a parchment with the seal of Caesar;
I found it in his closet, 'tis his will:
Let but the commons hear this testament--
Which, pardon me, I do not mean to read--
And they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds
And dip their napkins in his sacred blood,
Yea, beg a hair of him for memory,
And, dying, mention it within their wills,
Bequeathing it as a rich legacy
Unto their issue.
We'll hear the will: read it, Mark Antony.
All
The will, the will! we will hear Caesar's will.
ANTONY
Have patience, gentle friends, I must not read it;
It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you.
You are not wood, you are not stones, but men;
And, being men, bearing the will of Caesar,
It will inflame you, it will make you mad:
'Tis good you know not that you are his heirs;
For, if you should, O, what would come of it!
Fourth Citizen
Read the will; we'll hear it, Antony;
You shall read us the will, Caesar's will.
ANTONY
Will you be patient? will you stay awhile?
I have o'ershot myself to tell you of it:
I fear I wrong the honourable men
Whose daggers have stabb'd Caesar; I do fear it.
Fourth Citizen
They were traitors: honourable men!
All
Stand from the hearse, stand from the body.
Second Citizen
Room for Antony, most noble Antony.
ANTONY
Nay, press not so upon me; stand far off.
Several Citizens
Stand back; room; bear back.
ANTONY
If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.
You all do know this mantle: I remember
The first time ever Caesar put it on;
'Twas on a summer's evening, in his tent,
That day he overcame the Nervii:
Look, in this place ran Cassius' dagger through:
See what a rent the envious Casca made:
Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabb'd;
And as he pluck'd his cursed steel away,
Mark how the blood of Caesar follow'd it,
As rushing out of doors, to be resolved
If Brutus so unkindly knock'd, or no;
For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel:
Judge, O you gods, how dearly Caesar loved him!
This was the most unkindest cut of all;
For when the noble Caesar saw him stab,
Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms,
Quite vanquish'd him: then burst his mighty heart;
And, in his mantle muffling up his face,
Even at the base of Pompey's statua,
Which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell.
O, what a fall was there, my countrymen!
Then I, and you, and all of us fell down,
Whilst bloody treason flourish'd over us.
O, now you weep; and, I perceive, you feel
The dint of pity: these are gracious drops.
Kind souls, what, weep you when you but behold
Our Caesar's vesture wounded? Look you here,
Here is himself, marr'd, as you see, with traitors.
First Citizen
Peace there! hear the noble Antony.
Second Citizen
We'll hear him, we'll follow him, we'll die with him.
ANTONY
Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up
To such a sudden flood of mutiny.
They that have done this deed are honourable:
What private griefs they have, alas, I know not,
That made them do it: they are wise and honourable,
And will, no doubt, with reasons answer you.
I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts:
I am no orator, as Brutus is;
But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man,
That love my friend; and that they know full well
That gave me public leave to speak of him:
For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech,
To stir men's blood: I only speak right on;
I tell you that which you yourselves do know;
Show you sweet Caesar's wounds, poor poor dumb mouths,
And bid them speak for me: but were I Brutus,
And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits and put a tongue
In every wound of Caesar that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.
All
We'll burn the house of Brutus.
Third Citizen
Away, then! come, seek the conspirators.
ANTONY
Yet hear me, countrymen; yet hear me speak.
All
Peace, ho! Hear Antony. Most noble Antony!
ANTONY
Why, friends, you go to do you know not what:
Wherein hath Caesar thus deserved your loves?
Alas, you know not: I must tell you then:
You have forgot the will I told you of.
All
Most true. The will! Let's stay and hear the will.
ANTONY
Here is the will, and under Caesar's seal.
To every Roman citizen he gives,
To every several man, seventy-five drachmas.
Second Citizen
Most noble Caesar! We'll revenge his death.
Third Citizen
| i don't know |
Which English town or city is served by Priory railway station? | HOTELS near Train Stations in Kent | Cheap Railway B&B Hotel
BOOK TODAY and save money !
Specials : Last Minute Hotel Deals for hotels nearby railway stations in Kent !
Hotels - Ashford International Train Station
Ashford Int. Eurostar Railway Station :
This is the main railway st. in Ashford. Ashford International is served by local train services from Kent and East Sussex provided by Southeastern and Southern Railway.
Southeastern operate high-speed services from Ashford International to London St Pancras International via High Speed 1.
There is also a frequent train (Eurostar) service to Brussels, Calais, Paris, Disneyland, Moutiers, Avignon, Lille and Bourg St Maurice via the Channel Tunnel.
The closest guest accommodation is Cornerstone B&B. This bed and breakfast is located on the High Street in Ashford town centre, within walking distance of the Eurostar International Station. Also nearby are popular 3 star Holiday Inn Ashford Central and 4 star Ashford International Hotel - QHotels.
Canterbury Rail Stations :
Canterbury is served by two railway stations : Canterbury East and Canterbury West.
Canterbury East is located south - southwest of the city center. Canterbury West can be found north - northwest of the city centre. Both stations are within close proximity of the city centre.
Several excellent and cheap hotels and b&b's can be found around both rail stations. Budget rates are offered by The Falstaff in Canterbury, The Victoria Hotel and Swallow Chaucer Hotel. These hotels are situated close to both railway stations in Canterbury Kent.
Hotels - Dover Priory Rail Station
Dover Priory Railway Station :
Dover Priory is the principal train hub in Dover, Kent. Dover Priory Railway Station is located in Station Approach just off Folkestone Road near by the ferry and cruise port terminals. Train links are available from both Victoria & Charing Cross mainline London train stations.
Kearsney is the other railway station, located on the outskirts of Dover.
If you want to stay next to Dover Priory, check out cheapest rates for St Albans Guest House Dover. This non smoking b&b accommodation is opposite Dover Priory Railway Station.
In close proximity to the cruise and ferry terminals and just a short walk to Dover town centre and Dover Castle are very popular Premier Inn Dover Central (Ferry Terminal) and 4 star luxury Hubert House. See our special last minute fares.
Maidstone provide train connections from three railway stations : East, West and Barracks.
Maidstone East is the only one with a regular direct service to London.
Located west of Maidstone is also Barming railway station.
Among the cheap hotels close to Maidstone railway stations are King Street Hotel and Best Western Russell Hotel, both situated not far from East, West and Barracks rail hubs.
If you want to stay close to Barming, good value accommodation is offered by Premier Inn Maidstone (Allington).
Only minutes away from Maidstone, West/East Malling, Kingshill and Ebbsfleet International Station is also popular Larkfield Priory Hotel. There are also links nearby to Royal Tunbridge Wells, Ashford (Eurostar link), Dover, London, Brandshatch, Leeds Castle and the Kent County Showgrounds.
| Dover |
“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes” is a quote from which Shakespeare play? | Dover, photos taken around Dover, on the south east coast of Kent, England
A day trip to Dover, Kent
An autumnal visit to the south-east of England
Photos and report © urban75, Oct 2006
A major channel port near the south-eastern tip of England, the Kentish town of Dover has a population of around 28,000 inhabitants (census: 2001).
Its famous white cliffs gave Britain its nickname of Albion (and a bloody awful Vera Lynn song), which means 'white,' while the town's name derives from the Brythonic word, 'Dubra-s,' meaning, 'the waters.
On account of its closeness to continental Europe - the French port of Calais is just 34 kilometres (21 miles) away - Dover has developed into one of the UK's busiest cross-Channel ports, with some 18 million passengers passing through every year.
An important port for millennia, Dover's history goes back to (at least) the Bronze Age, while in Roman times it served as the fortified port known as Portus Dubris.
During the 19th century, the population soared by 600 percent as the railways brought tourists and cross-channel traffic, while Dover became the centre of the English Channel defence during World War I.
Along with nearby Folkestone , Dover was one of the main troop embarkation ports for France in WW1 and suffered shelling airplanes, Zeppelins and passing warships throughout the war.
Things were even worse in WWII, with a complex of underground caves and tunnels being dug out of the cliffs to be used as air-raid shelters and a military base.
Dover Priory railway station, reachable by trains from London Charing Cross via Tonbridge, London Victoria via Canterbury East and Chatham and Ramsgate via Deal.
Now the sole station in the town, Dover was formerly also served by Dover Town (1844-1914), Dover Marine/Dover Western Docks (1909-1994) and Dover Harbour (1861-1927).
Saint Edmund's Chapel. Consecrated by St Richard of Chichester in March, 1253, it is the only chapel ever dedicated by an English saint to the honour of an English saint.
Elegant Georgian terraced houses in Effingham Crescent, close to Dover Priory.
Dating back to 1203, The Hospital of St Mary, Domus Dei, or Maison Dieu, is part of the Old Town Hall buildings, and was originally constructed to accommodate pilgrims coming from the Continent to visit the shrine of Thomas � Becket in Canterbury.
The building was extended over the years before being sold to Corporation of Dover in 1834, who converted it into their new Town Hall.
It is now used for conferences, weddings, banquets, fairs, concerts and theatrical performances.
A vista of the rather characterless main shopping thoroughfare, Biggin Street.
For hundreds of years, this was the main road out of the town to Canterbury and London.
Dover Town Council with war memorial in the foreground.
Possibly built on the site of an earlier Saxon structure, parts of the St Mary the Virgin church date from the 11th century, and it is assumed to be one of the three Dover churches listed in the 1086 Domesday Book.
A view of the small graveyard by the church.
Dover Castle in the distance seen from the back of St Mary the Virgin church.
Another view of the disappointingly bland and now pedestrianised Biggin Street.
A traffic census in the last week of May 1893 revealed a bustling Victorian thoroughfare, with 9,440 ordinary light and heavy vehicles, 908 cycles and bath chairs and 446 horses recorded.
The crumbling remains of Snoops nightclub on Dover's Castle Street.
The attractive Georgian architecture in Castle Street.
Striking house on Frith Road.
The remains of St James's Church, a Saxon church rebuilt in the 12th century.
The church was also used as a meeting place of the official courts of the Barons of the Cinque Ports, with the last meeting in 1851 being presided over by the Duke of Wellington.
The church was hit several times by enemy bombs during World War 2, with the tower eventually collapsing.
After the war, it was decided to leave the church in its ruined state to commemorate the suffering of the people of Dover during the war.
Another view of the roofless church.
St Paul's Catholic church and adjacent solid Victorian house, Maison Dieu Road,. The church was designed by E.W. Pugin (1867).
Corner building, Ashen Tree Lane and Harold Passage.
Don't you just want to track down the moronic planner that decided to shove a dirty great roundabout in the middle of town and give him a well deserved slap in the mush with a wet fish?
This ghastly carbuncle puts cars above every other living species, and forces pedestrians to walk all the way around it just to get to the railway station - and that hideous new development to the left looks like it's fallen straight off the ugly tree.
| i don't know |
The Russian city of St Petersburg stands on the River Neva, which runs into which gulf? | Neva River in St. Petersburg, Russia
Neva River
Neva River
The Neva River is an essential part of St. Petersburg's charm. Many generations of locals and visitors to the city have been completely enraptured by long, evening walks along the banks of the Neva during the city's famous White Nights . Very few things can be more romantic than strolling along the Neva's granite-clad embankments and admiring the city's open bridges , the marvelous architecture and the large ships as they pass by.
Neva River
Since the foundation of the city, the Neva was intended to be the "main street of the city". Throughout most of the 18th century there were no bridges across the river and people were ferried from one bank to the other, just the way Peter the Great intended when he founded his "Venice of the North".
The Neva River is only 46 miles long and flows from Lake Ladoga to the Gulf of Finland, in the eastern part of the Baltic Sea. Before joining the Baltic, the Neva splits into several branches forming a delta, where downtown St. Petersburg is located. On average the river is 1300-2000 feet wide, but near the Peter and Paul fortress and the Hermitage it exceeds 2600 feet. The river is covered with ice between mid-December and early April and during this period ships are unable to navigate the river. But, whatever the season, the Neva River is a wonderful accompaniment to the architectural splendor of the Winter Palace and Hermitage , the Admiralty , the Peter and Paul fortress , the Summer Gardens and the major landmarks that stand on its banks.
MEMBER SERVICES
| Gulf of Finland |
What was the first name of politician Enoch Powell? | Peter I and the Neva river delta
Let the Finnish waves forget
Their enmity and ancient bondage
And not unleash their bootless anger
To trouble Peters eternal rest.
- Pushkin, "The Bronze Horseman"
When Peter the Great founded the city of St. Petersburg on the Neva River delta in 1703, he was deliberately defying nature. It took heroic efforts to drain the land and shore it up to support large structures; frequent floods brought destruction and disease; most materials for construction, as well as food supplies, had to be imported from elsewhere in Russia. Nevertheless, Peter insisted on creating on this shifting, irregular landscape his ideal city of perfect proportions and straight lines.
The Neva River is short but very powerful. As the only outlet from Lake Ladoga, the largest lake in Europe, it carries an enormous mass of water along its 74 km., discharging it into the Gulf of Finland. In width the river varies greatly: just within the city limits of Petersburg it varies from about 800m before the great bend in the river to about 350m just after the bend and further along, near the Bronze Horseman statue.
In most places the Neva does not have steep banks; the waters lap the shores. Flooding is very frequent in the delta, usually caused by large waves from tornado action on the Baltic Sea.
Old maps and accounts of the Neva delta depict a swampy lowland with relatively poor soil. It was not, however, uninhabited: there were many settlements and fortifications in what was known to Slavs as Izhorsk and to Swedish settlers as Ingermanland. It had been part of the princedom of Novgorod since before the twelfth century, and artifacts from the eighth century have been found there. When the area was under Swedish control in the 17th century, there were several settlements slightly upriver, in what is now eastern St. Petersburg, and some large estates lower down the Neva, near the Fontanka River (Sementsov 134-5).
Trade routes from Ingermanland reached as far as Amsterdam in the west and Constantinople in the south. In spite of its swampy quality, most of the land on which St. Petersburg now stands was under cultivation prior to the founding of the city in 1703, though it held few permanent structures in the low-lying areas (Pyliaev 12).
Peter's vision of a grand panorama along the riverfront was quickly realized, though the tsar did not succeed in his plan for making Vasilevsky Island look like Amsterdam. By the mid-1720s the grand buildings along the riverfront created a unified architectural ensemble. It contrasted sharply to traditional Russian urban forms, as well as to the meandering settlements in parts of Petersburg that were away from the water. Older Russian cities tended to follow the natural land forms and to face inward, shutting out the broad expanses all around, while this new city disregarded the lay of the land, looked outward, and celebrated space (Ageeva 176-7). The gigantic aquatic square in a foreign architectural frame looked miraculous, especially in the middle of a city full of log cabins, kitchen gardens, cowsheds, and clutchy mud (Kaganov 4).
The eventual straightening of the citys streets to conform to the tsars ideal of a regular city came at a high cost. People were summarily expelled from their homes if they interfered with the urban plan; recalcitrant families would find the roof removed from over their heads. There were fines to be paid for failing to pave the streets or to plant the regulation number of trees outside ones home ( Ageeva 120). Environmentally, the cost was also high. Tens of thousands of oak pilings were imported into the city from forests to the southeast, for purposes of shoring up the swampy land. Huge effort went into straightening and reinforcing the Neva embankments . Canals were built to drain the wetlands, with stone imported from islands in the Gulf of Finland. There were many more canals then than there are now (see map), each representing a huge investment in manpower and resources. And even so, frequent flooding claimed many lives, both violently during flooding and gradually through contamination of the water supply. Though Ageeva shows that the famous legends of Petersburg as a city built on bones were exaggerated, the wholesale transformation of the Neva delta ecosystem has been very costly indeed.
Further topics and interdisciplinary essays
| i don't know |
In which US State could you visit the Carlsbad Caverns National Park? | Carlsbad Caverns - New Mexico Tourism - Travel & Vacation Guide
Carlsbad Caverns
Carlsbad Caverns
“....Rocky slopes and canyons, cactus, grass, thorny shrubs, and the occasional tree, who could guess at the hidden treasures deep underground? ”
Carlsbad Caverns National Park is a United States National Park in the Guadalupe Mountains in southeastern New Mexico. The primary attraction of the park is the show cave, Carlsbad Cavern. Carlsbad Caverns National Park is open every day of the year except Christmas Day. Visitors to the cave can hike in on their own via the natural entrance or take an elevator from the visitor center.
The park entrance is located on US Highway 62/180 approximately 18 miles (29 km) southwest of Carlsbad, New Mexico. Carlsbad Caverns National Park participates in the Junior Ranger Program.[3] The park has two entries on the National Register of Historic Places: The Caverns Historic District and the Rattlesnake Springs Historic District. Approximately two thirds of the park has been set aside as a wilderness area, helping to ensure no future changes will be made to the habitat.
Carlsbad Cavern includes a large cave chamber, the Big Room, a natural limestone chamber which is almost 4,000 feet (1,220 m) long, 625 feet (191 m) wide, and 255 feet (78 m) high at the highest point. It is the third largest chamber in North America and the seventh largest in the world.
Contact Us
| New Mexico |
Luqa airport serves which holiday destination? | Carlsbad Caverns National Park | national park, New Mexico, United States | Britannica.com
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
national park, New Mexico, United States
Written By:
conservation
Carlsbad Caverns National Park, area of the Chihuahuan Desert in southeastern New Mexico , U.S. , near the base of the Guadalupe Mountains (a segment of the Sacramento Mountains ). It was established in 1923 as a national monument , designated a national park in 1930, and proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995. Beneath the park, which has a surface area of 73 square miles (189 square km), are 83 individual caves, including Carlsbad Cavern, the park’s namesake. The park also includes Rattlesnake Springs, a small enclave about 5 miles (8 km) to the southeast.
Giant Dome and Twin Domes, stalagmites in the Big Room of Carlsbad Cavern, one of the caves in …
Peter Jones/National Park Service
Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico, designated a World Heritage site in 1995.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
About 250 million years ago, a shallow sea ringed by a vast, horseshoe-shaped limestone reef covered the area. This formation, called Capitan Reef, is found in southeastern New Mexico and western Texas and includes Guadalupe Mountains National Park , just southwest of Carlsbad Caverns National Park. After the sea evaporated, the constant dripping of acidic groundwater carved out the massive underground chambers, converted limestone to gypsum , and formed enormous stalactites , stalagmites , and other cave deposits ranging from the delicate to the bizarre.
Stalactites and stalagmites in the Queen’s Chamber, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, southeastern …
NPS Photo by Peter Jones
Pictographs near the entrance to Carlsbad Cavern give evidence that Native Americans knew of the site 1,000 years ago, but it wasn’t until the 1880s that nearby settlers rediscovered the location and began mining it for bat guano to be used as fertilizer. One of the miners, James Larkin White—who claimed to have discovered the cavern—explored the cave further and began giving tours lit by kerosene lanterns, lowering the curious to a depth of 170 feet (52 metres) in bat-guano buckets. White also guided early scientific expeditions into the caves, including a major reconnaisance conducted for the U.S. Geological Survey in 1924.
Similar Topics
Redwood National Park
Carlsbad Cavern has a labyrinth of underground chambers, including one of the largest ever discovered. The total length of the rooms and passages is still unknown, but the explored part of the main cavern is more than 30 miles (48 km) long, of which 3 miles (5 km) are open to visitors. Of the three major levels, the deepest is 1,027 feet (313 metres) belowground. Visitors can walk or take an elevator to the 755-foot (230-metre) level and explore the Big Room, which measures about 2,000 feet (610 metres) long and 1,100 feet (335 metres) wide at its greatest extents and has a ceiling that arches 255 feet (78 metres) above the floor. Found within are the Giant Dome, a stalagmite 62 feet (19 metres) tall; the Twin Domes, only slightly smaller, superbly proportioned and delicately fluted; and the so-called Bottomless Pit, which is some 700 feet (210 metres) deep. During the summer a colony of about one million Mexican free-tailed bats inhabits a part of the caverns known as Bat Cave; each evening at sunset they swarm out of the cave’s entrance to feed in the surrounding area.
To the southwest of Carlsbad Cavern, within the park, is Slaughter Canyon Cave, with the Monarch, one of the world’s tallest columns (89 feet [27 metres]), and a delicate rimstone dam (natural dam formed by the accumulation of calcium carbonate). Near the northern border of the park is Lechuguilla Cave. Since 1984, when exploration of Lechuguilla began, more than 100 miles (160 km) of passages have been surveyed. It is the fifth longest known cave in the world, the third longest in the United States, and it contains underwater formations unlike those found anywhere else in the world. In 1993 Congress passed legislation establishing a cave protection zone of about 10 square miles (25 square km) around Lechuguilla.
The Monarch formation in Slaughter Canyon Cave, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, southeastern New …
Peter Jones/National Park Service
| i don't know |
In the Bible, Benjamin was the youngest son of Jacob – who was the eldest? | Daily Bible Study - Children Of Jacob
Questions?
Search all 6,500+ Bible studies on this website. Just type in topic word(s) or a question.
Due to extensive use of high-quality maps and illustrations, this educational website is best-viewed with a minimum screen-resolution width of 1280 pixels
Children Of Jacob
by Wayne Blank
The grandson of Abraham , and the son of Isaac , Jacob is a key individual of Bible History . God changed Jacob's name to Israel (see Stairway To Heaven ), and from his sons came the Tribes of Israel - the Israelites.
Jacob had 2 wives, Rachel and Leah (who were sisters, and first-cousins of Jacob), and 2 concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah, an apparently common and accepted practice of the day. Rachel and Leah did not object to the other two women because it was their idea to have more children with them (Genesis 30:3,9).
Rachel - Jacob's favorite wife. She died while giving birth to Benjamin and is buried at Bethlehem . Her children were Joseph and Benjamin.
Joseph - 11th-born overall. Definitely his father's favorite son, from his favorite wife, it was Joseph who was sold for slavery into Egypt by his jealous brothers (see Coat Of Many Colors ). There, with God's help, he rose to become the highest official of the Pharaoh , saving the nation from the famine that was prophesied. When the rest of Jacob's family moved to Egypt to escape the famine, it was Joseph who had made their survival possible (they would remain in Egypt 400 years, eventually becoming slaves until the Exodus). While there, Joseph had 2 sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were themselves made into individual tribes of Israel to bring the number back to 12 - the priestly tribe of Levi was not counted separately, but was absorbed among the other tribes.
Ephraim - Younger than Manasseh, he was never the less ranked higher in the family structure (Genesis 48:19). His descendants were to become a great future group of nations.
Manasseh - 1st-born of Joseph, he was prophesied to become a great single nation.
Benjamin - The youngest of the 12 sons. Rachel died while giving him birth. The apostle Paul (see On The Road To Damascus ), who wrote much of the New Testament, is descended from Benjamin.
Leah - It seems that Jacob did not have a great deal of love for her, perhaps because she became his wife by deception (Genesis 29:16-30). Never the less, Leah is the mother of the greatest number of the Tribes of Israel, and is today buried with Jacob (along with Abraham, Sarah , Isaac and Rebekah) in the high-tension area of The Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Her children are Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Israel's only recorded daughter, Dinah.
Reuben - 1st-born overall. He was disqualified from his position as eldest son when he committed an act of sexual immorality with Jacob's concubine Bilhah (Genesis 35:22).
Simeon - 2nd-born overall.
Levi - 3rd-born overall. From Levi came the Levites who were dedicated to God's service. As such, they were later not counted as a separate tribe. Moses and Aaron and John The Baptist were descended from Levi.
Judah - 4th-born overall. Perhaps the most famous of Jacob's sons, it was from Judah that the Jews are descended. Jesus Christ (see also The Chosen People ), and most Christians in the earliest days of the church, were descended from Judah. A vital element for understanding Bible Prophecy is that while all Jews are Israelites, not all Israelites are Jews (just the same as all Belgians are Europeans, but not all Europeans are Belgians). There are many millions of people around the world today who are Israelites, but are not Jews.
Issachar - 9th-born overall.
Zebulun - 10th-born overall.
Dinah - Israel's only daughter.
Bilhah - Rachel's maid, it was Rachel's idea that Jacob have children with her (Genesis 30:3-6). Her children were Dan and Naphtali.
Dan - 5th-born overall.
Naphtali - 6th-born overall.
Zilpah - Leah's maid, it was Leah's idea that Jacob have children with her (Genesis 30:9). Her children were Gad and Asher.
Gad - 7th-born overall.
Asher - 8th-born overall.
Fact Finder: When he knew that he was dying, did Jacob specifically request that he be taken out from Egypt and buried in the family tomb in Hebron?
Genesis 49:29-33
| Reuben |
In WWII what was the British “Operation Chastise”, which took place in May 1943? | ELDEST IN THE BIBLE
And the children of Reuben, Israel's
eldest
son, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, by their polls, every male from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war;
Reuben, the
eldest
son of Israel: the children of Reuben; Hanoch, of whom cometh the family of the Hanochites: of Pallu, the family of the Palluites:
And the three
eldest
sons of Jesse went and followed Saul to the battle: and the names of his three sons that went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next unto him Abinadab, and the third Shammah.
And David was the youngest: and the three
eldest
And Eliab his
eldest
brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle.
Then he took his
eldest
son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great indignation against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land.
And the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king in his stead: for the band of men that came with the Arabians to the camp had slain all the
eldest
| i don't know |
Which British monarch made Tunbridge Wells Royal? | How does a town get a 'royal' title? - BBC News
BBC News
How does a town get a 'royal' title?
17 March 2011
Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Wootton Bassett is near to RAF Lyneham
Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire is the first town in more than 100 years to be given the "royal" title, but how is it bestowed?
For four years local people have lined the streets of Wootton Bassett as a mark of respect to service personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Joining families of the dead and war veterans, hundreds have stopped to pay their respects as the bodies of those killed were driven through the town, after being repatriated at nearby RAF Lyneham. The practice started spontaneously.
Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Wednesday that the town is going to be granted the "royal" title. He said the tribute was a symbol of the nation's "gratitude" to local people.
It's the reigning monarch who decides to bestow the honour. Petitions either come directly from the prime minister, as in this case, or are made through the Cabinet Office. Requests for the title are made for various reasons and cities, towns, boroughs and hospitals can apply. Businesses can as well, but there are certain restrictions under the Companies Act.
Once the Queen has conferred the title, the new name legally comes into effect on the date she signs and seals a Letters Patent. This is a type of legal instrument in the form of an open letter, granting the title.
The answer
The decision is made by the reigning monarch, in this case the Queen
The prime minister can personally petition the Queen
Organisations can also make petitions through the Cabinet Office
The only other royal towns in England are Royal Leamington Spa and Royal Tunbridge Wells. Both of these spa towns petitioned for the honour in recognition of their history and royal patronage of their facilities, says the Cabinet Office. Leamington Spa was granted the title in 1838 by Queen Victoria, and Tunbridge Wells in 1909 by King Edward VII.
The Royal County of Berkshire was given the title because it is home to Windsor Castle. It has been using the "royal" since before the 19th Century, but it was recognised by the Queen in 1958 and a Letters Patent was issued confirming this in 1974.
Sutton Coldfield became a Royal manor in 1489 and remained in the hands of the crown until 1528. Then Henry VIII granted the town its first Charter of Incorporation which decreed the village should forever be named the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield.
Caernarfon in Wales is a royal town of a different kind. It was made a royal borough by the Queen in 1963 and was allowed to retain the honour when it ceased to be a borough in 1974.
There are a number of royal boroughs in England, including Kensington and Chelsea. Greenwich is to become one in 2012 in honour of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
It is a similar process for towns that have the Latin suffix "Regis", meaning "of the king" or "belonging to a king", says the Cabinet Office. It is the monarch's decision and in the past it has usually been bestowed on towns frequented by royalty or where they have convalesced.
Admiration
Bognor was allowed to add Regis to its name in 1929, after George V stayed in the town while recovering from an illness. After he left the council applied for permission and it was granted.
Soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan started to be driven through Wootton Bassett in 2007, when repairs to the runway at RAF Brize Norton meant they were flown into RAF Lyneham instead. The town's High Street is on the route to the mortuary.
Members of the local branch of the Royal British Legion asked to be notified of any repatriations, which started the tradition of lining the streets. Information of each repatriation is now posted on the town council's website.
WHO, WHAT, WHY?
Image copyright bbc
A part of BBC News Magazine, Who, What, Why? aims to answer questions behind the headlines
The locals of Wootton Bassett say they are honoured to be granted the title.
"Whilst we have never sought recognition for our simple act of respect, I am certain this will serve to reinforce the pride and gratitude we feel for the members of our armed services who will always be in our thoughts," said the Mayor of Wootton Bassett, Mary Champion.
Pastor Tim Ravenscroft, of the Wootton Bassett Community Church, said he was very pleased for the town, but reiterated that it was not something local people had sought.
"The town will see it as a gift, not from the government, but from the Queen and I think that will please them greatly."
| Edward VII |
What is the name of the Indian dish made from stewed dried peas, onions and spices? (Lentils are the most popular but many other variety of dried peas are used) | Britain's Royal Boroughs - British Monarchy Family History
British Monarchy Family History
A Royal Borough is designated with royal status by way of an express wish of a monarch. There are eight Royal Boroughs situated within the United Kingdom, seven in England and one in the Principality of Wales.
Found below is a short overview of each one of them.
THE ROYAL BOROUGH OF GREENWICH
Image courtesy of C.G.P Grey, wikimedia commons
Greenwich was designated as a royal borough in 2012 to mark the diamond jubilee of Queen Elisabeth II.
Greenwich is situated in south east London on the south bank of the River Thames and is possibly the most famous of all the Royal Boroughs as it is home to the world renowned Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time.
Before the advent of the Greenwich Meridian, the borough was renowned for being the birthplace of most of the Tudor monarchs at the former Greenwich Palace which once stood in the grounds of Greenwich Park.
Today the borough is an UNESCO World Heritage Site which is home to Greenwich Royal Park, The Royal Observatory, The Royal Naval College, the National Maritime Museum, the Queen’s House and the seventeenth century clipper, the Cutty Sark.
THE ROYAL BOROUGH OF KENSINGTON AND CHELSEA
Image courtesy of myk reeve, wikimedia commons
This Royal Borough covers four point seven square miles of central London, and with it's population of nearly one hundred and sixty thousand people, it is the most densely populated borough in the United Kingdom.
The borough was designated with royal status in 1965, because it was the birthplace of Queen Victoria at Kensington Palace in 1819.
The borough is home to many London tourist attractions including Earls Court Exhibition Centre, Harrods department store, Kensington Palace and it's gardens, The Royal Chelsea Hospital, home of the annual Chelsea Flower Show, The Saatchi Gallery, The Science Museum, The Natural History Museum, The Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal Albert Hall.
This borough is also classified as being the wealthiest borough in the United Kingdom with seventeen districts, some of which have the most prestigious post codes in the land, which include the elite areas of Bayswater, Belgravia, Chelsea, Knightsbridge and West Kensington, and the iconic streets of Sloan Square, the King’s Road, Kensington High Street, Portobello Road and Notting Hill Gate.
Of all the Royal Boroughs Kensington and Chelsea is the easiest to access as it is served by no less than twelve London Underground stations and six underground lines.
THE ROYAL BOROUGH OF KINGSTON - UPON - THAMES
Image courtesy of Kreepin Deth, wikimedia commons
Kingston - Upon - Thames is the United Kingdom's oldest Royal Borough, having been designated as such in 925 AD by Saxon, King Athelsen. The town has been the location of the coronations of seven former Saxon kings of England. These kings were - Edward the Elder in 900 AD, Athelsen in 925 AD, Edmund in 939 AD, Eadred in 946 AD, Eadwig in 956 AD, Edward the Martyr in 975 AD and Ethelred the Unready in 979 AD.
Today Kingston – Upon - Thames consists of fourteen districts that cover an area of fourteen point four square miles and includes a picturesque town centre which is home to the medieval, Saxon Coronation Stone and a three mile stretch of the River Thames' south bank, which is believed by many to be the most picturesque route along England's longest river.
The borough is located in south, west London and is situated within easy access of Richmond Royal Park, Hampton Court Palace, The Rose Theatre, the All England Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon and the Chessington World of Adventure theme park and zoo.
THE ROYAL BOROUGH OF WINDSOR AND MAIDENHEAD
Image courtesy of WyrdLight.com
Situated twenty five miles west of central London, Windsor is renowned for it's world famous castle which was built by King William the Conqueror which has been the home of every British monarch since. The town is also situated within walking distance of the small town of Eton, home to the United Kingdom's most prestigious public school.
Windsor and Maidenhead were designated with royal status in 1998, due to the town being home to the world's largest, continually inhabited castle.
The two boroughs are situated in England's only royal county Berkshire, and consists of eighteen districts that between them cover an area of nearly seventy seven square miles.
Along with Windsor Castle and Eton College, other nearby attractions include the racecourses at Windsor and Ascot, Eton Dorney Lake, Windsor Great Park, Legoland Windsor, Bray Film Studios and several miles of the course of the River Thames in an area that is renowned for it's rowing clubs.
ROYAL CAERNARFON
Image courtesy of Herbert Ortner, wikimedia commons
Royal Caernarfon is situated on the eastern bank of the Menai Strait in Gwynedd, Wales. The town was designated as a royal borough in 1974 by Queen Elisabeth II. The town is renowned for it's Roman history and it's Norman castle, which was built in 1283 by King Edward I after his victory over the Welsh leader Llywelyn ap Gruffudd.
Cearnarfon Castle has been the site of two of the investitures of the Prince of Wales, Edward, Prince of Wales in 1911 and Charles, Prince of Wales in 1969. The ceremony became traditional after Edward, the First Prince of Wales, was given the title in 1301, after his father's conquest of Wales.
The castle, which has stunning views across the Menai Strait to the Isle of Anglesey, was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986 and is also the home of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers Museum.
Image courtesy of David Stowell, wikimedia commons
Royal Leamington Spa is situated in Warwickshire, England and was designated as a royal borough in 1838 by Queen Victoria.
Although the town's history dates back to ancient times and was mentioned in the Doomsday Book of 1086, the town did not become well known until 1784 when the medicinal qualities of it's spa became popular.
With the opening of the town's Pump Room and Baths in 1814 the town soon became a popular spa resort, visited by hundreds of tourists and Queen Victoria on at least two occasions.
Today the Royal Pump Room and Baths, with it's gardens and bandstand, house the Leamington Spa Art Gallery, museum, library, tourist information centre, a cafe and the town's assembly rooms.
ROYAL TUNBRIDGE WELLS
The Church of St Charles the Martyr
Royal Tunbridge Wells is situated in Kent, England and was designated as a royal bororugh in 1909 by King Edward VII.
The town's history dates back to the Iron Age and was also known to be an important Roman town, but it came to prominence after a royal courtier of King Charles I discovered a chalybeate spring in the town in 1606.
In 1630 King Charles I and his wife Queen Henrietta visited the town, setting a trend which would turn the town into a popular spa resort.
Today the town is renowned for it's beautiful Georgian collonade known as the Pallisades, it's ancient chalybeate well, situated in the Pallisades, and it's grade I listed church once visited by Queen Victoria, the Church of St Charles the Martyr, built in 1684 in honour of the town's former royal visitor.
Image courtesy of Chris Downer, wikimedia commons
Wootton Bassett is a small market town situated in Wiltshire, England and was designated as a royal borough in 2011 by Queen Elisabeth II.
The town's history dates back to the fifth century and the town was also mentioned in the Doomsday Book of 1086.
The town is situated a few miles from the former RAF Lyneham, a Royal Air Force Base which was used for the repatriation of deceased war veterans of the Irag and Afghanistan conflicts between 2007 and 2011.
In 2007 the town's local British Legion decided to pay their respects at one of the military repatriation processions, as the corteges would always make their way through the town centre en route to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.
This act of respect went on to inspire the entire town, with hundreds of it's residents congregating upon it's streets in order to pay their respects every time a soldier was repatriated.
RAF Lyneham was closed in 2011, but the kind acts of the residents of Wootton Bassettt were not forgotten, with Queen Elisabeth awarding the town both a royal patronage and a royal coat of arms, the first town to be honoured in this way in over a hundred years.
The town is also renowned for it's eighty six thousand square meter Mud Spring, which was designated a Special Site of Scientific Interest in 1997 and for it's unusual seventeenth century mock Tudor town hall, shown above, which now houses the town's museum.
| i don't know |
Name the Frenchman who was one of the chief architects of the Common Market and is considered by many as the father of the Common Market. | EU-U.S. Integration: Unattractive Union
EU-U.S. Integration: Unattractive Union
Email
It is now clear that European nations were deceived into joining an economic union that became a political union, yet our leaders still seek a similar economic union with the EU.
The New American has devoted extensive coverage to the risks of what critics have dubbed a North American Union (NAU), in reference to the incremental integration of the United States with Mexico and Canada. The foundation for such a union was initiated with the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which went into effect on January 1, 1994. Like the older European Common Market that eventually morphed into the EU, NAFTA, a supposed “free trade” arrangement, provided the supranational architecture for future integration.
This process of North American integration was later advanced through the “Security and Prosperity Partnership” (SPP) that President George W. Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox, and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin launched at their Waco, Texas, meeting on March 23, 2005. (For background, see our special October 15, 2007 “Merger in the Making” issue; click here for the PDF .)
Few Americans are aware of the SPP arrangement because the major media ignored it — except for CNN’s Lou Dobbs, who said of the Waco meeting: “President Bush signed a formal agreement that will end the United States as we know it, and he took the step without approval from either the U.S. Congress or the people of the United States.”
It soon became apparent that the plan would lead to eventual political consolidation of the countries, modeled on the European Union. It would destroy U.S. sovereignty, nullify the Constitution, flood our nation with cheap, job-destroying imports via a NAFTA “Super Highway,” and allow uncontrolled immigration by erasing our border with Mexico.
Thanks to the vigilance of concerned activists, the alarm bells reached the halls of Congress, and in 2007 Rep. Virgil Goode (R-Va.) introduced House Concurrent Resolution 40, which resolved that
(1) the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System; [and]
(2) the United States should not allow the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) to implement further regulations that would create a North American Union with Mexico and Canada.
Robert Pastor of the ultra-establishment Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is considered by many to have fathered the concepts that resulted in the SPP. But writing in the July/August 2008 issue of Foreign Affairs (the CFR’s journal), Pastor registered disappointment with its progress. Though continuing to advocate continental unification, he lamented that “North America’s experiment in integration has stalled.... The April summit meeting [between U.S., Mexican, and Canadian heads of state] was probably the last hurrah for the SPP. The strategy of acting on technical issues in an incremental, bureaucratic way, and of keeping the issues away from public view, has generated more suspicion than accomplishments. The new president will probably discard the SPP.”
But like a running back who, about to be tackled, laterals the football to a teammate, the establishment has at least for the time being shifted to another scheme: cementing the United States to the European Union in what is called the “Transatlantic Partnership.”
Early rumblings of this partnership came in 2003 when the U.S. Department of Commerce stated in a press release: “Commerce Secretary Don Evans and his European Union counterpart, Commissioner Erkki Liikanen, reaffirmed the importance of the transatlantic economic and commercial partnership at a meeting last night in Washington, D.C.”
These sentiments were quietly certified in November of that year when the U.S. House of Representatives passed House Resolution 390, introduced by Nebraska Republican Doug Bereuter. The resolution declared that the “United States and the European community are aware of their shared responsibility, not only to further transatlantic security, but to address other common interests such as environmental protection, poverty reduction, combating international crime and promoting human rights, and to work together to meet those transnational challenges which affect the well-being of all.” It further stated that “the partnership should be expanded progressively from a transatlantic community of values to an effective transatlantic community of action.”
On the other side of the ocean, the European Parliament passed resolutions in May 2004 and January 2005 advocating the establishment of a “transatlantic market.”
These intentions became actuated at a White House summit on April 30, 2007. Standing beside Angela Merkel, president of the European Council, and José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, President Bush announced the signing of a new agreement whose expressed purpose is to “strengthen transatlantic economic integration.” Specifically, the pact called for “joint work in the areas of regulatory cooperation, financial markets, trade and transport security, innovation and technological development, intellectual property rights, energy, investment, competition, services, and government procurement,” as well as the “interoperability of electronic health record systems,” “customs cooperation,” and other steps toward economic integration.
The Pattern
Some may ask: “What is wrong with economic integration? What’s the big deal about cooperation? Isn’t it xenophobic paranoia to oppose it?”
Entirely aside from the fact that President Bush’s committing the United States to this arrangement with the EU, without the consent of Congress or a mandate from the American people, was an unconstitutional act, one must understand the background that has led to this development, which is only the latest in a series of events.
The governments of Europe and the United States are dominated by an “establishment” that intertwines multinational corporations, think tanks, central banks, powerful foundations, and the major mass media. In the United States, the Council on Foreign Relations is the establishment’s chief bridge of influence to the federal government, having dominated the cabinets of every president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. The CFR has counterpart organizations in countries throughout the world. Coordination of policy between establishment figures from different countries has taken place through such venues as the annual Bildergberger conferences, begun in 1954, and the meetings of the Trilateral Commission, founded in 1973 by Zbigniew Brzezinski and CFR Chairman David Rockefeller. The goal of the CFR and its sister organizations is world government; in fact, the CFR was founded for that express purpose in 1921 after the U.S. Senate failed to ratify the Versailles Treaty, which would have committed us to joining a rudimentary world government in the form of the now-defunct League of Nations.
World government is the pathway to tyranny because, by eliminating the sovereignty of nations, it would concentrate all of the world’s political power in a single regime — a frightening concept to contemplate.
Because nation-states have traditionally, and rightfully, been suspicious of ceding themselves to a world government, the establishment has adopted the tactic of grouping countries under regional governments as a steppingstone to global dominion. A Frenchman or German, in other words, might feel more comfortable merged in a European federation than one that included Asia or Africa.
Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin understood this strategy well. He said: “Populations will more readily abandon their national loyalties to a vague regional loyalty than they will for a world authority. Later, the regionals can be brought all the way into a single world dictatorship.”
In a modern context, Zbigniew Brzezinski said: “We cannot leap into world government in one quick step. The precondition for genuine globalization is progressive regionalization.” Both the European Union and the incipient North American Union are, of course, regional bodies.
However, many nations have been reluctant even to join regional organizations. The bait used to lure them in has been the alleged prosperity of trade treaties. These, while initially disguised as economic arrangements, cast the die for inevitable political consolidation.
The European Union is a case in point. The EU actually started in 1950 as the six-nation European Coal and Steel Community. In 1957, this evolved into the Common Market, which was sold to Europeans as a purely economic structure that would enhance prosperity; its official name was the European Economic Community.
The chief architect of the Common Market was the shadowy Jean Monnet, whom Time magazine called “the Father of Europe.” Monnet’s deceptive strategy was explained by British Conservative Adrian Hilton, who notes that Monnet believed
that Europe should become a federal superstate, into which all ancient nations would be fused. ‘Fused’ is the word he used.... For this to be achieved without the peoples of Europe realising what was happening, the plan was to be accomplished in successive steps. Each was to be disguised as having an economic purpose, but all, taken together, would inevitably and irreversibly lead to federation.
Once nations agree to complex trade agreements, conflicts naturally arise over issues such as prices, tariffs, taxation, product safety, union relations, etc. Resolution of these conflicts requires coordinated changes in laws. In Europe, laws are usually made by parliaments; thus the Common Market led to the formation of the European Parliament in 1979, and the European Economic Community simply dropped the word “Economic” — which had only been a pretense — from its name. Then came the European Union, in which sovereignties have been drowned: national parliaments find themselves increasingly subservient to the dictates of the EU, as they see their laws, currencies, court systems, militaries, etc., gradually consolidated.
The plans for a North American Union likewise got their start with an economic arrangement: NAFTA. Although hyped as a path to “prosperity,” Americans lost millions of jobs as cheap imports flooded the country. And our trade deficit soared: in 1994 (the year we joined NAFTA) it was $75 billion; in 2008 $673 billion. Our trade deficit with Canada and Mexico went from $9 billion in 1993 to $98 billion by 2003.
But adding constitutional insult to this injury, NAFTA’s foremost purpose was to lay the groundwork for consolidation. Andrew Reding of the World Policy Institute wrote: “NAFTA will signal the formation, however tentatively, of a new political unit — North America. With economic integration will come political integration. By whatever name, this is an incipient form of international government. Following the lead of the Europeans, North Americans should begin considering formation of a continental parliament.” (Emphasis added.)
This view was echoed by University of Nevada economics professor Glen Atkinson in his paper “Regional Integration in the Emerging Global Economy: The Case of NAFTA,” published in the Social Science Journal. He wrote, “The stage of economic union requires a high degree of coordination or even unification of policies. This sets the foundation for political union.” (Emphasis added.)
Bridging the Ocean
Thus no one should be surprised that the latest thrust toward world government — the Transatlantic Partnership — is initially being foisted on us as an “economic arrangement” (coupled, as was the Security and Prosperity Partnership, with assurances that consolidation will also provide protection against terrorism).
As we have noted, President Bush’s signed agreement with the EU’s leaders pledged “transatlantic economic integration.” It established a permanent Transatlantic Economic Council. And most of the agreement’s provisions — concerning trade, investment, energy, etc. — are economic in nature.
Based upon the pattern set by the European Union and the SPP, however, it is quite logical to conclude that this economic consolidation is only a prelude to intended merger with the EU.
Just 12 days before President Bush signed the agreement, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown delivered a speech at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. Ironically, as he stood only 12 miles from where the first shots of the American Revolution were fired, the Briton invoked this quote from John F. Kennedy: “Today, Americans must learn to think intercontinentally.” Continuing, he gushed that “a global society demands new global agreements and strengthened global institutions to protect and safeguard essential global resources.” Phyllis Schlafly counted the word “global” 69 times in Brown’s speech. Clearly, he was softening the American public for President Bush’s transatlantic agreement.
Indeed, the push for the Transatlantic Partnership is a well-coordinated one. At the hub of this movement is a powerful but largely unpublicized institution called the Transatlantic Policy Network (TPN), headquartered in Washington and Brussels.
In February 2007, just two months before the U.S.-EU Summit, TPN published its white paper Completing the Transatlantic Market, which declared: “It is time for a complementary, top down approach to transatlantic cooperation through a joint commitment by the European Union and the United States to a roadmap for achieving a Transatlantic Market by 2015.”
As Dennis Behreandt insightfully noted in the May 12, 2008 issue of The New American:
The emphasis placed on “top down” is not insignificant. As typically used by NGOs, that terminology usually implies that executive-level leaders will impose their desires on the citizens of a nation, not the other way around as envisioned, for instance, by America’s Founders.
Indeed, TPN’s website (www.tpnonline.org) lists as its business members a host of multinational corporations, such as AIG, Citigroup, Time Warner, IBM, Merck, GE, and Coca-Cola. Peter Sutherland, the EU honorary president of TPN, is chairman of both Goldman Sachs International and the British Petroleum Company, as well as former director of the sovereignty-sapping World Trade Organization.
Among the “Cooperating Institutions” listed by TPN are what we might call a round-up of “the usual suspects” who advocate world government over national sovereignty, such as: the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR); RIIA (the CFR’s British counterpart); the German Council on Foreign Relations; the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS); the Atlantic Council; the Aspen Institute; the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; and the German Marshall Fund of the United States. The CFR’s role in advocating regional alliances and world government is well known to many readers of The New American. It is interesting to note the statements being made by others listed among the “Cooperating Institutions” that demonstrate they are moving lock step with TPN.
For example, CSIS, which counts among its members such CFR heavyweights as Zbigniew Brzezinski, Felix Rohatyn, Harold Brown, and Brent Scowcroft, released a report in 2007 called “Towards a Grand Strategy for an Uncertain World:Renewing Transatlantic Partnership.” It said that “our long-term vision is for a zone of common security and collective action from Finland to Alaska.”
In 2009, in its journal Internationale Politik, the German Council on Foreign Relations published an article by Paul Hockenos entitled “Rethinking US-Europe Relations.” It declared: “It must be a partnership of equals across the Atlantic and this will require real compromises from the United States as well as the Europeans.”
In 2007, the U.S.-based Atlantic Council issued a 35-page report entitled Transatlantic Leadership for a New Global Economy, which advocated a “barrier-free ‘Enhanced Transatlantic Market.’” Among its many specific recommendations: “The United States and the EU should launch a new, jointly funded effort to develop future energy technologies that will both improve efficiency and reduce global warming, as part of the development of a new, post-Kyoto international consensus.” It calls for transformation of the International Energy Agency (IEA) into “the primary institution for global energy governance,” and a merger of the World Bank with the IMF. In short, it wants broad consolidation of power.
The Atlantic Council is an old hand at the transatlantic game. Officially founded in 1961, it grew largely out of the older Atlantic Union Committee, whose members envisioned a U.S.-Europe merger which they dubbed “Atlantica.” In the 1960s, the council’s lobbying resulted in resolutions being brought before Congress that would have laid the groundwork for this merger. The resolutions were consistently rejected by Congress, but with the further withering of national sovereignty, the council appears ready to renew its merger crusade.
Events Propel the Union Forward
Neither the advent of Barack Obama nor the current financial debacle will slow the Transatlantic Partnership, but can be expected to accelerate it. During his presidential campaign, Obama named globalist Zbigniew Brzezinski as one of his top foreign policy advisers, calling him “somebody I have learned an immense amount from.”
Following the elections, Nicolas Sarkozy, president of both France and the European Council, said that “the European Union sees in this election the promise of a reinforced transatlantic partnership.”
In the Spring 2009 issue of Internationale Politik, the German Council on Foreign Relations published an article called “A New Transatlantic Partnership” that actually complained of “the bruises that the transatlantic partnership suffered during the Bush years” and opined that “if Europeans could have voted in the 2008 US presidential election, they would have voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama.”
Indeed, in April of this year — just a little more than two months after his inauguration — Obama traveled to Europe for a series of summit meetings with EU leaders. Canada is now joining the Transatlantic Partnership. Canada’s daily Financial Post reported on March 5, 2009:
Canada and the European Union have agreed to begin free trade negotiations.... After months of “scoping exercises,” the two parties have come to an agreement on the areas they would like to negotiate, including trade in goods, services and investment, and have now adjourned to prepare their proposals to take to the negotiating table.... “At long last, Canada is poised to realize the immense potential of a closer transatlantic relationship,” said Thomas d’Aquino, president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives.
The financial meltdown is being used as a stick to force us eat the “carrot” of the Transatlantic Partnership. The Brussels Forum — yet another internationalist tentacle of the transatlantic network — recently declared: “Since the beginning of the financial crisis in the fall of 2008, the world economy has deteriorated at an alarming rate.... The U.S. and European governments must reassess the role of the transatlantic partnership in the global economy and re-ignite it as the catalyst of global economic recovery.”
In the United States, Henry Kissinger has long epitomized the foreign policy establishment. He once told Hamilton Fish Armstrong, editor of the CFR journal Foreign Affairs, “You invented me,” and before serving as Richard Nixon’s Secretary of State, he acted as chief foreign policy adviser to Nelson Rockefeller, whom he called “the single most influential person in my life.”
Still a dominant voice in foreign policy, Kissinger published an article in the January 12, 2009 issue of the International Herald Tribune entitled “The Chance for a New World Order.” He stated:
As the new U.S. administration prepares to take office amid grave financial and international crises, it may seem counterintuitive to argue that the very unsettled nature of the international system generates a unique opportunity for creative diplomacy....
Even the most affluent countries will confront shrinking resources. Each will have to redefine its national priorities. An international order will emerge if a system of compatible priorities comes into being....
The alternative to a new international order is chaos.
The coordinated voices of many global elites, speaking through mass media organs owned by the international establishment, give the public an illusion that there is a logical consensus for world government, with the Transatlantic Partnership as its newest cornerstone.
However, like NAFTA and the European Union itself, there has never been any mandate from the people of the nations for these globalist arrangements.
Experience has proven that if America moves ahead with the Transatlantic Partnership, the economic alliance will be converted incrementally into a political merger. The once-powerful nations of Europe are progressively finding themselves reduced to the status of mere provinces of the European Union. Should America unite with the EU, we can expect to follow suit, find our Constitution scrapped for international regulation, and ourselves — after over 200 years of the blessings of independence — little more than a colony of Europe.
Please review our Comment Policy before posting a comment
Thank you for joining the discussion at The New American. We value our readers and encourage their participation, but in order to ensure a positive experience for our readership, we have a few guidelines for commenting on articles. If your post does not follow our policy, it will be deleted.
No profanity, racial slurs, direct threats, or threatening language.
No product advertisements.
Please post comments in English.
Please keep your comments on topic with the article. If you wish to comment on another subject, you may search for a relevant article and join or start a discussion there.
| Jean Monnet |
Which character has been portrayed on film by Andre Morell, Robert Duvall and Ben Kingsley? | Unattractive union: it is now clear that European nations were deceived into joining an economic union that became a political union, yet our leaders still seek a similar economic union with the EU. - Free Online Library
Unattractive union: it is now clear that European nations were deceived into joining an economic union that became a political union, yet our leaders still seek a similar economic union with the EU.
<a href="https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Unattractive+union%3a+it+is+now+clear+that+European+nations+were...-a0199864698</a>
Citations:
MLA style: "Unattractive union: it is now clear that European nations were deceived into joining an economic union that became a political union, yet our leaders still seek a similar economic union with the EU.." The Free Library. 2009 American Opinion Publishing, Inc. 02 Jan. 2017 https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Unattractive+union%3a+it+is+now+clear+that+European+nations+were...-a0199864698
Chicago style: The Free Library. S.v. Unattractive union: it is now clear that European nations were deceived into joining an economic union that became a political union, yet our leaders still seek a similar economic union with the EU.." Retrieved Jan 02 2017 from https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Unattractive+union%3a+it+is+now+clear+that+European+nations+were...-a0199864698
APA style: Unattractive union: it is now clear that European nations were deceived into joining an economic union that became a political union, yet our leaders still seek a similar economic union with the EU.. (n.d.) >The Free Library. (2014). Retrieved Jan 02 2017 from https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Unattractive+union%3a+it+is+now+clear+that+European+nations+were...-a0199864698
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
THE NEW AMERICAN has devoted extensive coverage to the risks of what critics have dubbed a North American Union (NAU), in reference to the incremental integration of the United States with Mexico and Canada. The foundation for such a union was initiated with the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which went into effect on January 1, 1994. Like the older European Common Market that eventually morphed into the EU, NAFTA, a supposed "free trade" arrangement, provided the supranational architecture for future integration.
This process of North American integration was later advanced through the "Security and Prosperity Partnership" (SPP) that President George W. Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox, and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin launched at their Waco, Texas, meeting on March 23, 2005. *
Few Americans are aware of the SPP arrangement because the major media ignored it--except for CNN's Lou Dobbs, who said of the Waco meeting: "President Bush signed a formal agreement that will end the United States as we know it, and he took the step without approval from either the U.S. Congress or the people of the United States."
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
It soon became apparent that the plan would lead to eventual political consolidation of the countries, modeled on the European Union. It would destroy U.S. sovereignty, nullify the Constitution, flood our nation with cheap, job-destroying imports via a NAFTA "Super Highway," and allow uncontrolled immigration by erasing our border with Mexico.
Thanks to the vigilance of concerned activists, the alarm bells reached the halls of Congress, and in 2007 Rep. Virgil Goode (R-Va.) introduced House Concurrent Resolution 40, which resolved that
(1) the United States should not engage in the construction of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Superhighway System; [and]
(2) the United States should not allow the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) to implement further regulations that would create a North American Union with Mexico and Canada.
Robert Pastor of the ultra-establishment Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is considered by many to have fathered the concepts that resulted in the SPR But writing in the July/August 2008 issue of Foreign Affairs (the CFR's journal), Pastor registered disappointment with its progress. Though continuing to advocate continental unification, he lamented that "North America's experiment in integration has stalled.... The April summit meeting [between U.S., Mexican, and Canadian heads of state] was probably the last hurrah for the SPP. The strategy of acting on technical issues in an incremental, bureaucratic way, and of keeping the issues away from public view, has generated more suspicion than accomplishments. The new president will probably discard the SPP."
But like a running back who, about to be tackled, laterals the football to a teammate, the establishment has at least for the time being shifted to another scheme: cementing the United States to the European Union in what is called the "Transatlantic Partnership."
Early rumblings of this partnership came in 2003 when the U.S. Department of Commerce stated in a press release: "Commerce Secretary Don Evans and his European Union counterpart, Commissioner Erkki Liikanen, reaffirmed the importance of the transatlantic economic and commercial partnership at a meeting last night in Washington, D.C."
These sentiments were quietly certified in November of that year when the U.S. House of Representatives passed House Resolution 390, introduced by Nebraska Republican Doug Bereuter. The resolution declared that the "United States and the European community are aware of their shared responsibility, not only to further transatlantic security, but to address other common interests such as environmental protection, poverty reduction, combating international crime and promoting human rights, and to work together to meet those transnational challenges which affect the well-being of all." It further stated that "the partnership should be expanded progressively from a transatlantic community of values to an effective transatlantic community of action."
On the other side of the ocean, the European Parliament passed resolutions in May 2004 and January 2005 advocating the establishment of a "transatlantic market."
These intentions became actuated at a White House summit on April 30, 2007. Standing beside Angela Merkel, president of the European Council, and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, President Bush announced the signing of a new agreement whose expressed purpose is to "strengthen transatlantic economic integration." Specifically, the pact called for "joint work in the areas of regulatory cooperation, financial markets, trade and transport security, innovation and technological development, intellectual property rights, energy, investment, competition, services, and government procurement," as well as the "interoperability of electronic health record systems," "customs cooperation," and other steps toward economic integration.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
The Pattern
Some may ask: "What is wrong with economic integration? What's the big deal about cooperation? Isn't it xenophobic paranoia to oppose it?"
Entirely aside from the fact that President Bush's committing the United States to this arrangement with the EU, without the consent of Congress or a mandate from the American people, was an unconstitutional act, one must understand the background that has led to this development, which is only the latest in a series of events.
The governments of Europe and the United States are dominated by an "establishment" that intertwines multinational corporations, think tanks, central banks, powerful foundations, and the major mass media. In the United States, the Council on Foreign Relations is the establishment's chief bridge of influence to the federal government, having dominated the cabinets of every president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. The CFR has counterpart organizations in countries throughout the world. Coordination of policy between establishment figures from different countries has taken place through such venues as the annual Bildergberger conferences, begun in 1954, and the meetings of the Trilateral Commission, founded in 1973 by Zbigniew Brzezinski and CFR Chairman David Rockefeller. The goal of the CFR and its sister organizations is world government; in fact, the CFR was founded for that express purpose in 1921 after the U.S. Senate failed to ratify the Versailles Treaty, which would have committed us to joining a rudimentary world government in the form of the now-defunct League of Nations.
World government is the pathway to tyranny because, by eliminating the sovereignty of nations, it would concentrate all of the world's political power in a single regime--a frightening concept to contemplate.
Because nation-states have traditionally, and rightfully, been suspicious of ceding themselves to a world government, the establishment has adopted the tactic of grouping countries under regional governments as a steppingstone to global dominion. A Frenchman or German, in other words, might feel more comfortable merged in a European federation than one that included Asia or Africa.
Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin understood this strategy well. He said: "Populations will more readily abandon their national loyalties to a vague regional loyalty than they will for a world authority. Later, the regionals can be brought all the way into a single world dictatorship."
In a modern context, Zbigniew Brzezinski said: "We cannot leap into world government in one quick step. The precondition for genuine globalization is progressive regionalization." Both the European Union and the incipient North American Union are, of course, regional bodies.
However, many nations have been reluctant even to join regional organizations. The bait used to lure them in has been the alleged prosperity of trade treaties. These, while initially disguised as economic arrangements, cast the die for inevitable political consolidation.
The European Union is a case in point. The EU actually started in 1950 as the six-nation European Coal and Steel Community. In 1957, this evolved into the Common Market, which was sold to Europeans as a purely economic structure that would enhance prosperity; its official name was the European Economic Community.
The chief architect of the Common Market was the shadowy Jean Monnet, whom Time magazine called "the Father of Europe." Monnet's deceptive strategy was explained by British Conservative Adrian Hilton, who notes that Monnet believed
that Europe should become a federal superstate, into which all ancient nations would be fused. 'Fused' is the word he used.... For this to be achieved without the peoples of Europe realising what was happening, the plan was to be accomplished in successive steps. Each was to be disguised as having an economic purpose, but all, taken together, would inevitably and irreversibly lead to federation.
Once nations agree to complex trade agreements, conflicts naturally arise over issues such as prices, tariffs, taxation, product safety, union relations, etc. Resolution of these conflicts requires coordinated changes in laws. In Europe, laws are usually made by parliaments; thus the Common Market led to the formation of the European Parliament in 1979, and the European Economic Community simply dropped the word "Economic"--which had only been a pretense--from its name. Then came the European Union, in which sovereignties have been drowned: national parliaments find themselves increasingly subservient to the dictates of the EU, as they see their laws, currencies, court systems, militaries, etc., gradually consolidated.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
The plans for a North American Union likewise got their start with an economic arrangement: NAFTA. Although hyped as a path to "prosperity," Americans lost millions of jobs as cheap imports flooded the country. And our trade deficit soared: in 1994 (the year we joined NAFTA) it was $75 billion; in 2008 $673 billion. Our trade deficit with Canada and Mexico went from $9 billion in 1993 to $98 billion by 2003.
But adding constitutional insult to this injury, NAFTA's foremost purpose was to lay the groundwork for consolidation. Andrew Reding of the World Policy Institute wrote: "NAFTA will signal the formation, however tentatively, of a new political unit--North America. With economic integration will come political integration. By whatever name, this is an incipient form of international government. Following the lead of the Europeans, North Americans should begin considering formation of a continental parliament." (Emphasis added.)
This view was echoed by University of Nevada economics professor Glen Atkinson in his paper "Regional Integration in the Emerging Global Economy: The Case of NAFTA," published in the Social Science Journal. He wrote, "The stage of economic union requires a high degree of coordination or even unification of policies. This sets the foundation for political union." (Emphasis added.)
Bridging the Ocean
Thus no one should be surprised that the latest thrust toward world government--the Transatlantic Partnership--is initially being foisted on us as an "economic arrangement" (coupled, as was the Security and Prosperity Partnership, with assurances that consolidation will also provide protection against terrorism).
As we have noted, President Bush's signed agreement with the EU's leaders pledged "transatlantic economic integration." It established a permanent Transatlantic Economic Council. And most of the agreement's provisions--concerning trade, investment, energy, etc.--are economic in nature.
Based upon the pattern set by the European Union and the SPP, however, it is quite logical to conclude that this economic consolidation is only a prelude to intended merger with the EU.
Just 12 days before President Bush signed the agreement, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown delivered a speech at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. Ironically, as he stood only 12 miles from where the first shots of the American Revolution were fired, the Briton invoked this quote from John F. Kennedy: "Today, Americans must learn to think intercontinentally." Continuing, he gushed that "a global society demands new global agreements and strengthened global institutions to protect and safeguard essential global resources." Phyllis Schlafly counted the word "global" 69 times in Brown's speech. Clearly, he was softening the American public for President Bush's transatlantic agreement.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Indeed, the push for the Transatlantic Partnership is a well-coordinated one. At the hub of this movement is a powerful but largely unpublicized institution called the Transatlantic Policy Network (TPN), headquartered in Washington and Brussels.
In February 2007, just two months before the U.S.-EU Summit, TPN published its white paper Completing the Transatlantic Market, which declared: "It is time for a complementary, top down approach to transatlantic cooperation through a joint commitment by the European Union and the United States to a roadmap for achieving a Transatlantic Market by 2015."
As Dennis Behreandt insightfully noted in the May 12, 2008 issue of THE NEW AMERICAN:
The emphasis placed on "top down" is not insignificant. As typically used by NGOs, that terminology usually implies that executive-level leaders will impose their desires on the citizens of a nation, not the other way around as envisioned, for instance, by America's Founders.
Indeed, TPN's website (www.tpnonline. org) lists as its business members a host of multinational corporations, such as AIG, Citigroup, Time Warner, IBM, Merck, GE, and Coca-Cola. Peter Sutherland, the EU honorary president of TPN, is chairman of both Goldman Sachs International and the British Petroleum Company, as well as former director of the sovereignty-sapping World Trade Organization.
Among the "Cooperating Institutions" listed by TPN are what we might call a round-up of "the usual suspects" who advocate world government over national sovereignty, such as: the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR); RIIA (the CFR's British counterpart); the German Council on Foreign Relations; the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS); the Atlantic Council; the Aspen Institute; the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; and the German Marshall Fund of the United States. The CFR's role in advocating regional alliances and world government is well known to many readers of THE NEW AMERICAN. It is interesting to note the statements being made by others listed among the "Cooperating Institutions" that demonstrate they are moving lock step with TPN.
For example, CSIS, which counts among its members such CFR heavyweights as Zbigniew Brzezinski, Felix Rohatyn, Harold Brown, and Brent Scowcroft, released a report in 2007 called "Towards a Grand Strategy for an Uncertain World: Renewing Transatlantic Partnership." It said that "our long-term vision is for a zone of common security and collective action from Finland to Alaska."
In 2009, in its journal Internationale Politik, the German Council on Foreign Relations published an article by Paul Hockenos entitled "Rethinking US-Europe Relations." It declared: "It must be a partnership of equals across the Atlantic and this will require real compromises from the United States as well as the Europeans."
In 2007, the U.S.-based Atlantic Council issued a 35-page report entitled Transatlantic Leadership for a New Global Economy, which advocated a "barrier-free 'Enhanced Transatlantic Market.'" Among its many specific recommendations: "The United States and the EU should launch a new, jointly funded effort to develop future energy technologies that will both improve efficiency and reduce global warming, as part of the development of a new, post-Kyoto international consensus." It calls for transformation of the International Energy Agency (IEA) into "the primary institution for global energy governance," and a merger of the World Bank with the IMF. In short, it wants broad consolidation of power.
The Atlantic Council is an old hand at the transatlantic game. Officially founded in 1961, it grew largely out of the older Atlantic Union Committee, whose members envisioned a U.S.-Europe merger which they dubbed "Atlantica." In the 1960s, the council's lobbying resulted in resolutions being brought before Congress that would have laid the groundwork for this merger. The resolutions were consistently rejected by Congress, but with the further withering of national sovereignty, the council appears ready to renew its merger crusade.
Events Propel the Union Forward
Neither the advent of Barack Obama nor the current financial debacle will slow the Transatlantic Partnership, but can be expected to accelerate it. During his presidential campaign, Obama named globalist Zbigniew Brzezinski as one of his top foreign policy advisers, calling him "somebody I have learned an immense amount from."
Following the elections, Nicolas Sarkozy, president of both France and the European Council, said that "the European Union sees in this election the promise of a reinforced transatlantic partnership."
In the Spring 2009 issue of Internationale Politik, the German Council on Foreign Relations published an article called "A New Transatlantic Partnership" that actually complained of "the bruises that the transatlantic partnership suffered during the Bush years" and opined that "if Europeans could have voted in the 2008 US presidential election, they would have voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama."
Indeed, in April of this year--just a little more than two months after his inauguration--Obama traveled to Europe for a series of summit meetings with EU leaders. Canada is now joining the Transatlantic Partnership. Canada's daily Financial Post reported on March 5, 2009:
Canada and the European Union have agreed to begin free trade negotiations.... After months of "scoping exercises," the two parties have come to an agreement on the areas they would like to negotiate, including trade in goods, services and investment, and have now adjourned to prepare their proposals to take to the negotiating table.... "At long last, Canada is poised to realize the immense potential of a closer transatlantic relationship," said Thomas d'Aquino, president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives.
The financial meltdown is being used as a stick to force us eat the "carrot" of the Transatlantic Partnership. The Brussels Forum--yet another internationalist tentacle of the transatlantic network--recently declared: "Since the beginning of the financial crisis in the fall of 2008, the world economy has deteriorated at an alarming rate.... The U.S. and European governments must reassess the role of the transatlantic partnership in the global economy and re-ignite it as the catalyst of global economic recovery."
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
In the United States, Henry Kissinger has long epitomized the foreign policy establishment. He once told Hamilton Fish Armstrong, editor of the CFR journal Foreign Affairs, "You invented me," and before serving as Richard Nixon's Secretary of State, he acted as chief foreign policy adviser to Nelson Rockefeller, whom he called "the single most influential person in my life."
Still a dominant voice in foreign policy, Kissinger published an article in the January 12, 2009 issue of the International Herald Tribune entitled "The Chance for a New World Order." He stated:
As the new U.S. administration prepares to take office amid grave financial and international crises, it may seem counterintuitive to argue that the very unsettled nature of the international system generates a unique opportunity for creative diplomacy.... Even the most affluent countries will confront shrinking resources. Each will have to redefine its national priorities. An international order will emerge if a system of compatible priorities comes into being.... The alternative to a new international order is chaos.
The coordinated voices of many global elites, speaking through mass media organs owned by the international establishment, give the public an illusion that there is a logical consensus for world government, with the Transatlantic Partnership as its newest cornerstone.
However, like NAFTA and the European Union itself, there has never been any mandate from the people of the nations for these globalist arrangements.
Experience has proven that if America moves ahead with the Transatlantic Partnership, the economic alliance will be converted incrementally into a political merger. The once-powerful nations of Europe are progressively finding themselves reduced to the status of mere provinces of the European Union. Should America unite with the EU, we can expect to follow suit, find our Constitution scrapped for international regulation, and ourselves--after over 200 years of the blessings of independence--little more than a colony of Europe.
* For background, see our special October 15, 2007 "Merger in the Making" issue. The issue is available online as a PDF: http://www.thenewamerican .com/files/MergerInTheMaking.pdf
James Perloff is the author of The Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline and Tornado in a Junkyard: The Relentless Myth of Darwinism.
COPYRIGHT 2009 American Opinion Publishing, Inc.
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2009 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Article Details
| i don't know |
Which Britis explorer travelled disguised as a Muslim to Mecca and Medina in 1853? | Entering the Forbidden City of Mecca, 1853
Printer Friendly Version >>>
It was a dangerous journey; any misstep could have cost him his life. In 1853 intrepid British explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton disguised himself as an Islamic pilgrim and made the trek into the heart of Arabia visiting the holy cities of Medina and Mecca. If his true identity as a European Christian had been exposed, the penalty for his indiscretion would have been death.
Richard Francis Burton
Mecca was the birthplace of the prophet Mohammed and is the home of the Kaaba, a small cube-shaped building enclosed within a mosque that is revered as the holiest site in Islam. In the year 630, Mohammed conquered Mecca and declared the Kaaba as the center of Islam, requiring that the faithful make a pilgrimage (the Hajj) to the site at least once in their lifetime. Because of its sacredness, Mecca became, and remains, a "forbidden city" - off limits to non-Muslims.
It was Burton's plan to disguise himself as a Muslim pilgrim, join the Hajj and enter the holy city. Burton had been preparing for his adventure for years. As a British soldier stationed in India, He had immersed himself in Islam and learned Arabic. In the early 1850s he gained permission to take a leave from the British Army and traveled to Egypt to prepare for his adventure. He immediately took on the disguise of a Muslim, his success prompting him to begin his journey into Arabia in July 1853. He traveled by caravan first to Medina and from there to Mecca. Within a few months he returned to Egypt.
Burton published his description of his journey in a three-volume book that became an immediate sensation in England. The adventurer was elevated to the status of folk hero and later enhanced his reputation by beginning an unsuccessful quest to find the source of the Nile River.
"...a splendid camel in front of me was shot through the heart."
We join Burton's journey as the caravan he is part of leaves the holy city of Medina on its way to Mecca.
ADVERTISMENT
"We dismounted to gaze at the venerable minarets and the green dome which covers the tomb of the Prophet. The heat was dreadful, the climate dangerous, and the beasts died in numbers. Fresh carcasses strewed our way, and were covered by foul vultures. The Caravan was most picturesque. We traveled principally at night, but the camels had to perform the work of goats, and step from block to block of basalt like mountaineers, which being unnatural to them, they kept up a continual piteous moan. The simoom and pillars of sand continually threw them over.
Water is the great trouble of a Caravan journey, and the only remedy is to be patient and not to talk. The first two hours gives you the mastery, but if you drink you cannot stop. Forty-seven miles before we reached Mecca, at EI Zaribah, we had to perform the ceremony of EI Ihram, meaning 'to assume the pilgrim garb'. A barber shaved us, trimmed our moustaches; we bathed and perfumed, and then we put on two new cotton cloths, each six feet long by three and a half broad. It is white, with narrow red strips and fringe, and worn something as you wear it in the baths. Our heads and feet, right shoulder and arm, are exposed.
We had another fight before we got to Mecca, and a splendid camel in front of me was shot through the heart. Our Sherif Zayd was an Arab Chieftain of the purest blood, and very brave. He took two or three hundred men, and charged our attackers. However, they shot many of our dromedaries and camels, and boxes and baggage strewed the place; and whence we were gone the Bedawi would come back, loot the baggage; and eat the camels.
On Saturday, the 10th of September, at one in the morning, there was great excitement in the Caravan, and loud cries of 'Mecca! Mecca! Oh, the Sanctuary, the Sanctuary!' All burst into loud praises and many wept. We reached it next morning, after ten days and nights from EI Medinah. I became the guest of the boy Mohammed, in the house of his mother.
First I did the circumambulation of the Haram. Early next morning I was admitted to the house of our Lord; and we went to the holy well Zemzem, the holy water of Mecca, and then the Ka'abah, in which is inserted the famous black stone, where they say a prayer for the Unity of Allah.
Then I performed the seven circuits round the Ka'abah, called the Tawaf. I then managed to have a way pushed for me through the immense crowd to kiss it. While kissing it, and rubbing hands and forehead upon it, I narrowly observed it, and came away persuaded that it is an aerolite. It is curious that almost all agree upon one point, namely, that the stone is volcanic. Ali Bey calls it mineralogically a 'block of volcanic basalt, whose circumference is sprinkled with little crystals, pointed and straw-like, with rhombs of tile-red felspath upon a dark ground like velvet or charcoal, except one of its protuberances, which is reddish'. It is also described as 'a lava containing several small extraneous particles of a whitish and of a yellowish substance'."
A Second Visit
Burton returned to Mecca about a week later and was able to actually enter the sacred Kaaba.
the Kaaba
"A crowd stood gathered round the Ka'abah, and I having no wish to stand bareheaded and barefooted in the midday September sun. At the cry of 'Open a path for the Haji (pilgrim) who would enter the House!' the gazers made way. Two stout Meccans, who stood below the door raised me in their arms, whilst a third drew me from above into the building. At the entrance I was accosted by several officials, dark-looking Meccans, of whom the blackest and plainest was a youth of the,Ben!l Shaybah family, the true blood of the EI Hejaz.. He held in his hand the huge silver-gilt padlock o fthe Ka'abah, and presently, taking his seat upon a kind of wooden press in the left corner of the hall, he officially inquired my name, nation, and other particulars. The replies were satisfactory, and the boy Mohammed was authoritatively ordered to conduct me round the building, and to recite the prayers. I will not deny that, looking at the windowless walls, the officials at the door, and a crowd of excited fanatics below...my feelings were of the trapped-rat description,...A blunder, a hasty action, a misjudged word, a prayer or bow, not strictly the right shibboleth, and my bones would have whitened the desert sand. This did not, however, prevent my carefully observing the scene during our long prayer, and making a rough plan with a pencil upon my white ihram."
References:
This eyewitness account appears in: Burton, Richard Frances, Personal Narrative of a Pilgimage to el Medinah and Meccah (1857); Brodie, Fawn, M., The Devil Drives: a Life of Sir Richard Burton (1967).
How To Cite This Article:
"Entering the Forbidden City of Mecca, 1853", EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2006).
In the 1880s, Burton translated and published The Kama Sutra and Arabian Nights in England.
| Richard Francis Burton |
Where in the body are the Kupffer Cells found? | Ramadan : NPR
Ramadan
Heard on All Things Considered
Millions of Muslims around the world are observing Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting. Nineteenth century British writer and explorer Sir Richard Burton wrote extensively about the daily rituals of Muslims. In 1853, in fact, he disguised himself as an Afghani Muslim and went to Cairo, Medina and the Islamic Holy city of Mecca and wrote an account of Muslims fasting in Arab lands. Here is an excerpt from Sir Richard Burton's PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF A PILGRIMAGE TO AL-MADINAH and MECCA (published in 1855). The excerpt was obtained from the Sir Richard Burton Society at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA.
| i don't know |
In WWII, what was the allied Operation Husky, which began on 9th July 1943? | Invasion of Sicily - World War II - HISTORY.com
Invasion of Sicily
A+E Networks
Introduction
After defeating Italy and Germany in the North African Campaign (November 8, 1942-May 13, 1943) of World War II (1939-45), the United States and Great Britain, the leading Allied powers, looked ahead to the invasion of occupied Europe and the final defeat of Nazi Germany. The Allies decided to move next against Italy, hoping an Allied invasion would remove that fascist regime from the war, secure the central Mediterranean and divert German divisions from the northwest coast of France where the Allies planned to attack in the near future. The Allies’ Italian Campaign began with the invasion of Sicily in July 1943. After 38 days of fighting, the U.S. and Great Britain successfully drove German and Italian troops from Sicily and prepared to assault the Italian mainland.
Google
The Allies Target Italy
When the Allies won the North African Campaign on May 13, 1943, a quarter-million German and Italian troops surrendered at Tunisia, on the north coast of Africa. With the huge Allied army and navy in the southern Mediterranean now freed for further action, British and American strategists faced two options: Transfer these forces north for the impending invasion of Europe from the English Channel, or remain in theater to strike at southern Italy, which British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965) called “the soft underbelly of Europe.” At this crossroads, the Allies, after some dissension, decided to press north into Italy. The stepping stone to its mainland would be the island of Sicily, in part because the Allies could depend on fighter cover from air bases on British Malta, 60 miles south of Sicily and recently freed from a siege by Axis forces.
Did You Know?
British Lieutenant Commander Ewen Montagu (1901-1985), mastermind of Operation Mincemeat, described the ingenious counterintelligence operation in his 1954 book "The Man Who Never Was." A 1957 film of the same name featured Montagu in a cameo as a British intelligence officer critical of the plan.
The invasion was assisted by some subterfuge. In April 1943, a month before the Allied victory in North Africa, German agents recovered the body of a British Royal Marine pilot from the waters off a Spanish beach. Documents in an attaché case handcuffed to the officer’s wrist provided a goldmine of intelligence about the Allies’ secret plans, and German agents quickly sent the documents up the chain of command where they soon reached German leader Adolf Hitler (1889-1945). Hitler studied the captured plans carefully, and, taking full advantage of their top-secret details, directed his troops and ships to reinforce the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, west of Italy, against an impending Allied invasion. There was only one problem: The recovered body–which was not a Royal Marine but actually a homeless man from Wales who had committed suicide–and its documents, were an elaborate British diversion called Operation Mincemeat. By the time Hitler redirected his troops in the summer of 1943, a massive Allied invasion force was sailing to Sicily.
The Allies Land at Sicily
The invasion of Sicily, code-named Operation Husky, began before dawn on July 10, 1943, with combined air and sea landings involving 150,000 troops, 3,000 ships and 4,000 aircraft, all directed at the southern shores of the island. This massive assault was nearly cancelled the previous day when a summer storm arose and caused serious difficulties for paratroopers dropping behind enemy lines that night. However, the storm also worked to the Allies’ advantage when Axis defenders along the Sicilian coast judged that no commander would attempt amphibious landings in such wind and rain. By the afternoon of July 10, supported by shattering naval and aerial bombardments of enemy positions, 150,000 Allied troops reached the Sicilian shores, bringing along 600 tanks.
The landings progressed with Lieutenant General George S. Patton (1885-1945) commanding American ground forces and General Bernard L. Montgomery (1887-1976) leading British ground forces. Allied troops encountered light resistance to their combined operations. Hitler had been so deceived by “Mincemeat” that he had left only two German divisions in Sicily to battle Allied soldiers. Even several days into the attack he was convinced that it was a diversionary maneuver and continued to warn his officers to expect the main landings at Sardinia or Corsica. The Axis defense of Sicily was also weakened by losses the German and Italian armies had suffered in North Africa, in casualties as well as the several hundred thousand troops captured at the end of the campaign.
The Allies Advance
For the next five weeks, Patton’s army moved toward the northwestern shore of Sicily, then east toward Messina, protecting the flank of Montgomery’s veteran forces as they moved up the east coast of the island. Meanwhile, jarred by the Allied invasion, the Italian fascist regime fell rapidly into disrepute, as the Allies had hoped. On July 24, 1943, Prime Minister Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) was deposed and arrested. A new provisional government was set up under Marshal Pietro Badoglio (1871-1956), who had opposed Italy’s alliance with Nazi Germany and who immediately began secret discussions with the Allies about an armistice.
On July 25, the day after Mussolini’s arrest, the first Italian troops began withdrawing from Sicily. Hitler instructed his forces to make contingency plans for withdrawal but to continue to fight fiercely against the Allied advance. As July turned to August, Patton and Montgomery and their armies battled against determined German troops dug into the mountainous Sicilian terrain. The U.S. and British soldiers pushed back the Axis forces farther and farther until most were trapped in a northeast corner of the island.
Axis Troops Leave Sicily
As Patton and Montgomery closed in on the northeastern port of Messina, the German and Italian armies managed (over several nights) to evacuate 100,000 men, along with vehicles, supplies and ammunition, across the Strait of Messina to the Italian mainland. When his American soldiers moved into Messina on August 17, 1943, Patton, expecting to fight one final battle, was surprised to learn that the enemy forces had disappeared. The battle for Sicily was complete, but German losses had not been severe, and the Allies’ failure to capture the fleeing Axis armies undermined their victory. The advance against the Italian mainland in September would take more time and cost the Allies more troops than they anticipated.
Tags
| Allied invasion of Sicily |
Which French romantic artist painted “The Tiger Hunt” and “The Massacre at Chios” | WWII Campaigns: Sicily
Introduction
World War II was the largest and most violent armed conflict in the history of mankind. However, the half century that now separates us from that conflict has exacted its toll on our collective knowledge. While World War II continues to absorb the interest of military scholars and historians, as well as its veterans, a generation of Americans has grown to maturity largely unaware of the political, social, and military implications of a war that, more than any other, united us as a people with a common purpose.
Highly relevant today, World War II has much to teach us, not only about the profession of arms, but also about military preparedness, global strategy, and combined operations in the coalition war against fascism. During the next several years, the U.S. Army will participate in the nation's 50th anniversary commemoration of World War II. The commemoration will include the publication of various materials to help educate Americans about that war. The works produced will provide great opportunities to learn about and renew pride in an Army that fought so magnificently in what has been called "the mighty endeavor."
World War II was waged on land, on sea, and in the air over several diverse theaters of operation for approximately six years. The following essay is one of a series of campaign studies highlighting those struggles that, with their accompanying suggestions for further reading, are designed to introduce you to one of the Army's significant military feats from that war.
This brochure was prepared in the U.S. Army Center of Military History by Andrew J. Birtle. I hope this absorbing account of that period will enhance your appreciation of American achievements during World War II.
GORDON R. SULLIVAN
Sicily
9 July-17 August 1943
On the night of 9-10 July 1943, an Allied armada of 2,590 vessels launched one of the largest combined operations of World War II� the invasion of Sicily. Over the next thirty-eight days, half a million Allied soldiers, sailors, and airmen grappled with their German and Italian counterparts for control of this rocky outwork of Hitler's "Fortress Europe." When the struggle was over, Sicily became the first piece of the Axis homeland to fall to Allied forces during World War II. More important, it served as both a base for the invasion of Italy and as a training ground for many of the officers and enlisted men who eleven months later landed on the beaches of Normandy.
Strategic Setting
In January 1943, American President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill met with their senior military advisers at Casablanca, Morocco, to devise a military strategy for the coming year. The United States Army had begun ground operations against the European Axis Powers only two months before as part of a joint Anglo-American invasion of North Africa. With the North African campaign moving toward a successful conclusion, the leaders of the two nations debated where to launch their next blow. After several days of negotiations, they agreed to make Sicily their next target.
Situated ninety miles off the north coast of Africa and a mere two and one-half miles from the "toe" of the Italian peninsula, Sicily was both a natural bridge between Africa and Europe and a barrier dividing the Mediterranean Sea. Its rugged topography made it a tough, unsinkable bastion from which Axis air and naval forces could interdict Allied sea lanes through the Mediterranean. Yet despite its strategic location, the Allies were deeply divided over the merits of invading the island, and in the end the decision to invade Sicily represented an uneasy compromise between British and American strategists.
The British strongly supported the invasion because Britain had long-standing political and strategic interests in the Mediterranean. They argued that Sicily's conquest would not only reopen
[3]
Allied sea lanes to the eastern Mediterranean, but also give the Allies a base from which to launch further offensives in the region. Moreover, the occupation of Italian national territory might shock the war-weary Italians into dropping out of the war altogether.
American strategists, led by Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall, argued that the Allies should focus their energies upon a direct thrust at Nazi Germany and not waste their time nibbling at peripheral Axis outposts like Sicily. Marshall wanted to launch a cross-Channel attack into northern France as soon as possible, and every man, tank, and ship sent to the Mediterranean reduced the forces available for an invasion of northern Europe.
At Casablanca, Winston Churchill, rather than George Marshall, had his way. Roosevelt and Churchill wanted to do something further to divert Germany's attention from the war against Russia. The two Allied leaders also were anxious to exploit the momentum of their impending victory in North Africa, and the mass of men and materiel that would be available in the Mediterranean at the conclusion of the North African campaign made additional operations in that theater attractive. After studying a variety of options, including operations in Greece, the Balkans, Crete, and Sardinia, the Casablanca conferees chose Sicily as the most appropriate sequel to the Tunisia Campaign. In return for undertaking the operation, the British reaffirmed the ultimate goal of a cross-Channel attack, and several months later the two powers fixed May 1944 for that event. Beyond this, there was no agreed upon plan.
The Americans wanted Sicily to be the last of the Allies' Mediterranean adventures, while the British continued to regard it as only the first step in what they hoped would be an all-out attack on the "soft underbelly" of Hitler's Europe. Thus the decision to invade Sicily represented an uneasy compromise between coalition partners, a compromise that left the commanders in the field with an imperfect understanding of the ultimate purpose of the operation. This lack of clarity would ultimately have an adverse impact upon the resolution of the campaign.
While London and Washington haggled over the ultimate course of Allied strategy, preparations began for the immediate task at hand. The Combined Chiefs of Staff chose General Dwight D. Eisenhower as supreme Allied commander for the Sicilian operation, with three Britons as his land, air, and sea component commanders. General Sir Harold Alexander was Eisenhower's principal deputy and the actual commander of Allied land forces.
4
A Sherman tank moves past Sicily's rugged terrain. (National Archives)
Alexander's 15th Army Group directed the U.S. Seventh Army, under the command of Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., and General Sir Bernard Montgomery's British Eighth Army.
Preparations for Operation HUSKY, the code name for the invasion of Sicily, began immediately after the Casablanca Conference. With the invasion scheduled for 10 July, there was little time to lose. In drawing up the invasion plans, three factors dominated Allied thinking�the island's topography, the location of Axis air bases, and the amount of resistance that could be expected.
Slightly larger than the state of Vermont, Sicily's 10,000 square miles of rough, highly defensible terrain is cut in a roughly triangular shape. Beginning with low hills in the south and west, the land becomes more mountainous to the north and east, ultimately culminating in the island's most prominent feature, the 10,000foot-high volcano Mount Etna. The port of Messina in the island's northeastern corner is the primary transit point between Sicily and the Italian mainland. It was the key strategic objective for the campaign, for without Messina, Axis forces would be cut off from supply and reinforcement. Unfortunately, the country around Messina was extremely rugged and the beaches narrow. Moreover, the city was heavily fortified and beyond the range at which the Allies'
5
Africa-based fighters could provide effective air cover. Consequently, Allied planners ruled it out as an initial objective.
The widest and most accessible beaches for amphibious operations lie along the island's southeastern and western shores. By happy coincidence, Sicily's other major ports�Palermo, Catania, Augusta, and Syracuse�are also clustered in the northwestern and southeastern corners of the island, as were the majority of the island's thirty major airfields. Both the ports and the airfields were major considerations in the minds of the invasion planners. The Army needed the ports for logistical reasons, while the air and naval commanders wanted the airfields captured as early as possible to help protect the invasion fleet from aerial attack.
The confluence of favorable beaches, ports, and airfields in the northwestern and southeastern corners of the island initially led Allied planners to propose landings in both areas. They ultimately rejected this idea, however, because the two landing forces would be unable to provide mutual support. General Montgomery was particularly adamant about the need to concentrate Allied forces to meet what he anticipated would be fierce Axis resistance. German troops had fought tenaciously in Tunisia, and Montgomery feared that Italian soldiers would resist with equal stubbornness now that they would be fighting on home soil. Eisenhower accepted Montgomery's argument and chose the more cautious approach of concentrating Allied forces at only one location, Sicily's southeastern shore.
The final plan called for over seven divisions to wade ashore along a 100-mile front in southeastern Sicily, while elements of two airborne divisions landed behind Axis lines. The British Eighth Army would land four divisions, an independent brigade, and a commando force along a forty-mile front stretching from the Pachino Peninsula north along the Gulf of Noto to a point just south of the port of Syracuse. A glider landing would assist the amphibious troops in capturing Syracuse. To the west, Patton's Seventh Army would land three divisions over an even wider front in the Gulf of Gela. The assault would be supported by parachutists from the 505th Parachute Infantry Regimental Combat Team and the 3d Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry.
Once ashore, the Eighth Army would thrust northward, capturing in succession Augusta, Catania, and the airfield complex at Gerbini before making the final push on Messina. The Seventh Army's initial objectives were several airfields between Licata and
6
Comiso, after which it would advance to a position approximately twenty miles inland designated the Yellow Line. From the Yellow Line the Seventh Army would control the high ground that ringed the American beaches and protect the western flank of the Eighth Army's beachhead. Once this had been secured, the Seventh Army was to push slightly forward to a second position, termed the Blue Line, from which it would control the road network that emanated from Piazza Armerina.
Of the two armies, it was the veteran Eighth to whom Alexander assigned the primary burden of the campaign. The less experienced Seventh was relegated to a secondary role of supporting the British and protecting their flank as they moved up the east coast toward Messina. The unequal allocation of responsibility clearly reflected British skepticism about American capabilities, a skepticism born of the debacle at Kasserine Pass a few months before. Moreover, it made more sense to have only one army advance on Messina than to attempt to coordinate the movements of two such entities upon the same goal, especially given the rather narrow and constrictive terrain of northeastern Sicily. The problem was that Alexander never drew up any detailed plans for the land campaign beyond the initial landings, preferring instead to make those decisions once the troops were firmly ashore and the operation was under way. By failing to assign the Seventh Army any clear objectives beyond the Blue Line, Alexander opened the door for disagreement and contention between his two army commanders once the campaign had begun.
General Patton organized his invasion force as follows. On the right, Maj. Gen. Troy Middleton's 45th Infantry Division, newly arrived from the United States, would land near Scoglitti and move inland to Comiso and Ragusa where it would link up with the Eighth Army's left flank. In the center, Maj. Gen. Terry de la Mesa Allen's veteran 1st Infantry Division, reinforced by two battalions of Rangers under the command of Lt. Col. William O. Darby, was to secure Gela and its neighboring airfields before pushing north to Niscemi. Paratroopers from the 82d Airborne Division's 505th and 504th Parachute Regiments under the command of Col. James M. Gavin would assist Allen by seizing the high ground north of the 1st Division's beachheads and blocking the road south from Niscemi and the vital road junction at Piano Lupo. On the left, Maj. Gen. Lucian K. Truscott's 3d Division, reinforced by a Ranger battalion and Combat Command A of the 2d Armored Division, was to land at Licata and
7
protect the left flank of the American beachhead. Once these objectives had been achieved, the 1st and 45th Divisions would drive north to Highway 124, the main east-west corridor in the southeastern portion of the island and the boundary of the Yellow Line.
Patton grouped the 45th and 1st Divisions (minus one regiment) together under Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley's II Corps while keeping Truscott's 3d Division under his personal supervision. In reserve were the balance of the 2d Armored and 82d Airborne Divisions, the 9th Infantry Division, a regiment from the 1st Infantry Division, and a battalion of French Moroccans. With the exception of Gavin's paratroopers, who were to precede the waterborne assault force by a few hours, all of the amphibious landings were to occur simultaneously at 0245, 10 July 1943.
Although Allied planners opted to concentrate their ground forces in the anticipation of tough Axis resistance, the actual combat capability of Axis troops deployed in Sicily was questionable. Axis forces consisted of between 200,000 and 300,000 Italian and about 30,000 German troops under the overall command of General Alfredo Guzzoni's Italian VI Army. The Italians were organized into six coastal divisions, four infantry divisions, and a variety of local defense forces. Many of these units were woefully deficient in equipment, training, and morale and would prove incapable of putting up serious resistance. In fact, many Italian soldiers were tired of Mussolini's disastrous war and would surrender at the first opportunity. The German troops were divided into two divisions, the 15th Panzer Grenadier and the Hermann Goering Panzer. They formed the hard core of Sicily's defenses. The 15th Panzer Grenadier Division was essentially combat ready, but the Hermann Goering Division was significantly understrength and contained some inexperienced personnel.
Axis strategists recognized that they did not have sufficient strength to hold Sicily should the Allies gain a firm foothold on the island. Their only hope of success lay in crushing the Allies on the shore before they had time to consolidate their beachhead. This was easier said than done, however, for most Axis units on the island lacked the mobility to launch a quick counterstrike. The Axis command was therefore forced to station its reserves as close as possible to the most likely landing places.
General Guzzoni attempted to do just that. After spreading his coastal units in a thin line around the island's perimeter, he placed two Italian infantry divisions in each of the two most likely invasion
8
sites, the island's western and southeastern corners. He considered the southeast to be the more probable landing site, however, and for this reason he wanted to concentrate both German divisions there. Fortunately for the Allies, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, Hitler's representative in Italy, thwarted Guzzoni's plan by transferring the bulk of the 15th Panzer Grenadier Division to western Sicily shortly before the invasion. Kesselring believed that the only way the Axis could repel the Allies was by having German forces ready to launch a quick counteroffensive at each of the potential landing sites. Since the Axis could not rule out the possibility of a western landing, Kesselring insisted on moving a significant portion of the 15th to cover that potentiality. Consequently, of the two German units, only the Hermann Goering Division was positioned to launch a counterattack against the Seventh Army's beachheads during the initial hours of the invasion.
Operations
The invasion got off to a rough start during the night of 9-10 July 1943. As the Allied armada steamed toward the island a fierce, forty-mile-per-hour gale, dubbed the "Mussolini wind" by seasick G.I.s, whipped up the seas, seriously endangering some of the smaller craft. The situation in the air was even worse. Buffeted by the winds and confused by an overly complex flight plan, the inexperienced pilots ferrying Allied airborne forces became disoriented in the darkness and strayed from their courses. Of the 144 gliders bearing British paratroops to landing zones outside of Syracuse, only 12 landed on target, while 69 crashed into the sea and the rest dispersed over a wide area. In the American sector, Colonel Gavin's 3,400 paratroopers were even more widely scattered. Gavin himself landed twenty-five miles southeast of his intended drop zone. The wide dispersion of paratroopers seriously jeopardized Seventh Army's invasion plan by weakening the buffer these men were supposed to form in front of the 1st Division's beachhead. Nevertheless, the men of the 82d Airborne went right to work wherever chance landed them. Operating in small, isolated groups, the paratroopers created considerable confusion in Axis rear areas, attacking patrols and cutting communication lines.
The airborne forces had begun landing about 2330 on 9 July, and by midnight General Guzzoni was fully apprised of their presence. He was not surprised. Axis air reconnaissance had spotted Allied
9
Troops and supplies unloading near Gela on D-day. (National Archives)
convoys moving toward Sicily earlier that day, and Guzzoni had ordered a full alert at 2200 on the 9th. Based upon the reported airborne drops, Guzzoni correctly surmised that the Allies intended to come ashore in the southeast, and he issued orders to that effect at 0145 on 10 July, nearly an hour before the first assault wave hit the beach. Nevertheless, the dispirited and ill-equipped Italian coastal units hardly put up a fight. Opposition in the Eighth Army's sector was negligible. By the end of the first day the British were firmly ashore and well on their way toward Augusta, having walked into Syracuse virtually unopposed. Resistance was not much stronger in the American zone, and the Seventh Army had little trouble moving ashore despite sporadic air and artillery attacks.
The only serious fighting occurred in the American center, where Axis mobile forces tried to throw the Americans back into the sea before they had a chance to become firmly established. Fortunately for the Americans, the attacks were poorly coordinated. At Gela, the 1st and 4th Ranger Battalions, assisted by the 1st Battalion of the 39th Engineer Combat Regiment, the 1st Bat-
10
talion of the 531st Engineer Shore Regiment, mortar fire from the 83d Chemical Battalion, and naval gunfire, repulsed two Italian attacks, one by a battalion of infantry and the other by a column of thirteen tanks. Nine or ten of the latter managed to penetrate the town before the Rangers drove them off in a confused melee. Meanwhile, at the vital Piano Lupo crossroads, those few paratroopers who had been fortunate enough to land near their objective repulsed a column of about twenty Italian tanks with the help of naval gunfire and the advancing infantrymen of the 16th Regimental Combat Team. Shortly thereafter they rebuffed a more serious attack made by ninety German Mark III and IV medium tanks, two armored artillery battalions, an armored reconnaissance battalion, and an engineer battalion from the Hermann Goering Division. Naval gunfire played a crucial role in stopping this German thrust. The worst event of the day occurred when seventeen German Tiger I heavy tanks, an armored artillery battalion, and two battalions of motorized infantry from the Hermann Goering Division overran the 1st Battalion, 180th Infantry (45th Division), after a stiff fight, capturing its commander and many of its men.
While Rangers, paratroopers, and infantrymen repelled Axis counterattacks, an even more serious struggle was being waged against mother nature. Although 10 July dawned bright and sunny, the rough seas of the previous night had disorganized several units. The worst case was that of the 45th Division's 180th Regiment, which had been scattered over a ten-mile front. Nor did the beaches prove to be as favorable as anticipated. Soft sand, shifting sandbars, and difficult exits created congestion on the beaches that was further aggravated by enemy air and artillery barrages. By midmorning, between 150 and 200 landing craft were stranded on the shoreline. Nevertheless, American service troops performed herculean feats to keep the men in the front lines supplied and supported. During the first three days the U.S. Army and Navy moved 66,285 personnel, 17,766 deadweight tons of cargo, and 7,396 vehicles over Sicily's southern shores. An entirely new generation of landing craft and ships�LSTs, LCTs, LCIs, and LCVPs�greatly facilitated the logistical effort. Even more remarkable was the innovative DUKW amphibious truck that could move directly from offshore supply ships to inland depots.
By the end of the first day, the Seventh Army had established a beachhead two to four miles deep and fifty miles wide. In the process it had captured over 4,000 prisoners at the cost of 58 killed, 199
11
Assault on Sicily 10 July 1943
wounded, and 700 missing. But the situation was still perilous. Axis counterattacks had created a dangerous bulge in the center of the American line, the very point where the bulk of the 505th Parachute Regiment should have been if its drop had been accurate.
July 11, the second day of the invasion, was the Seventh Army's most perilous day in Sicily. Early that morning, General Guzzoni renewed his attack against the shallow center of the American line�Piano Lupo, Gela, and the beaches beyond. Guzzoni committed the better part of two divisions in the attack, the Hermann Goering Division and the Italian Livorno Division. He backed them up with heavy air attacks by Italian and German planes based in Italy. Congestion on the beaches hampered Bradley's efforts to send tanks forward, so that the defending infantrymen had nothing but artillery and naval gunfire to support them. Cooks, clerks, and Navy shore personnel were pressed into service to help the 1st and 45th Division infantrymen, Rangers, and paratroopers repel the Axis attacks. The fighting was fierce. A few German tanks broke into Gela, while two panzer battalions closed to within two thousand yards of the vulnerable beaches before being repulsed by ground and naval gunfire. Several miles southeast of Gela, Colonel Gavin and an impromptu assembly of paratroopers and 45th Division soldiers effectively thwarted another German column consisting of 700 infantry, a battalion of self-propelled artillery, and a company of Tiger tanks at Biazzo Ridge. By day's end, the Seventh Army had suffered over 2,300 casualties, the Army's greatest oneday loss during the campaign. But as darkness descended, the Americans still held, and in some areas had actually expanded, their narrow foothold on the island.
After a day of heavy fighting, Patton decided to reinforce his battle-weary center with over 2,000 additional paratroopers from his reserves in North Africa. He ordered that the 1st and 2d Battalions, 504th Paratroop Regiment, the 376th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion, and a company from the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion be dropped near Gela on the night of 11 July. German aircraft had been active over the American sector all day, and consequently senior Army and Navy officers went to great lengths to inform everyone of the impending nighttime paratroop drop lest overanxious gunners fire on the friendly aircraft. Nevertheless, when the transport planes arrived over the beaches in the wake of a German air raid, nervous antiaircraft gunners ashore and afloat opened fire with devastating effect. Allied antiaircraft guns shot down 23 and dam
14
aged 37 of the 144 American transport planes. The paratroop force suffered approximately 10 percent casualties and was badly disorganized. Later investigation would reveal that not everyone had been informed of the drop despite the Seventh Army's best efforts.
Over the next two days the Seventh Army gradually pushed its way out of the coastal plain and into the hills ringing the American beachhead. Fighting between the 1st Division and the Hermann Goering Division was occasionally stiff, but General Allen moved his men relentlessly forward through Niscemi and on toward the Yellow Line. On the right, Middleton's 45th Division likewise made good progress toward Highway 124, while to the left Truscott's 3d Division infantrymen, supported by 2d Armored Division tanks, moved beyond their initial Yellow Line objectives. The British matched American progress, and by the 13th they had advanced as far as Vizzini in the west and Augusta in the east. Resistance in the British zone was stiffening, however, due to difficult terrain and the arrival from France of elements of Germany's elite 1st Parachute Division. As the Eighth Army's drive toward Catania and Gerbini bogged down in heavy fighting, Montgomery persuaded Alexander to shift the boundary line between the American Seventh and British Eighth Armies west, thereby permitting him to advance on a broader front into central Sicily and sidestep the main centers of Axis resistance. The boundary change, which Alexander communicated to Patton just before midnight on 13 July, stripped Highway 124 away from Seventh Army and assigned it instead to the Eighth Army. Under the new instructions, a portion of the Eighth Army would advance up Highway 124 to Enna, the key road junction in central Sicily, before turning northeast toward Messina. In essence, Alexander was interposing British forces between the Americans and the Germans, allowing the Eighth Army to monopolize the primary approaches to Messina and giving it complete responsibility for the Allied main effort. With its original line of advance blocked, Seventh Army was thus relegated to protecting the Eighth Army's flank and rear from possible attack by Axis forces in western Sicily�a distinctly secondary mission.
The change in front was one of the most important and controversial operational decisions of the campaign. It clearly reflected the British belief that the veteran Eighth Army was better qualified to carry the main burden of the campaign than its junior partner from across the Atlantic. Indeed, the decision did little more than make explicit the priorities and assumptions that had
15
81-mm. mortars support Patton's drive on Palermo. (National Archives)
been implicit in the campaign plan all along. On the other hand, by ordering the Seventh Army to stop short of Highway 124 and redirecting its advance, Alexander lost momentum and provided the Axis valuable time to withdraw to a new defensive line between Catania and Enna. The loss of momentum was best illustrated by the repositioning of the 45th Division, which had to return almost to the shoreline before it could sidestep around the 1st Division and take up its new position for a northwestward advance. Given the circumstances, Alexander might have been better served by reinforcing success and shifting the main emphasis of the campaign to the Seventh Army. This was not his choice, however, and his decision stirred up a storm of controversy in the American camp.
Patton and his generals were furious. They had always assumed that the Seventh Army would be permitted to push beyond its initial Yellow and Blue objectives and into central and northern Sicily in order to accompany the Eighth Army on its drive toward Messina. After all, Alexander's vague preinvasion plans had never expressly ruled this out. Now that option had been eliminated and they felt slighted. Not content to accept a secondary role, Patton immediately cast about for an opportunity to have his army play a more decisive part in the campaign. The object which caught his eye was Palermo, Sicily's capital. Capture of this well-known city would not
16
only be a publicity coup, but it would also give his army a major port from which to base further operations along the northern coast.
Patton's first move was to coax Alexander into sanctioning a "reconnaissance" toward the town of Agrigento, several miles west of the 3d Division's current front line. That authorization was all General Truscott needed to seize the city on 15 July. With Agrigento in hand, Patton was in a position to drive into northwestern Sicily, and on the 17th he traveled to Alexander's headquarters to argue for just such a course. Patton wanted to cut loose from the Eighth Army and launch his own, independent drive on Palermo while simultaneously sending Bradley's II Corps north to cut the island in two. Alexander reluctantly agreed, but later had second thoughts and sent Patton a revised set of orders instructing him to strike due north to protect Montgomery's flank rather than west. Seventh Army headquarters ignored Alexander's message claiming that it had been "garbled" in transmission, and by the time Alexander's instructions could be "clarified," Patton was already at Palermo's gates.
The Seventh Army met little opposition during its sweep through western Sicily. Guzzoni had recalled the 15th Panzer Grenadier Division to central Sicily soon after the invasion, and the only troops left in the western portion of the island were Italians who, for the most part, showed little inclination to fight. While General Bradley's II Corps pushed north to cut the island in two east of Palermo, Patton organized the 2d Armored, 82d Airborne, and 3d Infantry Divisions into a provisional corps under Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Keyes and sent it on a 100-mile dash to the Sicilian capital. Palermo fell in only seventy-two hours, and by 24 July the Seventh Army had taken control of the entire western half of the island, capturing 53,000 dispirited Italian soldiers and 400 vehicles at the loss of 272 men.
The fall of Palermo was quickly followed by even more startling news. Disenchanted by the long and costly war, Mussolini's opponents ousted the dictator from power on 25 July. Although the Allies had hoped that Operation HUSKY would destabilize the Fascist regime, the coup took them by surprise. Mussolini's downfall did not immediately terminate Italy's participation in the war. Nevertheless, the invasion of Sicily had acted as a catalyst in bringing about an important crack in the Rome-Berlin Axis.
Palermo's capitulation also coincided with the beginning of a new phase of the campaign. On 23 July Alexander ordered Patton to turn eastward toward Messina. Montgomery's drive had bogged down at Catania, and it was now apparent that the Eighth Army
17
The Fight for Sicily 12 July-17 August 1943
was not going to be able to capture Messina on its own. Alexander, therefore, redrew the army boundaries once again, authorizing Patton to approach Messina from the west while Montgomery continued to push from the south.
The drive on Messina would not resemble Patton's quick, cavalry-like raid on Palermo. The city was protected by the most rugged terrain in Sicily, the Caronie Mountains and Mount Etna's towering eminence. In addition, the Germans had constructed a series of strongpoints, called the Etna Line, that ran from the vicinity of Catania on the east coast, around the southern base of Mount Etna, north to San Fratello on the island's northern shore. Here, in Sicily's rugged northeast corner, the Axis had decided to make its stand. But it was to be only a temporary stand, for while General Guzzoni still talked of defending Sicily to the end, Berlin had decided to withdraw gradually from the island. Guzzoni, his authority weakened by the disintegration of most of his Italian units, was not in a position to disagree. From this point forward General Hans Hube, commander of the newly formed German XIV Panzer Corps, and not Guzzoni, exercised real control over Axis forces in Sicily.
General Hube planned to withdraw slowly to the Etna Line where he would make a determined stand while simultaneously undertaking preliminary evacuation measures. Final evacuation would occur in phases, with each withdrawal matched by a progressive retreat to increasingly shorter defensive lines until all Axis troops had been ferried across the Strait of Messina to Italy. To accomplish this task, Hube had the remnants of several Italian formations plus four German divisions�the 1st Parachute, the Hermann Goering Panzer, the 15th Panzer Grenadier, and the newly arrived 29th Panzer Grenadier Division.
There were just four narrow roads through the Etna Line, and only two of these actually went all the way to Messina. Possessing these vital arteries became the focal point of the campaign. General Alexander gave each of the Allied armies two roads for the advance on Messina. A portion of the Eighth Army was to advance along the Adrano-Randazzo road that skirted the western slopes of Mount Etna, while the remainder endeavored to drive north along the eastern coastal road, Route 114, to Messina. Alexander assigned the two northern roads to the American Seventh Army. The first, Route 120, ran through the interior of Sicily from Nicosia, through Troina, to Randazzo. The second, Highway 113, hugged the northern shoreline all the way to Messina.
20
It was Highway 113 that held Patton's interest, for it was his most direct route to Messina. Stung by the belief that Generals Alexander and Montgomery belittled the American Army, Patton was obsessed with the idea of reaching Messina before the British. "This is a horse race in which the prestige of the US Army is at stake," he wrote General Middleton. "We must take Messina before the British. Please use your best efforts to facilitate the success of our race."
The race got off to a slow start as the Germans skillfully exploited the mountainous terrain to cut the Allied advance to a crawl. Illness and the weather aided the Germans. Malaria and other fevers incapacitated over 10,000 soldiers. Heat exhaustion brought on by Sicily's 100-degree temperatures knocked additional G.I.s out of the ranks. The Seventh Army advanced two divisions abreast, with the 1st Infantry Division moving along Route 120 and General Middleton's 45th Infantry Division operating on the coast road. After Middleton's G.I.s captured Santo Stefano's "Bloody Ridge" on 30 July, Patton replaced them with General Truscott's 3d Division, allowing the men of the 45th time to rest and recuperate for their next assignment, the invasion of Italy.
Meanwhile, the 1st Infantry Division pushed its way eastward against stiffening German opposition, capturing Nicosia on the 28th before moving on to Troina. Patton planned to take the exhausted 1st Division out of the line once Troina fell. The mountain village, however, would prove to be the unit's toughest battle, as well as one of the most difficult fights of the entire Sicily Campaign. Troina constituted one of the main anchors of the Etna Line and was defended by the 15th Panzer Grenadier Division and elements of the Italian Aosta Division. The Axis forces were deeply entrenched in hills that both dominated the approaches to the town and were difficult to outflank. The barren landscape, almost devoid of cover, made advancing American soldiers easy targets for Axis gunners.
The battle for Troina began on 31 July, when the Germans repulsed an advance by the 39th Infantry Regiment, a 9th Infantry Division outfit temporarily attached to the 1st Division. The setback forced Bradley and Allen to orchestrate a massive assault. Over the next six days the men of the 1st Infantry Division, together with elements of the 9th Division, a French Moroccan infantry battalion, 165 artillery pieces (divided among 9 battalions of 105-mm. howitzers, 6 battalions of 155-mm. howitzers, and 1 battalion of 155-mm. "Long Tom" guns), and numerous Allied aircraft, were locked in combat with Troina's tenacious defenders. Control of key hilltop positions see-
21
Troina. (National Archives)
sawed back and forth in vicious combat, with the Germans launching no fewer than two dozen counterattacks during the week-long battle.
The experience of Col. John Bowen's 26th Infantry Regiment was fairly typical of the action around Troina. The 26th's assignment was to outflank Troina by seizing Monte Basilio two miles north of town. From here, the regiment would be positioned to cut the Axis line of retreat. Bowen moved his soldiers forward on 2 August supported by the fire of 1 battalion of 155-mm. howitzers, 4 battalions of 105-mm. howitzers, and 4 "Long Tom" batteries. Despite this weighty arsenal, German artillery fire and difficult terrain limited the regiment's advance to half a mile. The next morning one of the regiment's battalions lost its bearings in the hilly terrain and wandered around ineffectually for the remainder of the day. A second battalion reached Monte Basilio with relatively little difficulty, only to be pounded by Axis artillery fire directed from neighboring hills. The 129th Panzer Grenadier Regiment launched a major effort to retake the mountain that afternoon, but Bowen's riflemen and machine gunners, supported by the artillerymen in the rear, repulsed the attackers.
22
For the next two days Axis artillery and small arms fire kept the men on Monte Basilio pinned down. Determined to hold Troina for as long as possible, the Germans reacted strongly to the threat the 26th Regiment posed to their line of communications. Axis pressure practically cut off the men on Monte Basilio from the rest of the 1st Division, and attempts to resupply them by plane were only partially successful. By 5 August food and ammunition stores were low, and casualties had greatly depleted the regiment, with one company mustering only seventeen men effective for duty.
It was at this point that the German infantry attacked again, touching off another round of furious fighting. During the battle, Pvt. James W. Reese moved his mortar squad to a position from which he could effectively take the advancing German infantry under fire. The squad maintained a steady fire on the attackers until it began to run out of ammunition. With only three mortar rounds left, Reese ordered his crew to the rear while he advanced to a new position and knocked out a German machine gun with the last rounds. He then shouldered a rifle and continued to engage the enemy until killed by a barrage of hostile fire.
Through the efforts of men like Private Reese, the 26th Infantry successfully held its position. The United States recognized Reese's heroism posthumously by awarding him the Medal of Honor. The Germans acknowledged the 26th Regiment's gallant stand by evacuating Troina later that night. Hard pressed by American forces all along the Troina sector and unable to dislodge the 26th Regiment from its position threatening his line of retreat, General Hube withdrew the badly damaged 15th Panzer Grenadier Division toward Randazzo. As the 9th Infantry Division took up the pursuit, the 1st Division retired for a well-deserved rest.
While the 1st Infantry Division battled for possession of Troina, General Truscott's 3d Division faced equally stiff opposition at San Fratello, the northern terminus of the Etna Line. Here the 29th Panzer Grenadier Division had entrenched itself on a ridge overlooking the coastal highway. Truscott made repeated attempts to crack the San Fratello position beginning on 3 August, but failed to gain much ground. The strength of the German position prompted him to try and outflank it by an amphibious end run. On the night of 7-8 August, while the 3d Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, and 3d Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, seized a key hill along the San Fratello Line, Lt. Col. Lyle Bernard led the 2d Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, reinforced by two batteries from the 58th Armored Field Artillery Bat-
23
talion, a platoon of medium tanks, and a platoon of combat engineers, in an amphibious landing at Sant'Agata, a few miles behind San Fratello. The amphibious assault force achieved complete surprise and quickly blocked the coastal highway. Unfortunately, the Germans had selected that night to withdraw from San Fratello, and most of their troops had already retired past Bernard's position by the time the Americans arrived. Nevertheless, the 3d Infantry Division's combined land and sea offensive bagged over 1,000 prisoners.
Allied pressure at Troina, San Fratello, and in the British sector had broken the Etna Line, but there would be no lightning exploitation of the victory. Taking maximum advantage of the constricting terrain and armed with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of mines, General Hube withdrew his XIV Panzer Corps in orderly phases toward Messina.
Patton made a second bid to trap the 29th Panzer Grenadier Division on 11 August, when he sent Colonel Bernard on another amphibious end run, this time at Brolo. Once again Bernard's men achieved complete surprise, but they soon came under heavy pressure as the German units trapped by the landing tried to batter their way out. Bernard's group proved too small to keep the Germans bottled up, and by the time Truscott linked up with the landing force, the bulk of the 29th Panzer Grenadier Division had escaped.
Time was now running out for the Allies. On 11 August, the day Patton launched the Brolo operation, General Hube began the full-scale evacuation of Sicily. Despite heroic feats by U.S. Army engineers in clearing minefields and repairing blown bridges, the Seventh Army was never quite able to catch the withdrawing Axis forces. A last amphibious end run by a regiment of the 45th Division on 16 August failed when the troops landed behind American, and not German, lines. By then the game was over. On the morning of 17 August, elements of the 3d Infantry Division's 7th Infantry Regiment entered Messina, just hours after the last Axis troops had boarded ship for Italy. The enemy had escaped, but the Seventh Army quickly brought reinforcements into the port, in the words of 3d Division assistant commander Brig. Gen. William Eagles, "to see that the British did not capture the city from us after we had taken it." Shortly after Patton accepted the city's surrender, a column of British vehicles slowly wound its way through Messina's crooked streets. Spotting General Patton, the commander of the British column walked over and offered his hand in congratulations. Patton had won his race.
24
A bunker covers the beach near Sant'Agata. (National Archives)
Analysis
The American soldier had much to be proud of in the Sicily Campaign. With the exception of those units which had taken part in the Tunisia Campaign, especially the 1st and 9th Infantry Divisions, few American formations employed in Sicily began the campaign with any combat experience, and their abilities were still unknown. But the American troops had done well. After landing on a hostile shore, they had repelled several counterattacks, forced the enemy to withdraw, and relentlessly pursued him over sun-baked hills until the island was theirs. In thirty-eight days they and their British colleagues had killed or wounded approximately 29,000 enemy soldiers and captured over 140,000 more. In contrast, American losses totaled 2,237 killed and 6,544 wounded and captured. The British suffered 12,843 casualties, including 2,721 dead.
Sicily was also a victory for the logistician and the staff planner. Although overshadowed by the Normandy invasion a year later, Operation HUSKY was actually the largest amphibious operation of World War II in terms of the size of the landing zone and the number of divisions put ashore on the first day of the invasion. The am-
25
phibious operation, as well as the subsequent logistical effort, marked a clear triumph of American staff work and interservice cooperation. Army-Navy cooperation was particularly good, and the fire support provided by Allied naval vessels played a critical role in overcoming Axis resistance, especially around Gela.
The Sicily Campaign also marked the first time in World War II that a complete U.S. field army had fought as a unit. With over 200,000 men in its ranks by the time it reached Messina, the American Seventh Army employed the services of more than 150 different types of units, from infantry regiments to graves registration companies. The final victory was achieved only through the cooperation and collaboration of thousands of individuals from every branch of service.
Strategically, the Sicilian operation achieved the goals set out for it by Allied planners at Casablanca. Axis air and naval forces were driven from their island bastion and the Mediterranean sea lanes were opened to Allied commerce. Hitler had been forced to transfer troops to Sicily and Italy from other theaters, and Mussolini had been toppled from power, thereby opening the way for the eventual dissolution of the Rome-Berlin Axis and Italy's ultimate surrender. Although U.S. military leaders had not initially planned to use Sicily as a springboard for an invasion of Italy, the impact of the operation on the tottering Fascist regime begged exploitation, and the Allies quickly followed up their victory by invading Italy in September 1943.
Yet for all its achievements, the Sicily Campaign also demonstrated some weaknesses in Allied capabilities, particularly in the realm of joint operations. None of the Allied commanders had much experience in joint air-land-sea operations, and consequently the three services did not always work together as well as they might have. Ground commanders complained about the lack of close air support and the inaccuracy of airborne drops, air commanders complained of their aircraft's being fired upon by Allied ground and naval forces, and naval officers chided the land commanders for not fully exploiting the fleet's amphibious capabilities to outflank the enemy once the campaign had begun. Similarly, General Alexander's unfortunate decision to broaden the Eighth Army's front at the expense of the Seventh Army can be attributed to the newness of combined operations, for the decision reflected the British Army's proclivity to underestimate American military capabilities�an attitude that American G.I.s proved unjustified during the Sicily Campaign.
26
One consequence of this lack of integration within the Allied camp was that the Axis was able to evacuate over 100,000 men and 10,000 vehicles from Sicily during the first seventeen days in August. The failure of Allied air and naval forces to interdict the Strait of Messina was due in large part to the fact that neither Eisenhower nor his principal air, land, and sea commanders had formulated a coordinated plan to prevent the withdrawal of Axis forces from the island.
The escape of Axis forces from Sicily is also attributable to the conservative attitude of Allied commanders. They had opted for the most cautious invasion plan, massing their forces at the most predictable landing site. They never seriously considered the bolder option of launching simultaneous attacks on Messina and Calabria, the "toe" of Italy, to trap all Axis forces in Sicily in one blow. Their conservativeness was somewhat justified, for multinational amphibious operations of this magnitude had never been attempted before, and the initial landings would have been outside of the range of Allied fighter cover. Nevertheless, the advantages to be gained by taking the enemy by surprise and destroying an entire Axis army would seem to have merited greater attention by Allied strategists than it received.
The fundamental reason why the Messina-Calabria option was not seriously considered had to do with grand strategy, not operational considerations. At Casablanca the Allies had agreed only to invade Sicily, not Italy, and U.S. leaders had clearly stated their opposition to anything that might further delay a cross-Channel attack. A landing in Italy, even a local one intended purely to assist the Sicily Campaign, threatened to open the very Pandora's box Marshall wanted to avoid. Of course in the end, the Allies invaded Italy anyway, only to be confronted by the same German troops who had made good their escape from Sicily. But in the spring of 1943, coalition politics ruled out a Calabrian envelopment, and Allied planners confined themselves to a narrow, frontal assault in southeastern Sicily.
Sicily was thus an important victory for the Allies, but not a decisive one. Coalition politics and the innate conservativeness of men who were still learning how to work the intricate machinery of joint, multinational operations tied Allied armies to a strategy which achieved the physical objective while letting the quarry escape. Nevertheless, Axis forces did not escape unscathed, and the experience Allied commanders gained in orchestrating airborne, amphibious, and ground combat operations during the campaign would serve them well in the months ahead, first in Italy and then at Normandy.
27
Further Readings
The most comprehensive treatments of the campaign can be found in two books, Albert N. Garland and Howard McGaw Smyth, Sicily and the Surrender of Italy (1965) and Carlo D'Este, Bitter Victory, The Battle for Sicily, 1943 (1988). Allied airborne operations are the subject of William Breuer, Drop Zone Sicily (1983). Also useful are S. W. C. Pack, Operation "Husky, " The Allied Invasion of Sicily (1977), Samuel Eliot Morison, Sicily-Salerno-Anzio (1954), Hugh Pond, Sicily (1962), Omar Bradley, A Soldier's Story (1951), Lucian Truscott, Command Missions (1954), W. G. F. Jackson, The Battle for Italy (1967), George Patton, War As I Knew It (1947), Trumbull Higgins, Soft Underbelly (1968), John Eisenhower, Allies (1982), Martin Blumenson, The Patton Papers, volume 2 (1974), and William Darby, Darby's Rangers: We Led the Way (1980). For the official British and Canadian views of the campaign, see C. J. C. Molony, The Mediterranean and Middle East, volume 5 (1973), and G. W. L. Nicholson, The Canadians in Italy, 1943-45 (1967).
CMH Pub 72-16
| i don't know |
Which English town or city is served by Citadel railway station? | Disused Stations: Longtown Station
Date of visit:
6.5.2011
Notes: The line opened on 29 October. Although he exact date the station opened is not recorded it seems unlikely that a station serving one of the larger communities would not have opened with the line.
Longtown was the first town of any size after leaving Carlisle and was sited at the junction with the Gretna line, just north of the viaduct over the River Esk.
The station had two platforms spanned by a timber footbridge at their south end, immediately north of the level crossing. The main station building was on the up side, set back from the crossing to make a small forecourt. The stone building comprised a two-storey stationmaster's house facing onto the forecourt with a bay window overlooking the platform. The booking office and waiting room were in a single-storey extension facing onto the platform at the rear of the house, with a toilet at the north end. A large ornate water tank overhung the up platform just north of the station buildings. There were water columns on the up side immediately north of the level crossing and at the north end of the down platform. There was a stone waiting room on the down platform.
There have been three signal boxes at Longtown. There was one box at Longtown Junction south of the level crossing on the down side of the line which survived until closure. Longtown North box controlled access to the goods yard. The third was the short-lived Longtown Viaduct box.
The moderate sized goods yard was on the up side north of the station and comprised four sidings with a 5-ton crane between them; all were loops with access from both directions. The siding nearest the main line passed the large cattle dock then ran through a large goods shed before rejoining the line. A fifth short siding ran end-on to the dock. The siding at the rear of the yard served a coal and lime depot. Access to the yard was from the station forecourt to the rear of the house.
A two-road engine shed opened to the north of the station on the up side on 15 October 1861. It closed c.1924 and was subsequently demolished.
Although the actual boundary between England and Scotland was at Kershope Foot, at Nationalisation in 1948 the Scottish Region was given control of the Waverley Route some 20 miles into England, the boundary being set south of Harker. Consequently the London Midland Region (from at least 1950) did not include the Waverley Route service in its timetable and omitted it from the regional map when it began to be provided in the timetable, However the London Midland / Scottish regional boundary was adjusted northwards in 1959 to be immediately south of Riddings Junction. In celebration of its transfer to the LMR Longtown was fitted with the region’s totems – the northernmost station to receive them. From this time the LMR added the Waverley route to its map and reprinted the Scottish version of the timetable in its own publication. As a result of the boundary change the English stations at Riddings Junction, Penton and Kershope Foot remained within the Scottish Region and did so until the line closed
The station closed to passenger traffic on 6 January 1969 but remained open for goods traffic until 31 August 1970 with a private siding remaining in use after that date.
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE WAVERLEY ROUTE
The Waverley route was a double-track railway line that ran south from Edinburgh in Scotland through Midlothian and the Scottish Borders to Carlisle in England. It was built by the North British Railway Company; the first section, from Edinburgh to Hawick opened in 1849. The final section, Hawick to Carlisle, opened in 1862. It was named the Waverley route after the novel by Sir Walter Scott (who was born in Edinburgh and eventually lived near Melrose). The line closed to passengers in 1969, but reconstruction work of the Edinburgh-Galashiels-Tweedbank section was scheduled to begin in 2008, and is now anticipated for 2011.
The Edinburgh and Dalkeith (‘Innocent’) Railway, was the first to serve Scotland’s capital city. It carried coal from the mines in Lothian to its city centre terminus at St Leonards.
It received Royal Assent on 26 May 1826 as a horse-drawn tramway built to the Scottish gauge of 4 ft 6 in and linked various coal mines to the south-east of Edinburgh. The line was commissioned by a business consortium led by Walter Montagu-Douglas-Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch, with the engineering plans being contributed by Robert Stevenson.
Two further Acts were obtained; the first, on 4 June 1829, sanctioned the Leith Branch, running from Niddrie to Leith. The second, in 1834, authorised further branches to Fisherrow and Musselburgh and allowed a certain amount of passenger traffic by horse-drawn railway coaches.
The first section of the line opened for goods traffic from Edinburgh St Leonards to Craighall Colliery, between Niddrie and Millerhill, on 4 July 1831. This was extended to South Esk (renamed Dalhousie in July 1847) in October 1831 with a branch to Dalkeith opening on 26 November 1838.
A full passenger service was introduced by the contractor MJ Fox between St. Leonards and South Esk on 2 June 1832; this quickly proved profitable, and the company started operating its own passenger trains in 1834, taking over all passenger workings in 1836 with a service to Dalkeith opening in autumn 1839.
There were no fixed stopping places with passengers joining and alighting wherever they requested; as a result there were no tickets. By 1843 some 'authorised' stopping places had been agreed, and an 1844 map produced by the North British Railway showed stations at Portobello, Niddrie Junction, Cairney, Sheriffhall, and Lasswade Road (at, or near, the later Eskbank station).
The North British Railway made an approach to buy the line, which would be incorporated into a proposed new route between Edinburgh and Hawick; this received parliamentary authorisation in 1845. Due to the ongoing success of the existing enterprise, the NBR had to pay the high price of £113,000, the sale being completed in October 1845. It appears that some alteration to the course of the line was made between 1838 and March 1844 when the NBR produced a map showing its plans for route. The line was subsequently converted to standard gauge and doubled, reopening to Dalhousie in July 1847. The stations at Cairney, Sheriffhall and Lasswade Road were not reopened.
Construction of the extension to Hawick was rapid, opening in stages as the line forged its way south. Gorebridge opened on 14 July 1847 and by 20 February 1849 it had reached Galashiels, finally arriving at Hawick, where a terminus was opened on 1 November 1849.
By this date there was considerable rivalry between railway companies, and this soon turned into acrimony, with opposing plans to extend south into England. In 1846 the NBR applied to Parliament for further powers to extend the line through Langholm to Carlisle. The Caledonian Railway opposed this extension, and in due course the North British Company’s plans were thrown out by the government committee. Matters dragged slowly on, with meetings in Hawick of many of the manufacturers who felt the need for a railway to the south. No substantial progress was made until 1856 when a survey was made of the Liddesdale route. The Caledonian Railway also had plans for a station in the Lower Haugh in Hawick, with a railway through Teviotdale and Langholm to Carlisle.
To the astonishment of many inhabitants, the claims of the Langholm line were approved and those of the Liddesdale scheme rejected. So indignant were the supporters of the Liddesdale railway that a meeting outside the Town Hall in Hawick attracted some sixteen hundred people expressing the view that the decision was totally against the wishes of the people of the south of Scotland. An appeal was taken to the House of Lords which resulted in the Langholm Bill being thrown out.
In 1859, the railway battle raged again before Parliament, and on the 21 July 1859, having changed its name from the Hawick & Carlisle Junction Railway, the Border Union (North British) Railway Act received the Royal Assent - the North British Railway had won at last. Langholm had come close to having a through line to Hawick, worked by the Caledonian Railway Company, but it had to be content with a branch line from the Liddesdale route. Another line from Longtown to Gretna, to connect with the Glasgow and South Western Railway, was also included in the Act.
Within six weeks construction was underway at Hawick with intense interest from the townsfolk. The first sod was cut on 7 September 1859, and the day was declared a public holiday in the town with special trains bringing visitors from the north. As the railhead progressed south sightseeing tours were arranged from the town to view the construction.
In order to accommodate the extension the
original terminus at Hawick was closed (becoming the town's goods station) and a new through station was built on a new alignment to the south, taking the line on a viaduct high above the River Teviot. Beyond Hawick the line passed through difficult terrain requiring heavy engineering works, with steep gradients and viaducts (notably the magnificent 15-arch structure near Shankend) before reaching the 1208 yd summit tunnel at Whitrope, 1006 ft above sea level.
South of Hawick a deviation from the original route took the line close to Stobs Castle in the hope that a station there might generate passenger revenue in the future, despite a tiny local population. In fact many of the new stations did not serve any sizeable communities; it was hoped that that these stations would attract traffic from the surrounding farms giving them the opportunity to send their produce to market.
Two miles south of the summit in the 'middle of nowhere' the NBR built what was to become one of the most famous junction stations in Britain in the heart of the Lees Bog. Prior to the railway, apart from a remote shepherd’s bothy, there were no buildings or inhabitants in the area, but the railway brought its own community in the form of Riccarton railway village comprising terraced housing, a shop on the station platform, a school and a three-road engine shed with room for six locomotives; a two-road carriage shed, two signal boxes, a gas plant, turntable and coaling facilities were also provided. At Riccarton, the line made a junction with the Border Counties line extension running through Reedsmouth and Bellingham to the Tyne Valley line at Hexham.
The new community at Riccarton, 1 ½ miles from the nearest road, had no doctor, so a light engine was kept permanently in steam at Hawick to convey emergency services to the village when required. Initially Sunday worshippers used the engine shed, then the waiting room, a minister walking from Saughtree on the Border Counties line to officiate at the services. Eventually church trains were provided to take worshippers to Newcastleton and Hawick on alternate Sundays.
As the Borders Counties line was already open, Riccarton opened early, before all the railway facilities were completed. The line continued south through open country before reaching Newcastleton, the first community of any size since leaving Hawick, 21 miles to the north. Three miles further south the line crossed into England at Kershopefoot. A further six miles south was Canobie Junction (later to become Riddings Junction), the junction for the Langholm branch which opened to Canobie (later called Canonbie) in May 1862, and to Langholm on 14 April 1864.
The only other major settlement on the route was Longtown. The original plan was to join the Caledonian Railway at Rockliffe, four miles north of Carlisle, but with so much animosity between the two companies the NBR were forced to seek an alternative route into Carlisle, joining the Port Carlisle & Silloth Railway (which they later absorbed at Canal Junction) a mile north-west of the town centre, after which it eventually joined the Caledonian for the final short run into Carlisle Citadel station.
The new line opened in four stages, with goods traffic running between Canal yard in Carlisle and Scotch Dyke from 15 October 1861 and passenger traffic commencing over that section on 30 October. The line from Longtown to Gretna opened on 1 November 1861. The section between Scotch Dyke and Newcastleton opened to traffic on 1 March 1862, with Newcastleton to Riccarton Junction following on 2 June 1862. Finally, the Riccarton to Hawick section opened with through freight trains to Edinburgh, running from 23 June 1862, and passenger services were introduced on 1 July 1862. Although the line had been engineered for double-track only a single track was laid between Riddings and Riccarton, but this had been doubled by 1863.
Initially traffic over the southern section of the route was very limited, and the board considered selling that part of the line, or - if no buyer was forthcoming - closing it. However, with the opening of the Settle & Carlisle line in 1876, passenger numbers improved with through trains running from St Pancras station in London: St. Pancras to Edinburgh became renowned as one of Britain’s most scenic main line railways.
The significant gradients and bleak moorland terrain made the Waverley arguably the most difficult line in the UK for steam locomotive crews to work. From Edinburgh Waverley the climb started on the city outskirts, continuing for several miles at 1 in 80, with a moorland summit at Falahill loop. It then descended at a similar rate to the woollen manufacturing towns of Galashiels, Melrose and St Boswells and through the fertile farmland of mid-Tweeddale and Teviotdale before reaching Hawick and ascending for twelve miles at 1 in 80 again through Stobs and Shankend to Whitrope Summit, the highest point on the line amidst desolate moorland. Following Whitrope Tunnel, the line descended at an unbroken 1 in 75 for over eight miles through Riccarton Junction and Steele Road to Newcastleton. Following this, easier gradients led the route to Carlisle down the valley of Liddell Water and into the plains surrounding the Solway Firth.
In 1923 the North British Railway came under the jurisdiction of the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) at the Grouping. However the two expresses from London had traditionally run via the Midland Railway's main line. Since the Midland became part of the London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) group, the daytime ‘Waverley' express and overnight sleeping car train would be hauled by LMS locomotives to Carlisle, then switch to an LNER locomotive for the final leg to Edinburgh Waverley.
The expresses were limited-stop, and in the 1950s they covered the mileage from Carlisle to Edinburgh in roughly two-and-a-half hours. Motive power was usually in the form of a Gresley A3 Pacific locomotive, a class unsuited to hill climbing. With large driving wheels and three cylinders they were designed for running long stretches in excess of 80 mph on heavy expresses; however the 'Waverley' express was typically eight coaches in length, and speeds on the Waverley Route were limited to 70 mph, and the many tight curves required more severe speed restrictions. On the climb from Newcastleton to Whitrope Summit the train would be down to 30 mph by Steele Road, with the locomotive being worked flat out.
Other passenger services (usually three per day) were also worked by A3s, although Thompson B1 4-6-0s made regular appearances. There was also a daily Gresley A4 diagram between Edinburgh and Carlisle - an overnight fitted freight southbound, returning with the early morning parcels train. Thompson Pacifics appeared later on, just before the line was dieselised, in a drive for efficiency. In addition there were also several local passenger workings between Galashiels and Edinburgh (some via the Peebles loop, which opened in stages between Galashiels and Eskbank between 4 July 1855 and 1 October 1864) and between Hawick and Carlisle. These tended to be hauled by B1s.
After the end of steam, a variety of diesels worked passenger trains, especially Class 24 and 26 Sulzer-engined diesels, and even Class 17 (Claytons) on local stoppers. Long distance loco-hauled trains were often covered by Class 45 (Peaks). DMUs worked the local services between Galashiels and Edinburgh.
Freight workings were heavy and frequent, hauled by a multitude of classes. The significant workings were pulled by Gresley V2 2-6-2s and Gresley K3 2-6-0s as well as A3s. V2s provided service for over 30 years. In the 1960s, once the short-lived marshalling yards at Carlisle Kingmoor and Edinburgh Millerhill were opened, they worked hourly freights through the day and night. Depending on the maximum speed of the freight working, a Carlisle to Edinburgh freight could take anything from four to seven hours to travel the route. There were also stopping freight trains that worked from Hawick to Edinburgh and Hawick to Carlisle and back, each taking a full day to complete the round trip, stopping to shunt at every station yard. These tended to be hauled by J39 0-6-0 locomotives, although BR standard class 4 2-6-0s replaced them later on.
One notable working in later years was a daily Halewood (Liverpool) to Bathgate freight train carrying Ford cars on carflats. Due to the heavy load, the booked motive power was a Gresley V2 and a Stanier Class 5 double-headed, usually with the V2 on the front.
At Nationalisation almost the entire Waverley route was given to the Scottish Region, of which 16 miles were within Cumberland (England) from Kershope Foot to Harker inclusive. In 1959 the London Midland / Scottish regional boundary was adjusted to be a little south of Riddings, transferring Longtown and the closed Scotch Dyke stations to the LMR. This arrangement still allowed the Langholm branch to be directly connected to the Scottish Region at Riddings Junction. LM totems were fitted at Longtown and Scottish ones at Riddings Junction (and the three Langholm branch stations), Hawick, Melrose, Galashiels, Stow, Fountainhall, Heriot, Tynehead, Gorebridge, Eskbank & Dalkeith. Until closure LNER nameplates were retained at Riccarton Junction and St Boswells.
The Waverley Route was included in the list of passenger services to be withdrawn under the ‘Beeching Axe’. In October 1966 British Rail gave notice to close the line from 2 January 1967, with closure notices posted at all stations. A brief reprieve was announced, and the situation was on hold pending review; however on 15 July 1968 the Minister of Transport, Richard Marsh, gave the final order that the line would close in January 1969. A huge public outcry ensued, and there followed a high profile campaign to save the line. This ultimately was unsuccessful in preventing the closure.
In spite of the protests, the line was closed on Monday 6 January 1969. The last passenger service on the line (and the last train to traverse the entire route) was 1M82 21.56 Edinburgh - St. Pancras sleeper, on Sunday 5 January 1969, hauled by Class 45 D60 ‘Lytham St Annes’.
Feelings were running high along the route on the final weekend of passenger operations, with protestors evident at most stations. Anticipating the potential trouble, the authorities sent a Clayton 'pilot' engine ahead of 1M82 from Hawick to 'prove' the route south after a set of points at Hawick had been found to be tampered with.
At Newcastleton, the pilot engine found the line was blocked and the level crossing gates locked by protestors. The disturbance led to the arrest of the local minister, and he was released only after David Steel, MP, who was travelling on the sleeper service, negotiated with the police. This caused 1M82 to arrive 2 hours late in Carlisle.
On the afternoon of 6 January at Riddings Junction, BR staged a track-lifting 'ceremony' for the press, to split the London Midland and Scottish Regions, demonstrating their determination to close the route.
After the passage of 1M82, the line was formally closed to passengers. The section between Hawick and Longtown closed completely and came under engineers’ possession for dismantling.
The closure of the Waverley Route created a railway desert in the Anglo-Scottish border area. The cluster of Border towns- Hawick, St Boswells, Melrose, Galashiels (and Selkirk, closed in 1951) was left conspicuously isolated from the railway system, reliant on services at the distant stations of Carlisle, Lockerbie, Edinburgh and Berwick-upon-Tweed, and reached by roads of indifferent quality. Hawick, with a population approaching 20,000, was 43 miles from the Carlisle railhead, making it Britain’s most inaccessible town by rail. Despite its attractive scenery the area was generally bypassed by tourists, and its economy stagnated in the following decades as the traditional textile industries declined.
Freight traffic continued until 28 April 1969 as far as Hawick with a daily service, mainly of coal traffic from Lady Victoria Pit. The signalling was drastically reduced after passenger closure with 'telephone and notice board' working. At the southern end of the route the line between Carlisle Kingmoor and Longtown remained open to traffic until 31 August 1970 when it was cut back to Brunthill. The section from Carlisle Kingmoor to Brunthill remains open to this day and sees periodic freight traffic.
Track-lifting had begun, but was temporarily halted in early 1969 while British Rail negotiated with a private consortium, the Border Union Railway Company, to discuss buying the infrastructure. Various options were put forward to keep the route open such as singling large sections of the track and reducing the number of signal boxes; however this came to nothing, and British Rail ceased negotiations on 23 December 1969 after requesting hefty interest payments to keep the infrastructure 'in situ' while funding of the required £1 million capital was sought.
An inspection saloon ran over the route in early 1970 to allow contractors to bid for the demolition work. Track-lifting started in earnest, and trains could be seen from time-to-time on the route undertaking dismantling duties. The down line between Hawick and Longtown was lifted by 1 April 1972, the up line having been lifted by February 1970. The entire route between Longtown and Newtongrange was removed by early 1972. The final stretch from Newtongrange to Millerhill was closed on 28 June 1973 and removed soon after.
The last train to cross Hawick station viaduct did so on 18 April 1971. Hauled by locomotive No. D3880, it was employed on track-lifting duties, removing the line to its rear. Demolition of the viaduct over the River Teviot commenced nine months later on 1 September 1975.
Omissions in the decision process have been pointed out since the closure, which might have resulted in the line remaining open. For example, construction of significant new housing in Galashiels was underway at the same time as railway closure procedures.
In the late 1990s there was some discussion about reopening the southern section from Carlisle as far as Riccarton Junction. Trees in the afforested area surrounding Kielder were approaching maturity, and the significantly increased logging traffic threatened to congest the narrow roads and inconvenience the local population.
Reinstating a single track was seen as an option to provide transport capacity for heavy loads, bypassing the villages, but the project was not pursued.
At Whitrope Siding (just short of) Whitrope Tunnel track panels have been re-laid by the Waverley Route Heritage Association (WRHA) as part of a heritage railway which, in 2011, stretches from the tunnel for about half-a-mile. A heritage centre and station has also being constructed at Whitrope as part of the WRHA activities. Some track was also laid at Riccarton Junction, but this has now been lifted. (Track has also been reinstated at Saughtree, the first station beyond Riccarton on the Border Counties line.)
As noted earlier, the Border towns suffered economic stagnation following the removal of their railway services. The devolved Scottish government, vested with authority to plan the nation’s transport system, was persuaded that reinstatement of the northern section of the Waverley Route could play a significant role in restoring the prosperity of the area. Consequently the Waverley Railway (Scotland) Act was passed by the Scottish Parliament by 114 votes to one; the Bill received Royal Assent in July 2006. It will reopen the line as far as Tweedbank, just south of the Burgh of Galashiels. £115 million has been allocated for the proposed route and services which will extend an existing Edinburgh suburban service from Newcraighall to Shawfair, Eskbank, Newtongrange, Gorebridge, Stow, Galashiels and Tweedbank.
On 27 March 2007, Transport Minister Nicol Stephen formally initiated preparatory works. Vegetation clearance took place with a view to construction starting in 2009, the first trains expected to be running by 2011. In August 2008, the timelines were adjusted, with tendering starting in 2009, final tendering beginning in 2010, groundwork commencing in early 2011, and trains running in early 2013. In November 2009 it was announced that the reopening would be delayed for a year.
The Borders Railway opened from its temporary terminus (since 2002) at Newcraighall to Tweedbank on Sunday 6 September 2015. On the previous day, however, trains were run to allow local people – holders of ‘Golden Tickets’ – to ride on their new railway. On the first day of normal services, trains which would normally be 2-car were strengthened to six in anticipation of high numbers of passengers. Class 158 and 170 diesel multiple units were used.
The formal opening took place on Wednesday 9 September, when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Duke of Edinburgh, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and other dignitaries travelled on a special train from Edinburgh hauled by A4 No.60009 Union of South Africa. The train called at Newtongrange, where Her Majesty unveiled a plaque, then continued to Tweedbank. Here another plaque was unveiled and speeches were given by Her Majesty and the First Minister. Publicity of the occasion was intensified because the Borders Railway opening coincided with the day on which the Queen became Britain’s longest-reigning monarch. The following day the A4 locomotive began a series of 16 steam-hauled special trains, promoted jointly by ScotRail and Steam Dreams.
The platforms at Galashiels and Tweedbank have been built of sufficient length to accommodate such steam charter trains, but unfortunately there are no run-round, turntable or turning triangle installations at Tweedbank, so locomotives must head and tail the trains. Although it is hoped that steam specials will continue to be a frequent feature of the line, Pritchard (Today’s Railways UK Vol.167) remarks that because of the restricted line capacity (most of which is single track) on weekdays the running of a steam special requires the cancellation of two service trains to accommodate them. He warns, ‘this situation really needs to be resolved as soon as possible to preserve the credibility of the line’.
Early indications (late October 2015) are that the Borders Railway is proving popular. Station announcements have been made, almost in sombre tone, that some services scheduled for 2-cars will be formed of 4-cars. The author (AEY) on visiting the line on 21-22 October met various passengers who spoke in glowing terms, just six weeks after its inauguration, of the value of the service to their daily lives. However a local resident who had recently arrived in Stow was puzzled and disappointed by the failure of alternate trains to call there.
All stations from Brunstane to Tweedbank inclusive are unstaffed and freight is not handled.
erley route, with social and economic benefits for the Scottish Borders region.
| Carlisle |
If you landed at Reina Sofia Airport, which island would you be on? | Railway Station Clocks - Architecture of Time -
The arrival of the railways in Victorian Britain led to the adoption of a standardised time system throughout the country in the 1840's. This in turn led to the development of showpiece railway clocks for the great city terminals.
Rather than local time, Greenwich Mean Time was used, no matter how far east or west of London you were. Timetables were produced without the need for adjustment for location. Large clocks were prominently displayed outside major stations, keeping intending passengers informed about the time for their railway departures and arrivals.
This gave the opportunity for the railway companies to create some beautiful architecture and sculpture with clocks placed in fancy towers and over elaborate station entrances.
The great cities of Scotland, Edinburgh and Glasgow, produced two of the grandest clock towers of the time, loftily displaying their clock faces to all quarters.
Clock tower at Waverley Station, Edinburgh
One of Scotland's most prominent clock towers is situated at the eastern end of Edinburgh's Princes Street, where the railway runs alongside the gardens overlooked by the castle.
The tower was built as part of the North British Railway Hotel at Waverley Station, Edinburgh's mainline terminal. It is now known as the Balmoral Hotel.
The architect of the hotel was W. Hamilton Beattie who had won the design competition in 1895. The clock tower was completed in 1902 and now forms a familiar landmark that can be seen from almost any spot in the capital's principal street.
The original sign announcing the opening of the new hotel at Waverley Station in Edinburgh is preserved at the National Railway Museum at York.
Clock tower at Central Station, Glasgow
The sandstone clock tower at Glasgow Central Station was designed by Edinburgh based architect, Robert Rowand Anderson.
The tower sits over the Grand Central Hotel, which can be entered directly from the station concourse. The hotel with its gigantic clock tower was completed in 1884, five years after the railway had crossed the River Clyde to the newly opened Central Station.
Like the tower at Edinburgh Waverley Station, the summit is clad in lead.
Travelling 102 miles south of Glasgow Central, Carlisle Station is the first stop across the border in England on the West Coast Main Line.
The station was built with a decorative clock tower (below), featuring a turreted octagonal top.
The station was designed by Sir William Tite in 1847 and completed in 1848. Tite was a pioneering railway architect who designed stations for the Caledonian Railway between 1847 and 1850. His work for the company came to an abrupt end with a big fall-out and he had to go to court in 1851 to recover his professional fees.
Carlisle Citadel Station was a joint station, built for four different companies. It accommodated traffic from the Caledonian Railway and the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway, which linked up to provide the northernmost part of waht is now the West Coast Main Line.
Clock tower at Carlisle Station, Cumbria
The southern terminal of the West Coast Main Line is Euston Station in London, which was built in 1837 before the adoption of Greenwich Mean Time as the standardised railway time.
When the station opened it had a �Master Regulator Clock� which was used to set the guards' chronometers, which in turn synchronised the clocks at the various stations en route.
Euston Station, which was the earliest inter-city station in London, was redeveloped in the early 1960's when its Victorian charm was lost forever.
Rather than a clock tower, visitors to the station were greeted by a huge Doric portico, the Euston Arch, which was designed by Philip Hardwick as a symbolic gateway from the metropolis.
Monumental Arch at Euston Station, London, demolished 1961
After the Euston Arch was dismantled in 1961, the gates were preserved and can now be seen at the National Railway Museum in York.
The ornamnental iron gates for Euston Arch
The elaborate cast iron gates for the Doric portico were fabricated by J.J. Bramah. Although the gates look quite large on display, old photographs show them to be dwarfed by the huge structure which once surrounded them.
There are however two railway clock towers to be found at the other mainline stations in Euston Road, which were developed later. The clocks at St Pancras and Kings Cross Stations are still there to inform travellers of the time when rushing for their trains.
Clock tower at St Pancras Station, London
The clock tower at St Pancras Station in London was constructed with red brick and stone from the English Midlands, transported to the site by railway.
The tower formed part of the Midland Grand Hotel, which fronted the station. It was designed by George Gilbert Scott, a champion of the Victorian Gothic Revival style of architecture.
The Midland Grand Hotel was completed in 1873. The use of contrasting shades of building materials allowed Scott to fully develop his polychromatic colour scheme for the building.
Clock tower at Kings Cross Station, London
The clock tower at Kings Cross is much plainer than its other big city rivals. The simplicity of the design and the use of plain brick gives it a modern feel not usually associated with Victorian clock towers.
The station was completed in 1852 with a frontage very much as it is today, centred on the clock tower with two huge glazed arches either side. The architect of the station was Lewis Cubitt.
Clock tower at Marylebone Station, London
The clock tower at Marylebone Station in London has a polychromatic colour scheme like St Pancras, although its overall shape is more akin to the Scottish clock towers than to others in London. The architect was Robert. W. Edis, who topped the tower with a delicate copper crown.
The tower was built as the centrepiece of the Great Central Hotel, one of the most opulent of London's many railway hotels. Both the station and the hotel opened for business in 1899.
After World War II the hotel served as the headquarters of the nationalised British Railways Board until 1991, after which it reverted to its original purpose as a luxury hotel. The Great Central Hotel has been known as the Landmark Hotel since 1995.
Between the station and the hotel there was an elaborate cast-iron canopy to protect visitors from the elements. This �porte-coch�re� was restored and brought back into use in 1993.
Clock at Victoria Station, London
The enormous clock at the entrance to Victoria Station in London is surrounded by elaborate sculptures. The carved white limestone contrasts beautifully with the red sandstone of the building below and the black slate of the roof.
It was constructed in 1907 as part of the rebuilt Grosvenor Hotel at the station entrance for the Brighton line. The reconstruction of the station and the hotel was managed by Charles Morgan, the London Brighton & South Coast railway company's chief engineer.
Clock at Waterloo Station, London
The clock at Waterloo Station on the south bank of the River Thames is placed above the station entrance, which was built as a war memorial. The Victory Arch was part of the station's external reconstruction carried out between 1919 and 1922, shortly after the end of the Great War.
The clock is surrounded by a bronze sculpture, which could either be viewed as a sunburst or an exploding bomb.
Waterloo is the largest and busiest station in London and in the whole of the U.K.
Clock tower at Temple Meads Station, Bristol
The clock tower at Temple Meads Railway Station in Bristol was built in the 1870's when the station was expanded. The tower was designed by Matthew Digby Wyatt in the style of a castle, complete with battlements.
The clock tower at Scarborough Station on the Yorkshire coast was part of a later addition to the original station which had opened for business in 1845.
The richly decorated tower, which was completed in 1882, is topped with a leaded dome and provides a very interesting landmark in this beautiful seaside town. The tower was designed by William Bell, chief architect of the North Eastern Railway, and the clock was supplied and fitted by Potts of Leeds in 1884.
Clock tower at Scarborough Station, Yorkshire
Botanic Gardens Station, Glasgow, was designed by the prolific local architect, James Miller in a highly ornamental style to match its surroundings. It opened in 1896 and closed permanently in 1939. The station building survived until 22 March 1970 when it was destroyed by fire.
The outstanding feature of the station were the two identical clock towers topped by oriental style gilded domes.
Clock tower at former Botanic Gardens Station, Glasgow
Connolly Station in Dublin, Ireland, was originally known as Amiens Street Station when it opened in 1844. The central entrance has an unusual Italianate clock tower designed by local architect, William Deane Butler.
Clock tower at Connolly Station, Dublin
On the other side of the Atlantic they have railroad stations rather than railway stations and the finest of them all is the Grand Central Terminal in New York City.
Situated among the skyscrapers of Manhattan there would be no point in having a clock tower, so the grandeur of the place is expressed by a sculptural composition completed in 1914.
On 42nd Street, at the entrance to the largest station in the world, travellers are greeted by beautiful sculptures of Mercury, Hercules and Minerva designed by Jules-Felix Coutan.
The centrepiece of the composition is an elaborate clock decorated by Tiffany, the famous New York jewellers.
Clock at Grand Central Terminal, New York City
Clock at Pennsylvania Station, New York City, demolished 1963
New York's other great railroad terminal, the Pennsylvania Station, lost its monumental clock in 1963 when the original station of 1910, designed by Charles McKim, was demolished.
The sculptural arrangement at the clock is themed on "Night and Day", with the lady on the left carrying little suns to represent daylight and the lady on the right looking out from the darkness of her garments. The statues, flanked by a pair of American eagles, were the work of German-American sculptor, Adolph Weinman.
Clock and sculpture at Union Station, Washington D.C.
The magnificent clock at Union Station, Washington D.C. is surrounded by sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, completed in 1908. The Roman centurions flanking the clock are part of a large group to be found in and around the station. With its grand design and lavish decoration, Union Station is a worthy rival for the Grand Central Terminal in New York City.
| i don't know |
In the fashion label FCUK, for what does the FC stand? | FCUK - What does FCUK stand for? The Free Dictionary
FCUK - What does FCUK stand for? The Free Dictionary
http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/FCUK
FCUK
French Connection United Kingdom (clothing brand)
Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us , add a link to this page, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content .
Link to this page:
French Connection loses contact with UK customers
Our sponsor, Lewis's, will show a selection of labels including Warehouse, Oasis, FCUK and Planet.
Copyright © 2003-2017 Farlex, Inc
Disclaimer
All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.
| French Connection |
Astrakhan stands on the River Volga, leading to the shores of which sea? | French Connection - Fashion Designer Encyclopedia - clothing, women, men, style, new, body, history, footwear, collection
French Connection - Fashion Designer Encyclopedia
French Connection - Fashion Designer Encyclopedia
British fashion house
Founded: in London by Stephen Marks, 1969. Company History: Introduced French Connection label, 1972; launched menswear collection, 1976; hired Nicole Farhi as designer, from 1978; introduced Nicole Farhi label, 1983; launched "fcuk" marketing campaign in Britain, 1997; debuted same campaign in U.S., 1999; expanded into lifestyle products through licensing, late 1990s and early 2000s; created first television/cinema advertising, 2000; acquired mail order company, Toast, 2000; opened San Francisco-based U.S. flagship, its 50th U.S. store, 2001; purchased all of its U.S. operations, 2001. Company Address: 60 Great Portland Street, London W1N 5AJ, England. Company Website: www.fcukinkybugger.com .
Publications
Bloomfield, Judy, "Nicole Farhi Strengthens U.S. Connection," in WWD, 28 September 1988.
Gordon, Maryellen, "French Connection's Broadway Debut," in WWD, 14 April 1993.
Fallon, James, "French Connection Clicks in U.S.," in WWD, 8January 1997.
——, "French Connection Profits Climb…," in DNR, 5 April 1999.
Cowen, Matthew, "TBWA Plans to Promote fcuk to a Wider Audience," in Campaign (UK), 1 September 2000.
Fallon, James, "French Connection to Buy Entire U.S. Business," in DNR, 21 February 2001.
Benady, David, "FCUK America," in Marketing Week, 22 March 2001.
Jardine, Alexandra, "Style Offensive," in Marketing (UK), 5 April 2001.
Young, Kristin, "French Connection United Kingdom Opening Flag-ship in San Francisco," in WWD, 16 July 2001.
***
French Connection was founded in 1969 by Stephen Marks with a range of tailored upmarket womenswear in traditional materials marketed under his own name. Marks recognized the need for a less expensive but carefully conceived womenswear collection for a broader market. Marks introduced the French Connection label in 1972 and four years later showed its first menswear collection.
The firm was one of the first British companies to address the market for well-designed, accessible men's casualwear, and soon expanded into both formal and informal clothes for men, women, and children. The childrenswear range, for children aged six to 16, began as a scaled-down version of the primary French Connection womenswear and menswear collections, using the same designs, fabrics, and sources of manufacture and including everything from t-shirts to tailored clothing. The lion's share of revenue, however, remained the menswear division which grew exponentially since its origination.
French Connection design studios were based at the company's headquarters at Bow, East London, and led by Nicole Farhi, who trained in Paris and worked for many major French and Italian companies before joining the firm in 1978. She was the designer in charge of the company's entire range, as well as having her own label. French Connection's design philosophy, in its own words, was to "always give its product that extra fashion content and value," for clothes "remarkable for their comfort and reliability, their continuing anticipation of fashion trends in fabrics, shape, lengths, and styles and their attention to detail."
Womenswear and menswear collections were produced in several annual collections, for summer and winter as well as mid-season ranges in between. These collections represented some 1,000 new designs each year, in a wide variety of fabrics, cuts, and styles from formal clothes to leisurewear. A summer collection for women, for example, might include the extremes of straps and Lycra in a salute to minimalism, while also featuring elegantly classic navy and white prints. A winter menswear collection "translates a look of understated distinction," while including "untraditional fabrics, colorful cables, and crunchy winter whites with primitive embroidery."
After nearly failing in the late 1980s, French Connection was once again one of the hottest and fastest growing brands in Britain during the late 1990s and early 2000s, thanks in large part to its controversial and suggestive marketing campaign, and subsequent rebranding under the "fcuk" logo. Thought the letters did represent the firm's initials (French Connection UK), it was controversial due to its use by porn purveyors on the Internet to get around censors.
Although the company creates apparel and accessories loved by young consumers, its growth was attributed to an aggressive marketing campaign, launched in 1997 using posters, print ads, and publicity to reach young consumers with slogans based on the new logo. The ads, as well as the company's website, attracted the notice of the UK's Advertising Standards Authority, resulting in some censorship, but more than enough publicity to make up for it. The campaign was so successful French Connection decided to rebrand itself under the "fcuk" name, creating packaging, hangtags, and store designs reflecting the logo and minimizing the French Connection name. As of 2001, the company had 60 stores in the England as well as 2,000 other outlets in the UK; its Oxford Street store in London boasted a banner with the words "the world's biggest fcuk."
French Connection has expanded through licensing into a wide variety of accessories and apparel as well as into other products such as home furnishings, footwear, health and beauty products, condoms, and alcoholic drinks. All are closely tied to the risqué corporate image, marketed under subbrands such as fcuk spirit, fcuk at home, fcuk spa, and fcuk vision. The goal is to become a lifestyle brand rather than simply a fashion retailer, as executives told In-Store Marketing in November 2000.
French Connection maintains its highest profile in the UK but has expanded across the world, especially into the U.S. market. It had been present in America for nearly 20 years, but its recognition factor was raised significantly when the "fcuk" advertising campaign came to the country in 1999. The advertising generated similar controversy in the U.S. as it did in the UK—albeit to a lesser extent—such as when New York cabbies refused to drive with the posters on their roofs and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani vocally protested the slogans.
French Connection launched a flagship store in San Francisco, patterned after its London flagship, in 2001, bringing the total number of stores to 50 in the U.S. and 150 around the world. After less-than-rosy results in its U.S. operations in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the firm purchased the remainder of its U.S. business (it had previously owned half) in February 2001, and prepared for a major expansion effort. In 2001, fcuk began its first nonprint advertising campaign, with its controversial positioning maintained, but in a slightly more subliminal way. According to Marketing (21 June 2001), the ads showed a couple kissing and whispering to each other with words beginning in "f, c, u" and "k." The woman's head then moves down the man's chest until it is invisible under the frame of the screen, and the man says, "FC you kinky bugger." The ad ends with a fcuk-logoed condom. The ad ran in cinemas in the UK because it was rejected for television; in the U.S., it ran on cable networks such as MTV.
The company's controversy-based strategy seemed to be working, as sales and earnings rose at a pace of 20 percent annually for several years, despite a lagging retail marketplace. The Nicole Farhi label also continues to be strong and the firm segued into mail order by purchasing a direct response company, Toast, which focused on home furnishings and women's apparel. Although marketing spurred French Connection's growth, its apparel and other products have kept customers coming back.
—DoreenEhrlich;
| i don't know |
In which country did the 1798 Battle of Vinegar Hill take place? | Castle Hill convict rebellion 1804
Castle Hill convict rebellion 1804
Castle Hill convict rebellion 1804
Anne-Maree Whitaker
The Castle Hill rebellion, which occurred in Sydney in 1804, originated in the 1798 Rebellion in Ireland. This rebellion has been described as one of the most concentrated episodes of violence in Irish history, with a death toll on all sides estimated at 30,000. In turn it grew from the seeds of the American Revolution of 1776 and the French Revolution of 1789. It was the first nationally organised rebellion in Ireland, and is generally considered the startof the modern phase of Ireland's struggle for self-government. The 1798 Rebellion culminated at the Battle of Vinegar Hill, outside Enniscorthy in County Wexford, although military and legal mopping-up operations continued until 1801. In the aftermath of the rebellion, 400 or more participants were transported to New South Wales.
The impact of the 1798 exiles in their destination was profound. In 1800, when the Minerva and Friendship arrived from Ireland, Sydney Town was a 12-year old settlement with a population of some 2,500, of whom 43 per cent were convicts. The combined population of Parramatta and Toongabbie was slightly under 1,500, of whom over two-thirds were convicts. The Hawkesbury was predominantly a free settlement, with convicts comprising only 13 per cent of its 1,100 residents. The military were mainly concentrated in Sydney, with small garrisons at the other settlements.
The Irish could scent the vulnerability of their place of exile, and as a result their rebelliousness continued. In New South Wales it was coupled with the desire to escape, return to their homeland and assist in the anticipated renewal of rebellion. There were disturbances throughout 1800: in February a seditious gathering was broken up in Sydney, and in May another plot was reported. In September and October further conspiracies were investigated, and supposed participants flogged or sent to Norfolk Island. In December, a plot on Norfolk Island was forestalled by the execution of two of its leaders.
More ships arrived from Ireland – the Anne in 1801, followed by the Atlas I, Atlas II and Hercules in 1802. Each of them brought more veterans of the 1798 Rebellion, and more news of continuing unrest in the Irish countryside. On Sunday 22 January 1804 a whaling ship arrived in Sydney: the Ferret, five months out of London, with newspapers as recent as 22 August 1803. These brought first reports of the new uprising in Dublin, led by Robert Emmet.
Rebellion at Castle Hill
Exactly six weeks after New South Wales first heard of Emmet's failed insurrection, on Sunday 4 March 1804, the Irish prisoners at Castle Hill staged a rebellion. The sun set at 6.28 pm, and the rebels made their move at seven o'clock as darkness fell. The house of one of the leaders at Castle Hill was set alight as a signal that the rising had begun.
The 200 convicts at Castle Hill were guarded only by a few convict constables, most of whom joined the rising. Led by Philip Cunningham, a former United Irish captain and recruiting officer, now overseer of Government stonemasons, the convicts raided all the houses in Castle Hill for weapons. Then Cunningham gathered them together and gave a rousing speech: he assured the prisoners that Sydney and Parramatta were ready to be taken, and that after scouring the settlements for arms he would lead them to the Hawkesbury, where they would form a combined force of 1,100 men. This army would return to Castle Hill on Tuesday morning for breakfast, and then proceed to capture Parramatta. After planting a Tree of Liberty at Government House, the rebels would go to Sydney where they would embark on the ships which would be waiting for them. He ended with the rallying cry, 'Now, my boys, Liberty or Death!' Cunningham then led them to the top of a nearby hill, where they divided into parties to raid the surrounding settlements for more arms and volunteers.
Shortly after 9 pm, word of the rising reached Parramatta. The settlers believed their plan was to draw most of the garrison of 50 out of the barracks and enable the rebels to take the arsenal it contained. Instead the main group of rebels assembled on Constitution Hill at Toongabbie. The crest of the hill, three and a half kilometres north-west of Parramatta across the Government Domain, provided a panoramic view, enabling the rebels to see anyone approaching with torches from Sydney or Parramatta. Equally, any fires on the hill were visible from a great distance. It was a spot well chosen to create an intimidating presence and ensure the rebels had early warning of any large-scale troop movements overnight. In addition it dominated the road between Parramatta and the Hawkesbury.
The authorities respond
The general alarm was given in Sydney town at 11.30 pm with the firing of cannons and the beating of drums. At midnight Major George Johnston of the New South Wales Corps was awakened by a trooper at his home in Annandale and told that the governor was on his way. Shortly afterwards Governor King rode up with word that 500 to 600 Croppies were in arms and that troops were on their way from Sydney. At 1.30 am a company of 55 soldiers arrived at Annandale, where Major Johnston took command and led them to Parramatta. The Governor arrived at Parramatta at four o'clock and announced the imminent arrival of Major Johnston and 100 soldiers. The sun rose on 5 March at 5.46 am, so it was not long after five o'clock when Major Johnston reached the Parramatta barracks 'at the dawn of the day'.
The troops then divided. Lieutenant Davies led half of them north towards Castle Hill. The other half under Major Johnston headed west to the rebel camp at Toongabbie. When he reached the camp, Johnston was told that 400 rebels were on the top of Constitution Hill. He sent an advance guard of five soldiers and six or eight settlers armed with muskets along the Hawkesbury Road to flank the rebels, while he and Quartermaster Laycock led the remaining 20 troops and nearly 40 armed volunteers up the hill. They found that the rebels had retreated towards the Hawkesbury. After a forced march through the night, the troops now faced a pursuit on a day which was 'intensely hot'. Johnston and Trooper Thomas Anlezark rode ahead while the main party proceeded on foot. After a chase of 16 kilometres Johnston finally received word that the rebels were less than two kilometres ahead. It was about 10.30 am on Monday 5 March.
Demands and defeat
Johnston and Anlezark galloped after the rebels and asked to speak to their leaders. The estimated rebel force of 250 called to Major Johnston to come among them. He replied that he was within pistol shot so was no threat, and their commanders should come out and speak to him. Eventually after some delay Philip Cunningham and William Johnson advanced from the rebel lines. Major Johnston told them he wanted to avoid bloodshed and offered to bring Father Dixon to speak to them. Their response was a modification of the usual slogan: 'Death or Liberty, and a ship to take us home'. Major Johnston rode back to the advancing troops and returned with Father Dixon to the rebels who were forming into a line on the 'second hill this side of the last Halfway Pond' under the command of Johnson and Cunningham. Major Johnston called for the two men he had spoken to earlier to come forward again. Major Johnston, apparently unarmed, renewed his call for them to surrender, Father Dixon adding his own appeal to avoid bloodshed. The reply was the same as before.
At that moment, however, Quartermaster Laycock and his force came into view. With the rebels distracted, Major Johnston produced a pistol he had concealed in his sash and clapped it to the head of one of the rebel leaders, telling him he would 'blow his soul to hell'. Trooper Anlezark did the same to the other. Retreating with his captives, Johnston ordered the troops to open fire and charge. Firing commenced on both sides, although the rebels offered little resistance and soon scattered and ran. In the initial stages, nine rebels were killed at the Last Pond, many wounded and seven prisoners taken. Soon after, three more were killed and another 19 captured. There is no report of any deaths or injuries among the soldiers and their volunteer supporters. The rebels were pursued in all directions until an 'excessive dark' night fell.
In the aftermath, nine rebels were executed and some 30 were exiled to the Coal River (Newcastle) chain gang. Many were also flogged or placed in irons.
The location of Sydney's Battle of Vinegar Hill remained contentious until research by local historian Kevin Moore was confirmed by a Commission of Inquiry in 1982. The site in Castlebrook Memorial Park, Rouse Hill, is marked by a memorial designed by Vladimir Sitta and Ivan Polak and unveiled in 1988.
References
Kevin Moore, 'Behind Vinegar Hill', Blacktown and District Historical Society Quarterly Journal, March 1982
Kevin Moore, 'The Road to Vinegar Hill', Blacktown and District Historical Society Quarterly Journal, vol 2, no 4, December 1981
Objections made to the proposal to make a permanent conservation order in respect of land in the vicinity of Windsor Road at the Second Ponds Creek as being a site associated with the Battle of Vinegar Hill, Proposed Permanent Conservation Order No 192, report by Commissioner of Inquiry Charles O'Connell, Sydney, 1982
Official Program, 200th Anniversary of the Castle Hill Rebellion and the Battle of Vinegar Hill, Blacktown City Council, Blacktown NSW, 2004
Anne-Maree Whitaker, Unfinished Revolution: United Irishmen in New South Wales 1800–1810, Crossing Press, Sydney, 1994
| Ireland |
In which state is Lewiston, the furthest inland seaport on the west coast of America? | Some insight inot the Castle Hill district an uprising of Irish rebels at Toongabbie known as the Vinegar Hill uprising.
Following the 1798 rebellion in Ireland, nine convict ships left Ireland and England in 1800 arriving the
same year in Sydney Cove. Of the 1070 convicts on board, 780 were political Irish exiles. Elizabeth Paterson whose husband, was at the time Governor, expressed in a letter to home her fears. She wrote the following, " I fear they will be a troublesome lot, I cannot say I like the colony near so well as I did before they arrived ".
By 1803 more than 25% of convicts were Irish, this vastly out numbered the military. The colony
became a very uneasy place. The Irish convicts became uneasy with their English guards and eventually became rebellious.
Problems began in February of 1804. The Irish convicts began to talk of rebellion. This was confessed by a
dying leader William Johnson to Reverend Samuel Marsden. Their intention was to take control of the badly guarded settlement of Castle Hill, take as many weapons as they could gather and meet with convicts at Parramatta, following which they would all march on Sydney, steal a ship and sail out of Australian waters. Their communication was poor,they set a pass word for the uprising " Saint Peter " which was to be used as the signal to begin the rebellion. However no evidence has been found confirming the password was ever used.
One convict. " Keogh " had caught wind of the impending rebellion and promptly reported this to
the Parramatta Barracks
At 7pm on the 4th of March 1804 the rebellion began in a convicts house at Castle Hill . To announce
the beginning they set fire to this house ,then ran from house to house seizing what they could before burning it to the ground. Phillip Cunningham called to his fellows "Now my Boys Liberty or Death" .With this cry they marched on Parramatta. They came across the Government flogger " Duggin" they attacked and beat him to within an inch of life. Finding kegs of rum, the rebels began to drink. The rebels became known as " The croppies "
The rebels reached the Parramatta Government Farm and over powered the Military Guards, seized the
guards weapons and armed themselves against the military. The rebels left the prison farm and headed towards the Hawksbury area in the hope of seizing a ship and returning to Ireland. As they marched the rebels gathered more recruits and weapons on the way and confiscated any Rum Barrels they could find. The Rum was consumed as soon as it was seized.
Governor King learned of the rebellion at midnight and issued orders for the immediate mobilisation of the
New South Wales Corps. With the mobilisation of the corps, Sydney was left virtually unprotected. The alarm was raised on board the ship "HMS Calcutta". in turn 140 seaman and marines were placed on alert. The New South Wales Corps were to be sent to the area and quell the uprising. King declared marshal law throughout the colony. Two officers and only 52 privates were despatched to the area. Under the command of Major Johnston the detachment arrived at Parramatta at 1:30am on March the 5th 1804, where one further officer and 14 privates added to their strength. One detatchment marched to Castle Hill while the other marched to Toongabbie. The rebels were in neither spot.
The soldiers pursued the rebels for another 10 miles before catching them at a small knoll. This knoll was
to be known as Vinegar Hill ,so named after the rebel battle of Wexford six years prior.
It is interesting to "note" Phillip Cunningham and William Johnston under the flag of truce, met with Major
George Johnston at Vinegar Hill. It would have been the intention to discuss options open to both sides, keeping in mind that the flag of truce is intended to afford safe passage and safe discussion until such time both parties separate and return to their ranks. Once the return is carried out the truce is broken and battle or surrender begins.
Phillip Cunningham uttered the words to Major Johnston " Death or Liberty".
It was with this statement that Major Johnston captured William Johnston and Trooper Anlezark captured Phillip Cunningham. Both men were forced to the Military Ranks. Major Johnston ordered his men to charge and open fire.
As the battle began William Johnston and Phillip Cunningham were lead to the rear . According to an
eyewitness named John Byrne, Quartermaster Laycock drew his sword and stuck Phillip Cunningham on the left side of the head. Reasons for his act of aggression against a prisoner have never been made clear as they have never been recorded in any official reports.( Laycock was known to have had a violent temper & had been in trouble for a similar act of aggression against a settler) Cunningham was left for dead and was not recovered until the next morning in such a state that he was only just still alive.
Major Johnston declared that the just alive Cunningham should hang from the stair case of the Public
stores at Greenhill's. Phillip Cunningham was subsequently hung without any trail from this place.
Another item omitted from the official reports is that Major Johnston had to threaten his own men with
death by holding his loaded pistol and aiming it at his troops. This threat was to prevent the murder of captured rebels. The soldiers and military had in a sense been out of control.
The following is a factual report written to Lieutenant Colonel Patterson by Major Johnston
Major Johnston to Lieutenant-Colonel Patterson
Headquarters, Sydney
9th March 1804
"Sir, - I beg leave to aquatint you that about half-past 1 o'clock on Monday morning last I took the command of my detachment marched from headquarters accompanied by Lieutenant Davis consisting of two officers, two sergeant, and 52 rank and file of the New South Wales Corps and by his Excellency Governor King's orders, I proceeded immediately to Parramatta, where we arrived at the dawn of day. I halted at the barracks about 20 miles to refresh my party, and then marched to the Government House, and agreeable to his Excellency's orders, divided my detachment , giving Lieutenant Davis the command of half and taking Quartermaster Laycock and the other half, with one trooper, myself, having the Governor's instruction to march in pursuit of the rebels, who, in number about 400, were on the summit of the hill. I immediately detached a corporal, with four privates and about six inhabitants, armed with muskets, to take them in the flank whilst I proceeded with the rest up the hill, when I found the rebels had marched on for the Hawksbury, and after a pursuit of about ten miles I got sight of them. I immediately rode forward, attended by the trooper Mr Dixon, the Roman Catholic Priest, calling them to halt, That I wished to speak to them. They desired I would come in the middle of them, as their Captains were there, which I refused, observing to them that I was in pistol shot, and it was in their power to kill me, upon which two persons advance towards me as their leaders, to whom I represented the impropriety of their conduct, and advised them to surrender, and I would mention them in as favourable terms as possible to the Governor. Phillip Cunningham replied they would have death or liberty. Quartermaster Laycock with the detachment just then appeared in sight, I clapped my pistol to William Johnson's head, whilst the trooper did the same to Phillip Cunningham and drove them with there swords in hand to the Quartermasters and the detachment, whom I ordered to advance and charge the main body of the rebels then formed in line. The detachment immediately commenced a well-directed fire, which was weakly returned, for, the rebel line was soon broken, they ran in all directions. We pursued them a considerable way, and have no doubt but many of them fell. We have found 12 killed, and 6 wounded, and have taken 26 prisoners.
Any encomiums I could pass on Quartermaster Laycock and the detachment I have the honour to command would fall far short of what their merit entitles them to, and I trust their steady perseverance, after a fatiguing march of up to 45 miles, to restore order and tranquillity will make their service acceptable. Return of arms taken from the rebels; 26 muskets, 4 bayonets on poles, 8 reaping hooks, 2 swords, a fowling piece, and a pistol.
The consequences of the rebellion were severe, Phillip Cunningham and 9 others were hung .
Many were severely flogged. The rest sent to various places to stop another uprising from ever re-occurring. This ended the only convict uprising on the mainland.
During our research we believe we may have identified those soldiers who were in Johnsons detatchment. It is more than likely some were the soldiers who pursued the rebels. Following is a list of these men.
Marched from Sydney
Drummers , Nathaniel GRIFFIN, , . Samuel Richards , .
Privates , Robert ANDERSON, , . Joseph AXTELL , . Samuel BAXTER , . Felix BEARCROFT , . Gregory BELLOW , . George BENSON , . James BRACKENRIG , , . John BRADBURY , . James BRADOCK , . James BULL , . Thomas BURNE , . John BUTTLER , . Charles CARTEY , . Henry COLE , . Michael COLLINS , . Samuel COOLLEY , . William CORNICK , . Frederick COYLE , . CUPIT George , . Peter DARGIN, (also Dargan) , . James DAVIDSON , . John DAVIS , . Michaehl DINAN , . George GORDON , . George GORE , . John HADOCKS , . Richard HARDING , . William, KING , , . John LAWRENCE , . eorge LAWSON , . Jeremiah LEARY , . Edward LOVEDAY , . James MANNING , . George MELLIN , . Charles MELLON , . William MITCHEL , . Joseph MOORE , . George MORRISON , . Michael MURRY , . John NEVAN , . William PARKER , . James PLOWMAN , . John PRICE , . Luke RALPH , . Richard LAWRENCE , . James RICHARDSON , . Patrick SEXTON , . William WATKINS , . Thomas WHITTLE , . William WILKINS, . James WILKINS , .
"NOTE" the soldiers below have been confirmed as taking part in the battle
| i don't know |
Which Venetian artist, real name Jacopo Robusti, painted “The Origin of the Milky Way”? | Tintoretto - The complete works
Contact
Self portrait
Jacopo Tintoretto (real name Jacopo Comin; September 29, 1518 - May 31, 1594) was one of the greatest painters of the Venetian school and probably the last great painter of the Italian Renaissance. In his youth he was also called Jacopo Robusti, as his father had defended the gates of Padua in a rather robust way against the imperial troops. His real name "Comin" has only recently been discovered by Miguel Falomir, the curator of the Museo del Prado, Madrid, and was made public on the occasion of the retrospective of Tintoretto at the Prado in 2007. Comin translates to the spice cumin in the local language.
For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso, and his dramatic use of perspectival space and special lighting effects make him a precursor of baroque art.
| Tintoretto |
Frederictown is the capital of which Canadian province? | Tintoretto Oil Painting - Oil Painting Reproductions & Tintoretto Art - Artisoo.com
Tintoretto
Tintoretto Oil Paintings
Tintoretto - Jacopo Robusti (real name Jacopo Comin) was one of the greatest painters of the Venetian school and probably the last great painter of the Italian Renaissance. In his youth he was also called Jacopo Robusti, as his father had defended the gates of Padua in a rather robust way against the imperial troops. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso, and his dramatic use of perspective space and special lighting effects make him a precursor of baroque art.
He was born in Venice in 1518, as the eldest of 21 children. His father, Giovanni, was a dyer, or tintore; hence the son got the nickname of Tintoretto, little dyer, or dyer's boy. Little is known about his life.
In childhood Jacopo, began daubing on the dyer's walls; his father, noticing his bent, took him to the studio of Titian to see how far he could be trained as an artist. He is said to have trained very briefly with Titian, but the style of his immature works suggests that he may also have studied with Schiavone, Paris Bordone, or Bonifazio. He spent all his life in Venice and. He appears to have been unpopular because he was unscrupulous in procuring commissions and ready to undercut his competitors.
He studied from models of Michelangelo's Dawn, Noon, Twilight and Night, and became expert in modeling in wax and clay method which afterwards stood him in good stead in working out the arrangement of his pictures. By 1539 he was painting pictures composed in a traditional Venetian manner with the figures arranged parallel to the picture plane and unlinked by any strong movement or variation in the arrangement. He was a formidable draughtsman and, he had inscribed on his studio wall the motto `The drawing of Michelangelo and the color of Titian'. However, he was very different in spirit from either of his avowed models -- more emotive, using vivid exaggerations of light and movement. His drawings, unlike Michelangelo's detailed life studies, are brilliant, rapid notations, bristling with energy, and his color is more sombre and mystical than Titian's.
For the Scuola della Trinity he painted four subjects from Genesis. Two of these, are "Adam and Eve" and the "Death of Abel", both noble works of high mastery, which leave us in no doubt that Tintoretto was by this time a consummate painter - one of the few who have attained to the highest eminence in the absence of any formal training.
Towards 1546 Tintoretto painted for the church of the Madonna dell'Orto three of his leading works: "Worship of the Golden Calf", the "Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple", and the "Last Judgment".
In 1548 he was commissioned for four pictures in the Scuola di S. Marco: the "Finding of the body of St Mark in Alexandria", the "Saint's Body brought to Venice, a Votary of the Saint delivered by invoking him from an Unclean Spirit", and the highly and justly celebrated "Miracle of the Slave". The last presents one of the chief glories of the Venetian Academy.
Tintoretto enormous labor and profuse self-development in the Scuola di S. Rocco may almost be regarded as a shrine reared by Tintoretto. Works done there are: "Crucifixion", the "Plague of Serpents"; and ceiling with pictures of the "Paschal Feast" and "Moses striking the Rock".
Of pupils Tintoretto had very few. His two sons and Martin de Vos of Antwerp were among them. There are reflections of Tintoretto to be found in the Greek painter of the Spanish Renaissance El Greco, who likely saw his works during a stay in Venice.
He was seized with an attack in the stomach. He died in 1594.
Read More
| i don't know |
In “Keeping Up Appearances”, who played Onslow? | Coronation Street actor Geoffrey Hughes dies - Telegraph
TV and Radio
Coronation Street actor Geoffrey Hughes dies
Geoffrey Hughes, who played Eddie Yeats in Coronation Street and Onslow in Keeping Up Appearances, has died from prostate cancer aged 68.
By Adam Lusher
Hughes, who grew up in Liverpool, died on Friday night.
He joined Coronation Street in 1974 as Eddie Yeats, a character with a criminal past.
Geoffrey Hughes as Eddie Yeats in Coronation Street in 1977
In between further brushes with the law, Yeats went into partnership with Stan Ogden in his window cleaning business, and had a short-lived curtain-making venture with Hilda Ogden.
He also tried to sell shoddy goods to his neighbours on numerous occasions.
Related Articles
The Nativity as an asylum seekers' tale
17 Nov 2007
Hughes ceased to be a Coronation Street regular in 1983, but made a brief final appearance as Yeats in 1987.
He first appeared on Keeping Up Appearances in 1990, playing Onslow, the lovable slob and brother-in-law of Hyacinth Bucket.
To the dismay of the socially climbing Bucket, Onslow lived in a scruffy council house with a rusting Hillman Avenger in in the front garden
Geoffrey Hughes as Onslow in Keeping Up Appearances PA
In real life, however, Hughes enjoyed sailing, golf and cricket, and in 2009 he was appointed Deputy Lieutenant for the Isle of Wight.
In 2010 Hughes was rushed to hospital for intense radiotherapy after collapsing at his Isle of Wight home.
Hughes had thought he had beaten prostate cancer the previous year, but the actor and his wife Sue were given the news the disease had returned.
Hughes, who publicly supported cancer charities, first appeared in 1960s classics such as Z-Cars and The Likely Lads and was the voice of Paul McCartney in the Beatles film The Yellow Submarine.
Other roles included Vernon in Heartbeat and Uncle Keith in teen drama Skins.
Hughes also guest-starred in episodes of Doctor Who, Casualty, Boon and The Upper Hand.
William Roache, the long-serving Coronation Street star who plays Ken Barlow in the soap, said: "I am so sorry to hear about Geoffrey. He was a warm, lovable actor, with great comedy timing.
"He will be greatly missed, one of the Street's memorable characters."
A Coronation Street spokeswoman said: "We are very sad to hear of the death of Geoffrey Hughes.
"He created a legendary and iconic character who will always be part of Coronation Street.
"Everyone connected with the programme send our sincerest condolences to his family."
Anne Kirkbride, who plays Deirdre Barlow, said: "The rainbow must have been for him. RIP Geoff. Really sad xx"
Charlie Condou, who plays Marcus Dent in the soap wrote: "The wonderful Geoffrey Hughes has lost his battle with cancer. RIP and thanks for all the laughs x".
Mathew Horne, the star of the sitcom Gavin and Stacey, also paid tribute to Hughes, tweeting: "Sad to hear of Geoffrey Hughes passing. Onslow was the original LAD."
| Geoffrey Hughes |
On TV what did Dilithium crystals power? | News index
The series ran from 1990-93 and again in 1995.
A total of 44 episodes were made. This includes 4 Christmas specials.
Onslow (Geoffrey Hughes) Played in the earlier series of Coronation Street.Click here for a picture of Onslow meeting the Queen!
Sheridan is never seen in the series.
The writer of the series (Roy Clarke) has retired from the BBC.
There were two actresses who played Rose.
There are no plans to film any more episodes of the show.
Though shown on PBS in the States, the show enjoys Prime time network spots in Australia.
The Vicar (Jeremy Gittins) once played Lazlo on an episode of Dr. Who in 1981.
The Postman (Micheal) only has his name mentioned one time in the series.
Violets husband is a bookmaker.
Onslow wears a Green Bay Packers T-shirt only in the last season. Emmit has also appeared to loose a lot of weight in these episodes. (Frank E. Liebmann)
Richard also appeared on Dr. Who. The Doctor Who episode Richard (Clive Swift) was in was Revolution of the Daleks. It was Adventure #142 from 1986. The Doctor was Colin Baker. Clive played a character named Jobel. (Frank E. Liebmann)
Richard is forced into retirement. I beleive he's retired for the last two seasons. (Frank E. Liebmann)
The signature tune was written by Nick Ingman
Actors and actresses from the show can be reached at the following address. Please remember to be polite in any correspondence, courtesy is the key to continued replies from the cast.
(Actors name)
England
Patricia Routledge is now starring in the television murder mystery 'HETTIE WAINTHROPP INVESTIGATES'.
Judy Cornwall (Daisy) played one of the cannibalistic Rezzies in the 1987 Dr. Who story "Paradise Towers". Sylvester McCoy was the Doctor. (Shane Hill)
David Griffin's other famous role was in David Croft's 'Hi De Hi!' as Sqrn. Leader Clive Dempster DFC. (T Coward)
Daisy and Onslo's daughter is named Stephanie and their grandaughter is called Kylie.
Hyacinth's favourite authoress is Dame Barbara Cartland
Hyacinth and Richard live on Blossom avenue.
Hyacinths invitations measure 6" X 4".
Richards job title before retirement was Deputy Manager of Finance and General Services.
Hyacinth's Royal Daulton cups and saucers were once valued at 20 pounds by Maxwell, Nixon and Kray.
Hyacinth has eight photo albums of Sheridan.
Richard and Hyacinth honeymooned in Weston-super-Mare.
Hyacinth believe Richards favourite hobby is gardening.
Roy Clarke also wrote, 'Open all hours' and 'Last of the summer wine'.
Sheridan is studying to be a Quantity Surveyor at the polytechnic.
Anna Dawson, who played Violet, was Benny Hill's female sidekick on "The Benny Hill Show" in mid-to-late 80's episodes of his show. She was also in his final U.S. Special in 1992. (Bob)
Clive Swift was married to the author, Margaret Drabble, from 1960 till their divorce in 1975. They have three children. Her second book, 'The Garrick Year' sounds suspiciously autobiographical. The heroine has an actor husband who is something of a philanderer. Couldn't be Clive, could it?! (Carole Jackson)
Patricia Routledge has never married. (Carole Jackson)
John Inman (from "Are You Being Served?") and Josephine Tewson (from "Keeping Up Appearances") are not only friends, but also cousins! (Kim Tennison)
Geoffrey Hughes (Onslow) played "Popplewick" in the fourth installment of Dr. Who's "Trial of a Time Lord" (Colin Baker's last appearance as the Doctor). As a matter of fact, Popplewick was in reality the Valeyard, who was really an aberrant regeneration of the Doctor ... in short, we could say that "Onslow" actually portrayed the Doctor himself. (Charlotte Lieser)
The FH on Onslow's hat stands for Fulton Hogan Ltd., a New Zealand asphalt and roadbuilding company. When Geoffrey Hughes was there promoting a show, he was given that hat by one of the company's lorry drivers. (Carole Jackson)
St. Mark's Is the Bucket's Parish. (Matt Alderman)
David Janson, who occasionally plays the Mailman, replaced Richard Gibson in the role of Otto Flick in the last series of 'Allo 'Allo! (Bob Riemensnyder)
Michael is the vicar's first name. (Matt Alderman)
Emmet's last name is Hawksworth. (Matt Alderman)
The vicar rings his own church bells. (Matt Alderman)
Hyacinth usually gets people calling her, trying to get the Chinese take-away. (Matt Alderman)
Hyacinth wanted Richard to call the Chinese ambassador, which he did. (Matt Alderman)
Richard sometimes eats [at Hyacinth's ordering] an exclusive high-fiber breakfast cereal which the Dutch royal family also eats. (Matt Alderman)
In the Inspector Morse episode, 'The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn' (1986) Clive plays Dr. Bartlett, a quiet fellow with questionable viewing habits, suspected of murder. (Carole Jackson)
Josephine Tewson (Elizabeth) was once married to, and divorced from, the late Leonard Rossiter of "Rising Damp" and 'The rise and fall of Reginald Perrin" (Bridget Martin)
Judy Cornwall (Daisy) was born in Australia. Since working in Britain, she has only returned to her homeland once. (Matthew Leung)
Elizabeth's daughter is called Gail, who has a boyfriend called Harold. He is described as having a "first-class brain" by Elizabeth. (Matthew Leung)
David Griffin played Lt. Commander Mitchell aboard the submarine in the 1972 Doctor Who story "The Sea Devils." Jon Pertwee was the Doctor. (Shane Hill)
Davis Janson (the postman) was in "Get Some In" a sitcom screened in the early 70s about National Service. He also appeared in the Beatles' "Hard Day's Night" playing a street urchin who befriends Ringo. (Ian Pritchard)
Josephine Tewson (Elizabeth) stars in the Nabisco Fig Newtons commercial in the USA.
| i don't know |
Which writer published “Public Confessions of a middle aged woman aged 55 ¾? | Sue Townsend - Literature
Literature
Biography
Sue Townsend was born in Leicester in 1946 and left school at 15 years of age.
She worked in a variety of jobs including factory worker and shop assistant, joining a writers' group at the Phoenix Theatre, Leicester in her thirties. At the age of 35, she won the Thames Television Playwright Award for her play Womberang (published in Bazaar and Rummage, 1984) and started her writing career. Other plays followed including The Great Celestial Cow (1984), Ten Tiny Fingers, Nine Tiny Toes (1990), and most recently Are You Sitting Comfortably? but she has become most well-known for her series of books about Adrian Mole.
The first of these, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4 was published in 1982 and was followed by The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole (1984). These two books made her the best-selling novelist of the 1980s. They have been followed by several more in the same series including Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years (1993); Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction (2004); and most recently The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole, 1999-2001 (2008). The books have been adapted for radio, television and theatre, the first book being broadcast on radio in 1982, and Adrian Mole:The Wilderness Years (1993) and Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years (1999) also being serialised for radio. Sue Townsend also wrote the screenplays for television adaptations of the first and second books.
Several books have been adapted for the stage, including The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 3/4: the Play (1985), and The Queen and I: a Play with Songs (1994) which was performed by the Out of Joint Touring Company at the Vaudeville Theatre and toured Australia. The latter play is based on another of her books, in which the Royal Family become deposed and take up residence on a council estate in Leicester. Other books include Rebuilding Coventry (1988) and Ghost Children (1997).
In 2001, Sue Townsend published The Public Confessions of a Middle-Aged Woman aged 55 3/4 (2001), a collection of monthly columns written for Sainsbury's magazine from 1993-2001. Leicester University awarded her an Honorary MA in 1991.
Awards
Critical perspective
Sue Townsend has written a variety of novels and plays, but will always be most well-known for her character Adrian Mole, who quickly became a national treasure, along with his author and creator.
In The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ (1982) and The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole (1984), Adrian’s diaries detail, with delightful humour, the excruciating pains of teenage angst, while the later books chronicle the angst of young adulthood and, even later, approaching middle age. Adrian is neurotic, self-obsessed and takes himself far too seriously, yet he is also incredibly endearing and kind-hearted, and embodies the image of the classic British underdog, continually disappointed and frustrated, and feeling that others do not appreciate his unique and special qualities. His love life is disastrous and he never quite gets the girl of his dreams - Pandora Braithwaite, his classmate at school who comes from a more affluent family and later carves out a political career for herself. Above all, from adolescence to middle age, Adrian’s angst is about his self-identity, his purpose in life and the state of the society in which he lives - this is something everyone can relate to and, as such, makes him the ‘Everyman’ of modern Britain.
Adrian, like Townsend, is sharply observant, though his trains of thought often descend into the comically absurd (such as logically analysing why he thinks William Hague is the son of Margaret Thatcher). The author affectionately mocks her character’s sense of self-importance - he notices and analyses everything about himself and the world around him, has an opinion on everything and likes to consider himself an intellectual. He is acutely pre-occupied with himself and records every detail of his own thoughts and experiences, which enables Townsend to combine the trivial, the comic and the absurd with sections which are serious and poignant. For example, like most teenagers, he worries about spots, girls (particularly Pandora) and the size of his anatomy. Yet he must also endure the traumas of his parents’ tumultuous marriage and adulterous affairs. Although this is depicted with Townsend’s usual wit, there is an underlying seriousness and genuine emotion, along with a compassionate (but never sentimental) tone towards all the characters involved.
Yet, for all the poignant and hilarious personal detail, the Adrian Mole diaries offer the reader far more than the experience of one individual. Townsend’s greatest strength as a writer is her seemingly effortless ability to combine the personal with the wider social and political context. Her satirical social commentary is dry and witty, revealing her incredibly sharp and perceptive eye for detail through Adrian’s acute observations. It also offers a revealing and compassionate picture of the way in which socio-political matters affect the lives and mindsets of the ordinary person and the ordinary family. The early books therefore combine the fairly timeless issues of adolescent ups and downs with a telling commentary on Thatcher’s Britain in the 1980s, while the later works apply the same sharp satirical eye to New Labour in the 1990s and early twenty-first century, intertwined with Adrian’s worries about marriage, divorce, parenthood and career. Yet, despite Townsend’s penetrating vision, the tone of her work never descends into despair or pessimism.
Townsend’s later works follow the hapless Adrian Mole into adulthood. In Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years (1993), Adrian is surprised and frustrated that his novel, Lo! The Flat Hills of My Homeland is continually rejected by publishers, while in Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years (1999) his life has become a little more complicated: he has been abandoned by his Nigerian wife, and left as the single parent of three-year-old William Mole, along with an older son, Glenn Bott-Mole, from an earlier affair. Throughout his adulthood, Adrian has a diverse career, but in this novel he is a chef at Soho’s Hoi Polloi restaurant. This allows Townsend a gentle mockery of the celebrity chef culture which took off in the 1990s - Adrian somehow ends up on a television programme about offal, entitled Offally Good (Townsend is sometimes criticised for corny jokes and lack of subtlety). Meanwhile, the New Labour government takes the place of Thatcher as the subject of Townsend’s satire, particularly now that Pandora Braithwaite is flying high as one of ‘Blair’s Babes’.
Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction (2004) is noticeably edgier than its predecessors, both on a personal and a political level. As the title suggests, it focuses on the controversial Iraq war, in which Adrian’s elder son, Glenn Bott-Mole, is deployed, while at home Adrian is struggling with mounting debts. He continues his habit, started in his teens, of writing letters to famous people, correcting David Beckham’s grammar and offering fatherly advice to Tim Henman: ‘Forbid your fans from shouting out “Come on Tim!” It makes you sound as though you are coming fourth in the egg and spoon race at junior school.’ The novel’s darker tone, however, is evident in his - albeit amusing - letter to Tony Blair in which he asks for proof that Saddam Hussein’s weapons can hit Cyprus in 45 minutes.
The Lost Diaries of Adrian Mole, 1999-2001 (2008) returns to a slightly earlier period. This is not Townsend at her best - these diaries were originally published as a weekly column in The Guardian and, as such, there is a slightly disjointed feel to the book. There is also a lot of recycled material from earlier books, and some continuity errors. Nonetheless, Townsend’s satirical eye is a sharp as ever and, throughout all the Adrian Mole books, her skill in depicting his development from age 13 ¾ to approaching middle age is quite remarkable. In all the later books, his character, style and tone are recognisably the neurotic but endearing Adrian Mole who shot to fame and popularity in the 1980s - he still makes lists, worries about his sexual prowess (or lack of), overrates his intellectual abilities and notices and comments on absolutely everything. Many of the people and situations around him also remain the same - his mother continues to embarrass him with her promiscuous behaviour, while Adrian’s thoughts are forever preoccupied with the alluring Pandora who is always just out of reach. Perhaps the most noticeable difference in the later books is that Adrian Mole has proved himself to be a reliable and caring parent to his two sons. In this, as always, Townsend conveys poignant emotion without sentimentality.
Townsend has written several other novels, along with a few plays, though none have attained the iconic status of Adrian’s diaries. The novel Ghost Children (1997) is a rare serious work, offering a bleak and heartrending depiction of love, loss and betrayal, but apart from this, most of the other works contain the same brand of satirical humour that made Adrian Mole famous. The Queen and I (1992) depicts the Royal Family experiencing ‘how the other half live’ as a new Republican government evicts them from Buckingham Palace and sends them to live on a poverty-stricken housing estate. It was followed by a sequel, Queen Camilla (2006), in which the story is brought up-to-date by the presence of Prince Charles’ second wife. As in the Adrian Mole books, Townsend skilfully combines farcical humour and absurdity with serious social commentary - this time focusing on social inequality and class divisions. Yet, as always, her satirical mockery is intertwined with compassion, and her tone is never malicious - she is wholeheartedly against the monarchy as an institution, but is not unsympathetic to the royals as individuals. In these two books, Townsend’s tendency to feature strong women and weak-willed men is particularly noticeable. In The Queen and I, Prince Philip reacts to the dramatic change of circumstances by going to pieces, while the Queen exhibits an admirable stoicism. In the sequel, Camilla cheerfully makes the most of things, while her dithering husband absorbs himself in his organic vegetable garden.
In Number Ten (2002), it is the New Labour government that comes under Townsend’s satirical attack. This is less successful than the two monarchy novels, for its humour lacks subtlety (the Prime Minister is a thinly-disguised Tony Blair, named Edward Clare). Nonetheless, it is still an entertaining read, following a similar storyline in order to comment on the gulf between rich and poor - this time, the Prime Minister makes his own choice to disguise himself in order to mingle with the lower classes. Although Number Ten relies on somewhat caricatured images, it does offer an interesting perspective in revealing Edward Clare’s own unhappy childhood and deep insecurities. The novel therefore makes a perceptive comment on the psychology of power, suggesting the vulnerabilities that are often hidden behind ambition and success.
Elizabeth O’Reilly, 2009
| Sue Townsend |
Which breed of dog’s name translates as “badger hound”? | Sue Townsend — University of Leicester
2.00pm - 4.00pm Discover Sue Townsend
8 years up DROP IN ACTIVITY
Drop in to look at real documents and objects relating to Sue Townsend's life and fiction. Bring along your own small box of objects and documents that represent your life and find out how to use archives and interpret evidence.
Alex Cave, University Archivist
4.00 pm Sue Townsend
9 ¾ years upwards AUTHOR Question & Answer
Meet Leicester’s celebrated writer, Sue Townsend, in a question and answer session. This is a wonderful opportunity for all Adrian Mole fans to ask the author about the country’s most famous diarist, find out where she gets her inspiration and discover what it is like to be a best-selling writer.
Sue Townsend was born in Leicester in 1946 and continues to live in the city. In 1978 she joined a Writers Group at the Phoenix Art Centre in Leicester and her career as an author and playwright took off from there. Her first play, Womberang, won its author a Thames Television Bursary as Writer in Residence.
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 1/2 and its sequel, The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole were both number one bestsellers and made Sue Townsend the bestselling novelist of the 1980s. Three further volumes of the diary were to follow. Together the Mole diaries have sold over 8 million copies, have been adapted for radio, television, theatre and been translated into 34 languages. Her other novels include Rebuilding Coventry (1988), The Queen and I (1992), Ghost Children (1998) and Queen Camilla. A collection of her monthly columns for Sainsbury's Magazine was published in 2001 entitled Public Confessions of a Middle-aged Woman Aged 55 3/4. Sue Townsend is also the author of several stage and radio plays.
In 2008 she was awarded a Distinguished Honorary Fellowship by the University of Leicester, the highest accolade the University can bestow.
| i don't know |
Which sea bird found around the shores of Britain is a larger relative of the Shag? | New Zealand Sea and Shore Birds
There are so many unusual and beautiful birds in New Zealand that we've separated them by where they are most likely to be found, land or water, and made a page for each. Those that are found on lakes, rivers, estuaries, saltmarshes, swamps, along the shore and at sea are shown on this page.
Yellow-Eyed Penguin - Curio Bay
Native, found only in New Zealand. Endangered and one of the rarest penguins in the world. Unlike most penguins that live in colonies, among rocks or on snow and ice, pairs of yellow-eyed penguins prefer secluded forest and scrub to nest. They leave each morning at dawn to fish and return to the shore in late afternoon. Their yellow eyes enable them to see as they dive 40-90 meters in search of squid, red and blue cod. Can live 25 years.
Fiordland Crested Penguin - Ulva Island (moulting), Breaksea Sound (swimming)
Rare. Found only in New Zealand. Smaller than yellow-eyed penguin. Breeds and moults in dense coastal forest or in caves on rocky shores of southern NZ.
Blue Penguin - outside Whangaroa Harbour
Native. Common. Named for the blue-black color on the bird's back. The world's smallest penguin and NZ's most common penguin. The only penguin to breed on the North Island coasts. Hunts small squid, fish and octopus. Spends most of the year at sea but often comes ashore at night to rest. In August they come ashore to breed in burrows, caves, under driftwood and even under beach cottages. They usually nest near the coast but can travel a kilometer or more inland. Road signs warn motorists to watch out at night for birds crossing the road to reach their nests. Our books say they are usually spotted swimming on their own or in small groups. We've seen them many times and they are usually in pairs except at Paterson Inlet, Stewart Island where they swam in groups of a dozen or more birds.
Royal Spoonbill - Golden Bay
Native. Rare. Seen during the summer at tidal mudflats around the country. Feeds by sweeping its odd bill from side to side in the water gathering insects, fish and frogs.
Reef Heron - Dusky Sound, Fiordland
Uncommon. Native. Relatively short, yellow-green legs and a long heavy yellowish bill. Usually solitary or in pairs. Found in mangrove inlets, rocky shores, wave platforms and intertidal mudflats. Most common in Northland, uncommon in the south.
White-Faced Heron - Haruru River
Native. Very common. Flew to NZ from Australia but did not breed here until 1941. NZ's most common heron. Found in estuaries, rivers, lakes and farmland.
White Heron - Golden Bay
Native. Not common. Nests in trees only near Okarito on the West Coast of the South Island. During summer they spread to coasts and freshwater wetlands throughout the country but return to Okarito in August. Maori kept caged birds for plucking, the larger white wing feathers were worn by men in their hair and bunches of smaller wing feathers were worn in their ears. Can live 22 years
Pied Stilt - Dunedin
Native. Common. It feeds mostly at low tide standing on wet ground or shallow water in noisy flocks eating insects, worms and shellfish. If a person gets too close to a nest a parent bird may try to lure him away by pretending to be injured. Can live about 12 years.
New Zealand Pipit - Stewart Island
Native. Uncommon. Runs and walks jerkily, often flies a short distance ahead. Found mainly near coast on shingle riverbeds, gravel roads and scree slopes. Frequently flicks its long tail up and down.
Banded Dotterel - Stewart Island
New Zealand Dotterel - Roberton Island
Native, found only in New Zealand. Not common. Makes its nest on a sandy beach in a shallow dip in the sand just above high tide next to a small landmark like a plant or piece of wood. Walks or runs, then stops and pecks to feed. Declining numbers mean some breeding sites are fenced off to protect them from people and animals. Can live more than 30 years.
Kingfisher - Paihia
Native. Very common. More common on the North Island, it is often seen perched on wires, branches and fenceposts. It nests in a small tunnel in a clay bank or in a hole of a rotting tree. It begins the tunnel by flying into the bank or tree from a distance, ramming the earth or rotten wood with its bill outstretched.
Variable Oystercatchers - Urapukapuka
Variable Oystercatcher chick - Roberton Island
Native, found only in NZ. Common. Seen exclusively along the coast from sandy beaches to rocky shores. Half the birds in the northern North Island are pure black, but in the southern South Island almost all are black. Possibly for heat retention? Can live to 19 years.
Pied Oystercatcher - Golden Bay
Native. Common. Smaller than Variable Oystercatcher, it is common on estuaries, sandy beaches, farmland and riverbeds. Hammers or levers shellfish shells open with its long, strong bill. Oystercatchers warned Maori of coming storms. Can live over 27 years.
Pukeko - Tutukaka, Waitangi
Native. Common. Mainly a swamp bird, also found along roadsides and open farmland. Unafraid of cars and is often struck. Feathers were used by Maori to decorate traditional flax cloaks. Lives 9 years.
Banded Rail - Rainbow Springs, Rotorua
Native. Common in places. A secretive bird more often heard than seen. Lives and nests in saltmarshes, mangroves and some rush-covered freshwater swamps. Closely related to the weka.
Spotted Shag - Pt. Pegasus, Stewart I.
Native. Common in places. Breeding birds have a double crest curling forward, green facial skin and a pronounced white stripe along each side of neck. Non-breeding birds are less colorful and have yellow facial skin. Feathers of backs and wings are bronze with small black spots, unlike other shags.
Young Little Shag (top) Adult Little Shag (above)- Urapukapuka Island, White-throated phase Little Shag (below) - Greymouth
Native. Common. Shags are also known as cormorants. The young little shag is all black with a short, yellow bill while the adult has a white chest very similar to pied shag though slightly different markings on head and a shorter bill. They nest and spend nights in trees. Dive for fish, freshwater crayfish and frogs usually staying under for about 15 seconds. Can live more than 6 years.
Pied Shag and fledge - Haruru Falls to Waitangi Track
Native. Common in places. Larger than little shags. Found mostly near the coast. Dives for fish staying down 20-30 seconds. Large groups are often seen nesting in trees which can be damaged by crash-landing birds. Birds often rest with wings outstretched. Can live over 20 years.
Buller's Mollymawk - Stewart Island
NZ White-Capped Mollymawk - Stewart Island (top) Fiordland (bottom)
Mollymawks are small albatrosses. Still quite large, they have long narrow wings and short tails. Long heavy hook bill is covered with horny plates with nostrils in small tubes on the sides near the base. Soars gracefully on stiffly held wings and rarely flaps except when landing and taking off. Clumsy on ground. Generally oceanic, many follow fishing boats hoping for handouts. That's where we saw them.
Royal Albatross - Fiordland to Stewart I (top) Fiji to New Zealand passage (bottom)
Native, breeds only in NZ. Common in places. One of the largest flying birds in the world with a wingspan of over 3 meters. Rides circumpolar winds, feeds on squid in the seas off South America. Flies a route along the south of Africa and Australia and back to NZ. When a chick is ready to fly, it makes no practice flights, just steps off the cliff into the wind. It will not walk on land again for 3-6 years, spending more than 80% of its life at sea. Royal Albatross lock their wings in place using a special tendon and hardly beat their wings for thousands of kilometers. They fly at speeds up to 115 km/hr, swooping at more than 140 km/hr. One lived more than 62 years.
Northern Giant Petrel - passage from Fiordland to Stewart Island
Common. Native. 90 cm, 4.5 kg. Breeds circumpolar subantarctic including at Pt. Pegasus on Stewart Island. Rages widely though southern oceans and often seen in NZ waters.
White-faced Storm Petrel - Fiordland to Stewart Island passage (top) Tutukaka (bottom)
Common. Native. Flight is swift and agile, frequently changing direction. It flies low across the sea with rapid wingbeats interspersed with glides. It may patter, dance, run, skip and occasionally belly-flop on the surface.
Sooty Shearwater aka Muttonbird - Stewart Island
Abundant. Native. Breeds mainly around NZ on islands and mainland headlands with colonies off Stewart Island. A traditional food source (titi) for Maori. It is a tradition for Maori to travel by boat to the Titi Islands off Stewart Island to hunt titi with their families during the season. Unfortunately this involves crossing Foveaux Strait and several boats and quite a few lives have been lost over the years.
Fluttering Shearwater - near Cape Brett
Native. Common. Shearwaters are medium to large seabirds with long slender bill and nostrils encased in a short flattened tube. Most are dark above and white below but some are all dark. Many species form large feeding flocks usually flying close to the surface. Range from coastal to oceanic. Main NZ colonies breed at islands off Stewart Island and in the Foveaux Strait, Chatham Island and the Snares. They migrate to North Pacific.
Buller's Shearwater - Tasman Sea, South Island
Endemic. Common. Breeds only at Poor Knights Islands off the North Island but rages widely around NZ coast. Migrates to northern and eastern Pacific.
Australasian Gannet - Russell Island
Native. Common in places. Usually seen at sea or around harbors. These birds drop from the sky from heights of up to 30 meters, reaching speeds of 145 km, before hitting the water and diving to 8 meters. Just before breaking the surface, the bird retracts its wings and inflates shock cushions on its lower neck and chest as protection. In 1974 one dove into a car crossing the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Although it broke the windshield, the dead bird's head and neck survived the impact.
White-Fronted Tern - Abel Tasman Park
Native. Fairly common. When flying along with gulls in large flocks they fly close to the water and pick up fish driven to the surface by larger fish. If hunting alone it will hover then dive. Many fly across the Tasman Sea to winter in south eastern Australia. Can live more than 26 years.
Antarctic Tern - Pt. Pegasus, Stewart I.
Native. Locally common. Has black cap down to red bill and red legs. Thinner wings and more delicate than White-fronted tern. Breeds circumpolar subantarctic including southern Stewart Island.
Cape Pigeon - Tasman Sea outside Milford Sound
Common. Native. Often follows ships and gathers around fishing boats. Breeds circumpolar subantarctic and coast of Antarctica. Ranges widely throught southern oceans and common off NZ mainland. This gentle bird landed on Tenaya three times as we neared Milford Sound.
Black-Backed Gull - Urapukapuka Island
Native. Very common. The largest and most common of NZ's three sea gulls. Found nearly everywhere from the shoreline to far above timberline. Eats most anything, dead or alive, including new-born lambs and sick sheep. Even known to eat its own eggs and chicks. Maori tamed them for use as pest control because they eat large caterpillars which damaged crops. Sometimes tame birds are still used as snail abatement in city gardens. One of the few birds not protected in NZ. Can live to 28 years.
Red-Billed Gull - Opua
Native. Common. Often seen on or near the coast but occasionally found inland too. Near Rotorua the webbing between their toes may dissolve in the alkaline thermal waters. They are useful cleaners as they often feed on scraps from fishing boats, meat works, overflowing rubbish cans and around supermarkets. They can live at least 28 years.
NZ Scaup aka Black Teal - Lake Te Anau
Native. Not common. Found only in New Zealand. New Zealand's only diving duck, it dives without making a splash to more than three meters. Feeds on water plants and freshwater snails on the bottom of deep, clean lakes. Sees well underwater.
Brown Teal - Te Anau
Native. Very Rare. Found only in New Zealand. Birds have brown eyes with narrow white eye ring. Bill is blue-black. Confined mainly to Great Barrier Island though this bird was caged at Te Anau.
Grey Teal - Rainbow Springs, Rotorua
Native. Common in places. Much smaller than other ducks. Males and females are the same color. Found on lakes and estuaries. Can live 21 years.
Grey Duck - Catlins
Native. Common. Before the introduction of the mallard this was New Zealand's most common duck. Now grey ducks are found mostly on small shallow lakes and slow-moving rivers, usually in pairs. Can easily be confused with female mallards and often interbreeds with it. Male and female look the same. Can live at least 20 years.
Paradise Shelduck - Abel Tasman Park
Native, found only in NZ. Common. Large goose-like duck. They do not quack - males "klonk" and females "zeek". The young female and was "zeeking" loudly in the marina parking lot when I spotted her. The head and neck of adult females are all white. Paradise shelducks usually nest in a dip or hole in the ground or in a hollow log. Some nest in trees 25 meters up, a long leap for ducklings. Once able to fly, they may travel over 200 km from their birthplace but as adults they tend to stay in the same area. Pairs mate for life. Maori women wore the mottled feathers as pendants and necklaces and the birds were an important food for early Maori. Can live more than 23 years.
Mallards - Takapuna
Introduced. Very common. Male is more brilliantly colored. Found in park ponds, farms, rivers, estuaries and along sandy beaches. They love holiday parks! Can be tame enough to be fed by hand. Were first brought here for sport from Britain in the 1960's and later from the US. Can live more than 26 years.
Mutant Male Mallard?
Canadian Goose - Akaroa
Introduced. Common in places. More common on the South Island, they are found in high-country farmland, lakes and rivers. Many move to coastal lakes and estuaries during the summer, gathering in noisy flocks of up to 2,000 birds. Sheep and cattled may not like to graze where geese have been feeding so sometimes many thousands are shot. Brought to NZ from North America in the early 1900's for hunters to shoot. Can live over 30 years.
Silly Goose - Murchison
This friendly, comical creature was not in either of our bird books. We found him at a petting farm and figure he's been bred as a pet.
Black Swan - Golden Bay
Introduced. Quite common. Usually seen on lakes, estuaries and city parks. Eats mainly underwater plants. They can reach farther down in the water with their long necks so often end up driving ducks and other birds away. Because chicks do not fly for 5 months adults share watching up to 40 young ones at a time.
| Cormorant |
Specific areas of Britain, e.g. the Broads, are designated as ESA's. For what does the S stand? | Feeding ecology of sympatric European shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis and great cormorants P. carbo in Iceland | SpringerLink
, Volume 149, Issue 4 , pp 979–990
Feeding ecology of sympatric European shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis and great cormorants P. carbo in Iceland
Authors
Lilliendahl, K. & Solmundsson, J. Mar Biol (2006) 149: 979. doi:10.1007/s00227-006-0259-7
Abstract
The feeding ecology of the European shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) and the great cormorant (P. carbo) in Iceland was studied. These bird species may affect their marine environment, for instance, by predating on several commercially important fish species in coastal waters. The shag and cormorant diets were studied throughout the year in the period 1996–2000 by analysing the content of about 300 stomachs from each species. The shag relies heavily on sandeel (Ammodytes marinus) in the breeding season, whereas bull-rout (Myoxocephalus scorpius) and gadoids (Gadidae) become increasingly important in autumn and winter. The main food of the cormorant in all areas and seasons is the bull-rout. Depending on location and season, secondary food consists mainly of butterfish (Pholis gunnellus), gadoids and flatfishes (Pleuronectiformes). Similarity in diets of these two co-existing bird species was least in the breeding season when overlap in the birds’ distribution was greatest. The results suggest that predation by shags and cormorants could sometimes affect the stocks of the commercially important saithe (Pollachius virens) and plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) in Iceland.
Communicated by J.P. Thorpe, Port Erin
Introduction
The European shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) and the great cormorant (P. carbo) are large seabirds common in coastal areas of the North Atlantic. Their diets are more extensively studied than those of most other seabirds in the area, and both species are mainly piscivorous (Cramp and Simmons 1977 ; Johnsgard 1993 ; Wanless and Harris 1997 ; Hatch et al. 2000 ). Interest in their feeding ecology stems partly from theoretical considerations of how two putatively closely related species can co-exist in sympatry (Lack 1945 ). Furthermore, this attention to the diets of European shags and great cormorants is due to widespread concern about how the birds’ predation may affect stock sizes of commercially exploited fish species, recreational fisheries and fish farming (see Barrett et al. 1990 and references therein; Kirby et al. 1996 ; Leopold et al. 1998 ; Bearhop et al. 1999 ; Cowx 2003 ). In addition it has been suggested that information on the diet of shags and cormorants may be used in monitoring recruitment of gadoids (Gadidae, Barrett 1991 ; Lorentsen et al. 2004 ).
In north-western Europe, many studies have found sandeels (Ammodytes spp.) dominating the diet of shags through most of their range, both in summer (Lack 1945 ; Pearson 1968 ; Barrett et al. 1986 ; Barrett and Furness 1990 ; Grémillet et al. 1998 ; Furness and Tasker 2000 ; Rindorf et al. 2000 ; Pennington et al. 2004 ) and in other seasons (Harris and Wanless 1991 ). Exceptions to the sandeel dominance were found in certain parts of Norway during the breeding season where young gadoids dominated the diet of shags with sandeels coming second in importance (Barrett et al. 1990 ). Similar results were found in Scotland with gadoids, herring (Clupea harengus) and sandeels being most important to shags (Mills 1969a ).
The diet of the great cormorant seems more diverse than that of the European shag with numerous fish species taken, but also some crustaceans. During the breeding season in Normandy, France, the main food of great cormorants is labrids (Labridae, Grémillet et al. 1998 ) and in Denmark, the main diet throughout the year is comprised of herring, eel (Anguilla anguilla), blennies (Blennidae) and gadoids (Madsen and Spärck 1950 ). In Britain the main food is flatfishes (Pleuronectiformes), young gadoids, the sea-scorpion (Taurulus bubalis) and sandeels (Lack 1945 ; Pearson 1968 ; Rae 1969 ; Mills 1969b ; Okill et al. 1992 ; Carss and Ekins 2002 ). Breeding great cormorants in Norway mainly eat young gadoids, sandeels and bull-rout (Myoxocephalus scorpius) in decreasing order of importance (Barrett et al. 1990 ; Lorentsen et al. 2004 ). In Greenland, a fish of the family Cottidae is frequently found in the diet of breeding cormorants (Grémillet et al. 1999 ). To conclude, the overall picture is that European shags are more pelagic and forage more on small shoaling fish species than great cormorants which take relatively more of bottom-dwelling fishes and invertebrates (Cramp and Simmons 1977 ; Johnsgard 1993 ).
The possible effects of shags and cormorants on commercially exploited fish species have been studied in Norway and in the Netherlands (Barrett et al. 1990 ; Leopold et al. 1998 ). In Norway it was concluded that the impact of shags and cormorants on populations of saithe (Pollachius virens) and cod (Gadus morhua) could at times significantly affect the recruitment of those fish species (Barrett et al. 1990 ). Similarly, in the Netherlands, it was estimated that in some years cormorant predation accounted for up to one half of the total mortality on plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) in its first summer. During the study plaice abundance may have been low, so in other years cormorant predation on plaice, as a proportion of stock size, would be less (Leopold et al. 1998 ). These studies do seem to indicate that predation of shags and cormorants may adversely affect stocks of commercially important fish species, especially when stock sizes are small.
In Iceland, the population sizes of the birds are estimated as 6,600 and 3,150 breeding pairs of the European shag and the great cormorant, respectively (Gardarsson 1979 , 1996 ). Anecdotal evidence suggest that in Iceland sandeels are the main food of shags and bull-rout of cormorants, but in addition both bird species are known to take gadoid fish species (Petersen 1982 ; Gardarsson 1979 , 1996 ), which are exploited commercially. To study the year-round diets of shags and cormorants in Iceland individuals of both species were collected at various places around the country and their stomach content was analysed. We estimate the annual food consumption of shag and cormorant populations in Iceland in order to evaluate their potential impact on commercially important fish species. We compare diets of shags and cormorants since food selection is expected to differ between closely related bird species when found in sympatry (Lack 1945 ).
Materials and methods
We split Icelandic coastal waters into three areas, west, north and east, mainly based on the distribution of shags and cormorants. In this context it is important to note that most of the south coast of Iceland consists of sandy shores almost completely lacking suitable breeding and roosting habitat for the birds. Shags breed mainly on the west coast and almost all in Breidafjordur. Similarly, cormorants breed almost without exception on the west coast with about 85% in Breidafjordur and the rest in Faxafloi (Gardarsson 1979 , Fig. 1 ). We assume that both adults and juveniles of both species are exclusively found in the west area during the breeding season which we define as the period from 16 March to 15 July. Outside of the breeding season we consider two other equally long time periods in the analysis, autumn from 16 July to 15 November and winter from 16 November to 15 March. Both species disperse after breeding and we split the populations into respective areas outside the breeding season. For shags we assume that 90% of the population remains in the west area with 10% going to northern Iceland (A. Gardarsson, personal communication). The cormorant disperses more from its breeding grounds, and we estimate that 60% of the population remains in the west area, 25% go to the north area and 15% to the east, based on the length of a suitable coast and other unpublished observations (Gardarsson and Thorarinsson 2003 ; A. Gardarsson, personal communication). We further assume that these proportions remain stable during both periods outside of the breeding period and assume that all chicks become full-grown in the autumn (Table 1 ).
Fig. 1
The division of Icelandic coastal waters into areas. Main breeding quarters of shags and cormorants (grey hatching) and also a few small shag breeding colonies are indicated (S)
Table 1
Population parameters of Icelandic European shags and great cormorants used for estimating bird numbers with constant population sizes
Species
0.8
In comparison, the estimated number on 1 January of relevant age groups of cod, saithe and plaice in Icelandic waters, as mean of 1996–2000 (see Material and methods ). For Latin names see Tables 3 , 5
Discussion
The shag in Breidafjordur relies on sandeel in the breeding period, where it dominates the food of young and adults. Sandeels are usually bottom-dwelling but are sometimes found in schools high in the water column (Jonsson 1992 ). The sandeel in shag diets may thus suggest a partial pelagic feeding, but the benthic bull-rout and butterfish (Jonsson 1992 ), which were of a secondary importance to adults, indicate feeding near the sea bed. The slight difference in diets between nestlings and adults could be the result of differences in collection of data since the food of nestlings was collected at a single date, whereas adults were collected for several weeks. However, adults selectively feeding their chicks with sandeel of a high-energy content while accepting other prey of less-energy value for themselves, is in agreement with similar studies from Scotland (Harris and Wanless 1991 , 1993 ). In the autumn the importance of sandeel and butterfish in shag diets declined, with bull-rout increasing and saithe entering the diet. This probably coincides with 1-year saithe becoming available as food for the birds in shallow waters (Jonsson 1992 ). This trend continued into the winter with sandeel becoming less important, and bull-rout and saithe increasing. The decline of sandeel in the diet could be related to less availability to the birds in winter if the fish bury themselves in the sand at that time, as has been suggested for the North Sea (see Macer 1966 ). The increasing importance of bull-rout with season could be the result either of its increased availability or of sandeel becoming less available. In northern Iceland, sandeel was virtually absent from the diet which consisted of bull-rout and juvenile saithe and cod. Northern Iceland is acknowledged as nursery grounds for cod and saithe, and sandeel are less abundant there than in other parts of the country (Jonsson 1992 ). The diet of shag may therefore simply reflect the availability of suitable prey species.
All fish prey of cormorants are commonly found in coastal waters (Jonsson 1992 ) and, with the possible exception of cod, indicate that the birds were feeding near the bottom. The seasonal changes in diet reflect the somewhat scant information available on the ecology of the prey. The importance of bull-rout increased from the breeding season into the autumn and winter which may reflect increased availability since this species spawns in mid-winter in shallow waters (Jonsson 1992 ). Mid-winter spawning can also explain the apparent decrease of butterfish in the diet in winter, given that the parent butterfish seek shelter to care for their offspring (Jonsson 1992 ). The lumpsucker, which was of a considerable importance in the breeding season, is migratory and becomes less abundant in coastal waters in autumn and winter (Jonsson 1992 ). In the west and northern Iceland the contribution of flatfish declined towards winter, consistent with flatfishes seeking deeper waters in winter (Jonsson 1992 ), although this effect was not observed in the east. Young saithe appeared as food for cormorants in the autumn and winter in the west but was absent from the diets in the north and east. Cod of a suitable size for cormorants seems available throughout the year all around the country, consistent with young cod growing up in relatively shallow waters (Jonsson 1992 ). The results indicate that Hyas crabs are of some importance to cormorants at the west and east coasts in most seasons and wolffish in the west in winter.
The importance of sandeel in the diet of Icelandic shags, especially during the breeding season, is in general agreement with dietary studies from northern England and Scotland (Lack 1945 ; Pearson 1968 ; Harris and Wanless 1991 , 1993 ; Furness and Tasker 2000 ; Pennington et al. 2004 ). Sandeel dominance in shag diets was also found at a colony in North Norway (Barrett and Furness 1990 ). On the other hand, our results differ from another Norwegian study, where juvenile gadoids were the main prey of shags during the breeding period (Barrett et al. 1990 ). Furthermore, the importance of bull-rout in the diet of adult Icelandic shags seems to be different from shag diets in Britain and Norway. Similarly, the reliance of Icelandic cormorants on bull-rout throughout the year differs from diets elsewhere in the North Atlantic, with the possible exception of Greenland (Cramp and Simmons 1977 ; Barrett et al. 1990 ; Johnsgard 1993 ; Grémillet et al. 1999 ; Hatch et al. 2000 ; Lorentsen et al. 2004 ). The results show, however, a diverse diet of cormorants consisting of both various fish species and bottom-dwelling crabs in line with other studies from the North Atlantic (Lack 1945 ; Madsen and Spärck 1950 ), although the prey species are different.
The dietary overlap index demonstrates a clear segregation in diets of Icelandic shags and cormorants in sympatry, especially in the breeding period when shags rely on sandeel as their main food. At that time, sandeels were hardly found as food of cormorants in contrast to other studies which have found cormorants eating sandeels (Barrett et al. 1990 ; Okill et al. 1992 ). With season the value of the overlap index increases, reflecting the shift of both bird species towards preying on young gadoids in autumn and winter. The dietary overlap is further enhanced outside the breeding period by shags markedly increasing their intake of bull-rout, the stable food of cormorants. The possibility of competition between the species is, however, reduced by cormorants eating larger individuals of prey species shared with shags, and also by a somewhat different distribution of the species outside the breeding season. The present results, especially regarding the breeding season, are in general agreement with several studies from Britain where dietary overlap between shags and cormorants is usually low (Lack 1945 ; Rae 1969 ). In contrast, dietary overlap between shags and cormorants seems to be considerably higher in Norway, with values ranging from 0.76 to 0.88 (Barrett et al. 1990 ), than in Iceland which ranges from 0.25 in the breeding season to 0.66 in winter. A part of this difference between studies could, however, be the consequence of different methodology since, in addition to other differences between the studies, the overlap index is based on wet mass in the present study but on frequency of occurrence in Norway (Barrett et al. 1990 ).
Icelandic shags and cormorants may eat as much as 14,300 t of prey annually from coastal waters around the country. The effect this predation could have on prey populations is in many cases impossible to assess since no studies are available on population sizes of many prey species. It seems likely that shags and cormorants are, in addition to grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) and harbour seals (Phoca vitulina), important predators in Icelandic coastal waters. Diets of seals, shags and cormorants are similar with most prey types found both in the birds and seals. The annual consumption of these two bird species is, however, less than that of the seals which have been estimated to take 60,000 t, mainly in shallow waters (Bogason 1997 ; Hauksson 1997 ). In this habitat, data on predator–prey interactions between fishes are lacking. For the larger-sized prey, such as the largest cod and bull-rout, predation by other fish seems unlikely to be important. On the other hand, predation on small fish, such as sandeel, by predatory fish is often much greater than the predation by birds and seals (Furness 2002 ).
The most important prey species of Icelandic shags and cormorants, sandeel, bull-rout and butterfish are not commercially exploited. Sandeels are important food of many commercially exploited fish species (Jonsson 1992 ), and shags and cormorants could therefore have indirect effect by food competition. The consumption of 3,000 t of sandeel is, however, negligible compared to six other Icelandic seabird species which were estimated to eat 180,000 t of sandeel each summer (Lilliendahl and Solmundsson 1997 ). In the 5-year period of the present study (1996–2000) the mean annual landings of wolffish and lumpsucker were 13,390 t±691 and 4,120 t±739, respectively (Anon 2005 ). It seems unlikely that the birds adversely affect the stock of wolffish because the 240 t eaten are mostly younger fish than enter the commercial catch and the estimated size of the fishable wolffish stock is about 50,000 t (Anon 2005 ). The bulk of the birds’ predation on lumpsucker is aimed at immature fish which are smaller than adults that dominate the commercial catch. The 260 t of lumpsucker taken by the birds amounts to about 6% of the annual landings. The annual consumption of 1,050 t of cod or 27 million individuals, mainly 1 year, seems in relation to stock size of cod unlikely to have an effect. For saithe we estimate the bird predation as 15 and 4% on 1- and 2-year fish, respectively. The consumption of plaice by cormorants is the only instance where birds and the commercial fishery catch the same age groups. The annual landings are about 45,000 and 700,000 individuals of 2- and 3-year plaice, respectively, whereas the consumption of shags and cormorants could be an order of magnitude greater. These age groups of plaice are, due to their small size, only partially recruited to the fishable stock. From the estimated stock size of plaice we calculate the predation of birds as 4, 35 and 10% of 2-, 3- and 4-year plaice, respectively (Table 7 ).
The predation of Icelandic shags and cormorants on saithe seems to be that of a similar proportion of stock size as was found in a study from Norway (Barrett et al. 1990 ). Similarly, the present study suggests high predation of cormorants on plaice populations, in agreement with a study from the Netherlands (Leopold et al. 1998 ). It should be noted, however, that during the present study numbers of individual saithe and plaice in relevant year classes were low (Anon 2005 ; E. Hjörleifsson, personal communication), so the proportional predation of birds may be unusually high. Nevertheless, we conclude that, despite inherent uncertainties in the data, the predation of shags and cormorants on saithe and plaice is of the magnitude that it could possibly be used as an independent measurement of recruitment in these fish species.
Acknowledgements
Thanks are extended to Prof. A. Gardarsson for access to unpublished data and reading of the manuscript, and G.A. Gudmundsson for comments on the manuscript and help with figures. A. Galan participated in data collection, and R. Olafsdottir, S. Gudmundsdottir, G. Haraldsdottir and S. Egilsdottir analysed stomach contents. L. Taylor commented on the manuscript, T.S. Gestsdottir assisted with data management, V. Bogason identified otoliths and E. Hjörleifsson provided information on fishery statistics. Thanks are also extended to the many hunters and fishermen, too numerous to mention, for collecting birds and two anonymous referees for improving the manuscript.
References
Anon (2005) State of Marine Stocks in Icelandic Waters 2004/2005. Prospects for the Quota Year 2005/2006. Hafrannsóknastofnun, Fjölrit 121, 182 pp (In Icelandic with an English summary, mimeo)
Barrett RT (1991) Shags (Phalacrocorax aristotelis L.) as potential samplers of juvenile saithe (Pollachius virens (L.)) stocks in northern Norway. Sarsia 76:153–156 Google Scholar
Barrett RT, Furness RW (1990) The prey and diving depths of seabirds on Hornøy, North Norway after a decrease in the Barents Sea capelin stocks. Ornis Scand 21:179–186 Google Scholar
Barrett RT, Strann K-B, Vader W (1986) Notes on the eggs and chicks of North Norwegian shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis. Seabird 9:3–10 Google Scholar
Barrett RT, Røv N, Loen J, Montevecchi WA (1990) Diets of shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis and cormorants P. carbo in Norway and possible implications for gadoid stock recruitment. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 66:205–218 Google Scholar
Bearhop S, Thompson DR, Waldron S, Russel IC, Alexander G, Furness RW (1999) Stable isotopes indicate the extent of freshwater feeding by cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo shot at inland fisheries in England. J Appl Ecol 36:75–84 CrossRef Google Scholar
Birt-Friesen VL, Montevecchi WA, Cairns DK, Macko SA (1989) Activity-specific metabolic rates of free-living northern gannets and other seabirds. Ecology 70:357–367 CrossRef Google Scholar
Bogason V (1997) The diet of the harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) in Iceland. Hafrannsóknastofnun Fjölrit 57:319–330 (In Icelandic, mimeo) Google Scholar
Brugger KE (1993) Digestibility of three fish species by double-crested cormorants. Condor 95:25–32 Google Scholar
Caddy JF (1991) Death rates and time intervals: is there an alternative to the constant natural mortality axiom? Rev Fish Biol Fish 1:109–138 CrossRef Google Scholar
Camphuysen CJ, Calvo B, Durinck J, Ensor K, Follestad A, Furness RW, Garthe S, Leaper G, Skov H, Tasker ML, Winter CJN (1995) Consumption of discards by seabirds in the North Sea. In: Final report EC DG XIV research contract BIOECO/93/10. NIOZ Rapport 1995–5, Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Texel, 202 + LVI pp
Carss DN, Ekins GR (2002) Further European integration: mixed sub-species colonies of great cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo in Britain - colony establishment, diet, and implications for fisheries management. Ardea 90:23–41 Google Scholar
Cowx IG (ed) (2003) Interactions between fish and birds: implications for management. Fishing News Books. Blackwell, Oxford
Cramp S, Simmons KEL (eds) (1977) The birds of the Western Palearctic, Vol 1. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Debout G, Røv N, Sellers RM (1995) Status and population development of cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo carbo breeding on the Atlantic coast of Europe. Ardea 83:47–59 Google Scholar
Duffy DC, Laurenson LJB (1983) Pellets of cape cormorants as indicators of diet. Condor 85:305–307 Google Scholar
Fiske E, Røv N (1997) Survival rates of great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo carbo) from ring-recovery data. Suppl Ric Biol Selvaggina 26:159–162 Google Scholar
Furness RW (2002) Management implication of interactions between fisheries and sandeel-dependent seabirds and seals in the North Sea. ICES J Mar Sci 59:261–269 CrossRef Google Scholar
Furness RW, Tasker ML (2000) Seabird–fishery interactions: quantifying the sensitivity of seabirds to reductions in sandeel abundance, and identification of key areas for sensitive seabirds in the North Sea. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 202:253–264 Google Scholar
Gardarsson A (1979) A census of breeding Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) and Shags (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) in Iceland in 1975. Natturufraedingurinn 49:126–154 (In Icelandic with an English summary) Google Scholar
Gardarsson A (1996) Numbers of breeding Cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo in Iceland in 1975–1994. Bliki 17:35–42 (In Icelandic with an English summary) Google Scholar
Gardarsson A, Thorarinsson TL (2003) Distribution and numbers of harlequin ducks wintering in Iceland. Bliki 23:5–20 (In Icelandic with an English summary) Google Scholar
Grémillet D, Schmid D, Culik B (1995) Energy requirements of breeding great cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 121:1–9 Google Scholar
Grémillet D, Argentin G, Schulte B, Culik BM (1998) Flexible foraging techniques in breeding cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo and shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis: benthic or pelagic feeding? Ibis 140:113–119 Google Scholar
Grémillet D, Wilson RP, Wanless S, Peters G (1999) A tropical bird in the Arctic (the cormorant paradox). Mar Ecol Prog Ser 188:305–309 Google Scholar
Grémillet D, Wright G, Lauder A, Carss DN, Wanless S (2003) Modelling the daily food requirements of wintering great cormorants: a bioenergetics tool for wildlife management. J Appl Ecol 40:266–277 Google Scholar
Härkönen T (1986) Guide to the otoliths of the bony fishes of the Northeast Atlantic. Danibu ApS, Hellerup, Denmark Google Scholar
Harris MP, Wanless S (1991) The importance of the lesser sandeel Ammodytes marinus in the diet of the shag Phalacrocorax aristotelis. Ornis Scand 22:375–382 Google Scholar
Harris MP, Wanless S (1993) The diet of shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis during the chick-rearing period assessed by three methods. Bird Study 40:135–139 CrossRef Google Scholar
Hatch JJ, Brown KM, Hogan GG, Morris RD (2000) Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo). In: Pool A, Gill F (eds) The birds of North America, vol 553. The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia
Hauksson E (1997) The diet of the grey seal. Hafrannsóknastofnun, Fjölrit 57:331–342 (In Icelandic, mimeo)
Hislop JRG, Harris MP, Smith JGM (1991) Variation in the calorific value and total energy content of the lesser sandeel (Ammodytes marinus) and other fish preyed on by seabirds. J Zool Lond 224:501–517 CrossRef Google Scholar
Horn HS (1966) Measurement of “overlap” in comparative ecological studies. Am Nat 100:419–424 CrossRef Google Scholar
Jobling M, Breiby A (1986) The use and abuse of fish otoliths in studies of feeding habits of marine piscivores. Sarsia 71:265–274 Google Scholar
Johnsgard PA (1993) Cormorants, darters, and pelicans of the world. Smithson Inst Press, Washington, DC Google Scholar
Johnstone IG, Harris MP, Wanless S, Graves JA (1990) The usefulness of pellets for assessing the diet of adult Shags Phalacrocorax aristotelis. Bird Study 37:5–11 CrossRef Google Scholar
Jonsson G (1992) Icelandic fishes, 2nd edn. Fjolvi, Reykjavik (In Icelandic)
Kirby JS, Holmes JS, Sellers RM (1996) Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) as fish predators: an appraisal of their conservation and management in Great Britain. Biol Cons 75:191–199 CrossRef Google Scholar
Lack D (1945) The ecology of closely related species with special reference to Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) and Shag (P. aristotelis). J Anim Ecol 14:12–16 CrossRef Google Scholar
Leopold MF, van Damme CJG, van der Veer HW (1998) Diet of cormorants and the impact of cormorant predation on juvenile flatfish in the Dutch Wadden Sea. J Sea Res 40:93–107 CrossRef Google Scholar
Lilliendahl K, Solmundsson J (1997) An estimate of summer food consumption of six seabird species in Iceland. ICES J Mar Sci 54:624–630 CrossRef Google Scholar
Lorentsen S-H, Grémillet D, Nymoen GH (2004) Annual variation in diet of breeding great cormorants: does it reflect varying recruitment of gadoids? Waterbirds 27:161–169 Google Scholar
Macer CT (1966) Sandeels (Ammodytidae) in the southwestern North Sea; their biology and fishery. MAFF Fish Invest 2(24):1–51 Google Scholar
Madsen FJ, Spärck R (1950) On the feeding habits of the southern cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis Shaw) in Denmark. Dan Rev Game Biol 1:45–75 Google Scholar
Mills D (1969a) The food of the shag in Loch Ewe, Ross-shire. Scott Birds 5:264–268 Google Scholar
Mills D (1969b) The food of the cormorant at two breeding colonies on the east coast of Scotland. Scott Birds 5:268–276 Google Scholar
Morisita M (1959) Measuring of interspecific association and similarity between communities. Mem Fac Sci Kyushu Univ E (Biol) 3:65–80 Google Scholar
Okill JD, Fowler JA, Ellis PM, Petrie GW (1992) The diet of cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo chicks in Shetland in 1989. Seabird 14:21–26 Google Scholar
Pearson TH (1968) The feeding biology of sea-bird species breeding on the Farne Islands, Northumberland. J Anim Ecol 37:521–552 CrossRef Google Scholar
Pennington M, Osborn K, Harvey P, Riddington R, Okill D, Ellis P, Heubeck M (2004) The birds of Shetland. Christopher Helm, London Google Scholar
Petersen A (1982) Seabirds. Rit Landverndar 8:15–60 (In Icelandic)
Potts GR, Coulson JC, Deans IR (1980) Population dynamics and breeding success of the shag, Phalacrocorax aristotelis, on the Farne Islands, Northumberland. J Anim Ecol 49:465–484 CrossRef Google Scholar
Rae BB (1969) The Food of Cormorants and Shags in Scottish Estuaries and Coastal Waters. Dep Agric Fish Scotland Mar Res No 1
Rindorf A, Wanless S, Harris MP (2000) Effects of changes in sandeel availability on the reproductive output of seabirds. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 202:241–252 Google Scholar
Wanless S, Harris MP (1997) The handbook of the birds of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa Phalacrocorax aristotelis Shag. BWP Update 1:3–13 Google Scholar
Wilson RP (1984) An improved stomach pump for penguins and other seabirds. J Field Ornithol 55:109–112 Google Scholar
Copyright information
| i don't know |
"Who painted ""Girl with a white dog"" found in the Tate London?" | Tate Britain | One Stop Arts | London Visual arts review
See listing details
Note: As of May 13, 2013, Tate Britain has entirely rehung its permanent collection. Our contributor Frances Wilson's article on the current galleries can be found here: http://onestoparts.com/article-tate-britain-rehang-may-2013-500-years-british-art
The focus of Tate Britain is on British art from 1500 onwards. There is a remarkable section on the Romantics and in particular J M W Turner (the Tate holds the largest collection of his work in the world). In addition, the BP British Art Displays ensure that a wide range of 20th century artists are also on display.
A Walk through the Twentieth Century forms part of the BP British Art Displays and features an impression collection of world renowned artists such as Lucian Freud, Gilbert & George, David Hockney and Henry Moore. The works from the 20th century are arranged in roughly chronological order and generally feature one, two or three pieces of work from each artist.
The Harry and Carol Djanogly Gallery features key works from the historic collection including several paintings by William Hogarth, who painted during the 18th century. Hogarth is known for his satirical and frequently subversive style, depicting subjects and themes such as the city, social integration, political corruption and patriotism. A past exhibition held at the Tate Britain put forward the idea that Hogarth was “Britain’s first truly modern artist.”
The highlight of Tate Britain has to be their extensive Romantics collection, containing works by William Blake, John Constable and others as well as Turner. Romanticism, which emerged at the end of the 18th century, was a re-thinking of art and literature away from the classical tradition: it was a time when great emphasis was put on personalised responses to the natural world. Constable is renowned for sketching in oils in the open air (a technique which sets him apart from his predecessors who tended to paint in a studio) and several of his vibrant landscapes are on display.
The paintings from Turner’s later work are fantastic. Featuring scenes of nature and the sea, they are characterised by an expressive use of colour, by indistinct, unresolved forms and above all by his depiction of light. An interactive part of the exhibition is dedicated to the study of Turner’s artistic techniques. Inspired by the idea that copying was a vital part of an artist’s education in the 18th & 19th century, visitors are encouraged to draw in the style of Turner by copying one of his sketches.
Tate Britain is a celebration of British art over the past five hundred years; its Turner collection is outstanding and there are always exciting temporary exhibitions on display.
Tate BritainSarah Brooks' review of Tate Britain in London.5
Date reviewed: Thursday 22nd September 2011
Share this
| Lucian Freud |
Which company introduced the first water proof watch in 1927? | Elsewhere: London - The Tate Britain - Representing Britain
RePresenting Britain
Tate Britain Opens
---------------
Famous Gallery at Milbank reverts to original intention of founder as the National Gallery of British Art
--------------
Tate Britain, with neon entablature by Martin Creed that declares "the whole world + the work = the whole world," (photograph by Michele Leight)
By Michele Leight
LONDON, March 23, 2000 The Tate Gallery at Millbank here was re-launched today as Tate Britain.
The re-opening is a very important cultural event in England as it will soon be followed in May by the opening of the Tate Modern in a former power plant at Bankside on the south side of the Thames across from St. Pauls Cathedral on the north side to which it will be joined by a new bridge. (See The City Review article on the Tate Modern and other major new projects such as Sir Norman Foster's great roof at the British Museum and Daniel Liebeskind's fabulous "Spiral" at the Victoria & Albert Museum .)
The division of the Tates famed collections will revert the grand Millbank facility, shown above, to the original intentions of its founder as the National Gallery of British Art and put its modern and contemporary collections and exhibitions into a giant and very prominent conversion of a London landmark that has been redesigned by Herzog & Meuron, the Swiss architectural firm that was one of the finalists for the recently approved expansion in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
While the exterior of the Bankside facility will not be radically altered, its interiors will and are widely expected to become a major tourist attraction a bit on a par with the justly celebrated recent opening of a branch of New Yorks Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Bilboa, Spain, designed by Frank Gehry and widely heralded as one of the most important buildings of the 20th Century.
London, of course, is a major cultural center whose other jewels include the British Museum, the Victorian & Albert Museum, the Courtauld Institute, and the Wallace Collection, among others. London got the Millennial fever early as well as getting the grand projects bug from France and the Tates major expansion projects are being matched by the British Museum, which has commissioned Sir Norman Foster to redo its central court, and the Victorian & Albert Museum has commissioned Daniel Liebeskind, the architect of the recently opened Holocaust Museum in Berlin, which also happens to be one of the centurys great architectural designs, to create a "spiral" along one of its facades.
These British projects are both daring and costly and represent a very major commitment by the institutions and England to reassert its cultural leadership and to revitalize London for the new millennium.
The Tate has been a very special focal point of attention and affection since it opened in 1897 as the National Gallery of British Art on the site of the Millbank Prison, which had been demolished in 1892. Its popularity can be explained in part by its incredible holdings of the works of Joseph William Mallord Turner, whose abstract achievements predate by almost a century American "Abstract Expressionism."
If Turners expansive power has been unleashed at the Tate for generations of museum-goers, it has been greatly balanced by the Tates extensive holdings of another of England's great artists, William Blake, whose dreamy, pensive works are in marked contrast to the aggressiveness of Turner.
These two artists well define the English temperament of elegant restraint and real, majestic power.
As Englands empire and influence dwindled in the post-World War II era, it has seen its vitality vitiated by the emergence of New York as the worlds cultural and financial capital, the emergence of the Euromarket as a financial force, the dramatic public commitment to "great" architectural projects, first in France and then in Germany, and finally the sensational and revelatory excitement created by Frank Gehrys quite incredible Guggenheim Museum in Bilboa.
England, however, has not been asleep during these upheavals and revolutions and its "high-tech" architects such as Sir Norman Foster, Sir Richard Rogers, James Stirling, and Nicholas Grimshaw have long been in the vanguard of technological innovation in design, even as Prince Charles has quite brilliantly but not without controversy led an attack on bad design and campaigned vigorously for historic preservation and fine contextual design. Prince Charless attacks on the carbuncles and monstrosities of much post-World War II design has been a very important, and quite unusual, aid in the difficult battle to raise design standards not only in England, but also everywhere. His influence has been felt in plans to redevelop areas close to St. Pauls Cathedral and also in the recent expansion of the National Gallery of Art by American architects, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown. Their addition is unexciting and bland on the exterior but works well in the important interiors and while disappointing overall did not seriously harm the overall context of the National, whose treasures are perhaps the greatest legacy of Britains most fantastic empire.
Museums, of course, are not the only evident signs of the "new" London. Indeed, Fosters Millennium Dome, across the Thames from Cesar Pellis quite handsome, corporate enclave at Canary Wharf, and the 500-foot-high Ferris Wheel, across the Thames and a bit to the east, thankfully, of Big Ben, are important, new landmarks that clearly indicate that England is awake and dreaming and still jovial. The Houses of Parliament, Piccadilly, Buckingham Palace, Pall Mall, and the Tower, of course, still remain heroically intact.
The Tate, then, brings us back to a rather intimate order whose charm is its human-scale. (The British Museum and its treasures represent the grandeur of the past empire while the V&As myriad, subtle treasures delve almost infinitely into the decorative imagination. The British Museum, by and large, addresses the great public artistic achievements of society. The V&A addresses the private and personal aesthetic world. The Tate addresses the social, interpersonal realm, the one probably with the most "meaning" for most people.)
It was, therefore, an exciting opening for Londoners and the British in general, with newscasters emotionally describing the Tate as Britains "own" gallery through the day whose dismal skies had turned the Thames a murky gray, banishing the glorious sunshine of the previous week, but nothing could dispel the sense of expectation as press and BBC camera crews ascended the gracious steps of this beautiful museum. On the façade of the building, shown at the top of this article, the base of the buildings ornate building now displays Martin Creeds neon text that declares "the whole world + the work = the whole world," an art work commissioned by the Tate as part of the Art Now program.
The Tate was designed to house the collection of 19th Century painting and sculpture given to the nation by Sir Henry Tate and a group of British paintings transferred from the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. In 1917, it received a bequest of modern paintings from the collection of Sir Hugh Lane and was formally constituted as the National Gallery of Modern Foreign Art. It was closed during World War II during which it was extensively damaged, some evidence of which is still visible on the west facade. In 1955, it was officially separated from the National Gallery and established as an independent institution.
For many, the Tate is "our own" museum; we studied there in our youth, researched there as we moved on, and return time and again for the pure joy of it, reflecting with the glorious Turners, paying homage to the "old guard," Reynolds, Lely and Gainsborough, and hoping to come across a new artist never seen before. The Tate was youth-friendly, less intimidating than other museums to do a quiet days sketching in. It is reassuring to find it has remained approachable and user- friendly. The elegant, muraled restaurant remains, and the addition of a minimalist, self-service café with good, reasonably priced snacks and meals takes the edge off trying to find a quick meal in an area very short on eateries of any kind. The service in both facilities was excellent and courteous.
The much heralded changes were immediately apparent to anyone who has visited the Tate regularly; for those who will visit for the first time, they are in for a treat. Gone are the chronologically arranged galleries. In the inaugural show of the new Tate Britain, "RePresenting Britain, 1500-2000," the title speaks for itself and 100 paintings spanning 500 years are now thematically arranged, touching on a wide variety of subjects, by artists of many different nationalities.
This change in presentation by the Tate reflects new approaches to the study of art history in the "politically correct" 1980s and 1990s that sought to consider art not merely as objects but as part of broader cultural frameworks. These "Post-Modern," "Deconstructivist" ideas began to take hold in academia and with some critics and museum curators were challenged to respond, and experiment with new interpretations and displays. Art was no longer considered solely within its traditional framework of fine art, but also within the crosscurrents and interconnections within the social, socio-economic and political worlds in which they existed.
In an age of multi-culturalism, is it possible to be "Culturally correct"? Some curmudgeons argue that art is a matter of refinement and comparative valuations and therefore cannot help but be "elitist" and that the acceptance of all "art" on a "level playing field" demeans it. Quality is important, they sigh.
In his foreword to the exhibitions catalogue, Stephen Deuchar, the director of the Tate, provided the following commentary:
"Though the concept of a national gallery of British art may not seem automatically modern, with its roots in a nationalist, centralist Victorian ethic scarcely in harmony with twenty-first century society, Tate Britains agenda is determindedly contemporary. As its title, and the name of this book, tend to imply, its concern is with arts place in the political and cultural entity that is Britain - and questions about arts contributions to varying kinds of national identity will certainly form an undercurrent to our programme of displays, exhibitions and publications. In todays immediate climate of progressive regional devolution on one hand and European integration on the other, and with increasing awareness of a population representing many ethnic and social positions, interrogating the roles of art in defining and challenging ideas of national identity may be a responsibility for Tate Britain, but it is also an exciting opportunity. For as well as providing a rich diversity of meaning and aesthetic pleasure, art can offer a key to opening up some of the pressing questions and debates about the nation its history and its future."
"No Woman No Cry," by Chris Ofili, acrylic, resin, oil, pencil, paper collage, Letraset, glitter, map pins, elephant dung
The Tate, which figured prominently in a recent controversy in New York City because the Brooklyn Museum of Art held an exhibition, "Sensations," that originated at the Tate and became a cause celebre in New York over the inclusion of a rather beautiful portrait, partially made with elephant dung, of the Madonna by Chris Ofili, cares very much about quality. Ofili, who won its prestigious Turner Prize, is represented in this exhibition by "No Woman No Cry,: an acrylic, oil, resin, pencil, paper collage, Letraset, glitter, map pins and elephant dung work on canvas with two dung supports, that was one of the central exhibits in the Turner Prize exhibition in the year Ofili won, 1998, shown above.
This reshuffling and reexamination of a museums holdings is not a phenomenon unique to the Tate, whose director recently participated in a symposium at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which is currently having a year-long series of exhibitions that also take a thematic rather than chronological approach to the display of its treasures as it prepares for a major expansion of its facilities.
The thematic approach is not without some controversy for its occasional strange juxtapositions and out-of-context presentations, but there is little question that its enforced "freshness" is often surprising, exciting and interesting. For habitués of these cultural institutions, the rehangings can shock, but they definitely induce a refocusing on the individual works of art that is healthy, although it remains to be seem whether it really is wise to completely chuck the more traditional, chronological and historically contextual methodology that certainly has many merits.
In any event, far from wallowing in nationalistic sentimentality, the new displays at the Tate inspire rigorous thinking about what art "is" or should be; the richness of Britains culturally diverse society are reflected in the sculptor Mona Hartoums Middle Eastern background, R.B.Kitajs Jewish heritage, and the legendary James McNeil Whistlers American roots fused with his extraordinary Japanese sensibilities all firmly represented here as "British."
Not for a moment does the viewer lose sight of those quintessential "British" painters, Turner, Hogarth or Blake. Hogarth and Blake who are given solo displays. Hogarth in the "O The Roast Beef of Old England" section of the exhibit and Blake "on his own within the "Visionary Art" theme of "Literature and Fantasy" section. Other single room displays are dedicated to the most celebrated British artists, David Hockney, Walter Sickert and, in the rotunda gallery, Gainsborough.
In an innovative and thought-provoking series of "themed"galleries, many of the Tate Gallerys best known and highly publicized paintings are displayed beside humbler but historically relevant works. In "Public and Private"(Portraits) the viewer will find the earliest painting in the collection, "A Man in a Black Cap" by John Bettes (active 1531-1570), painted in 1545 in the style of Hans Holbein, who had worked at the court of Henry VIII.
"Elizabeth I," attribued to Nicholas Hilliard, circa 1575
Nearby is a stunning portrait of Henrys daughter, Elizabeth I (circa 1575) attributed to Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1619). Her elegant hands rest on an elaborately embroidered and bejeweled gown, above which glitters a large jewel of a Phoenix, a mythical bird, reborn out of fire, symbolizing the unmarried Queens virginity. This portrait is very similar to the famous miniature of Elizabeth I (1572) in the National Portrait Gallery.
Gazing across at Queen Elizabeth from the opposite wall is Sir Cedric Morris(1889-1982) "Belle of Bloomsbury," (1948). "Belle" is a georgeous white bull-terrier, portrayed in her own right and not as an accompaniment to a human being as was customary in portraits of earlier times. She is reduced to essentials, painted in a direct style, and is a humorous touch in a room brimming over with aristocrats and monarchs, and a gentle reminder that the British love their dogs.
Sir Cedric Morris founded the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing, where Lucian Freud was a student (b. 1922). "I want the paint to work as flesh" said Freud. One of many portraits he painted of bald and bulky Leigh Bowery shares the same gallery. A penetrating study of Freuds first wife, "Girl With a White Dog (1950-5) illustrated on the cover of the catalog "RePresenting Britain," by Martin Myrone combines his signature psychological intensity with meticulous technique.
"The Cholmondeley Ladies," (circa 1600-10), artist unknown
One of the most spectacular paintings at the Tate is the naïve and mysterious "The Cholmondeley Ladies,"(circa 1600-10), pronounced Chumley, believed to date from the early 17th Century. The artist is unknown, but an inscription to the lower left of the painting reads: "Two ladies of the Cholmondeley Family/ Who were born on the same day/ Married on the same day/ And brought to bed (gave birth) on the same day." However, the inscription was added later, possibly during the eighteenth century, and probably represents members of the Cholmondeley family, as it once belonged to a descendant. The sumptuously dressed ladies were probably sisters, each holding a baby in mind-blowingly elaborate christening finery; "The formality of this image refers to aristocratic tomb sculpture of the period, which has a similar stiffness and symmetry in its presentation of the human figure," observed Martin Myrone in the catalogue for "RePresenting Britain, and the "Chumley" ladies are illustrated on the catalogues front cover.
"Lady of the Spencer Family," (1633-8), by Sir Anthony Van Dyck
The most thought-provoking juxtapositions are not the obvious ones; the elegant "Lady of the Spencer Family," (1633-8), an ancestor of the equally elegant late Diana, Princess of Wales, by Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641), is found in the same company as "The Beloved," by Dante Gabriel Rosetti (1828-1882), based on Dantes Beatrix. The breath-taking beauty of the model, not landed gentry having an expensive portrait painted, but a "working girl" in real life, is idealized in Pre-Raphaelite style by placing her whitest of complexions directly above that of her negro servant girl. Her fair Englishness dominates the composition, as do the sumptuous "exotic" textiles, both symbols of Britains vast colonial Empire and commercial dominance at that time, just over a century ago.
In the same "group" as these ladies is Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) grand composition, "Three Ladies Adorning a Term of Hymen," (1773). Hymen was the God of Marriage in Greek Mythology, and the painting was commissioned by the Irish politician, Luke Gardner, to commemorate his "betrothal" to the beautiful, dewy complexioned, Elizabeth Montgomery, who is shown at the center of the composition, flanked by her two sisters. Elegant and impressive portraits of women were commissioned to commemorate engagements, marriages, the womans "worth" as a wife, mother, or "commodity in the elite marriage market of her day
"This combination of high culture and basic market instincts was typical of Eighteenth Century polite society
"
Throughout the displays of paintings there are reminders of Anglo-American ties; John Singleton Copleys (1738-1815) "The Death of Major Pierson, 6 January, 1781," painted in 1783, portrays the young British Majors death during a skirmish with French troops; Copley was a "populist" and desired the widest possible audience for his dramatic scenes of contemporary events. He took the unprecedented step of privately renting a gallery to exhibit his work and charging admission, instead of the more conventional venue of the "official" Royal Academy, thereby removing art from the preserve of the wealthiest members of society, and opening up his doors to the general public in true democratic, American fashion.
The American born James MacNeil Whistler (1834-1903) caused a sensation in the art world by taking John Ruskin, the most powerful and influential art critic of his day, to court for "disparaging" his work, and winning, not money, but his dignity and integrity as an artist; he was awarded one guinea in damages. The house he resided in along Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, bears a blue and white plaque honoring his time spent there; not far away are similar plaques recalling the presence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Ruskin. Whistlers legendary eccentricity and taste for Japanese decoration imbues the wistful portrait of "Miss Cicely Alexander Harmony in Grey and Green," 1872, wearing a white muslin dress, and an extraordinary hat and sash, designed by Whistler to enhance his painting; it was commissioned by Cicelys father, the collector W.C. Alexander, and is perceptively described in the catalogue by Elizabeth and Joseph Penell as "
The pose of Velasquez, the decoration of Japan, welded in his own way
" Cicely is a symbol of her familys social standing and success, beautifully "packaged" by Whistler, who clearly understood his clients desires.
"Carnation Lilly, Lilly Rose" 1885-6, by John Singer Sargeant (1856-1925), offers a less formal portrait of the illustrator Frederick Barnards daughters, who are comfortably attired in unrestricting muslin dresses, absorbed in lighting Japanese lanterns, (an exotic touch), in the garden. They are not "posed" and their relaxed demeanor signifies a "let up" in the repressed Victorian attitude toward children that they should be seen and not heard. It is a refreshing and charming portrait and a departure from Sargeants usual commissions of the wealthy and fashionable of his day; he was much sought after by "society" for his elegant compositions and virtuoso technique. The spontaneous nature of this painting is like a breath of pure, fresh air.
Another section of the exhibition, "City Life," opens the viewer up to the "public" aspect of "Private and Public." The visual references humour, alienation, pleasure and poverty of urban life in Britain are captured in Gilbert and Georges (1943 and 1942 respectively) "Red Morning Trouble," (1977), a study in photos on paper of ordinariness, reinforced by a grid of black lines of each photo, recalling medieval stained glass. Gilbert and George met at St. Martins School of Art in the late 60s, and proclaimed themselves "living sculptures" in 1970, thereby challenging traditional ideas about what art "is."
"The Port of London," 1906, by André Derain
André Derain (1880-1954), as the leading "Fauve," was under pressure to paint an "updated" view of the Thames, which had been painted a few years earlier by Claude Monet, "The Port of London," 1906, a stunning composition in signature "Fauve" primary colors, is devoid of mists and offers a clear-eyed interpretation of this famous scene; the bold contours of the steamship in the foreground is a symbol of Londons status as a modern and commercial European capital. It also asserted Derains "modern" Fauvist style.
"An Arch of Westminster Bridge," 1750, by Andrew Scott, (1702-1772), is another painterly exercise in "one-upmanship," designed to compete with Canalettos "Views of Venice," and stimulated by the Venetian painters arrival in London. Canaletto wins hands-down, but it was a brave try by Scott, who , like many other artists, were inspired by Canalettos virtuoso scenes of Venetian life, and sought to reproduce them in their own "milieu."
Switching themes to the landscape of the mind and the imagination, the "Word and Image" section and the "Visionary Art" section explore the relationships between words and images in revealing literature as a source of great power and significance.
"According to a well-worn myth about British art," observed Mr. Myrone in the exhibitions catalogue, "the national culture has always been oriented towards literature rather than the visual arts. The cultural achievement of our nation has purportedly been in the hands of Shakespeare, Milton and Wordsworth, rather than those of painters and sculptors."
Mr. Myrone goes on to explain the complexities caused by the Reformation in England, where the church "establishment" could not be counted on as patrons, in sharp contrast to the European practice at that time of Roman Catholic "backing" of art and sculpture for religious purposes, further endowed by the active patronage of princes and the nobility. Despite this disadvantage, individualist visual interpretations of the spiritual, or "visionary" in art can be found in works by artists as diverse, (and movingly eccentric), as Samuel Palmer (1805-1881), William Blake (1757-1827), and more recently in the paintings of Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) and Ronald Moody (1900-1984). "It is nonetheless true that British artists have recurrently turned to textual sources for their subject matter, and that in so doing have helped give literature a crucial role in defining the different national cultures," Myrone added.
Henry Fuselis (1741-1825) "Titania and Bottom" illustrates a scene from Shakespeares "A Midsummers Nights Dream"- Titanias magic potion ensures she will fall in love with the first person she sees, who turns out to be Bottom, with the head of an ass. Shakespeare had the ultimate sense of humor and of irony.
Fuselis fantastical, theatrical style was well suited to illustration, a point not lost on his publisher, John Boydell, an astute businessman and entrepreneur, who commissioned a series of illustrations of Shakespeares work. Fuselis penchant for tackling bizarre and emotional subject matter, artificially "darkened" to resemble old masters, appealed to a broad audience, members of the general public, and not only those who were wealthy enough to afford to buy art or pay pricey club memberships.
William Hogarth, (1697-1764), whose self portrait without a wig (horrors) with his trusty Pug beside him, (The Painter and His Pug), graces a full page beside the introduction to the exhibition catalog, and with good reason; Hogarth was the literary and artistic trail-blazer of his day. He drew on the life of the city around him, which he clearly enjoyed and experienced to the fullest, and endeared himself to the public at large by re-locating his stories in plays, musicals and popular publications. In addition he was a formidable painter and possessed the self-deprecating humour and eccentricity that many consider to be the hallmark of the English character. He was well-known in his life-time for his comic but moralizing prints of modern life.
Despite his devil-may-care, wigless attire and rough and ready scar above his right brow, his portrait rests on books by Shakespeare, Milton and Swift. In this self-portrait, "O, The Roast Beef of Olde England," (1748), and "A Scene from The Beggars Opera,"(1731) the full scope and talent of this "popular" painter, intellectual and satirist can be fully appreciated. Hogarth was totally in sync with Shakespeare in his compulsion to reach "the common man," that is, everyman.
By the Victorian era, "art for the masses," was more readily available through the mass production of high-quality, affordable, re-productions. In addition there were art-exhibitions now available to the general public, epitomized by the establishment of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which had begun its life as a temporary exhibition hall, but made permanent by the overwhelming response of the public.
Large detail of "Ophelia" by Sir John Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896) beautiful "Ophelia" (1851-2), floating beneath a weeping willow , singing in her madness as she drowns, was in real life Elizabeth Siddal, whose father sent Millais the doctors bill when poor Lizzy caught a dreadful cold. She did survive the ordeal of days in a cold bath, (Millais needed to base his drowning figure on "observation") and ended up marrying Rossetti. She features in many of the Pre-Raphaelite painting of the era.
"The Lady of Shallott," (1888), by John William Waterhouse, (1849-1917), illustrates the famous poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Henry Wallis(1830-1916) "Chatterton"(1856) is a chilling yet spellbinding depiction of the teenage poets death by suicide in a garret, poetry manuscripts strewn everywhere. It is a typically "high minded," Victorian painting, made fascinating by the connections between eroticism, death and the poetic impulse, and just the kind of image that would be popular and "marketable" in print.
Fast-forwarding to modern times and specifically to Marcel Duchamp and the Pop artists of the 60's, literature literally transformed into "text", and disrupted the "representational" role of painting. It is impossible not to notice that it is "neon" text which greets the visitor to the Tate today, with Martin Creeds "the whole world + the work = the whole world" emblazoned on the façade of the building, as shown in the photograph at the start of this article.
In the "Home and Abroad" section of the exhibition, the overwhelming impact of landscape painting within the visual arts tradition in Britain is examined through the works of Jan Sieberechts, George Stubbs (yes, the horse painter), Thomas Gainsborough, Paul Nash and the one and only Joseph Mallord William Turner. It must be noted here that Turner had such a high percentage of superb paintings to his credit that despite the fact that he has the Clore Gallery crammed with beautiful work, there are enough left over to warrant "highlighting" at the "Ruskin, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites,"(The Slave Ship") a special exhibition at the Tate, the Venetian scenes in "Artists Abroad," and superb sketches, oils and watercolors at the V & A, The National Gallery, The Queens Gallery and in every major British country house and museum in Britain. This man "worked," which is our good fortune.
"A Bigger Splash" by David Hockney
The "Artists Abroad" section is a fascinating journey around the globe, through Turners mythical Venetian waterscapes, Paul Nashs haunting images of the Second World War as an "official" war artist, and David Hockneys idealized, super-sunny California swimming pools; all displaced Englishmen moving from country to country, interpreting the idea of travel.
It is with the images of Turners Venice and Hockneys California that this particular "journey" ends, with strong recommendations to allow enough time in London for this extraordinary museum, and it seems appropriate that Stephen Deuchar, Director of the Tate, should have the final word: "
Tate Britains program is not intended as an extended investigation into the Britishness of British art. But there is a clear commitment to considering the Tates collection in new ways
Rather than presenting and interpreting individual works only in relation to their immediate peers or periods, some of our displays and exhibitions are deliberately exploring how art across the centuries has interacted with a range of circumstances and conditions, with particular kinds of subject matter, and with a variety of reference points far beyond the history of stylistic development that has been the traditional preoccupation of the art museum. This means that some of the Tates best known British works are appearing in Millbanks galleries in fresh contexts a nostalgic Hitchens landscape from twentieth century wartime Britain, for example, beside an eighteenth century Gainsborough that helped inspire it, or Spencers visions set among the works of his visionary heirs and forebears. These new and sometimes surprising settings for even the most familiar work will, I hope, be one way of actively encouraging the appreciation and understanding of British art by all our visitors
"
Entrance to the Clore Gallery at the Tate, postcard photo
Turner, of course, has the entire Clore Gallery, whose entrance is shown above, devoted to his work, and is also featured in the major exhibition "Ruskin, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites," (March 9 - May 29, 2000), an important and excellent show. (See the separate review in The City Review). A sublime Turner, "Norham Castle, Sunrise," circa 1845, oil on canvas, 90.8 by 121.9 centimeters, shown below, is included in the "RePresenting Britain exhibition. The catalogue notes that it is an unfinished work: "Turner would never have exhibited a painting in this state, and it was only at the turn of the twentieth century that such works began to be fully appreciated. At that time, his extraordinary free treatment of light, colour and atmosphere was seen as pre-empting the artistic innovations of the French Impressionists, allowing critics to claim the existence of a distinctively British tradition as modern and radical as anything on the Continent." Obviously!
"Norham Castle, Sunrise," by Joseph Mallord William Turner, circa 1845
In another section of this fine exhibition, John Constables sketch for "The Hay-Wain", 1820, and fourteen other works, generously loaned by the Victoria and Albert Museum, have been combined with a selection of the Tates own collection to give an in-depth view of this great and well-loved British artists individualistic vision of the English landscape.
The remainder of the galleries display works by artists as diverse as Nicholas Hilliard and Damien Hirst, Britains own "enfant terrible" who might shock but never bore the viewer, and Ben Nicholsons paintings which fill another gallery and seem more beautiful with each passing year. One day will not be enough to take in all the creative wonders the Tate has to offer. The highlights of future shows will be included with this review.
Central Duveen Galleries at the Tate with large sculpture by Mona Hatoum
Also currently on view at the Tate is Mona Hatoums one woman show, "The Entire World as a Foreign Land," which has been specially created for Tate Britains central Duveen Galleries, is the first in a series of annual sculpture exhibitions (24 March 23 July 2000). Hatoum uses everyday household objects as a means of exploring concepts of domestic comfort and efficiency. A mechanical gadget used for slicing vegetables, for example, is dramatically enlarged. Hatoums transformation of seemingly innocent domestic gadgetry exposes their beauty and malevolence, as instruments capable of inflicting pain or even death. Hatoum has also used installation, video and performance to explore political issues, the mechanics of power and oppression, and the strengths and weaknesses of the human condition. She is a leading contemporary artist, and has lived in Britain since the early 1980's.
An inkling of how energized the "new" Tate has become can be gleaned from a brief list of its forthcoming exhibitions:
"New British Art 2000: Intelligence" (on view from 6 July 24 September 2000), the first in a series of major exhibitions of contemporary art to be held every three years at Tate Britain, will provide a dynamic interpretation of current work. Centered around a central idea, each exhibition will bring together a range of works by artists of different generations. It will be the largest exhibition of contemporary work ever held at Millbank.
"William Blake gets his own show from 9 November 2000 - 11 February 2001, which should be a blockbuster, given that just about everyone has heard or learned his verse whether or not they have seen his spectacular paintings, prints and watercolors. Five hundred works will be drawn from public and private collections throughout the world for the first major exhibition of this unique, innovative Romantic British artist and poets work; "To see the world in a grain of sand
" It promises to be one of the highlights on the global art calendar.
Another current show is "Romantic Landscape: The Norwich School of Painters, 1803-1833," which offers a close-up view of the East Anglian "Norwich School" artists, lent by the Norwich Castle Museum. Together with works by Turner and Constable, the Schools distinctive view of landscape is captured in the paintings of lesser-known artists like John Sell Cotman and John Crome. This is a rare opportunity to view this collection, as many paintings have never left the castle or the city.
The museums portico and river frontage and first eight galleries were designed by Sidney J. R. Smith, an architect chosen by Sir Henry Tate, a sugar magnate, and subsequent extensions in 1910 and 1926 were funded by Sir Joseph Duveen and Lord Duveen respectively, to house paintings and drawings by Turner and modern foreign art. In 1937, Lord Duveen gave the central sculpture galleries that were designed by Romaine Walker and Jenkins in collboration with John Russell Pope, the architect who would soon design the National Gallery of Art building in Washington, DC.
In 1979, an extension financed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (See The City Review article on the Gulbenkian exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum in 2000), was the first of the Tate buildings to receive substantial government funding and was designed by Llewelyn-Davies, Weeks, Forestier & Bor to provide new gallery space for 20th Century art, temporary exhibitions and new conservation studios.
In 1980, Trewyn Studio in St. Ives, the former home of Dame Barbara Hepworth, was presented to the nation by her family and the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden is now maintained and administered by the Trustees of the Tate Gallery and in tandem with Tate St. Ives, which opened in 1993 to designs by Eldred Evans and David Shalev and was built by the Cornwall County Council for exhibitions of the work of artists associated with St. Ives.
The Clore Gallery for the Turner Collection opened in 1987 and was designed by James Stirling, Michael Wilford and Associates who also designed the conversion to galleries of Tate Liverpool, which opened in 1988 in part of the Albert dock complex of warehouses designed by Jessie Hartley in the 1840s.
Tate Gallery Publishing Ltd. will publish 20 new books in 2000 that includes catalogues from both Tate Britain and Tate Modern.
| i don't know |
"Which American President used the slogan: ""It's morning again in America"" for his presidential campaign?" | Presidential-Project - Ronald Reagan
Presidential-Project
President Ronald Reagan was a member of the Republican Party.
Path to President
Reagan became the Governor of California in 1967. He also was re-elected Governor in 1970. Reagan's ran for the Republican Party's nomination for president in 1976, but lost to incumbent President Gerald Ford. Then in 1980, Reagan made a successful bid for Republican nomination and was subsequently re-elected President for a second term. He was President from 1981-1989.
Campaign Slogan/Platform
Ronald Reagan had two different campaign slogans. His first one, which he used during his campaign in 1980, was, "are you better off than you were four years ago?" His second campaign slogan, "It's morning again in America," was used in his 1984 campaign. Reagan's campaign platform was to stimulate the economy by lowering taxes, have government interfere less with people's lives, states’ rights, and a strong national defense.
Election Results
Ronald Reagan was elected President in 1981 and then a second time in 1985. The results after his election were considered a "landslide election" in 1981 and were as follows: He received 50.8% of the popular vote with Jimmy Carter having 41%. His number of Electoral College votes was 489 out of 538. Carter took the other 69 votes. Reagan's results after his 1985 election were: He had 58.8% of the popular vote with Walter Mondale having 40.5%. His number of Electoral College votes was 525 out of 538. This election was another, even larger, landslide for Reagan.
1981 electoral votes
Country Issues
Reagan faced many international issues during his presidency. Here are two:
President Ronald Reagan, citing the threat posed to American nationals on the Caribbean nation of Grenada by that nation’s Marxist regime, orders the Marines to invade and secure their safety. There were nearly 1,000 Americans in Grenada at the time, many of them students at the island’s medical school. In little more than a week, Grenada’s government was overthrown.
The situation on Grenada had been of concern to American officials since 1979, when the leftist Maurice Bishop seized power and began to develop close relations with Cuba. In 1983, another Marxist, Bernard Coard, had Bishop assassinated and took control of the government. Protesters clashed with the new government and violence escalated. Citing the danger to the U.S. citizens in Grenada, Reagan ordered nearly 2,000 U.S. troops into the island, where they soon found themselves facing opposition from Grenadan armed forces and groups of Cuban military engineers, in Grenada to repair and expand the island’s airport. Matters were not helped by the fact that U.S. forces had to rely on minimal intelligence about the situation. (The maps used by many of them were, in fact, old tourist maps of the island.) Reagan ordered in more troops, and by the time the fighting was done, nearly 6,000 U.S. troops were in Grenada. Nearly 20 of these troops were killed and over a hundred wounded; over 60 Grenadan and Cuban troops were killed. Coard’s government collapsed and was replaced by one acceptable to the United States. Afterwards, Reagan withdrew American forces.
In 1986, the U.S. launched several airstrikes on a number of targets in Libya. The attacks were supposed to stop Muammar Gaddafi, the leader of Libya, from aiding terrorists. Intel found showed Qdoba as providing a bomb that terrorists used in Milan injuring 63 U.S. citizens. After the attacks were carried out, Reagan addressed the nation from the oval office. He said, "When our citizens are attacked or abused anywhere in the world on the direct orders of hostile regimes, we will respond so long as I'm in this office."
Domestic Issues
Reagan also faced numerous domestic issues during his presidency. Here are two:
In August of 1981, U.S. Air Traffic Controllers went on strike. By going on strike they violated a federal regulation prohibiting government unions from striking as well as became a threat to America's economy by bringing air travel to a halt. Reagan gave the air traffic controllers 48 hours to return to work and end the strike. On August 5, Reagan fired 11,345 Air Traffic Controllers because they failed to stop the strike and return to work.
In 1986, Reagan signed the Immigration Control and Reform Act. The act made it illegal to hire illegal immigrants. The act also granted roughly 3 million illegal immigrants amnesty. The act was supposed to eventually help reduce illegal immigration by subsequent securing of the southern U.S. border as promised by the Democrat held Congress through follow-on legislation. However, Congress never followed through on the legislation to better secure the border and illegal immigration continued, and even increased due to the prior amnesty.
Popularity
During Reagan's presidency, he was vastly popular with the nation. You can see this popularity by the landslide votes he received in both elections. Recent polls conducted by Gallup show that Reagan's popularity has increased since he left office in 1989. Reagan has appeared in the Top 10 of Gallup's annual Most Admired Man list more than 30 times, more often than any other person except evangelist Billy Graham. http://www.gallup.com/poll/11887/ronald-reagan-from-peoples-perspective-gallup-poll-review.aspx
Reagan's public approval from 1981-1988 (Average Approval Rating is Collored Yellow)
Presidential Job Approval:
http://content.gallup.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/POLL/rmgzeqkfc02dn1bv3mnkmw.gif
Laws Enacted
In 1981, Reagan signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act. This law lowered the Federal Income Tax to 25%. Lowering taxes was one of Reagan’s campaign promises. The sponsors to this law were Representative Jack Kemp of New York and Senator William V. Roth, Jr. of Delaware.
Reagan signed the Drug Enforcement Bill into law in 1986. The bill set aside a $1.7 million budget for the war on drugs. The bill also made a mandatory minimum punishment for drug offenses. The Drug Enforcement Bill was sponsored by Representative James Wright of Texas.
Judicial Appointees
President Reagan got the chance to appoint three judges to the Supreme Court. The first judge was Sandra Day O'Connor who is now retired. The second judge is Antonin Scalia who is still serving. Finally, the third judge Reagan appointed is Anthony Kennedy who is also still serving.
Judge
| Ronald Reagan |
Who received the best actor Oscar for the 1934 film ' It Happened One Night'? | Ronald Reagan: Campaigns and Elections—Miller Center
About the Administration
Political Setting:
Ronald Reagan was a leading force in national politics for a quarter century. He had an impact because he had deep convictions, star power, and political skills—and also because he arrived on the scene when the winds of change were blowing in the direction of conservatives. That was not apparent to most Americans when Reagan made his national debut in behalf of Barry Goldwater in 1964. The New Deal coalition created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933 had been the dominant political movement in the United States for three decades, as it would continue to be until the last year of the Lyndon B. Johnson presidency in 1968. But in the 1960s, the coalition was fraying along lines of race and class, and the unraveling accelerated during the Vietnam War. The business community and many rank-and-file Republicans had become increasingly resistant to what they deemed the heavy hand of government. Many white southerners shared this view as the federal government clamped down on the states while enforcing the civil rights laws of the 1960s—in time the racial backlash would spread to the North after urban disorders there. Meanwhile, within the Republican Party, resurgent conservatives mobilized against what they saw as the "me-too" policies of the GOP's long dominant Eastern leadership. In 1964, Goldwater transformed the party by narrowly defeating Nelson Rockefeller, the champion of the Eastern establishment. Goldwater lost by a landslide to President Lyndon B. Johnson in the general election, but the GOP remained in conservative hands. On its face, the 1964 presidential election was a reaffirmation of the New Deal and LBJ's "Great Society," but Goldwater carried five states in the Deep South and won the overall popular vote in the region in an augury of elections to come. The immediate beneficiary of this political realignment was the malleable Richard Nixon, who won the White House in 1968 against a divided Democratic Party and the independent candidacy of George Wallace at a time the nation was shaken by the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. Nixon was reelected in 1972, then forced to resign in 1974 because of the Watergate scandal. Vice President Gerald Ford inherited the presidency but was a weakened candidate after he pardoned Nixon in September 1974. It was in this context that Reagan challenged Ford for the Republican nomination in 1976.
Click to read Paul Laxalt's oral history.
Ford entered the race with the endorsement of almost the entire party political establishment—Paul Laxalt of Nevada, a longtime friend of Reagan, was the only U.S. senator to back him against Ford. But Reagan was a hero to conservatives, and he lacked the political baggage of having been part of a Washington establishment that been discredited by the interlocking traumas of Watergate and the Vietnam War. Reagan's strategists believed that if he scored a quick victory in the first primary of New Hampshire, support for Ford would evaporate. But Ford's strategists seized on a speech Reagan had made in September 1975 in which he said the federal government could reduce spending by $90 billion by allowing state governments to assume responsibility for various federal programs. Ford contended that the Reagan plan would give states a choice of bankruptcy or raising taxes. In anti-tax New Hampshire, this was a powerful argument. Thrust on the defensive, Reagan's campaign operatives made several tactical errors, including keeping the candidate out of the state on election day. Reagan lost the primary by a hairsbreadth, and Ford quickly parlayed the advantage this gave him into victories in six other primaries. With the North Carolina primary upcoming, the Reagan campaign was on the ropes.
At this point, Reagan struck back by making an issue of the Panama Canal, which the Ford administration planned to turn over to Panama. He also hit hard at Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, whom Reagan charged with being too accommodating to the Soviet Union. To the surprise of the White House and most of the media, Reagan won the North Carolina primary and revived his campaign. He went on to sweep several primaries, including big ones in Texas and California. Ford countered with a "Rose Garden strategy," using the power of the presidency to win over uncommitted delegates, even inviting a number of them to the White House. By mid-July he had the advantage; Reagan tried to forestall the inevitable by naming Pennsylvania Republican senator Richard Schweiker as his prospective running mate in an attempt to win over moderate Republicans who were on the fence. Ford prevailed at the Republican National Convention in Kansas City by the narrow margin. On a secret ballot, Ford's operatives privately acknowledged, Reagan would have been the runaway choice of the convention.
Reagan gave token support to Ford in the fall campaign against Democrat Jimmy Carter; some of Ford's operatives asserted afterward that more robust campaigning by Reagan could have changed the outcome. On the other hand, Reagan's challenge sharpened Ford and made him a better candidate in the general election. Far behind Carter during the summer, Ford made a strong comeback in the fall but fell short. His defeat left Reagan as the heir apparent in the Republican Party.
The Republican Primaries
Although he did not formally declare his candidacy until November 1979, Reagan made it clear to his inner circle from the moment of the 1976 convention that he intended to again seek the presidency. He was the choice of rank-and-file Republican voters in public opinion polls although many establishment GOP politicians thought he was too conservative and perhaps too old to win the White House. Six other Republicans sought the nomination in 1980: Senate minority leader Howard Baker of Tennessee, former Texas governor John Connally, Senator Robert Dole of Kansas, Representative Phillip Crane of Illinois, former CIA director George H.W. Bush, and Representative John Anderson of Illinois.
None of these men had Reagan's combination of political stature and communication skills, although Bush, who had represented the United States at the United Nations and in China, and had served in the House and as Republican national chairman, had broader experience. Moreover, conservatives were the dominant force within the Republican Party, and Reagan was their champion. Moderate Republicans worried that Reagan would be too confrontational toward the Soviet Union. Then, at a time when Reagan had virtually been anointed the Republican nominee, Bush upset him in the first primary test, the Iowa caucuses. Reagan's campaigning in Iowa had been lackadaisical, and Bush and others questioned whether Reagan could simultaneously carry out his promises to lower taxes, increase military spending, and balance the federal budget. John Anderson said Reagan could do all this only "with mirrors." Bush derisively called Reagan's fiscal plans "voodoo economics."
Presidential Speech Archive
Bush's victory in Iowa touched off a power struggle within the Reagan campaign and motivated the candidate. Members of Reagan's old California political team, encouraged by Nancy Reagan, knew that their candidate was at his best when voters saw him in person, where they could hear his often inspiring oratory and sense his personal warmth. Reagan campaigned nearly uninterrupted for twenty-one days in New Hampshire, a display of stamina that quieted concerns about his age. And when he faced off against his rivals in two February debates, Reagan proved a superior candidate.
In an incident that has become legendary in American political history, the moderator of the second debate ordered Reagan's microphone turned off as the candidates and their advisers argued about the debate's format. Reagan, paraphrasing a line from an old Spencer Tracy movie, defiantly responded, "I paid for this microphone." He soared in the polls and routed all his opponents in the primary. With New Hampshire as his springboard, Reagan rolled to the nomination, winning twenty-nine of the thirty-three primaries in which he and Bush competed. (Bush won the other four plus a primary that Reagan did not enter.) At the Republican national convention in Detroit, Michigan, Reagan then reached out to the moderate wing of the party by choosing Bush as his vice presidential running mate.
The 1980 Presidential Campaign
Carter and Reagan were not alone in the 1980 presidential campaign. Representative John Anderson, a moderate Republican from Illinois who had run in his party's primaries, saw Reagan as too conservative and launched an independent campaign for the presidency. Anderson's platform was liberal compared to Reagan's—and in some respects even to Carter's. He posed a potential problem to both the Carter and Reagan campaigns. Carter's strategists worried that he would win the votes of disaffected Democrats, especially in populous Northeastern states. Reagan's strategists worried that he would lure enough Republican moderates and independents to make things close in Republican-leaning states.
Reagan left the Republican National Convention in mid-July 1980 with a commanding lead over Carter in the polls. The race tightened considerably, however, over the ensuing months, in part because Democrats closed ranks after Carter was renominated in mid-August at the Democratic Convention in New York. Reagan's early stumbles also aided the Carter comeback.A month before he formally opened his general election campaign, Reagan gave a speech at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Mississippi, not far from where three civil rights workers were brutally murdered in 1964. Pollster-strategist Richard Wirthlin, whose surveys showed Reagan strong in the South but needing the votes of moderates in the North, urged Reagan not to attend this event, but Reagan said he had accepted the invitation and would not back out. In his speech in Neshoba, Reagan reaffirmed his support for state's rights, the doctrine that had been widely invoked in the region in support of segregation. The Mississippi incident was followed by other missteps: Reagan appeared before a jeering crowd of hecklers in the Bronx; he proclaimed the Vietnam War "a noble cause;" he suggested that both creationism and Darwinism should be taught in schools; he wrongly linked President Carter to the Ku Klux Klan. After Reagan expressed his support for Taiwan, his campaign team sent George Bush to China to reassure Chinese leaders that a Reagan presidency would not bring a wholesale reevaluation of Sino-American relations.
The cumulative effect of these incidents raised questions about Reagan's competency and threatened to derail his strategy of making Carter's record the focus of the campaign. It also played into Carter's strategy of portraying Reagan as an "extremist" who would divide America along racial, religious, and regional lines. But Carter overplayed his hand, denouncing Reagan in such strident terms that even some Democrats were put off by his attack. Meanwhile, the Reagan campaign rebounded. With Nancy Reagan playing a key role, Reagan brought in Stuart K. Spencer, a political consultant who had been instrumental in his first political victory when he ran for governor of California. Spencer was a calming presence for Reagan, and he helped keep the campaign focused on Carter's record. Even so, by mid-October, Carter had closed the considerable gap between him and his challenger. Reagan clung to a small lead in most polls, but his lead was within the margin of error.
Reagan and Carter had serious policy differences. Reagan urged a more muscular stance towards the Soviet Union and promised a major rearmament effort; he also made clear his opposition to SALT II, an arms treaty with Moscow that Carter had signed and that was currently pending before the Senate. Carter promised to prosecute the Cold War vigorously; indeed during the last year of his term, he had increased defense spending and strongly warned the Soviets, via the "Carter Doctrine," not to make advances in the Middle East. But he also emphasized that he was a moderate in foreign policy, contending that with Reagan in the Oval Office, the nation was more likely to become involved in a war.
The two candidates also differed on domestic issues. Carter promised strong support for environmental regulations and assured voters he would protect abortion rights. He claimed the economy was rebounding, pointing to a recent growth in housing starts and business loans. Reagan contended that environmental regulations were hurting the economy and made clear his opposition to abortion, although he did not dwell on the issue. Reagan promised to cut taxes, shrink the size of the federal government, and balance the federal budget. He said the nation was in recession. When told by his advisers that this was not technically true, Reagan stuck to his guns. He then formulated what became a surefire applause line of his campaign: "Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his"Beyond their differences on issues, Reagan had two clear advantages over Carter. The first is that he was a Washington outsider, as Carter had been in 1976. In the eyes of many Americans, Carter had promised much but delivered little and was to blame for the economic calamities that had befallen the nation. Reagan also had an optimistic temperament. Carter, in contrast, was defensive and stopped holding White House press conferences because of the critical nature of the questions.
Presidential Speech Archive
The temperamental contrast between the two men was at the center of what may have been the campaign's decisive moment: the Reagan-Carter debate of October 28, a week before the election. Both candidates held their own on substantive issues—indeed, many observers thought Carter was the better of the two, but Reagan was more relaxed and confident. When Carter accurately pointed out Reagan's record of opposition to the Medicare program in the hopes of portraying his opponent an extremist, Reagan ignored the charge and softly replied, "There you go again," a line he had rehearsed in debate practice. He wound up the debate with an effective iteration of his basic campaign theme asking Americans to make their decision on the basis of the Carter administration's record: "Are you better off than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was four years ago? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was?" For voters who answered "no" to these questions, Reagan was the clear alternative.
Reagan widened his lead in the polls in the week after the debate. The Reagan team had earlier worried that Carter might pull off an "October surprise" by winning freedom of the Americans held hostage in Iran, but after the debate they doubted that even this would rescue the President. On election day, Reagan overwhelmed Carter, winning 51 percent of the vote to Carter's 41 percent. Anderson had less than 7 percent of the vote but siphoned support from Carter in states such as New York and Massachusetts, enabling Reagan to carry these states and win an electoral landslide. Reagan won 489 electoral votes to Carter's 49.
Carter's showing was the worst for any incumbent President who sought reelection since Herbert Hoover in 1932. This was largely because the frustrations with Carter outweighed the reservations about Reagan among undecided voters, who broke heavily against the President. Reagan did well among Catholic voters and made inroads among working-class Democrats and union families. He also did well in the South, which was Carter's base. And the country as a whole was in the mood for change. The Republicans picked up fifty-three seats in the House of Representatives and twelve in the Senate, giving them a majority for the first time in the Senate since 1954. Some of the Republican gains were seen by Reagan's team as a sign that he had long coattails.
The Campaign and Election of 1984
Presidential Speech Archive
Republicans enthusiastically renominated Reagan and Bush in 1984. The President's popularity had risen dramatically since its nadir in late 1982, largely because the economic boom that had begun in 1983 picked up steam the following year. Lower inflation, reduced tax rates, less joblessness, and a robust gross national product provided Reagan and his supporters with a litany of accomplishments. In foreign affairs, a massive defense build-up and the President's muscular rhetoric led many Americans to conclude that Reagan was protecting the nation's interests and its international stature. The sum of these accomplishments was a restored public confidence and national pride epitomized by the chants of "USA, USA" that began at the Olympic summer games in Los Angeles and were often heard at Reagan rallies in the fall. The mood was captured by the Reagan campaign theme, expressed radiantly in feel-good television commercials: Morning Again in America.
The frontrunner for the Democratic nomination was Minnesotan Walter Mondale, who served as vice president under Jimmy Carter. Mondale fought back determined challenges in the primaries from Senator Gary Hart of Colorado and civil rights activist Reverend Jessie Jackson to secure the nomination, which he received on the first ballot at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco, California. Mondale defied convention—and the advice of some of his strategists—by proclaiming in his acceptance speech that he would raise taxes and predicting that Reagan would also raise them if reelected. He also injected a note of excitement into the campaign by picking a woman, New York congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro, as his running mate.
Reagan's reelection campaign was in some respects the inverse of his 1980 campaign, when he asked voters if they were better off than they had been four years earlier. The polls in 1984 showed that a large majority of Americans were now answering this question affirmatively. Reagan's strategists ignored Mondale for much of the campaign. They expected—and wanted—the election to be a referendum on the Reagan presidency.
Mondale's strategy was to acknowledge Reagan's popularity but question his policies. The Democratic contender declared that Reagan's tax cuts benefited the rich. He claimed that the President endorsed a conservative social agenda—opposing abortion rights and favoring prayer in schools—that was out of touch with the American mainstream. Mondale warned that Republican fiscal policies had created huge budget deficits that endangered the nation's long-term economic health; in a tactic that showed more honesty than political good sense, he reiterated his acceptance promise that he would raise taxes to balance the federal budget. Finally, Mondale repeatedly suggested that Reagan was too old for the presidency.
Presidential Speech Archive
Throughout most of the summer and into the early fall, Reagan held a double-digit lead in the polls. His campaign, though, was largely on automatic pilot. The President's political advisers kept his schedule light and the candidate away from the news media. But Reagan's campaign team could not protect Reagan from himself. The President was ill prepared for his first televised debate with Mondale in October. He stumbled over lines and responded ineffectively to Mondale's charges that he favored reduction of Social Security and Medicare benefits. Reagan's poor performance had done what the Democrats had been unable to do: raise the issue of whether he was too old to be President. Reagan's political team set about rebuilding their 73-year-old candidate's confidence, streamlining his preparation—at the urging of Nancy Reagan—for a second debate with Mondale. In Kansas City, a rested and revitalized President took the stage. The night's highpoint occurred when Reagan fielded a question about his age, remarking—in deadpan fashion—that "I will not make age an issue of this campaign . . . I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience." Mondale laughed uncomfortably, realizing that Reagan had disposed of the age issue with a one-liner. Reagan had gone up in the polls after his "there-you-go-again" debate with Carter four years earlier. In 1984, a campaign in which he led from beginning to end, Reagan's numbers soared even higher after the second debate with Mondale. In the aftermath of the debate, Reagan's lead shot up to 17 percentage points; throughout the remainder of the campaign, it would never dip below 15 percentage points.
The Reagan-Bush ticket won an overwhelming victory on election day, carrying every state but Mondale's Minnesota and the District of Columbia, and defeating Mondale in the Electoral College by 525 to 13. Reagan's popular vote total was even more impressive—54 million votes to Mondale's 37 million—a margin exceeded only by Nixon's win over George McGovern in 1972.
Reagan's victory was a testament to the President's personal popularity but also arguably a ratification of public support for his economic program, especially tax cuts. Reagan won a majority of independents and more than a fifth of the Democratic vote. He ran more strongly among the youngest cohort of voters than any Republican in the twentieth century. Traditional Republican support among white Protestants, small-town and rural Americans, college graduates, upper-class Americans, and white-collar managers and professionals remained exceedingly strong. Catholics who had supported Reagan in 1980 voted for him again in 1984, as did a large number of skilled and unskilled workers, high school graduates, and persons of moderate incomes.
But Reagan's reelection was more a personal triumph than a partisan endorsement. He had run a campaign with few issues that gave few clues as to his direction in a second term. And his coattails were short, as Democrats kept control of the House of Representatives. Republicans clung to control of the Senate in 1984, but the midterm elections of 1986 would put Democrats back in the majority.
Ronald Reagan Essays
| i don't know |
What was Elvis's last No 1 record in the UK in his lifetime? | ElvisNews.com: For The Billionth And The Last Time - Lifting The Lid On The King's Record Sales - Misc.
For The Billionth And The Last Time - Lifting The Lid On The King's Record Sales
By Elvis Australia - Nick Keene, Aug 3, 2007
How many records has Elvis actually sold? Did he really sell One Billion records as has been claimed. Nick Keene has researched this subject in depth with help from Ernst Jorgensen at Sony BMG and has compiled the following report. Some might say spin and hype did not start with politics, but in the entertainment world way back at the time of the Roman circuses. And nowhere will you find the air more thick with spin or hype than in the record industry. It seems that pretty well everybody in the business exaggerates the achievements of their clients perhaps because they assume that everyone else is doing the same. Bing Crosby's disc sales were once upon a time estimated by his record company on the basis of a somewhat quirky analysis of his sheet music sales and those of the Beatles were for years inflated on the rather spurious grounds that the sale of each one of their albums should be considered as equivalent to six singles. It is, however, going to come as rather a shock when fans begin to realise that the Presley figures have also not been immune to the odd spot of massaging over the years. Elvis did not sell 1 billion records by 1982 which claim first appeared via an article in the 'Washington Post' dated 12 July of that year and quoted RCA as its source, nor is there any validity in the current claim of 1.5 billion – whatever RCA/BMG may say in the liner notes on the back of one or two recent DVD releases. Rest assured my investigations reveal that Elvis is still by a distance the greatest record seller of all time, but even some 25 years later it is no easy task trying to establish whether or not his sales have actually exceeded one billion copies. So what happened? Well it seems that around five years after Elvis died a former Radio Luxembourg DJ by the name of Don Wardell took over from Joan Deary as the product manager in charge of the Elvis catalogue at RCA. And it was during his watch that the 'Washington Post' claim first began to appear on the back of Elvis albums and in press releases. Somebody else in the old RCA backroom may have initially dreamt up the figures, but it was Don Wardell who publicised them and thus must bear the responsibility. When some time later after BMG took over RCA the new team tried and failed to elicit any kind of rational explanation from Don Wardell it swiftly became apparent to them that he hadn’t got one. Unfortunately it would appear that those in the company who knew this to be the case kept quiet, presumably because they felt stuck with a claim that over the years had come to be largely accepted by much of the media and regarded as beyond dispute by the fans. Inexplicably, about a year or so ago one or two folk in BMG probably in the publicity department proceeded to take this discredited claim a stage further – which strikes me as a patently senseless and daft approach to take since if there is one artist whose achievements require little hype it surely has to be Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley 1969 So how many records has Elvis actually sold? The truth is that nobody really knows or will ever know, because whilst it is possible, as I will demonstrate, to establish his likely American sales within what I deem to be an acceptable margin of error, Presley's international sales-like those of many other if not all artists- are much more difficult to ascertain. Nevertheless it is certainly possible to put forward a broad based estimate once a figure for his domestic sales has been determined. The previous 'finger in the wind' guesses by persons unknown in his record company to the effect that Elvis' US sales accounted for about 60% of the total are simply not borne out by the market evidence nor for that matter by the wealth of gold or silver disc awards from other countries which Elvis himself had hung up on the walls of Graceland during his lifetime. In 1973 RCA actually put his US sales even higher - 200 out of the then claimed 300 million or so - when attempting to work out where they should pitch their initial offer in an effort to buy out future Elvis royalties accrued through his back catalogue, but it has now emerged that they did not know what royalties Elvis was receiving from overseas outlets in the first place so they simply came up with a back of the envelope estimate. It seems that each of the RCA affiliated outlets overseas mailed their royalty cheques directly to Elvis but did not send copy correspondence to HQ. Such limited information as has come my way from a few utterances which have been made over the years by one or other of Elvis Presley's many songwriters would indicate that they have received the majority of their royalties from overseas, but in saying that no assessment relying on a couple of quotes is remotely tenable. So any researcher must look elsewhere for clues and ferret out such evidence as exists circumstantial or otherwise. Elvis Presley 1970s There is for a start no question that the American share of the global market declined several decades ago, when other countries as far apart as Brazil and Japan embraced Western music and culture and this is clearly demonstrated by the total global musical sales for the year 2005, which with figures cast in billions of dollars reads as follows: 1 USA 7.0 2 Japan 3.7 3 UK 2.2 4 Germany 1.4 5 France 1.2 The rest 5.3 Total USA share of market 33.7% Rest of the World 66.3%. It doesn't come much more conclusive than that. So the question then turns on whether Elvis' sales conformed to this pattern. In fact whilst a fifties classic such as 'Hound Dog' may well have initially sold twice as many copies in the States, as it did elsewhere-which as only the Americans had developed a consumer based society by that stage should hardly come as a surprise - it is plain from what we do know that subsequently up to70% of the sales of later singles were sold overseas. In Europe alone virtually all the big Presley hits from 'It's Now or Never' onwards more than matched US sales. Indeed the 1974/5 single 'My Boy' actually sold more copies in the UK than it did in the States. ELV1S 30 #1 Hits More recent and better documented data adds even more grist to the mill and demonstrates that the picture with Presley records was and is indeed very much in keeping with market trends. Sales of the 2002 album 30 Number One Hits have now topped the 15 million mark - with a good 11 million of those sold outside the States and the 2003 release 2nd to None has sold three copies overseas for each one sold in the USA - where it has long since gone platinum. In addition the majority of current single sales by any artist in the US, whilst still of symbolic importance, are negligible outside of those purchased for jukeboxes, but Elvis has continued to chalk up new sales elsewhere-over 1.4 million in the UK alone between June 2002 and June 2005. Twenty five years ago RCA were saying much the same thing. The last album released during his lifetime 'Moody Blue' was by 1982 thought to be one of the King’s top sellers with global sales in excess of 12 million copies. However once US exports to Canada are excluded it seems that less than 3 million of those were actually sold to the home market. And as a final example on its initial release back in 1970 the single 'The Wonder of You' sold 990,000 copies in the USA and some 2,200,000 overseas. The exception to this picture is Presley's gospel music which continues to find particular favour with the strong Christian movement in the States and has no parallel elsewhere. Domestically the indications are that Elvis has sold just over 400 million records of which interestingly perhaps only 20% (82 million) can be attributed to singles: Summary Of American Sales OF 1954-2007 Category Documented / Estimated Sales (Millions) RIAA certified sales 169.0 Sales currently awaiting RIAA certification 8.0 Sales above/between certification levels * 57.5 Sales below minimum certification le
Rob Nelson ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 8, 2007 report abuse
Thanks for posting this fantastic, and very informative article. Firstly, I agree with the statement made regarding the creative output of Elvis and the Beatles. True audiophiles do not have to walk into this "long-winded" argument; Elvis, Paul, John, George and Ringo simply stated here, thankyou for your amazing art. Returning to Elvis' commercial success and the aspects that stand out for me; his overseas success, i.e. "Bringing It Back" #1 in Thailand. Amazing and wonderful. I don't try to understand why I enjoy Elvis' music. I am glad I and millions of others can enjoy his audio and film recordings. Thanks Elvis. Rest In Peace.
Kenneth ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 6, 2007 report abuse
an excellent article.
boris ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 6, 2007 report abuse
You said it all Lucky7Jackson!
Mofoca22 ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 4, 2007 report abuse
what it all narrows down to elvis is still the king and always will be 30 years, 40 years, 100 years , 500 years, 1000 years elvis will forever be in everyones mind and hearts and in there cd players or whatever they come out with in the future. elvis is the best and is well liked by people of all ages, races, and religions thats more than i can say about these other singers who call themselves the king
Martin DJ ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 4, 2007 report abuse
How about: "50,000,000 Elvis fans can't be wrong"? Is that figure still valid?
Lex ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 3, 2007 report abuse
One thing I know for sure... I have more Elvis CDs (and singles, LPs and cassettes) than by any other artist :-).
FLASHBOY ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 3, 2007 report abuse
I don't really care if Elvis sold one billion records or not The thing is that Elvis has sold more records than anybody in music history because of his incridible beautjful voice. he was the king of entertainement nobody did what Elvis done on stage. I heard somewhere that René Angelil Céline Dion husband and manager said that Dion has sold more records than Elvis now ........hehe:P Give it to Garth Brooke give it to the beatles who care i don't give a ... Iknow Elvis is number one that's all that matter to me.
elvis-finland ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 3, 2007 report abuse
To Jesper; yeah... maybe happy ;)
old shep ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 3, 2007 report abuse
It would be interesting to discover the real figures for Elvis' global sales but somewhere along the line RCA decided they would not really like to reveal it. In my opinion "creative bookkeeping was advised and introduced. A) To pay less tax and B) To pay less royalties.
byebye ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 3, 2007 report abuse
An interesting article here by Nick Keene who demands accurate sales figures. And he´s right.... Exaggeration is unfortunately used in politics, war history and whenever you want to sell something either as the truth or a product to a consumer. And finaly to elvismoviguide, -read the whole article instead of jumping to the part of american sales. -The conclusion is that Elvis now has sold 1 billion records up to this day (2007). Happy?! ;)
elvis-finland ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 3, 2007 report abuse
Frankly, I don't give a damn about this article. If all other sources says Elvis has sold over 1 billion records, then he has. Sure everything which is written isn't true, but one thing is sure: Elvis Presley has sold more records than any other artist or group. If Elvis fans tryes to say something else, then I don't know what is wrong with them.
| The Wonder of You |
When Labour came to power in 1997, which woman became Secretary of State for Social Security? | ElvisNews.com: For The Billionth And The Last Time - Lifting The Lid On The King's Record Sales - Misc.
For The Billionth And The Last Time - Lifting The Lid On The King's Record Sales
By Elvis Australia - Nick Keene, Aug 3, 2007
How many records has Elvis actually sold? Did he really sell One Billion records as has been claimed. Nick Keene has researched this subject in depth with help from Ernst Jorgensen at Sony BMG and has compiled the following report. Some might say spin and hype did not start with politics, but in the entertainment world way back at the time of the Roman circuses. And nowhere will you find the air more thick with spin or hype than in the record industry. It seems that pretty well everybody in the business exaggerates the achievements of their clients perhaps because they assume that everyone else is doing the same. Bing Crosby's disc sales were once upon a time estimated by his record company on the basis of a somewhat quirky analysis of his sheet music sales and those of the Beatles were for years inflated on the rather spurious grounds that the sale of each one of their albums should be considered as equivalent to six singles. It is, however, going to come as rather a shock when fans begin to realise that the Presley figures have also not been immune to the odd spot of massaging over the years. Elvis did not sell 1 billion records by 1982 which claim first appeared via an article in the 'Washington Post' dated 12 July of that year and quoted RCA as its source, nor is there any validity in the current claim of 1.5 billion – whatever RCA/BMG may say in the liner notes on the back of one or two recent DVD releases. Rest assured my investigations reveal that Elvis is still by a distance the greatest record seller of all time, but even some 25 years later it is no easy task trying to establish whether or not his sales have actually exceeded one billion copies. So what happened? Well it seems that around five years after Elvis died a former Radio Luxembourg DJ by the name of Don Wardell took over from Joan Deary as the product manager in charge of the Elvis catalogue at RCA. And it was during his watch that the 'Washington Post' claim first began to appear on the back of Elvis albums and in press releases. Somebody else in the old RCA backroom may have initially dreamt up the figures, but it was Don Wardell who publicised them and thus must bear the responsibility. When some time later after BMG took over RCA the new team tried and failed to elicit any kind of rational explanation from Don Wardell it swiftly became apparent to them that he hadn’t got one. Unfortunately it would appear that those in the company who knew this to be the case kept quiet, presumably because they felt stuck with a claim that over the years had come to be largely accepted by much of the media and regarded as beyond dispute by the fans. Inexplicably, about a year or so ago one or two folk in BMG probably in the publicity department proceeded to take this discredited claim a stage further – which strikes me as a patently senseless and daft approach to take since if there is one artist whose achievements require little hype it surely has to be Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley 1969 So how many records has Elvis actually sold? The truth is that nobody really knows or will ever know, because whilst it is possible, as I will demonstrate, to establish his likely American sales within what I deem to be an acceptable margin of error, Presley's international sales-like those of many other if not all artists- are much more difficult to ascertain. Nevertheless it is certainly possible to put forward a broad based estimate once a figure for his domestic sales has been determined. The previous 'finger in the wind' guesses by persons unknown in his record company to the effect that Elvis' US sales accounted for about 60% of the total are simply not borne out by the market evidence nor for that matter by the wealth of gold or silver disc awards from other countries which Elvis himself had hung up on the walls of Graceland during his lifetime. In 1973 RCA actually put his US sales even higher - 200 out of the then claimed 300 million or so - when attempting to work out where they should pitch their initial offer in an effort to buy out future Elvis royalties accrued through his back catalogue, but it has now emerged that they did not know what royalties Elvis was receiving from overseas outlets in the first place so they simply came up with a back of the envelope estimate. It seems that each of the RCA affiliated outlets overseas mailed their royalty cheques directly to Elvis but did not send copy correspondence to HQ. Such limited information as has come my way from a few utterances which have been made over the years by one or other of Elvis Presley's many songwriters would indicate that they have received the majority of their royalties from overseas, but in saying that no assessment relying on a couple of quotes is remotely tenable. So any researcher must look elsewhere for clues and ferret out such evidence as exists circumstantial or otherwise. Elvis Presley 1970s There is for a start no question that the American share of the global market declined several decades ago, when other countries as far apart as Brazil and Japan embraced Western music and culture and this is clearly demonstrated by the total global musical sales for the year 2005, which with figures cast in billions of dollars reads as follows: 1 USA 7.0 2 Japan 3.7 3 UK 2.2 4 Germany 1.4 5 France 1.2 The rest 5.3 Total USA share of market 33.7% Rest of the World 66.3%. It doesn't come much more conclusive than that. So the question then turns on whether Elvis' sales conformed to this pattern. In fact whilst a fifties classic such as 'Hound Dog' may well have initially sold twice as many copies in the States, as it did elsewhere-which as only the Americans had developed a consumer based society by that stage should hardly come as a surprise - it is plain from what we do know that subsequently up to70% of the sales of later singles were sold overseas. In Europe alone virtually all the big Presley hits from 'It's Now or Never' onwards more than matched US sales. Indeed the 1974/5 single 'My Boy' actually sold more copies in the UK than it did in the States. ELV1S 30 #1 Hits More recent and better documented data adds even more grist to the mill and demonstrates that the picture with Presley records was and is indeed very much in keeping with market trends. Sales of the 2002 album 30 Number One Hits have now topped the 15 million mark - with a good 11 million of those sold outside the States and the 2003 release 2nd to None has sold three copies overseas for each one sold in the USA - where it has long since gone platinum. In addition the majority of current single sales by any artist in the US, whilst still of symbolic importance, are negligible outside of those purchased for jukeboxes, but Elvis has continued to chalk up new sales elsewhere-over 1.4 million in the UK alone between June 2002 and June 2005. Twenty five years ago RCA were saying much the same thing. The last album released during his lifetime 'Moody Blue' was by 1982 thought to be one of the King’s top sellers with global sales in excess of 12 million copies. However once US exports to Canada are excluded it seems that less than 3 million of those were actually sold to the home market. And as a final example on its initial release back in 1970 the single 'The Wonder of You' sold 990,000 copies in the USA and some 2,200,000 overseas. The exception to this picture is Presley's gospel music which continues to find particular favour with the strong Christian movement in the States and has no parallel elsewhere. Domestically the indications are that Elvis has sold just over 400 million records of which interestingly perhaps only 20% (82 million) can be attributed to singles: Summary Of American Sales OF 1954-2007 Category Documented / Estimated Sales (Millions) RIAA certified sales 169.0 Sales currently awaiting RIAA certification 8.0 Sales above/between certification levels * 57.5 Sales below minimum certification le
Rob Nelson ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 8, 2007 report abuse
Thanks for posting this fantastic, and very informative article. Firstly, I agree with the statement made regarding the creative output of Elvis and the Beatles. True audiophiles do not have to walk into this "long-winded" argument; Elvis, Paul, John, George and Ringo simply stated here, thankyou for your amazing art. Returning to Elvis' commercial success and the aspects that stand out for me; his overseas success, i.e. "Bringing It Back" #1 in Thailand. Amazing and wonderful. I don't try to understand why I enjoy Elvis' music. I am glad I and millions of others can enjoy his audio and film recordings. Thanks Elvis. Rest In Peace.
Kenneth ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 6, 2007 report abuse
an excellent article.
boris ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 6, 2007 report abuse
You said it all Lucky7Jackson!
Mofoca22 ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 4, 2007 report abuse
what it all narrows down to elvis is still the king and always will be 30 years, 40 years, 100 years , 500 years, 1000 years elvis will forever be in everyones mind and hearts and in there cd players or whatever they come out with in the future. elvis is the best and is well liked by people of all ages, races, and religions thats more than i can say about these other singers who call themselves the king
Martin DJ ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 4, 2007 report abuse
How about: "50,000,000 Elvis fans can't be wrong"? Is that figure still valid?
Lex ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 3, 2007 report abuse
One thing I know for sure... I have more Elvis CDs (and singles, LPs and cassettes) than by any other artist :-).
FLASHBOY ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 3, 2007 report abuse
I don't really care if Elvis sold one billion records or not The thing is that Elvis has sold more records than anybody in music history because of his incridible beautjful voice. he was the king of entertainement nobody did what Elvis done on stage. I heard somewhere that René Angelil Céline Dion husband and manager said that Dion has sold more records than Elvis now ........hehe:P Give it to Garth Brooke give it to the beatles who care i don't give a ... Iknow Elvis is number one that's all that matter to me.
elvis-finland ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 3, 2007 report abuse
To Jesper; yeah... maybe happy ;)
old shep ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 3, 2007 report abuse
It would be interesting to discover the real figures for Elvis' global sales but somewhere along the line RCA decided they would not really like to reveal it. In my opinion "creative bookkeeping was advised and introduced. A) To pay less tax and B) To pay less royalties.
byebye ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 3, 2007 report abuse
An interesting article here by Nick Keene who demands accurate sales figures. And he´s right.... Exaggeration is unfortunately used in politics, war history and whenever you want to sell something either as the truth or a product to a consumer. And finaly to elvismoviguide, -read the whole article instead of jumping to the part of american sales. -The conclusion is that Elvis now has sold 1 billion records up to this day (2007). Happy?! ;)
elvis-finland ( profile / contact ) wrote on Aug 3, 2007 report abuse
Frankly, I don't give a damn about this article. If all other sources says Elvis has sold over 1 billion records, then he has. Sure everything which is written isn't true, but one thing is sure: Elvis Presley has sold more records than any other artist or group. If Elvis fans tryes to say something else, then I don't know what is wrong with them.
| i don't know |
Murray Gell-Mann developed a theory in 1964 that the smallest particle in the universe was called what? | Part of the Computing fundamentals glossary:
A quark is one of two currently recognized groups of fundamental particles, which are subatomic, indivisible (at least as far as we know today) particles that represent the smallest known units of matter . Twelve fundamental particles - six quarks and six leptons (the other type) - are the basic building blocks for everything in the universe.
Both quarks and leptons are distinguished in terms of flavors . as a way to distinguish them from each other. The six quark flavors are: up, down, top, bottom, strange, and charm. Everything in our readily observable world seems to be made up of just the up quark, the down quark, and the electron (which is the most famous flavor of lepton).
Murray Gell-Mann named the quark in 1964. Independently of each other, Gell-Mann and another physicist, George Zweig, theorized that the differences between protons, neutrons, and newly discovered particles could be explained by the existence of these still smaller particles. Gell-Mann won the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics for his work with fundamental particles.
It is entirely possible that quarks and leptons may turn out to be made up of smaller particles. The atom , after all, was once thought to be the smallest possible unit of matter. However, as we now know, the nuclei of atoms are made up of protons and neutrons which are, in turn, made up of quarks and leptons.
This was last updated in September 2005
Contributor(s): Vincent Martinez
| Quake Army Knife |
"Which word for a place of noise and confusion comes from the Greek, literally meaning ""all demons""?" | The Four Theories - Theory of Everything
Theory of Everything
Sitemap
The Four Theories
“Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about nor whether what we are saying is true.”
Bertrand Russell
Today, in modern physics, there are four theories that attempt to explain the physical principles behind the four fundamental forces of nature.
And the four theories are: General Relativity (created in 1915) by Albert Einstein, which explains the physical principle behind the force of gravity. The Quantum Electrodynamics (created in 1946) by Richard Feynman, which explains the physical principle behind the force of electromagnetism. The Quantum Chromodynamics (created in 1964) by Murray Gell-Mann, which explains the physical principle behind the strong nuclear force. And the Electroweak Theory (created in 1967) by Steven Weinberg, which explains the physical principle behind the weak nuclear force.
And, in principle, the theories of quantum electrodynamics, quantum chromodynamics and the electroweak theories are the same, in the sense, they are all based on the same physical principle; they are all gauge theories. Which means, they believe, the forces, such as the electromagnetic force, are mediated from one charged particle to another, by means of mediating particles, such as by means of virtual particles. And the reason these three theories are based on the same physical principle is because the quantum chromodynamics and the electroweak theories were developed afterwards, based on the success of the quantum electrodynamics.
But different from these quantum theories, the theory of general relativity is a field theory, which means, it believes, the forces, such as the gravitational force, extends its influence from one material to another via the distortion of space and without any need of mediating particles to carry the force.
Thus basically, what we have today are two theories; the gauge theory (such as quantum electrodynamics) and the field theory (such as general relativity). And this is basically the reason why we cannot unify these four theories into one grand unified theory. Because the gravitational theory of general relativity and the electromagnetic theory of the quantum electrodynamics are based on different physical principles, and thus they cannot be unified.
The theory of general relativity is a very simple theory. It proposes that there is an equivalency between gravity and acceleration.
Thus, let’s try some thought experiments. Imagine yourself in a room somewhere on Earth without any windows (so you will not know where you are). And within this room you are holding a metal ball. And if you release the ball, the ball will fall to the floor due to the force of gravity.
Now imagine yourself in another room, and this room is exactly the same as the room on Earth, but this room is in a rocket ship and far away somewhere in deep space, so there won’t be any influence of gravity. And the rocket ship is in a state of acceleration through deep space. And let’s say, the acceleration of the rocket ship can be adjusted to any degree of force we want, so the force of inertia generated by the acceleration can be adjusted to match the degree of gravitational force exerted by Earth. Thus, as the rocket ship accelerates through deep space, imagine yourself in this room holding a metal ball. And when you release the ball, you will notice that the ball will accelerate toward the floor and it will fall exactly the same way as the ball that fell on Earth. And if you weren't aware of the fact that this room was within an accelerating rocket ship, then you would have no way of knowing whether this experiment was done on Earth or in a rocket ship, because gravity and acceleration produces exactly the same physical effects.
Now, let’s try another thought experiment. Imagine yourself again in a room inside the rocket ship And from the one end of the room, you are shining a flashlight toward the other end of the room. And when the rocket engine is turned off and the room is not in acceleration, then the beam of light will travel straight across and strike the position of the wall exactly opposite.
But now, imagine the rocket engine is turned on, and the room/rocket ship is in a very rapid acceleration, and you are again shining the flashlight toward the other end of the room. But now, what you will see is that, when the beam of light reaches the opposite wall, the light will not strike the position of the wall exactly opposite, instead, the beam of light will strike the position somewhere below the spot from where it would have, if the room was not in acceleration. And this will occur because as the beam of light travels from your flashlight to the opposite wall, the position of the opposite wall will have moved upwards, due to the rapid acceleration of the room/rocket ship. But when you view this phenomenon from your position within the room, the beam of light will appear to take a curved path downward and it will appear bent. And it is this apparent bending of light that which Einstein predicted will occur when a beam of light travels near a large mass in deep space (such as a star), because the gravitational effect is precisely equivalent to the effects of acceleration. Thus, when a beam of light travels near a star, the gravitational force of the star will cause the beam of light to bend. And this was proven by two British astronomers, in May 1919, by measuring the bending of light from a distant star by the gravitational energy of our sun during a solar eclipse. (And this experiment had to be done during the solar eclipse, because under normal circumstances, the sun’s light, which illuminates the earth’s atmosphere, will make it impossible to detect the feebler light from the distant star.)
And along with the theory of equivalency between gravity and acceleration, Einstein also provided a physical picture of his view of curved space.
Imagine the empty space as an infinitely elastic rubber sheet. And any object that has mass will sink into this elastic sheet and will make a depression, and the greater the mass of the object, the deeper the depression (and Einstein called this depression as gravity well). And on this elastic sheet, you can represent a beam of light as a little marble rolling across the surface, and if there was no other object on that surface, then it would travel in a straight line. But now, imagine placing a heavy object, such as a bowling ball, on this elastic sheet to represent the sun, which would cause the sheet to curve under its weight. And again, if you roll the marble across this elastic sheet near to the bowling ball, then the trajectory of the marble will bend as it follows the curve around the heavy weight. Thus, Einstein explains the presence of matter will cause the four-dimensional spacetime to curve in a similar way, and this curvature of spacetime will then affect the motion of everything passing through the region of that curved spacetime.
Four-dimensional spacetime: We live in a universe that is composed of three-dimensional space and one-dimension of time. The three-dimension of space are: up and down (length), in and out (depth), and left and right (breath), and the one-dimension of time is the axis of space.
And generally, the shortest distance from point A to point B is a straight line. Thus imagine an object in motion from point A to point B, which would represent the space part of motion.
But we know there is also a time part to the motion, which indicates the length of time required for an object to get from point A to point B in space. Thus we can represent both space and time through a diagram to show spacetime as the object moves from point A to point C.
And our general concept is that the shortest path from point A to point B is a straight line. And such geometry might be true when we are dealing with a reasonably short distances of spacetime. But when we are dealing with the spacetime of larger scale, such as planetary or galactic scale, the shortest path is not necessarily a straight line. Because the four-dimensional spacetime of our universe is actually curved, thus the shortest path from point A to point B is geodesic. Thus, for example, imagine that you want to go from Colorado, USA (point A) to Sydney, Australia (point B). And because the surface of the earth is curved, thus the shortest path from point A to point B is by the curvatures of the earth’s surface.
And thus, the objects in deep space, such as our planet, also tends to move in a geodesic path, because this is the shortest distance from point A to point B. And thus the orbit of our earth around the sun forms a closed loop in space. And if we look at this with only the space part of the orbit, then the earth starts out from position A in space, and moves around the sun, and winds back again at position A.
But if we also applied the time-dimension to the earth’s orbit, then it would look like this.
This is called Minkowski’s spacetime diagram. And the path in spacetime of our earth around the sun is a helix or spiral. And what appeared before as a return to the same point in space is actually a curved path from the point A to a very different point C in the four-dimensional spacetime. And according to Minkowski, space and time are geometrically equivalent, and they are related to one another by the speed of light.
Quantum Electrodynamics (QED for short) is a theory that proposes the interactions between two electrically charged particles are achieved through a virtual process, which is a process where the virtual particles are created from the vacuum of empty space and through their collisions and annihilations, producing the electromagnetic effects of attraction and repulsion. And after which, the virtual particles disappear again into the vacuum (nothingness).
QED was initially developed by Paul Dirac (who predicted the existence of antiparticles) in late 1930s. And it has its roots in two contributions; the phenomenon of pair production (particle/antiparticle) and Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle.
First, we know that matter can be created from energy from Einstein’s equation; E=mc2, which describes the interconvertibility of matter and energy. But that is not the whole story, because even though there may be enough energy available to create a single particle, but in nature this is not allowed. Because among other things, there is a phenomenon of nature called the law of conservation of charge, which preserves the total zero net electric charge of our universe (thus our universe is in a constant state of energy equilibrium between the positive and the negative). And thus, because of the existence of this law, when nature creates a particle from electromagnetic radiation (photons), it cannot just create one, instead it must also create a second particle, exactly the same in every aspect as the first, but with an opposite electric charge. Thus, when nature creates an electron from high-energy collision, then it must also create a second particle, in this case a positron (which is an antiparticle of an electron). And generally, when the pair is created, they will attract due to their opposite charge and they will bond, and when they bond, they will annihilate each other in a powerful explosion and shatter into a billion (weak energy) photons.
And the second ingredient to Dirac’s original QED is Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. In 1927, Heisenberg stated that there is no way of devising a method of pinpointing an exact position of a subatomic particle, and at the same instant in time also accurately measure the momentum of the particle. And that to calculate both the momentum and position exactly at the same instant in time is impossible. And in 1930, Einstein took this uncertainty principle one step further, when he stated that it is also impossible to reduce the error in the measurement of energy without also increasing the uncertainty of time during which the measurement can take place. And although Einstein did not intended it that way, but many quantum physicists found this view to be useful, and used it to view, that in the subatomic processes, the law of conservation of energy can be violated for extremely brief period of time, provided that all is brought back to the conservation state by the end of that brief period.
And thus, based on these two ideas, Dirac proposed perhaps the electromagnetic process can be explained as a process where the photons comes into existence from the vacuum of empty space (similar in concept as when matter comes into existence from photons), and are physically transformed into a pair of charged particles (virtual photons), and through their collisions and annihilations produce the electromagnetic effects, and after which, disappears again into the vacuum.
But Dirac's original QED had some serious mathematical problems in calculating the electron’s interactions with its own electromagnetic field while in an orbit around the nucleus. Because an electron that is orbiting around the nucleus has an electromagnetic field, and any given magnetic field has its own polarity. So while in an orbit around the nucleus, the electron will interact with this magnetic field (even though this field is its own). And in consequence, the electron will experience a turning effect, and the original QED had problems calculating this phenomenon. Because, for example, if the electromagnetic energy is one divided by the distance squared, and if the distance of an electron (the source of the field) from itself is zero, then the interaction with itself ought to be infinite (one divided by zero is infinity), because energy and mass are equivalent. And thus, this means that the electron should have an infinite mass, which it does not. And thus, because of this problem of infinity, the original QED was never widely used by the scientific community.
The new version of QED, that is widely accepted and is in use today, was developed in 1948, by Richard Feynman. And what is different about the new version of QED is that it has a renormalization process. And essentially, the renormalization process works by viewing the electron as being composed of two quantities; the bare mass and the infinite mass. And thus, by subtracting the first infinity from the second infinity, the two infinities will disappear, thus leaving behind the bare mass. And through the use of the renormalization process, the new QED can predict the magnetic moment (turning effect) of the electron.
However, many modern physicists are uncomfortable with this renormalization process, because they are well aware that it is a kind of a mathematical hocus-pocus. That it only works because they already know the answer they’re trying to get.
At any rate, QED’s view of electromagnetism is different from the traditional view. Because in the traditional view, the electromagnetic effects of attraction and repulsion between two charged particles are achieved through an invisible field, which stretches out from the particle, like a wave on a pond. But in QED, the electromagnetic effects between two charged particles are achieved through the exchange of virtual photons, which is emitted by one charged particle and is then absolved by the other charged particle, and in the process, producing the effects of attraction and repulsion. And these virtual particles cannot be seen while they are moving from one particle to another (no one has actually ever seen this process at work), because they are exchanged so fast, thus they are called virtual.
The virtual process of the QED involves a very complex mathematics, but fortunately, Feynman also developed a diagram called Feynman Diagram to represent his equations in physical terms. The Feynman diagram is an improved version of a more general type of graph called space-time diagrams. And in space-time diagrams, the vertical direction represents time, and the horizontal direction represents space. Thus, for example, if a particle is at rest in space, it will be represented by a vertical line, because even though it does not move in space, it does move through time. And if the particle is moving through space, its line will be inclined, and the greater the inclination of the line, the faster the particle in motion. And the particle can only move forward in time, but it can move forward or backward in space.
The next diagram shown is the interaction between the two electrons. The diagram shows two electrons approaching each other, and one of them emitting a virtual photon from point A, and the second electron absorbing it at point B and vise versa. And because the two electrons possess the same negative charge, thus they will repel. And from the result of this exchange of virtual photons, both electrons change speed and directions.
Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD for short) is the theory of the strong nuclear force, and it was developed in 1964, by Murray Gell-Mann. And its name Quantum Chromodynamics was chosen deliberately to echo the name of Quantum Electrodynamics. Because QCD also has its base in the similar physical principles.
In the modern theory of the atom, the atom is composed of a central nucleus, and the nucleus is in turn composed of protons and neutrons, and orbiting around the nucleus are the electrons. And each proton possess one unit of positive electric charge, and each electron possess one unit of negative electric charge, and the neutron is electrically neutral. And because two particles of opposite electric charge tends to attract each other, thus a proton will tend to attract an electron. And the electron will fall into orbit around the proton, and not other way around, because the proton is heavier than the electron, and thus in the process create an atom. And also, it is the general rule in the creation of an atom, that to every proton within the nucleus, there should also be an equal number of electrons in orbit around the nucleus, and thus the total net electric charge of an atom tends to be zero. And the second general rule in the creation of an atom is that, if the nucleus of an atom is composed of two or more protons, then there must also be a neutron to every proton within the nucleus or more. For example, the nucleus of the iron atom is composed of 30 neutrons and 26 protons. And within most heavy elements, such as metallic elements, there is always greater numbers of neutrons within the nucleus than protons.
But in the modern theory of the atom, there isn't yet, an explanation why there is the need for an equal numbers or more of neutrons to every protons within a nucleus. Because in the modern theory, the two protons within a nucleus are bound together by the strong nuclear force. Thus the neutrons doesn't really have any function within the nucleus, and therefore, it can be said that, in modern science, neutrons has no purpose in nature at all, because the neutrons cannot exist outside of an atom.
Since the early 1960, it was believed that the protons and neutrons were not elemental particles, like the electron. Because based on the experiments with particle accelerators, when a beam of particles collided with the electrons, the trajectory of the deflected particles suggested that the electron was a point-like object. But when the same experiments were done with the protons and neutrons, the trajectory of the deflected particles showed that these particles were not point-like. Instead, the deflected trajectories suggested that they were more like spherical objects, with point-like objects within them. And considering the fact, the protons and the neutrons make up most of the mass/weight of an atom, thus causing the speculation that the protons and neutrons are created from even smaller particles.
And thus in 1964, Murray Gell-Mann proposed that the proton is composed of three even smaller elemental particles, which he named quarks. And to compliment the theory of his quarks, Murray Gell-Mann developed a theory called Quantum Chromodynamics.
And thus in QCD, the proton is composed of two up-quarks and one down-quark, and the neutron is composed of two down-quarks and one up-quark. And the up-quark possess the electric charge of +2/3, and the down-quark possess the electric charge of –1/3.
And thus by viewing it in this way, if we add up the total net electric charge of the proton: +2/3(up) + -1/3(down) + +2/3(up) = +1. And if we add up the total net electric charge of the neutron: -1/3(down) + +2/3(up) + -1/3(down) = 0. And in QCD, because the electric charges are different, in the sense, they are only a fraction of the electrical charge from our everyday understanding, thus they are given the names of colors. But not because these quarks really possess any colors, but rather, because this is a convenient way of expressing an idea. Thus by viewing the proton as not simply being composed of two up-quarks and one down-quark. Instead, if we view it as being composed of one red (up-quark) and one green (down-quark) and one blue (up-quark), and thus if you combine these three colors, then the color becomes white (or colorless). And thus, the rule here is that, in order for the quarks to combine to become a proton or a neutron, these combinations of colors must produce the overall net color of white (colorless). Thus the only combinations of three quarks that can exist within a proton or a neutron are the combinations that which becomes white. In principle, it is the same as when the combination of an electron and a proton combined will produce an overall zero net electric charge. And since a single quark or groups of four quarks will carry a net color, thus this is not allowed in QCD. And another rule to QCD is that like colors repel and unlike colors attract, in the same principle as the two like electric charges repelling one another and two opposite electric charges attracting one another. But in this case, it is the colors that repel or attract. Thus, for example, two red quarks will repel one another and are not found in the same triplets, thus the three quarks within a proton must all have three different colors. And another rule to this theory is that each quark has the means of altering its own color, kind of an internal pointer that can point in any one of three directions (and each directions representing a color), separated in 120 degrees from one another.
And as the quarks spin, this internal pointer is constantly changing from one color to another. And any of the three quarks are free to change its color independently of all other quarks, but they can only do so by emitting a gluon (strong nuclear force). And the gluon that is emitted will be promptly absorbed by another quark, which in turn will cause that quark to change its color, and in turn, emit a gluon of its own. And then this second gluon will then be absorbed by the third quark, which then changes its color, and in turn, emits a gluon, and the process repeats in a continuous cycle. And all the while as the three quarks are under going this kaleidoscopic change of colors within the proton, the proton as a whole remains white. And thus the gluons that are emitted by the quarks as they change colors are the mediator of the strong nuclear force, and it is the force that binds the quarks together. And the strong force bond that exists between the two protons within a nucleus is the result of the residual color force from those quarks. And thus in the process preventing the electromagnetic force, in this case, the repulsive force, from taking its effect between the two protons within a nucleus. And the strong nuclear force is said to be about 137 times stronger than the electromagnetic force at the proton and neutron level, and at the quark level, it is about 1,000 times stronger. However, the distance that which the strong nuclear force can take effect is very limited, about 10-15cm, which is the average distance between two protons in a nucleus.
The Feynman diagram below illustrates the strong force interaction between two quarks, where a quark interacts with another quark by the exchange of gluon, and subsequently, the gluon has rotated the state of one quark from red to green, and the other, from green to red.
The theory of the nuclear weak force is called the Electroweak Theory, and it was created in 1967, by Steven Weinberg. And they call it the electroweak theory because this theory is believed to unify the effects of electromagnetism with the effects of weak nuclear force at certain extremely high background temperatures.
The physical principle of the electroweak theory is much like the other quantum theories, in the sense that, it also works by the exchange of mediating particles. But in this theory, the mediating particles involved are very massive, about80 to 100GeV, and thus they possess a mass (because in the subatomic realm, energy level is the reflection of its mass), and they are called W+, W-, and Z0 particles. And because in the virtual processes, the amount of time of existence and the distance that a virtual particle can travel depends on the leeway allowed by the uncertainty principle, thus the greater its mass, the shorter the distance that it can travel. Thus, due to their large mass, the range of distance that these particles can travel are very limited, to about 10-16cm. And also, the physical process of the electroweak theory is little different from QED or QCD, in the sense that, instead of just pushing or pulling the charged particles together, its physical process involves the exchange of virtual particles that changes the very character of the charged particles that swaps them.
The Feynman diagram drawn below illustrates the beta decay of a neutron particle expressed through the electroweak theory. Beta decay is a process where a neutron particle decays into a proton and an electron (because the neutron is only stable within the nucleus of an atom, but when left alone in space, they will decay, usually within 5 to 15 minutes).
A neutrino meets a down-quark that is within the neutron and the down-quark emits a W- virtual particle, which is promptly absorbed by the neutrino and the neutrino transforms into an electron. And the down-quark after emitting the W- virtual particle, transforms into an up-quark and the neutron becomes a proton.
And thus, these are the four theories that attempts to explain the physical principles behind the four fundamental forces of nature. But there is a problem, they don’t unify. And the reason they don't unify is because, they are based on two different physical principles.
And its reasonable to assume that one of the two physical principles is wrong. And I believe its the quantum theories that has the issue. Because they are based on the principles that violates the laws of physics; namely, the law of conservation of energy, which states that energy cannot be created from nothing and energy cannot be destroyed. Thus according to the law of conservation of energy, that its not possible to create energy (virtual particles) from the vacuum of empty space (nothingness), and for it to exert its force, and then for it to disappear again into the vacuum (nothingness). And also, it is a process that no one has ever seen it work, they merely believe its true because of its mathematics. And no one can disprove the validity of its mathematics, because it is a process that cannot be seen. And the grounds for this violation of the laws of physics by the quantum theories has its base in Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle; that you cannot measure both the position and the momentum of a particle precisely at the same time. But the thing about Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is that, it does not mean that the subatomic particles do not possess a precise position and momentum in any given moment in time, it only means that you cannot measure it, due to their exceedingly small and elemental nature (Because in order to measure the position and momentum of a subatomic particle, you have to shine a high energy photon on to it and measure its deflection. Same in principle as shining a light on an object at night to see it via the deflected light from that object. But the problem is when you're trying to detect an infinitely small subatomic particle, you need a high energy photon, almost equivalent in mass/energy as the particle you're trying to observe, because higher the energy, the narrower its wave amplitude, which gives it the better chance of actually hitting the particle. Thus in order to detect a subatomic particle, you have to hit it with high energy photon, which is like hitting a billiard ball on a pool table with another billiard ball. But in the process of hitting it, to observe its position and momentum, you change its position and momentum. Thus the uncertainty of measuring subatomic particles, that by trying to measure its position and momentum, you change its position and momentum).
And modern quantum theories also has other problems, and among them are; its complexities and its adhog nature. Because physics at its most elemental level, should be simple and elegant. But the QCD, initially, the theory proposed two quarks (up and down) and three different colors (gluons), but now they find that in order for the theory to work, there has to exist six different quarks and eight different gluons. And so far, they found five quarks through the use of particle accelerators and they are still looking for the No. 6. But, all the new particles that has been discovered are highly unstable, thus they decay as soon as they are created. Thus, therein lies the problem in my view, because my understanding of nature is that, you can create a particle of any random mass/energy, provided that you have powerful enough accelerators to create them, because nature allows randomness to occur. But randomness is not laws of physics and nature does not build itself on random chaos, randomness is just accidental events that bears no meaning. Thus, these particles that they have discovered could be just nothing more than random/accidental creations and not a representation of fundamental nature. Because, I think, the reason why some particles decay, via the weak force, is because they have no function in natural order. In nature, the only stable forms of particles are, photons, electrons, protons, and neutrons.
And the validity of the electroweak theory hinges on the existence of the ghost particle, neutrino. The existence of which was first proposed to account for the missing mass of the neutron after its beta decay. But its missing mass can be accounted for through a different way. Because for one thing, I think, a neutron is composed of four elemental particles, not three (which is the reason why it is heavier than a proton). And for another, some of the mass of the neutron can also disperse as photons(heat), because naturally, the neutron would heat up during its decay, due to friction between the four elemental particles (2 electrons + 2 quarks).
Basically, the gauge theories are complex equations that doesn't work on its own (unlike the theory of general relativity), but manages to barely stay afloat within the scientific community, through endless patchy work of other equations, because there is nothing better.
| i don't know |
"From which 1950 film musical does the song ""I Got the Sun in the Morning"" come?" | "Anything You Can Do" from Annie Get Your Gun (1950) - YouTube
"Anything You Can Do" from Annie Get Your Gun (1950)
Want to watch this again later?
Sign in to add this video to a playlist.
Need to report the video?
Sign in to report inappropriate content.
Rating is available when the video has been rented.
This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.
Published on Feb 6, 2015
"Anything You Can Do" is a song composed by Irving Berlin for the 1946 Broadway musical, Annie Get Your Gun. The song is a spirited duet, with one male singer and one female singer attempting to outdo each other in increasingly complex tasks.
In the musical, the song sets the scene for the climactic sharpshooting contest between Annie Oakley and Frank Butler. Its most memorable lines are, "Anything you can do I can do better; I can do anything better than you."
The song was first performed in the Broadway musical Annie Get Your Gun (1946), by Ethel Merman and Ray Middleton. This is the original musical film version from Annie Get Your Gun (1950), sung by Betty Hutton and Howard Keel.
Category
| Annie Get Your Gun |
For which film did Gary Cooper win Best Actor Oscar in 1941? | I Got The Sun In The Morning - Annie Get Your Gun - YouTube
I Got The Sun In The Morning - Annie Get Your Gun
Want to watch this again later?
Sign in to add this video to a playlist.
Need to report the video?
Sign in to report inappropriate content.
Rating is available when the video has been rented.
This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.
Uploaded on May 31, 2011
From the 1999 Broadway Cast Recording.
Featuring Bernadette Peters.
| i don't know |
Which national radio station broadcasts on either 693 or 909 kHz Medium Wave? | London Radio Stations - AM Stations
London Radio Stations - AM Stations
All frequencies on this page are in kHz unless otherwise stated. There are two AM broadcast bands - long wave and medium wave. All AM stations in the UK broadcast in mono only.
Long Wave
The long wave band stretches from 145 to 290 kHz.
198 BBC Radio 4
Broadcasting House, LONDON, W1A 1AA
Tel +44 20 7580 4468, Fax +44 20 7636 9786
Broadcasts the same programme as the FM version, with one or some minor exceptions. One of the most notable exceptions is the cricket commentary during test matches - the ever popular Test Match Special. This frequency is (theoretically at least) available throughout the country. For more details, see the 93.5 MHz FM entry.
252 Atlantic
74 Newman Street, LONDON, W1P 3LA
Tel +44 20 7637 5252, Fax +44 20 7637 3925
In my opinion, the awful reception that is inherent at this frequency makes the station difficult to listen to. In 1998 Altlantic 252 changed its format from a safe pop mix to a more trendy underground sound featuring new bands.
Medium Wave
The medium wave band covers 530 to 1610 kHz - channel spacing 9 kHz.
558 Spectrum International Radio
International Radio Centre, 204/206 Queenstown Road, LONDON, SW8 3NR
Tel +44 20 7627 4433, Fax +44 20 7627 3409
Multi-ethnic programming. Includes news in different languages (Italian, for one). On air 25 June 1990.
630 BBC Three Counties
See 103.8 MHz FM entry.
648 BBC World Service
Bush House, Strand, LONDON, WC2B 4PH
Tel +44 20 7240 3456, Fax +44 20 7557 1258
World news from the BBC in London. Slight alterations from the standard English language World Service output. Web site has live audio. Also broadcasts on 6.195 and 9.41 MHz on the short wave band in this region, and many other shortwave frequencies world-wide.
720 BBC Radio 4
Broadcasting House, LONDON, W1A 1AA
Tel +44 20 7580 4468, Fax +44 20 7636 9786
See the 93.5 MHz FM service for details. This frequency (London only) carries the long wave service.
765 BBC Essex
See 103.5 MHz FM entry.
828 Classic Gold
Chiltern Road, DUNSTABLE, LU6 1HQ
Tel +44 1582 676200, Fax +44 1582 676251
Not a London station, but from Luton so you will hear it in North London. Golden oldie hits, one of many AM stations owned by GWR which have the same title (Classic Gold) and format. Interesting. Not.
909 BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC, national
Broadcasting House, LONDON, W1A 1AA
Tel +44 20 7580 4468, Fax +44 20 7636 9786
Has developed a very good reputation for sport, news and phone-ins. Great coverage of the Wimbledon tennis championships for example. You might also pick it up on 693. Live audio web link features programmes that do not feature live sport - the BBC do not have rights to web-cast live most sports. Listen live link for slow connections .
963 Liberty Radio
7th Floor, Trevor House, 100 Brompton Road, LONDON, SW3 1ER
Tel +44 20 7225 6755, Fax +44 20 7225 6725
"More tunes, more chat, more fun." Adult oriented music and chat, this station has a friendly and fun sound. "The Tobester" (Toby Anstis) is cheerful genuinely interesting to listen to in the mornings and Claire Ashford was a great sounding natural entertainer in the evenings, before she got moved to daytime. London's best AM station we reckon. Certainly its most original, avoiding a lot of the cliches than AM radio is often saddled with. Renamed in 1997; used to be Viva. This is the eastern London transmitter. In 1999(?) they obtained a second transmitter, 972, serving West London. Typical music - 70's and 80's, e.g. ABBA, Pet Shop Boys. Website currently unavailable (September 2001).
972 Liberty Radio
West London transmitter. See 963 entry above.
1035 Ritz
33-35 Wembley Hill Road, Wembley, HA9 8RT
Tel +44 20 8733 1300, Fax +44 20 8733 1393
Country music. On air 1 September 1994. Used to be called RTL Country until early 2000, now owned by Ritz Music Group.
1089 talkSPORT
PO Box 1089, LONDON, W1A 1PP
Tel +44 20 7636 1089, Fax +44 20 7636 1053
Sports talk including phone-in shows. Talk Radio, its predecessor, was launched on 14 February 1995. Purchased by Kelvin MacKenzie (with the backing of News International) in late 1998. Big staff changes then were unpopular and the station became talkSPORT ("the UK's first national sports radio station") in early 2000(?). Tommy Boyd was sacked, he went to LBC, the next station up the dial and now appears to be back again. Includes James Whale in the evenings. Back in early 1999 we were saying "the station now seems to feature an annoyingly large amount of football coverage." We were right! talkSPORT also broadcasts on some other AM frequencies in other parts of the country.
1152 LBC News
The Chrysalis Building, Bramley Road, LONDON, W10 6SP
Tel +44 20 7314 7300, Fax +44 20 7314 7322
Rolling news, weather and traffic station. Sister station to LBC 97.3 FM. Headline news every fifteen minutes (00, 15, 30 & 45 past the hour), weather, traffic and travel every ten minutes (01, 11, 21, 31, 41, 51 past the hour - "on the ones"), business news twice an hour (14 & 44 past the hour weekdays) and sports news every 30 minutes (23 & 52 past the hour). Chrysalis acquired the station and re-launched it (and it's sister 97.3 FM) on 6 January 2003.
1215 Virgin
The national frequency for the station broadcasting on 105.8 MHz FM in London. See that entry on the FM page for more details, including a live audio link.
1242 Capital Gold Kent
Based in Kent, so you may receive this in eastern parts of the capital. See sister station on 103.1 MHz FM . Address details the same. This used to be Invicta Supergold. It's part of the Capital Radio plc group. In a controversial move in 1999, Capital started broadcasting roughly the same programme as the original London Capital Gold on this frequency. Also broadcasts on 603.
1305 Premier Radio
| BBC Radio 5 Live |
How was Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin better known? | Inform, educate, entertain - Radio - Transdiffusion
Inform, educate, entertain
3 Oct 2007 0 comments. tbs.pm/3219
Stephen Hopkins traces a personal history and evaluation of Radio 4
Fans of Hercule Poirot, one of Agatha Christie’s enduring creations, may recall the great man on occasion listening to the radio and hearing something relevant to a case he is working on. In one episode or another, the station itself gets a mention: the National Programme.
The what programme? Poirot is set in the inter-war years (1918-1939), when radio broadcasting was in its early stages. Perhaps over-simplifying a little, by the 1930s two main radio services had evolved. The National Programme broadcast to the majority of the population from Daventry, and the gaggle of local stations that were the mainstay of the BBC in its earliest years had coalesced into the Regional Programme, which broadcast from a number of transmitters serving the main centres of population.
They didn’t survive the war, or the peace. At the outbreak of hostilities in 1939, the BBC Home Service took over on the frequencies of the Regional Programme, while the National Programme was renamed the Forces Programme and used to entertain the troops. In 1945 the BBC re-organized its services on a peace-time footing. The Home Service was retained; the Forces Programme had by this time become the Light Programme, and a new Third Programme was broadcasting as well. And thus the pattern was set for the next two decades.
The big shake-up came when the BBC launched a new pop-music station to fill the void left by the passing of the pirate radio stations thanks to the Marine &c Offences Act 1967 . The new Radio 1 broadcast on one of the frequencies of the Light Programme (which itself became Radio 2). The Third Programme was renamed Radio 3 and became (for most of the time anyway) a classical music station, and the Home Service took up some of the Third’s non-music programming and turned itself into Radio 4.
Radio 4 has been part of my life for pretty much as long as I can remember. It was always part of the furniture when I was growing up; during the evening meal, the family would often have the radio on the sideboard switched on for the six o’clock news. I can remember sitting in the secondary living room (what we called the study), listening to PM when Gordon Clough and Suzanne Simonds were presenting it. I also recall playing or helping my father with something in the back garden, with Down Your Way coming from the radio perched on the garden wall.
I remember the heady days in the summer of 1995, when Conservative rumblings of discontent simmered, culminating with the announcement by the then Prime Minister, Mr John Major, that he would resign and seek re-election as leader of the Conservative Party. I kept running from one room to the other, flicking between TV reports from ITN and coverage on PM, which was on the air as the news broke. Similarly, the election broadcasts covered on Radio 4 (and in later years simulcast on Radio Five Live) have been compulsive listening.
One year, for his birthday I got for Dad a copy of Just a Minute: Silver Minutes. He let me make a copy of it, of course, and some of the featured escapades involving the great four (Derek Nimmo, Clement Freud, Peter Jones and Kenneth Williams) still reduce me to helpless laughter, even if I know them verbatim. Just a Minute is still going strong, and even if surmounting the heights set by the original team is an almost impossible task, it still makes me laugh.
Another panel game that is usually good value is The News Quiz. I have a number of episodes on tape from ten or fifteen years ago. It is interesting to listen again to archive recordings and compare them with more contemporaneous editions to spot similarities and differences. Sandy Toksvig has a different style to Barry Took (who is the first presenter I remember hearing), who in turn was different to Simon Hoggart, but it has always been an interesting (and amusing) listen. Some of Alan Coren’s cuttings in particular are classics, although he does seem to have the knack of comic delivery.
Elsewhere in my childhood, Week Ending, a long-running satirical review of the week in the news (and whose mantle has been inherited by the likes of Dead Ringers and The Now Show) was a constant source of amusement. I have long been a news junkie, and I credit Radio 4 for doing much to stimulate my interest in news, politics and current affairs. As I got old enough to understand the world around me, knowing what had happened that week allowed me to appreciate topical comedy in a way that would otherwise have been next to impossible. During the school holidays I would sometimes go to my room and rest for a bit after lunch. I would sometimes catch the end of The World at One and the day-time repeat of The Archers, followed by the news and Women’s Hour.
This would not be possible now, of course. In 1998, the then Controller, James Boyle, radically overhauled the schedules. Out went the arts programme Kaleidoscope and Week Ending, while Sport on Four moved to Radio 2. In its place came Home Truths, presented by John Peel, while Today gained an extra half hour and The Archers a Sunday episode. The World at One now ran for 30 minutes instead of 40; Women’s Hour moved to the morning; You and Yours now lasted a full hour while the lunch-time comedy programme moved from 12.30 to 13.30, displacing the lunch-time repeat of The Archers which moved to 14.00. The Moral Maze moved from Thursday mornings to Wednesday evenings, while Feedback moved from the weekend to Friday lunch-time, doubling in length but losing much of its bite with presenter Chris Dunkley giving way to (in my opinion the less effective) Roger Bolton. The news bulletin at 19.00 was cut back from five minutes to two and The Archers lost a couple of minutes, thus allowing a new arts magazine, Front Row, to run from 19.15 to 19.45.
The new schedule was not popular. Radio 4 audiences are notably conservative, and that such wholesale change proved too much, at least in the short term. It was reflected in the listening figures, which plummeted. Ironically, looking back, I soon adjusted to the current schedule, to the point where reverting to the pre-1998 one would have been as disruptive as the original change undoubtedly was. Sure, I have increasingly hazy recollections of the old schedule (I can hear now the late Nick Clarke the Friday before the changes came into effect: “The World at One; this is Nick Clarke with – mark these words well – forty minutes of news and comment”), but as often happens, radical change beds in and over time becomes as familiar as what it replaced. I had grown up with Radio 4, and become accustomed to regular programmes’ places in the schedule. In words that might be familiar to those who heard Robin Scott, Controller of Radio 1 and Radio 2, broadcasting on both networks just before Radio 1 struck out on its own for the first time, it was familiar, like a pair of old shoes, and when you get a new pair they take a bit of time to break in until they fit properly, and occasionally squeak a bit at first.
It was also at this time that the weather bulletins on Today started getting shorter and harder to understand. The weather would usually start at five minutes to the hour and run for a good three minutes, giving John Kettley or Michael Fish ample time to meander through the forecast, area by area, at a leisurely pace. Now, it starts at three minutes to the hour (officially, at least; sometimes closer to two), to the extent that the poor forecaster is so squeezed for time that by the time he’s finished you hardly know what to expect in your part of the country. I sometimes wish that if the preceding interview overran, they would sacrifice the inevitable trailer in order to do justice to the weather forecast.
Some years ago, I was regularly getting up before the lark and listening to the radio as I was getting dressed. I’d sometimes listen to Radio 1 or Vibe FM (in the years before it re-branded itself as Kiss), but often I’d hear the World Service as it handed over to Radio 4 at the start of the day. Thus it was that I became acquainted with that peculiar but much loved arrangement of British traditional music known as the Radio 4 UK Theme.
The music that until 2006 started each day on Radio 4 is often (wrongly) thought of as the UK Theme of Radio 4. The post-war Home Service inherited the regional structure of the pre-war Regional Programme; consequently, Radio 4, which took over the Home Service’s medium wave frequencies, was also initially a regionalized service. Recognizing that the development of local radio was making regional radio redundant, the BBC gradually phased out Radio 4’s Home Service regional variations, culminating with a grand re-organization of frequencies on 23 November 1978. The BBC took advantage of international changes to medium wave frequency allocations (for a detailed account, see Development of the BBC AM transmitter network ) to re-shuffle its medium wave services. Radio 4 moved to 200 kHz (later tweaked to 198 kHz) on long wave, displacing Radio 2 which found a new home on 693 and 909 kHz medium wave. To emphasize the fact that Radio 4 was a truly national service in a way that the old Home Service never was, it was for some time billed as Radio 4 UK. Hence, when reading the name, the mental comma should come after the third word: it is the Theme of Radio 4 UK.
What do I usually listen to on Radio 4? Let’s look at what I heard in this (not atypical) week. I don’t listen to it at work over the internet because I’d never get anything done! I will usually switch on Today in time for Thought for the Day, which often makes me pause for thought. I time my lunch break religiously so that I’m back home for The World at One, and often catch the tail end of PM. I do a bit of washing up while listening to the news at six, and often lie down for a bit or do some housework with the 18.30 comedy programme in the background. I’ll usually catch The Archers when I can (and sometimes Front Row, if the running order is tempting enough), and The World Tonight at 22.00.
On Monday, I heard bits of The Learning Curve, discussing educational matters, although I admit I was more prone to playing music this Monday evening just gone. I have other engagements on Tuesday evenings so I usually miss the radio altogether. On Wednesday, I was delighted to see the return of The Moral Maze, this week discussing euthanasia, and this was followed by the usual repeat of the Sunday Supplement from Sunday’s The Westminster Hour. Thursday was particularly fascinating, with In Business discussing the idea that the businessman who views his occupation as a craft is more likely to do well than one who adheres rigidly to management school orthodoxy. After Costing the Earth, which I caught bits of, Melvin Bragg returned with In Our Time, which this week dissected the life of the philosopher Socrates.
I had some time ago read a quote attributed to Socrates: “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” I had not a clue what this meant. One of the contributors to In Our Time had an idea. Socrates wanted to test the received wisdom of the Oracle of Delphi, that there was no one wiser than he; so he would dispute issues of the moment with those who believed themselves to be paragons of wisdom, only to find that their believed knowledge was based on some misapprehension. So, Socrates concluded that the Oracle was correct: he was indeed the wisest man alive, because true wisdom consists of recognizing the limits of your own understanding.
Another episode of In Our Time devoted itself to the topic of the Permian-Triassic boundary, the period in the great story of our planet in which the continents formed a unitary land mass known as Pangaea, the crust of the earth split in present-day Siberia and massive and protracted lava eruptions belched masses of gases into the atmosphere. It offered little comfort to those of us who fear the effects of global warming taken to extremes, for these, combined with other factors, led to a massive rise in earth temperatures and a progressive deterioration in the ability of the earth to sustain life, resulting in the extinction of a full 95% of all life on earth.
Why do I like Radio 4 so much? It’s a hard question satisfactorily to answer, but I think I have finally settled on one simple fact: it feeds my brain’s thirst for information and knowledge. The calm, unhurried presentation of news, and the sober and restrained delivery of inter-programme links, by consummate professionals such as Brian Perkins, Charlotte Green, Harriet Cass and Peter Donaldson are in marked and, for me, refreshing contrast to the over-excitability of their counterparts on some other channels. It is a reliable source of news and current affairs, with regular briefings on issues of the moment. It offers personal and reflective dispatches as heard on From Our Own Correspondent, useful information in the guise of Moneybox, a regular political fix with The Week in Westminster and Today in Parliament, a thorough analysis of issues of the moment with Any Questions?, drama with The Saturday Play, access to literature contemporary and classical with A Book at Bedtime and The Late Book, and a range of light entertainment with numerous panel games and light entertainment. And I’ve barely scratched the surface.
Radio has a powerful ability to stir the emotions. I remember sitting in the car on the day the death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta was announced. One of the tributes spoke of how she had rescued an elderly and infirm woman who had been abandoned (if I recall correctly) to her death; dumped in a refuse bin by, of all people, her own son – can you believe it?! – At least, the speaker intoned, the poor dear would have experienced a degree of humanity and human kindness before she died. Hearing that unsettled me like few things can, and I still find it difficult to recount it now.
For me, Radio 4 comes as close as anything the BBC has ever done to being an unqualified success. Sure, it sometimes gets things wrong, as regular listeners to Feedback will attest, but looking at at overall it is almost impossible to fault. I have often listened to Desert Island Discs and marvelled at those who achieve the impossible and whittle down their favourite pieces of music to a list of eight, but my choice for a book would be much simpler: it would have to be one of a dictionary, a book of quotations or a guide to English grammar. And my luxury? A wind-up radio permanently tuned into Radio 4, I think. For those of us who value a healthy and active mind, who relish delving into the guts of a complex or complicated argument or moral or ethical dilemma, who see the importance of keeping up-to-date with what’s happening at home and abroad, and who value the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, the sort of intelligent speech that Radio 4 broadcasts is vital nourishment for the brain.
Station controllers, schedules and even names come and go, but I like to think that, at least in part, the Radio 4 of today carries discernible echos of the best of the Home Service and the National and Regional programmes of old. It observes par excellence Lord Reith’s edict that the BBC should inform, educate and entertain, and its range of programming and overall style make it the sort of station with which even Hercule Poirot might still identify.
| i don't know |
Which musical term is used when the music should be played quickly? | Musical Terms: The Classic FM musical dictionary - classicfm.com - Classic FM
Musical Terms: The Classic FM musical dictionary
20th October 2014, 15:29
Your comprehensive guide to musical definitions and terminology.
A
(Italian: 'getting faster')
Adagio -
(Italian: 'slow'). Meaning the music should be played slowly. Barber's 'Adagio' is a fantastic example of this.
Allegro -
(Italian: 'lively'). Meaning the music should be played cheerfully. Upbeat and brisk. Try Rossini 's William Tell overture for size.
Andante -
(Italian: 'walking'). Meaning the music should be played at a walking pace. Not too fast or slow.
Aria -
(Italian: 'air'). An aria is a song, generally used to describe set-piece songs in Opera .
Atonal -
Music in which no key can be established. The technique is heard in a lot of 20th Century music. Composers from the Second Viennese School used atonality as a basis for much of their work.
B
Ballad -
from the vulgar Latin 'ballare', meaning to dance. A work in dance form imitative of a folk song, with a narrative structure.
Bar -
A vertical line through the stave, to mark the music into sections, each with a set amount of beats within.
Barcarolle -
A boating song, generally describing the songs sung by gondoliers in Venice. Chopin , Mendelssohn, Fauré and Offenbach all wrote works imitating the form.
Baritone -
Male singing voice in the middle range. Gerald Finley is a world class example of a baritone.
Baroque -
A period in art and music from around 1600-1750. Composers include Monteverdi , Purcell , Rameau , Bach , Vivaldi and Handel .
Basso Continuo -
(Italian: 'continuous bass'). A form of bass line used in music from the Baroque period. It is usually notated with numbers indicating what chords can be used, so the continuo player can embellish the lines. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos are a fine example of this.
Berceuse -
A lullaby. Generally slow and undulating, Chopin's famous Berceuse is the most well known example of the form.
Bolero -
A Spanish dance. The most famous example is Ravel's Boléro .
C
Cadence -
Two chords at the end of a piece which provide a type of 'punctuation' at the end of a musical phrase. Cadences can either suggest the sentence isn't over, or provide a type of musical 'full-stop'.
Cantata -
A choral work that uses solo voices with an instrumental (usually orchestral) accompaniment. A cantata is generally a choral work of some length that also uses solo voices, usually with instrumental accompaniment. The texts used may be sacred or secular. Some cantatas use solo voices without chorus or choir. Listen to Bach's Cantata No. 140 (Wachet Auf) for a beautiful example.
Capriccio -
(Italian: 'caprice'). A lively piece of music, usually free in its form and short. Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italien is certainly in high spirits.
Chanson -
(French: 'song'). A French song, from the middle ages to the 20th century.
Chorale -
A Lutheran hymn. Generally the music moves in block chords. The most famous Chorales of all were written by Bach.
Chord -
The sounding of two or more notes at the same time.
Chromatic -
Notes which do not belong to the diatonic scale. For example, in the scale of C major (the white notes on the piano ), they black keys (sharps and flats) are the chromatic notes. Rimsky Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee is a particularly exciting example of a work built around the chromatic scale.
Clef -
Several symbols drawn at the end of a stave, indicating the pitch of the notes written on that stave.
Coda -
(Italian: 'tail'). The tail end of a piece of music. Usually a section which indicates the end of the piece or section is approaching.
Coloratura -
(Italian: 'colouring'). A type of decoration, usually in singing that is ornate and richly ornamented. Dame Joan Sutherland was one of the greatest coloratura sopranos of all time.
Concerto -
A piece of instrumental music for soloist contrasted by an ensemble (either a small group of musicians or a full orchestra). Rachmaninov's epic Piano Concerto No. 2 remains one of the most popular works in the genre.
Countertenor -
The vocal range of a male alto. Close in range to a female soprano. Iestyn Davies explains here.
Crescendo -
(Italian: 'growing') A dynamic instruction meaning to gradually play louder.
D
Da Capo -
(Italian: 'from the beginning'). Usually abbreviated to 'D.C.' at the end of a section of a piece, meaning go back to the beginning and play either to the end (Da capo al fine) or to the sign, which looks like a stylised "S" (Da capo al segno).
Diminuendo -
(Italian: Literally 'diminishing'). A dynamic instruction meaning to gradually play quieter.
Dynamics -
Levels of sound in music. The spectrum of soft to loud.
E
A piece of music in the form of a lament.
Ensemble -
Description of: whether instrumentalists are playing together; a group of performers.
Espressivo -
(Italian: 'expressive'). An instruction meaning that a passage should be played with expression, or expressively.
Etude -
(French: 'study'). An instrumental composition intended to improve or tax certain aspects of technique. Some of the hardest instrumental works are large scale etudes by composers such as Chopin and Liszt .
F
The Italian word for Bassoon.
Flat -
Indicated by a stylised ♭ sign, shows that the note before which it is place should be lowered by a semitone. Flat can also mean that a note is out of tune, sounding lower than it should in this case.
Forte -
(Italian: 'strong'). A dynamic instruction meaning the music should be played loudly. The instruction appears as either: 'f' loud; 'ff' fortissimo, meaning very loud; or 'fff' very loud. The practice has expanded to allow for any number of 'f's, depending on how loud a composer wants something to be played. Here are some examples of when 'fff' really doesn't describe it...
Fugue -
A form in which the composition is contrapuntal. A theme introduces the piece, which is then repeat at different pitches throughout the composition, set in counterpoint to other musical lines within the texture. The Fugue has proven a fascinating medium, even penetrating the world of pop music and Lady Gaga...
G
A lively dance form from the Baroque period, from the English Jig.
Giocoso -
(Italian: 'playful', 'cheerful'). Meaning the piece should be played in a cheerful or playful way.
Glissando -
From the French 'glisser', meaning to slide. An instruction to slide between a group of notes. On the piano, for example, the performer runs a finger down or up the keyboard.
H
Harmony -
The sounding of two or more notes at the same time. A composer may be said to have a 'harmonic language', similar in meaning to saying someone has a particular accent.
Humoresque -
A piece of music with a humorous feel. Notable compositions using the name have been written by: Schumann , Dvořák and Rachmaninov.
Hymn -
A song of religious worship. The protestant tradition of hymn singing comes from the chorales of Martin Luther. Here is Classic FM's collection of 50 classic hymns.
I
Impressionism -
A term describing movements in art and music . Generally French, the impressionist art and music from the late 19th / early 20th Century is characterised by a sense of veiled, blurred images and a palette of rich colour. Both Debussy and Ravel resented their music being described thus , as they felt it suggested their music had little formal and structural value.
Intonation -
The accuracy or lack of pitch in instrumental playing and singing. For example, 'intonation is off here', meaning the tuning is not exact.
J
a lively English dance, usually placed at the end of a Baroque suite.
K
Key -
A musical key is the relation of different chords to each other. The 'tonic' is the subjective sense of 'home', from which musical compositions deviate from, and arrive back to. Relations of different keys to each other give the impression of tension, development and resolution. A 'key signature' is an instruction at the beginning of written music, indicating what the 'home key' of the work is.
L
Largo -
(Italian: 'broad', 'wide', 'slow'). An instruction meaning the music is usually slow in speed, or broad in tempo.
Legato -
(Italian: 'joined'). An instruction indicating that a sequence of notes should be played smoothly, or joined up, as opposed to disconnected.
Leggiero -
(Italian: 'lightly'). An instruction meaning to play lightly and without force.
(col) Legno -
(Italian: 'wood'). An instruction for string players, usually written as 'col legno' (with the wood). This indicates that the string player should use the wooden side of the bow to hit the strings with.
Leitmotif -
A short, recurring musical phrase, usually associated with a character, idea, event or object. This is the musical equivalent of branding. Wagner used the technique extensively in his music dramas.
Lento -
(Italian: 'slow'). A tempo instruction meaning the music is slow.
Libretto -
(Italian: 'little book'). The text of an opera or vocal work, which was traditionally printed in a small book.
Lied(er) -
(German: 'song'). A form of song in the German tradition, exemplified by: Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolff, Mahler and Richard Strauss.
M
Madrigal -
A vocal composition originating in 14th Century Italy. Madrigals are usually of a secular nature, and became very popular in the Renaissance and early Baroque periods.
Major -
A scale which corresponds on the piano to all the white notes, C to C. A C major triad chord consists of the notes: C, E, and G. Generally, major keys sound 'happy' while minor keys sound 'sad'.
Malagueña -
A Spanish gypsy dance from the region of Málaga. Composer Ernesto Lecuona is known for his piece of the same name, and Ravel used the form in his Rapsodie Espagnole.
Mazurka -
A traditional Polish dance. Many composers, including Chopin and Szymanowski have written works using the form.
Mezzo -
(Italian: 'half') The term can be used in a number of contexts. Mezzo-forte / mezzo-piano are dynamic instructions meaning 'half-loud' and 'half-soft' respectively. A mezzo-soprano is a female voice range that is lower than a soprano.
Minuet -
A popular French dance from the mid-17th Century to the end of the 18th Century.
N
A note which is neither sharp nor flat.
Neoclassical -
Neoclassicism is a style of music used by composers in the 20th Century which incorporate Classical and Baroque structures within their works. Stravinsky , Ravel and Hindemith are all composers who experimented with the style.
Nocturne -
A piece of music of a nocturnal mood. Irish composer John Field invented the form in the early 19th Century, which led to its popularisation by Chopin, who wrote 21 nocturnes.
O
Obbligato -
(Italian: 'obligatory') An instrumental part which is essential in a piece of music. Popular in the baroque period.
Octave -
(Latin: 'octavus', 'eigth'). The interval of an eight, eg: from the notes C to C or D to D.
Octet -
A piece of music written for 8 performers.
Ondes Martenot -
(French: 'Martenot waves'). An electronic instrument which produces sound using a keyboard which controls oscillating frequencies. Produced by Maruice Martenot in 1928, the most famous example of its use is in Messiaen's bombastic Turangalîla -Symphonie .
Opus -
(Latin: 'work') A term is generally used in the listing of a composer's works by opus numbers, usually abbreviated to Op. Since the Latin plural opera would lead to unnecessary confusion it is best avoided, although the alternative opuses remains an unsatisfactory substitute. Opus numbers are not always a guide to the date of composition or even to the date of publication.
Oratorio -
(Italian: 'pulpit'). A large scale work for orchestra and voices, usually sacred in nature. Oratorios are narrative in the same way as opera, but are performed without staging, costume, action or scenery.
Ostinato -
(Italian: 'obstinate') A repeated musical phrase or rhythm.
Overture -
An introductory movement to an opera or substantial work. In opera, the overture usually contains examples of the major musical themes that will appear throughout the work - a type of trailer for what is to come.
P
A musical suite, usually for solo instrument or small ensemble.
Passacaglia -
A baroque dance form in which a short melodic phrase, usually in the bass, form the basis of the work.
Pentatonic -
A five-note scale consisting of the black notes on the keyboard. Used in folk music from many countries, it is readily associated with an 'oriental' sound.
Pianoforte -
(Italian: 'soft loud'). Colloquially known as the 'piano'. A keyboard instrument developed int he 18th Century. The piano evolved from the harpsichord, in that the piano creates sound by hammers hitting strings, rather than the strings being plucked. The term 'pianoforte' is a mix of two Italian words, 'piano' (soft) and 'forte' (loud), meaning depending on how much force is applied to the keys, the instrument's dynamic range can be anywhere from very soft to very loud.
Pitch -
The frequency of the vibration of sound. Pitch is measured in hertz, and is generally organised in a system known as 'equal temperament', a system of tuning in which different notes have a standardised pitch ratio.
Pizzicato -
(Italian: 'plucked') A direction to string instrument performers to pluck the strings, rather than using the bow to create sound.
Più -
(Italian: 'more'). A term that can preface an instruction to mean 'more of'. 'Più vivo', meaning 'more lively', or 'Più lento', more slow.
Poco a poco -
(Italian: 'little by little'). An term that can preface and instruction meaning to follow it 'little by little'. For example, 'poco a poco crescendo', meaning, getting louder gradually, little by little.
Presto -
(Italian: 'quick') An instruction that a movement, section therein, or work is fast in tempo.
Q
Quarter-tone -
A division of pitches, smaller than a semitone, which is half a tone. Found generally in some music from the 20th Century.
Quartet -
A group of four players, or a composition for four players.
R
(Italian: 'becoming slower'). Often abbreviated as 'rall...', is an instruction to gradually play slower.
Recitative -
In vocal works, recitative is a moment where a solo voice sings in relatively free rhythm. Usually preceding an 'aria' (the main song), recitative is usually used to illustrate plot and narrative in opera.
Requiem Mass -
A Catholic Mass of the dead. Notable examples include Mozart's major last work, and others by Brahms, Berlioz, Verdi and Faure.
Riguadon -
A French folk dance, typically used in instrumental suites from the 17th and 18th Centuries. In the 20th Century, Ravel wrote a movement named 'riguadon' in his work Le tombeau de Couperin, an homage to the French baroque.
Ritardando -
(Italian: 'becoming slower'). Often abbreviated as 'rit.', is an instruction to gradually play slower.
Ritenuto -
(Italian: 'held back') An instruction to slow down.
Rococo -
In architecture and visual art, the rococo was characterised by a light, decorative French style. In music, the term is applied to a period characterised by highly decorative, elaborately ornate music.
Rondo -
A form with a recurring theme, usually used as the final movement of a sonata or concerto. Mozart's Rondo alla Turca is inspired by Turkish military marching bands from the 18th Century.
Rubato -
(Italian: 'stolen'). An instruction to play with freedom. Rubato allows performers to deviate from strict tempo regularity, and can enhance expressive playing. In essence, by 'stealing' time, or borrowing it, it should be contrasted with strict time, in a musically correct method of atonement.
S
A sequence of notes in either descending or ascending order.
Scherzo -
(Italian: 'joke'). A movement from a work. Originating in the 17th Century, the form usually appears in a Symphony as a fast, light-hearted second or third movement. Beethoven used the form as an alternative to the minuet, and Chopin expanded the form as whole works in his four Scherzi .
Serialism -
A compositional technique developed in the 20th Century by Arnold Schoenberg, as a method of ordering the seemingly chaotic and arbitrary technique to atonality. Serialism uses the twelve semitones of the octave in a particular order, known as a 'tone-row', which serves as a basis on which a work is structured.
Sforzando -
Play with sudden and marked emphasis.
Sonata -
(Italian: 'sonare', to sound). A composition for soloist, or soloist with piano accompaniment. The sonata usually consists of several movements with one or more in sonata form. Sonata-form is a form in which a movement is divided into three sections, exposition, development and recapitulation. The exposition usually contains two contrasting themes, which are then developed in the development, to be re-heard in the recapitulation, ending in a coda.
Soprano -
The highest female voice.
Symphony -
A large scale orchestral work, usually in four movements, in which at least one is in sonata-form. The movements correspond roughly to a pattern of: Opening movement; Scherzo; Slow movement; Finale.
T
Tempo -
(Italian: 'time'). The speed at which a piece of music is played. Tempo indications are given either at the beginning of a piece, or within it. Sometimes tempo is indicated by strict beats-per-minute, or using terminology which can be more flexible.
Tenor -
A male singing voice between bariton and countertenor. The highest of the ordinary adult male range.
Toccata -
(Italian: from 'toccare', to touch). An instrumental work designed to display the technical prowess and proficiency of a performer. Notable toccatas have been written by Bach , Ravel and Prokofiev.
Tremolo -
(Italian: 'trembling'). The quick repetition of a single note, usually used in string playing.
Trill -
A musical ornament, consisting of the rapid sounding of two notes in quick succession.
U
Unison -
The sounding of the same note by two or more musicians or singers at the same time.
V
An expressive technique used on various instruments, created by vibrating the sound.
Vivace -
(Italian: 'lively'). A tempo indication.
W
Waltz -
A dance in triple time. Johann Strauss wrote extensively using the form. Chopin wrote a set of Waltzes for piano. Originally used as music to be danced to, the form was given a heightened respectability thanks to Weber's Invitation to the dance' , which paved the way for the 'concert-waltz', where the form stands alone as an instrumental or orchestral composition.
| Presto |
Give a year in the life of Leonardo do Vinci? | Kids Music Theory
The start of the music theory. Music notes.
Music Theory 1.1 - Note the Parts
Name the parts of the musical note, including stem, head, flag and beam.
Music Theory 1.2 - Note Names
Name the music notes. quaver/eighth note, crotchet/quarter note, minim/half note, semibreve/full note.
Music Theory 1.3 - The Values
Identify the music notes from the symbols and number of beats. Quaver/eighth note, crotchet/quarter note, minim/half note, semibreve/full note.
Music Theory 1.4 - Value Race
Race against the clock. Quickly identify the music notes. Any mistakes will cost you.
Music Theory 1.5 - Listening
Listen to and identify the quavers/eighth notes, crotchets/quarter notes, minims/half notes and semibreves/full notes. Great ear training.
Music Theory 1.6 - Note Sums
Work out which musical notes equal the sum of the notes shown.
Music Theory 1.7 - Which Rhythm?
Listen to the rhythms and identify the correct pattern of notes from those shown. More fantastic ear training.
Music Theory 1.8 - Dotted Notes
Learn about and identify the dotted music notes. Dotted quaver/dotted eighth note, dotted crotchet/dotted quarter note, dotted minim/dotted half note, dotted semibreve/dotted full note.
What's the Time?
Learn about the time signatures used in music theory.
Music Theory - 2.1 More Beats
Identify the time signature used in various pieces of music.
Music Theory - 2.2 Filling Time
Work out which music notes are required to complete the bars/measures.
Pitch This!
Learn about music values (note names). Bass (F) /Treble (G) clef option
Music Theory - 3.1 Sounds
Listen to and identify the notes of the stave (staff). Ear pitch training.
Music Theory - 3.2 Melodies
Play through the musical melodies and identify the correct nursery rhyme. This helps learn about how the notes are set out in music theory.
Music Theory - 3.3 Line Race
Race against the clock. Learn about then quickly identify the music notes on the lines of the stave. EGBDF are the notes to remember in the treble clef (Every Good Boy Deserved Fudge / Every Good Boy Deserved Food), GBDFA in the bass clef Great Big Dragons Fly Around).
Music Theory - 3.4 Space Race
Race against the clock. Learn about then quickly identify the music notes between the lines of the stave. FACE in the treble clef, ACEG (all cows eat grass) in the bass clef.
Music Theory - 3.5 Stem Direction
More music theory. When should the stems point up and when should they point down? Find the mistakes in the music notes shown.
Music Theory - 3.6 Note Words
Identify the words from the notes shown. DAD, FEED and BAGGAGE etc.
Music Theory - 3.7 Sound Sets
Further develop your ear training. Listen to the sets of notes and work out which pattern is being played. GAAD, for example, has four notes with the middle two the same.
Music Theory - 3.8 Race Below
Race against the clock. Learn about then quickly identify the music notes below the stave. DCBAG in the treble clef, FEDCB in the bass clef.
Music Theory - 3.9 Race Above
Race against the clock. Learn about then quickly identify the music notes above the stave. GABCD in the treble clef, BCDEF in the bass clef.
Rest and Repeat
Continue the music theory with rests and repeats.
Music Theory - 4.1 Rest Values
Learn about and identify the rests.
Music Theory - 4.2 Completing Rests
Work out which musical rests are required to complete the bars/measures.
Music Theory - 4.3 Repeats
Click on the bars/measures of music in the order that they should be played. Watch out for the repeat signs.
Music Theory - 4.4 Second Endings
Click on the bars/measures of music in the order that they should be played. The second endings should be played the second time through the piece of music.
Be Dynamic
Dynamics make music more exciting.
Music Theory - 5.1 Dynamic Terms
Learn the meaning of the musical terms. Forte, piano, crescendo (cresc), diminuendo (dim), legato and staccato.
Music Theory - 5.2 Dynamic Symbols
Identify the symbols for the dynamic terms. Forte, piano, crescendo (cresc), diminuendo(dim), legato and staccato.
Music Theory - 5.3 Ties
Ties are used for a variety of reasons in music theory. Learn about them here.
Music Theory - 5.4 Tempo Terms
There are a large number of terms describing the tempo that music should be played. Here, we look at Adagio, Andante, Moderato, Allegro, Presto, Accelerando (Accel), Rallentando (Rall) and A Temp.
Little Steps, Big Steps
Sharps and Flat, Tones and Semitones. What is this music theory all about?
Music Theory - 6.1 Sharps
Listen to and learn about sharp notes.
Music Theory - 6.2 Semitones
Semitones are the half-steps of music theory. Investigate them on a piano keyboard.
Music Theory - 6.3 Tones
Tones are the full-steps of music theory. Investigate them on a piano keyboard.
Music Theory - 6.4 Flats
Listen to and learn about flats.
What Key are We In?
The key signature dictates which music notes should be played. Bass (F) /Treble (G) clef option
Music Theory - 7.1 Sharps Played
Look at the sharp notes played in a number of simple key signatures.
Music Theory - 7.2 G Major
Identify the notes that should be played when reading music in the key of G Major.
Music Theory - 7.3 Accidentals
Accidental notes are not in the key signature. How many can you find?
Music Theory - 7.4 D Major
Identify the notes that should be played when reading music in the key of D Major.
Music Theory - 7.5 Flats Played
Look at the flats played in a number of simple key signatures.
Music Theory - 7.6 F Major
Identify the notes that should be played when reading music in the key of F Major.
Music Theory - 7.7 More Accidentals
Accidental notes are not in the key signature. Once one has been played, similar notes in the bar/measure may also be accidentals.
Music Theory - 7.8 Bb Major
Identify the notes that should be played when reading music in the key of Bb Major.
It's a Wrap!
How much music theory have you learned? Bass (F) /Treble (G) clef option
Music Theory - 8.1 Recap 1
A look at the music notes, music values (note names), key signatures, time signatures and dynamics.
Music Theory - 8.2 Recap 2
A look at the music notes, music values (note names), key signatures, time signatures and dynamics.
Music Theory - 8.3 Recap 3
A look at the music notes, music values (note names), key signatures, time signatures and dynamics.
| i don't know |
In 1917 which Frenchman was appointed chief of the General staff and commander in chief of the Allied armies? | Ferdinand Foch - World War I - French Army
By Kennedy Hickman
Ferdinand Foch - Early Life & Career:
Born October 2, 1851, at Tarbez, France, Ferdinand Foch was the son of a civil servant. After attending school locally, he entered the Jesuit College at St. Etienne. Resolving to seek a military career at an early age after being enthralled by stories of the Napoleonic Wars by his elder relatives, Foch enlisted in the French Army in 1870 during Franco-Prussian War. Following the French defeat the follwoing year, he elected to remain in the service and began attending the Ècole Polytechnique. Completing his education three years later, he received a commission as a lieutenant in the 24th Artillery. Promoted to captain in 1885, Foch began taking classes at the Ècole Supérieure de Guerre (War College). Graduating two years later, he proved to be one of the best military minds in his class.
Ferdinand Foch - Military Theorist:
After moving through various postings over the next decade, Foch was invited to return to the Ècole Supérieure de Guerre as an instructor.
In his lectures, he became one of the first to thoroughly analyze operations during the Napoleonic and Franco-Prussian Wars. Recognized as France's "most original military thinker of his generation," Foch was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1898. His lectures were later published as On the Principles of War (1903) and On the Conduct of War (1904). Though his teachings advocated for well-developed offensives and attacks, they were later misinterpreted and used to support those who believed in the cult of the offensive during the early days of World War I . Foch remained at the college until 1900 when political machinations saw him forced to return to a line regiment. Promoted to colonel in 1903, Foch became chief of staff for V Corps two years later.
In 1907, Foch was elevated to brigadier general and after brief service with the General Staff of the War Ministry returned to the Ècole Supérieure de Guerre as commandant. Remaining at the school for four years, he received a promotion to major general in 1911 and lieutenant general two years later. This last promotion brought him command of XX Corps which was stationed at Nancy. Foch was in this post when World War I began in August 1914. Part of General Vicomte de Curières de Castelnau's Second Army, XX Corps took part in the Battle of the Frontiers . Performing well despite the French defeat, Foch was selected by the French Commander-in-Chief, General Joseph Joffre , to lead the newly-formed Ninth Army.
Ferdinand Foch - The Marne & Race to the Sea:
Assuming command, Foch moved his men into a gap between the Fourth and Fifth Armies. Taking part in the First Battle of the Marne , Foch's troops halted several German attacks. During the fighting, he famously reported, "Hard pressed on my right. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I attack." Counterattacking, Foch pushed the Germans back across the Marne and liberated Châlons on September 12. With the Germans establishing a new position behind the Aisne River, both sides began the Race to the Sea with the hope of turning the other's flank. To aid in coordinating French actions during this phase of the war, Joffre named Foch Assistant Commander-in-Chief on October 4 with responsibility for overseeing the northern French armies and working with the British.
Ferdinand Foch - Northern Army Group:
In this role, Foch directed French forces during the First Battle of Ypres later that month. For his efforts, he received an honorary knighthood from King George V. As fighting continued into 1915, he oversaw French efforts during the Artois Offensive that fall. A failure, it gained little ground in exchange for a large number of casualties. In July 1916, Foch commanded French troops during the Battle of the Somme . Severely criticized for the severe losses sustained by French forces during the course of the battle, Foch was removed from command in December. Sent to Senlis, he was charged with leading a planning group. With the ascent of General Philippe Pétain to Commander-in-Chief in May 1917, Foch was recalled and made Chief of the General Staff.
Ferdinand Foch - Supreme Commander of the Allied Armies:
In the fall of 1917, Foch received orders for Italy to aid in re-establishing their lines in the wake of the Battle of Caporetto . The following March, the Germans unleashed the first of their Spring Offensives . With their forces being driven back, Allied leaders met at Doullens on March 26, 1918, and appointed Foch to coordinate the Allied defense. A subsequent meeting at Beauvais in early April saw Foch receive the power to oversee the strategic direction of the war effort. Finally on April 14, he was named Supreme Commander of the Allied Armies. Halting the Spring Offensives in bitter fighting, Foch was able to defeat the German's last thrust at the Second Battle of the Marne that summer. For his efforts, he was made a Marshal of France on August 6.
With the Germans checked, Foch began planning for a series offensives against the spent enemy. Coordinating with Allied commanders such as Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig and General John J. Pershing , he ordered as series of attacks which saw the Allies win clear victories at Amiens and St. Mihiel. In late September, Foch began operations against the Hindenburg Line as offensives began in Meuse-Argonne , Flanders, and Cambrai-St. Quentin. Forcing the Germans to retreat, these assaults ultimately shattered their resistance and led to Germany seeking an armistice. This was granted and the document was signed on Foch's train car in the Forest of Compiègne on November 11.
Ferdinand Foch - Postwar:
As peace negotiations moved forward at Versailles in early 1919, Foch argued extensively for the demilitarization and separation of the Rhineland from Germany as he felt it offered an ideal springboard for future German attacks to the west. Angered by the final peace treaty, which he felt was a capitulation, he stated with great foresight that "This is not peace. It is an armistice for 20 years." In the years immediately after the war, he offered assistance to the Poles during Great Poland Uprising and the 1920 Polish-Bolshevik War. In recognition, Foch was made a Marshal of Poland in 1923. As he had been made an honorary British Field Marshal in 1919, this distinction gave him the rank in three different countries. Fading in influence as the 1920s passed, Foch died on March 20, 1929 and was buried at Les Invalides in Paris.
Selected Services
| Ferdinand Foch |
Which French playwright's real name was Jean Baptiste Poquelin? | Ferdinand Foch becomes supreme Allied commander - Apr 03, 1918 - HISTORY.com
Ferdinand Foch becomes supreme Allied commander
Share this:
Ferdinand Foch becomes supreme Allied commander
Author
Ferdinand Foch becomes supreme Allied commander
URL
Publisher
A+E Networks
On April 3, 1918, the Allied Supreme War Council formally confers the post of commander in chief on the Western Front to General Ferdinand Foch.
By March 23, 1918, two days after the start of the German army’s great spring offensive near the Somme River and the crucial railway junction at Amiens, France, the Allied mood was black. Paris was being shelled, and there were suggestions that the French government abandon the city. On March 26, French President Raymond Poincare arrived in Douellens to preside over a meeting attended by Douglas Haig and Philippe Petain, the top commanders of the British and French armies; the French prime minister, Georges Clemenceau; Lord Alfred Milner from the British War Cabinet; and Henry Wilson, Britain’s representative on the newly created Supreme War Council.
Unlike Haig, Wilson and Milner both enjoyed the support of British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and both had become convinced that a united Anglo-French command should be created to strengthen Allied military strategy going forward, especially in the face of the powerful German offensive on the Western Front. Upon arriving in Douellens, Wilson had met privately with his friend Ferdinand Foch, a decorated French commander who had returned from relative obscurity on the Italian front (where he had been banished after the Allied failure on the Somme in 1916) to become the chief of the French general staff. At the subsequent meetings at Douellens on March 26, Wilson and Foch persuaded their political superiors, Milner and Clemenceau, that Foch was the logical choice to head a joint Allied command.
The appointment was consolidated at Beauvais on April 3, as Foch was formally invested with control of the strategic direction of all the Allied armies, including that of the United States. Some, like Clemenceau, doubted Foch’s mental acuity and distrusted his strong Jesuit faith, but no one questioned his conviction, or his dedication to the pursuit of an Allied victory in World War I. I shall fight without ceasing, the newly appointed supreme Allied commander was reported to have said to a group of officers. I shall fight in front of Amiens. I shall fight in Amiens. I shall fight behind Amiens. I shall fight all the time.
For his part, David Lloyd George defended the decision to name an Allied generalissimo as a matter of necessity. In a statement issued on April 9, the prime minister held that I have always felt that we are losing value and efficiency in the Allied Armies through lack of coordination and concentration. We have sustained many disasters already through that, and we shall encounter more unless this defect in our machinery is put right.
Related Videos
| i don't know |
"From which 1950 film musical does the song ""Honey Bun"" come?" | South Pacific - Songs
South Pacific - Songs
Synopsis DVD Cast
The songs for "South Pacific" were written in 1949 for the Broadway play. The score contains some of the most beautiful and powerful songs written by Rodgers and Hammerstein. The lyrics of "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" are particularly strong, as they deal with the issue of prejudice and hatred that is too often instilled in young children by their parents and communities. The film also has wonderful comic and upbeat songs, such as "Honey Bun."
"South Pacific" has one of the longest scores for a movie musical, with 16 songs. All of the songs from the original Broadway play were retained and one song, "My Girl Back Home," that was cut from the Broadway production was added back into the film.
The soundtrack album of "South Pacific" was a huge hit in England where it remained the number one album for the entire year of 1959.
Some Enchanted Evening
When Nellie and Emile discover that they are in love with each other, they sing about “Some Enchanted Evening” when you meet a stranger and fall in love with him/her.
"Some Enchanted Evening" has been a hit for several artists and it has been recorded many times by a wide range of artists, including pop artists (Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand), opera singers (Ezio Pinza, Jose Carreras, Kiri Te Kanawa) and even country artists (Willie Nelson).
I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy
Nellie tells her friends how happy she is because “I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy.”
"I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy" was written for both the character of Nellie Forbush and to match the personality of the original star of the Broadway play, Mary Martin.
Bali Ha'i
Bloody Mary tries to lure Lieutenant Cable to her beautiful, mysterious home on “Bali Ha’i.”
"Bali Ha'i," although not the real name of an island, was based on the island of Aoba or Ambae in Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides), the place where James Michener, the author of the book, "Tales of the South Pacific," was stationed during World War II. In the movie version, Bloody Mary was on Hanalei Bay, Kauai, when she sang "Bali Ha'i."
Bloody Mary
The sailors sing about “Bloody Mary.”
There is Nothin' Like a Dame
The lonely sailors lament about being without women and they say that “There is Nothin’ Like a Dame.”
Happy Talk
After Bloody Mary introduces Lieutenant Cable to her daughter, Liat, she tells them to make “Happy Talk” with their hands and hearts.
A Cock-Eyed Optimist
Nellie explains to Emile her positive outlook on life and why she is “A Cock-Eyed Optimist.”
Twin Soliloquies (Wonder How it Feels)
When Nellie and Emile realize that they have feelings for each other, they “Wonder How It Feels” to be in love with each other.
Dites Moi
Emile’s two young children sing a French song, “Dites Moi,” to Nellie.
I'm Gonna Wash that Man Right Outa my Hair
Nellie tells her friends that she will stop seeing Emile and that “I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Outa My Hair” and send him on his way.
Younger than Springtime
When Lieutenant Cable starts to fall in love with Liat, he tells her that she is “Younger than Springtime.”
Honey Bun
Nellie performs “Honey Bun” for the sailors.
“Honey Bun” is the only song in “South Pacific” that is not directly connected to the plot of the movie.
My Girl Back Home
Joe Cable tells Nellie about “My Girl Back Home” in Philadelphia.
You've Got to be Carefully Taught
When Nellie wonders why she and Joe are so prejudiced, he tells her that it’s not something you’re born with but something “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught.”
This Nearly was Mine
| South Pacific |
"Which group has released the albums ""Fear Of Music"", 'True Stories"" and ""Remain In Light""?" | South Pacific :: Rodgers & Hammerstein :: Show Details
RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN'S SOUTH PACIFIC read more
Oscar Hammerstein II wrote to book collaborator Josh Logan on their work SOUTH PACIFIC, "Last night, the audience behaved like a large group of people who had all met somewhere else and said, 'Let's all go over to the Majestic Theatre and get drunk.' ?In some way, we have combined all man's emotions into that play so that the reactions are somewhat like the combination of a big football game and a bull fight and grand opera and tragedy and comedy...Now I'm drunk!"""
Did you know? In James Michener?s original novel, ?Tales of the South Pacific,? Nellie comes from fictional town of Otolousa, Arkansas ? rather than Little Rock, Arkansas, as she does in the musical. Either way makes for quite a difference to Marseilles, France, where her love interest Emile de Becque originates.
Did you know? In SOUTH PACIFIC, Joe Cable sings "Younger Than Springtime"" to Liat, his partner in an unexpected romance. Rodgers & Hammerstein made no fewer than three prior attempts at writing this number. The third try, ""Suddenly Lucky,"" contained the lyrics ""Suddenly lucky / Suddenly to be together, / Suddenly owning / Happiness no gold can buy."" Although cut from SOUTH PACIFIC, Richard Rodgers was able to rescue the melody for THE KING AND I, where it became the iconic song ""Getting to Know You."""
In 1955 St. Louis Municipal Opera kicked off a six-week "Rodgers & Hammerstein"" festival featuring a symphony concert and productions of CAROUSEL, ALLEGRO, THE KING AND I, and SOUTH PACIFIC."
In 1954, SOUTH PACIFIC closed on Broadway after five years and 1,925 performances. Original cast member Myron McCormick, who played Luther Billis, lead the final-night crowd in "Auld Lang Syne,"" and in a symbolic gesture the curtain remained unlowered. As of its closing, SOUTH PACIFIC was the second-longest running show in Broadway history, right behind OKLAHOMA!"
In 1988, the first London revival of SOUTH PACIFIC opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Mary Martin, star of the original Broadway and London productions, attended this opening night and afterward told the press: "I have never seen the show before - not even the movie. It was a very special and touching experience."""
In 1957, principal photography for the movie of SOUTH PACIFIC began at Lihue on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
The day chosen by James A. Michener to celebrate his birthday. Author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning novel "Tales of the South Pacific,"" Michener was adopted as a child, thus never certain of his birthdate. Michener grew up to serve during World War II as a navy publications officer on the island of Espiritu Santo. These experiences, which inspired him to write ""Tales of the South Pacific,"" also inspired Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Joshua Logan to adapt the novel into the musical SOUTH PACIFIC. Combined success of the novel and musical allowed Michener to spend the rest of his life writing books."
In 1953, the national tour of SOUTH PACIFIC began a one-week engagement at the Tower Theatre, Atlanta. In response to the anti-racist song "You've Got To Be Carefully Taught,"" members of the Georgia State Legislature issued a vehement protest and introduced a bill to outlaw entertainment works having ""an underlying philosophy inspired by Moscow."""
In 1953 the second Broadway revival of OKLAHOMA! opened at City Center, where it ran for 40 performances before going on tour. It joined SOUTH PACIFIC, THE KING AND I, and ME AND JULIET, already running on Broadway, and prompted New York City Mayor Vincent R. Impelliteri to proclaim "Rodgers & Hammerstein Week."""
In 1908, director Joshua Logan was born. He directed and collaborated with Rodgers & Hammerstein on the script for SOUTH PACIFIC, and directed the Broadway premieres of I MARRIED AN ANGEL, BY JUPITER, THIS IS THE ARMY, and ANNIE GET YOUR GUN.
In 1949, the world premiere of SOUTH PACIFIC was presented at the Shubert Theatre, New Haven.
In 1958 Twentieth Century Fox released the movie version of SOUTH PACIFIC starring Rossano Brazzi and Mitzi Gaynor.
In 1954 General Foods sponsored a tribute to Rodgers & Hammerstein broadcast on multiple networks. Hosted by Mary Martin and featuring segments from OKLAHOMA!, STATE FAIR, CAROUSEL, ALLEGRO, SOUTH PACIFIC, THE KING AND I and ME AND JULIET with many members of the original casts, it also included special appearances from Jack Benny, Groucho Marx, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Ed Sullivan, and Rodgers & Hammerstein.
In 1951, Mary Martin and Wilbur Evans starred in the London premiere of SOUTH PACIFIC, which opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and played for 802 performances.
In 1901, Juanita Hall was born in Keyport, New Jersey. She created the roles of Bloody Mary in SOUTH PACIFIC (1949; Tony Award) and Madam Liang in FLOWER DRUM SONG (1958). She then re-created both roles for their film versions (1958 and 1961, respectively).
In 2008 the Lincoln Center Theatre revival of SOUTH PACIFIC opened at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, where it ran for 996 performances and won 7 Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical and Best Direction.
In 1950 at the 4th annual Tony awards, SOUTH PACIFIC won eight, including Best Musical of the Year and a clean sweep of the four acting categories - a feat unparalleled in Tony history.
The birthday of Walter Bobbie, director of FOOTLOOSE (the stage adaptation) and co-author of its book. Bobbie also directed the musical WHITE CHRISTMAS, and the 2005 concert version of SOUTH PACIFIC starring Reba McEntire.
In the second act of SOUTH PACIFIC, Joseph Cable convinces Emile de Becque to go on a reconnaissance mission as part of Operation Alligator, the tactical assault on the Japanese Navy. Did you know that Operation Alligator is based on real-life Operation Galvanic, the WWII attack on Tawara that began on this day in 1943? Character Joe Cable would have been one of 1,677 U.S. troops to die in action.
Did you know? In SOUTH PACIFIC, Nellie performs ?Honey Bun? for the troops during the Thanksgiving Follies. Imagining this scene, Rodgers & Hammerstein took creative license with history: During Thanksgiving of 1943 the real men and women serving in the area would have been involved with Operation Galvanic as part of the Battle of Tarwara.
In 1950 the national tour of SOUTH PACIFIC opened at the Hanna Theatre, Cleveland, and toured for five years, visiting 118 cities before closing at the Chicago Opera House on March 26th, 1955.
In 1913, Mary Martin was born in Weatherford, Texas. She created the roles of Nellie Forbush in SOUTH PACIFIC and Maria von Trapp in THE SOUND OF MUSIC, winning a Tony Award for each.
In 1950 SOUTH PACIFIC won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
In 1955 SOUTH PACIFIC opened at New York City Center for a limited engagement.
In 1892 Ezio Pinza is born in Rome, Italy. He created the role of Emile de Becque in SOUTH PACIFIC (1949) and received the Tony Award for his performance.
In 1951, after more than 900 shows, Mary Martin gave her final performance in SOUTH PACIFIC on Broadway.
Hammerstein on his lyrics to "A Wonderful Guy"" in SOUTH PACIFIC: ""The emotion expressed in this song is so simple that it can afford to wear the decorations and embroidery of more ingenious rhyming. There is no subtle philosophy involved. A girl is in love and her heart is sailing. She is sentimental and exuberant and triumphant in the discovery. The job of the lyric is to capture her spirit."""
Did you know? When the original production of SOUTH PACIFIC was being staged, Oscar Hammerstein II taught star Mary Martin a clog dance for the number ?Honey Bun,? which her character Nellie performs at the troops? Thanksgiving Follies.
In 2005 Carnegie Hall hosted a live concert of SOUTH PACIFIC, starring Reba McEntire as Nellie, Brian Stokes Mitchell as Emile, and Alec Baldwin as Luthur.
Did you know? In a 1987 studio cast recording of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, opera stars sang the leads, with Eileen Farrell as the Mother Abbess, and H�kan Hageg�rd as the Captain. The role of Maria was sung by Frederica Von Stade (b. 1945) an American opera singer highly lauded for her mezzo-soprano voice, and known for performing The Barber Of Seville, The Merry Widow, Pelleas Et Melisande and . This recording was part of a trend to create ?cross-over? albums featuring opera singers performing traditionally musical theatre roles. SHOW BOAT, SOUTH PACIFIC and ANNIE GET YOUR GUN were among the shows to receive this treatment.
Did you know? Ezio Pinza was known for his operatic voice. After 22 seasons at the Met, Pinza retired and signed a contract with producer Edwin Lester for $25,000. Lester however had no show, but Rodgers and Hammerstein did ? SOUTH PACIFIC ? and when Pinza expressed enthusiasm in participating, the team took over his contract.
Did you know? When SOUTH PACIFIC premiered in 1949, World War II was very much engraved in the public memory. Even some of the original Broadway castmembers playing servicemen had fought in the war. When Oscar Hammerstein had trouble writing for military voices, he turned to his oldest son William (who served as a boatswain in the South Pacific) and to director Josh Logan (who spent 4 years in the Army).
SOUTH PACIFIC opens with lovers Emile and Nellie enjoying the view on a tropical plantation. Yet did you know that originally, Act One, Scene 1 began with satirical lyrics that pitted Joe Cable's brave army lieutenant against Commodore Bill Harbison's oblivious company man? "We have other important men / But nobody counts as much / As the modern executive type / With the organizational touch!"""
Did you know? In James Michener?s original novel, ?Tales of the South Pacific,? the tale of Ensign Nellie Forbush and her love interest Emile de Becque (?Our Heroine?) is only one of the many stories, but Rodgers, Hammerstein and Logan decided to make this story central to the musical. They incorporated other stories as subplots, including ?Fo? Dolla,? ?A Boar?s Tooth? and ?Operation Alligator.?
Did you know? When Mary Martin learned she would play opposite the opera star Ezio Pinza in SOUTH PACIFIC she was surprised: ?Good Lord! What will you do with two bassos??
January 01, 1958 — 3 Nominations for Best Sound, Color Cinematography, and Best Music (Scoring)
New York Drama Critics Circle Awards (United States)
November 30, 1948 — Best Musical
Donaldson Awards (United States)
January 01, 1950 — 9 Awards including Best Musical, Book, Lyrics and Score
Theatre World Awards (United States)
November 30, 2007 — Loretta Ables Sayre
November 30, 2007 — Paulo Szot
Pulitzer Prize (United States)
Drama Desk Awards (United States)
November 30, 2008 — Outstanding Actor in a Musical - Paulo Szot
November 30, 2008 — Outstanding Revival of a Musical
November 30, 2008 — Outstanding Director of a Musical - Bartlett Sher
November 30, 2008 — Outstanding Set Design - Michael Yeargan
November 30, 2008 — Outstanding Sound Design in a Play - Scott Lehrer
November 30, 2008 — Nominated for Outstanding Actress in a Musical - Kelli O'Hara
November 30, 2008 — Nominated for Outstanding Featured Actor - Danny Burstein
November 30, 2008 — Nominated for Outstanding Lighting Design - Donald Holder
Laurence Olivier Awards (London) (United States)
November 30, 2002 — Nominated for The Hilton Award for Outstanding Musical Production
November 30, 2002 — Best Actor in a Musical or Entertainment - Philip Quast
Outer Critics Circle Awards (United States)
November 30, 2007 — Outstanding Actor in a Musical - Paulo Szot
November 30, 2007 — Nominated for Outstanding Actress in a Musical - Kelli O'Hara
November 30, 2007 — Nominated for Outstanding Choreography - Christopher Gattelli
November 30, 2007 — Nominated for Outstanding Costume Design - Catherine Zuber
November 30, 2007 — Outstanding Director of a Musical - Bartlett Sher
November 30, 2007 — Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical - Danny Burstein
November 30, 2007 — Outstanding Revival of a Musical
November 30, 2007 — Nominated for Outstanding Set Design - Michael Yeargan
Tony Awards (United States)
November 30, 1949 — Best Scenic Designer - Jo Mielziner
November 30, 1950 — Best Actor (Musical) - Ezio Pinza
November 30, 1950 — Best Actor, Supporting or Featured (Musical) - Myron McCormick
November 30, 1950 — Best Actress (Musical) - Mary Martin
November 30, 1950 — Best Actress, Supporting or Featured (Musical) - Juanita Hall
November 30, 1950 — Best Director - Joshua Logan
November 30, 1950 — Best Libretto - Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan
November 30, 1950 — Best Producers (Musical) - Produced by Leland Hayward, Oscar Hammerstein II, Joshua Logan and Richard Rodgers.
November 30, 1950 — Best Score - Richard Rodgers
November 30, 2008 — Best Revival (Musical) - Producers: Lincoln Center Theater, André Bishop, Bernard Gersten, Bob Boyett
November 30, 2008 — Best Actor (Musical) - Paulo Szot
November 30, 2008 — Nominated for Best Actress (Musical) - Kelli O'Hara
November 30, 2008 — Nominated for Best Actor (Featured Role--Musical) - Danny Burstein
November 30, 2008 — Nominated for Actress (Featured Role--Musical) - Loretta Ables Sayre
November 30, 1950 — Best Musical - Music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, book by Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan. Produced by Leland Hayward, Oscar Hammerstein II, Joshua Logan and Richard Rodgers,
Vocal Range of Characters:
RMS Mix® :
RMS Mix® is a new app from Realtime Music Solutions that can be added onto your purchase of AccompanEase and InstrumentalEase and brings rehearsal and performance tools to your mobile devices. RMS Mix® syncs with AccompanEase and InstrumentalEase to allow your creative team, cast and instrumentalists access to rehearsal tracks on their own computer, tablet or smartphone. Customized changes made on AccompanEase and InstrumentalEase can be exported to the RMS Mix® app, so that rehearsing for your production is as easy as hitting play!
Contact Realtime Music Solutions for more information: www.rms.biz , via email: [email protected] , or via phone: 212-620-0774.
| i don't know |
Which national radio station broadcasts between 99.9 and 101.9 Mhz? | The Audience | Global
The Audience
Classic FM: The UK's favourite classical music station.
Classic FM has a mission, to make classical music accessible and relevant to a modern audience through its engaging style. And as one of the top three commercial radio stations in the UK, with 5.3 million listeners tuning in every week, and with its truly national FM coverage, Classic FM’s fresh approach to classical music does exactly that.
Map
With coverage right across the UK, wherever you are you'll always be able to tune in to hear your favourite classical pieces.
Find out more
Stats
The figures don't lie, take a look at the stats and find out who listens to and loves Classic FM.
Find out more
Rajar
If you're looking for the latest RAJAR figures for Classic FM this quarter then you can find them right here.
The Map
Coverage
For over 20 years, listeners have been able to tune in to Classic FM on FM radio across the UK on frequencies between 99.9 MHz and 101.9 MHz FM.
You can listen to Classic FM in crystal clear clarity on your Digital Radio or catch Classic FM on digital TV...
Classic FM is available on Sky Digital channel 106 and Virgin Media channel 922 and Freesat 721.
Who does Classic FM appeal to?
Classic FM’s audience is predominantly made up of 2 main target groups.
Firstly the ‘discoverers’ who are generally aged between 35 and 50, who often have kids at home, and who tune in primarily to listen to music.
And secondly the ‘enthusiasts’ who are generally aged 50+, upmarket and career-focused, and who tune in for inspiration.
47% male
53%female
66% of Classic FM's audience are ABC1, most are interested in the arts and finer things in life, constantly seeking out aspirational lifestyles, new experiences and ethical choices.
Fact: more people listen to classical music every week on Classic FM than through any other broadcast medium in the UK.
Every week 5.3 million people tune in to Classic FM across the UK
Classic has a total of 5.3 million listeners and 35.9 million hours this quarter.
Breakfast with Tim Lihoreau now reaches 1.8 million listeners (up 6% year on year) for a total of 4,146,000 hours.
John Suchet’s Hall of Fame hour and mid morning show now reaches nearly 2.6 million people for a total of 8,146,000 hours (up 3% quarter on quarter).
Source: RAJAR Q3 2016, all stations and groups results are reported on their specified reporting period and TSA.
Go back to the top
Global jobs
If you want to work for a company where your job isn't just your job, it's an experience, a company where working hard and playing even harder is encouraged, and a company that's fast becoming the watchword for talent in the entertainment industry, then look no further.
Find out more
Global updates
On Monday (January 9th) Gordon Smart will become the new host of the Radio X Evening Show every weekday from 7-10pm. Smart’s brand new show will feature interviews and live sessions with Radio X’s most loved bands and artis…
About us & get in touch
London,
| Classic FM |
Which religion celebrates the festival of Dewali? | The Audience | Global
The Audience
Classic FM: The UK's favourite classical music station.
Classic FM has a mission, to make classical music accessible and relevant to a modern audience through its engaging style. And as one of the top three commercial radio stations in the UK, with 5.3 million listeners tuning in every week, and with its truly national FM coverage, Classic FM’s fresh approach to classical music does exactly that.
Map
With coverage right across the UK, wherever you are you'll always be able to tune in to hear your favourite classical pieces.
Find out more
Stats
The figures don't lie, take a look at the stats and find out who listens to and loves Classic FM.
Find out more
Rajar
If you're looking for the latest RAJAR figures for Classic FM this quarter then you can find them right here.
The Map
Coverage
For over 20 years, listeners have been able to tune in to Classic FM on FM radio across the UK on frequencies between 99.9 MHz and 101.9 MHz FM.
You can listen to Classic FM in crystal clear clarity on your Digital Radio or catch Classic FM on digital TV...
Classic FM is available on Sky Digital channel 106 and Virgin Media channel 922 and Freesat 721.
Who does Classic FM appeal to?
Classic FM’s audience is predominantly made up of 2 main target groups.
Firstly the ‘discoverers’ who are generally aged between 35 and 50, who often have kids at home, and who tune in primarily to listen to music.
And secondly the ‘enthusiasts’ who are generally aged 50+, upmarket and career-focused, and who tune in for inspiration.
47% male
53%female
66% of Classic FM's audience are ABC1, most are interested in the arts and finer things in life, constantly seeking out aspirational lifestyles, new experiences and ethical choices.
Fact: more people listen to classical music every week on Classic FM than through any other broadcast medium in the UK.
Every week 5.3 million people tune in to Classic FM across the UK
Classic has a total of 5.3 million listeners and 35.9 million hours this quarter.
Breakfast with Tim Lihoreau now reaches 1.8 million listeners (up 6% year on year) for a total of 4,146,000 hours.
John Suchet’s Hall of Fame hour and mid morning show now reaches nearly 2.6 million people for a total of 8,146,000 hours (up 3% quarter on quarter).
Source: RAJAR Q3 2016, all stations and groups results are reported on their specified reporting period and TSA.
Go back to the top
Global jobs
If you want to work for a company where your job isn't just your job, it's an experience, a company where working hard and playing even harder is encouraged, and a company that's fast becoming the watchword for talent in the entertainment industry, then look no further.
Find out more
Global updates
On Monday (January 9th) Gordon Smart will become the new host of the Radio X Evening Show every weekday from 7-10pm. Smart’s brand new show will feature interviews and live sessions with Radio X’s most loved bands and artis…
About us & get in touch
London,
| i don't know |
The musical term to play at a slow and dignified pace is what? | Musical Terms All Piano Players Should Know
Musical Terms All Piano Players Should Know
allegro - lively, rather quick.
andante - rather slow, a walking pace.
arpeggio - to play notes of a chord consecutively.
a tempo - in time.
cantabile - in a singing style.
capo - the beginning, the top, a device which bars across the strings.
da capo - return to the beginning.
da capo al fine - return to the beginning and play to the word "fine".
dal segno - repeat from the sign.
eight note - receives one half of a beat in 4/4 time.
fermata - a pause.
glissando - in a gliding manner, slurred, to slide.
grazioso - gracefully.
hammer - to produce a new note by forcefully striking the string with the left hand.
harmonic - a chime like tone.
half note - receives 2 beats in 4/4 time.
largo - slow and broad.
opus - a work or composition.
piano - soft.
poco a poco - little by little.
ponticello - the bridge of a stringed instrument.
prestissimo - as fast as possible.
presto - quickly.
pull-off - to produce a new note by forcefully removing a finger from the string.
quarter note - receives one beat in 4/4 time.
ritardando - gradually slow down.
segue - go on with what follows.
sforzando - strongly accented.
tremolo - rapid repetition of a note.
vibrato - to vary the pitch of a note with rapid movement of the left hand.
whole note - receives four beats in 4/4 time.
Accelerando - Increase of speed in music
Accent - Stress of one tone over others, making it stand out; often it is the first beat of a measure
Accompaniment
Music that goes along with a more important part; often harmony or rhythmic patterns accompanying a melody.
Adagio
Moderately fast, lively. Faster than Andante, slower than allegro
Allegro
Moderately slow, a walking speed
Baroque
Relating to the period from about 1600-1750, characterized by grandeur and heavy elaboration of design in music.
Binary form
Two-part form; the structure of a musical composition consisting of two main sections.
Cadence
Closing of a phrase or section of music
Cantata
A short lyric form dealing with either secular or sacred subjects
Chord
Three or more tones combined and sounded simultaneously
Classical
Referring to that period from approximately 1750-1800, characterized musically by objectivity of the composer, emotional restraint, and simple harmonies.
Consonance
A simultaneious sounding of tones that produces a feeling of rest, i.e., a feeling that there is no need for further resolution.
Crescendo
Gradually growing louder
Da Capo
From the beginning. A direction to repeat the entire compositon from the beginning to the place where the word "fine" appears or to the end.
Diminuendo
Gradually growing softer
Dissonance
A simultaneous sounding of tones that produces a feeling of tension or unrest and a feeling that further resolution is needed.
Dolce
A form of contrapuntal imitation in which the melody is played backwards.
Romantic
Relating to the nineteenth-century musical period characterized by subjectivity on the part of the composer, emotionalism in music, longer musical forms, and richer harmonies.
Root
The tone of the scale upon which a chord is built
Root Position
The postion of a chord in which the root appears as the lowest tone.
Rubato
From the Italian "robbed". Used to indicate a modification of the strict rhythmical flow.
Scale
A graduated series of tones arranged in a specified order
Scherzo
Joke, jest. A sprightly movement, light and humorous in nature
Sforzando
Explosively
Slur
A curved line drawn over two or more notes of different pitches, indicating that they are to be executed in a smoothly connected manner without a break.
Sostenuto
| Largo, Sofia |
Which record went to No 1 after his (Elvis's) death in 1977? | Musical Terms: The Classic FM musical dictionary - classicfm.com - Classic FM
Musical Terms: The Classic FM musical dictionary
20th October 2014, 15:29
Your comprehensive guide to musical definitions and terminology.
A
(Italian: 'getting faster')
Adagio -
(Italian: 'slow'). Meaning the music should be played slowly. Barber's 'Adagio' is a fantastic example of this.
Allegro -
(Italian: 'lively'). Meaning the music should be played cheerfully. Upbeat and brisk. Try Rossini 's William Tell overture for size.
Andante -
(Italian: 'walking'). Meaning the music should be played at a walking pace. Not too fast or slow.
Aria -
(Italian: 'air'). An aria is a song, generally used to describe set-piece songs in Opera .
Atonal -
Music in which no key can be established. The technique is heard in a lot of 20th Century music. Composers from the Second Viennese School used atonality as a basis for much of their work.
B
Ballad -
from the vulgar Latin 'ballare', meaning to dance. A work in dance form imitative of a folk song, with a narrative structure.
Bar -
A vertical line through the stave, to mark the music into sections, each with a set amount of beats within.
Barcarolle -
A boating song, generally describing the songs sung by gondoliers in Venice. Chopin , Mendelssohn, Fauré and Offenbach all wrote works imitating the form.
Baritone -
Male singing voice in the middle range. Gerald Finley is a world class example of a baritone.
Baroque -
A period in art and music from around 1600-1750. Composers include Monteverdi , Purcell , Rameau , Bach , Vivaldi and Handel .
Basso Continuo -
(Italian: 'continuous bass'). A form of bass line used in music from the Baroque period. It is usually notated with numbers indicating what chords can be used, so the continuo player can embellish the lines. Bach's Brandenburg Concertos are a fine example of this.
Berceuse -
A lullaby. Generally slow and undulating, Chopin's famous Berceuse is the most well known example of the form.
Bolero -
A Spanish dance. The most famous example is Ravel's Boléro .
C
Cadence -
Two chords at the end of a piece which provide a type of 'punctuation' at the end of a musical phrase. Cadences can either suggest the sentence isn't over, or provide a type of musical 'full-stop'.
Cantata -
A choral work that uses solo voices with an instrumental (usually orchestral) accompaniment. A cantata is generally a choral work of some length that also uses solo voices, usually with instrumental accompaniment. The texts used may be sacred or secular. Some cantatas use solo voices without chorus or choir. Listen to Bach's Cantata No. 140 (Wachet Auf) for a beautiful example.
Capriccio -
(Italian: 'caprice'). A lively piece of music, usually free in its form and short. Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italien is certainly in high spirits.
Chanson -
(French: 'song'). A French song, from the middle ages to the 20th century.
Chorale -
A Lutheran hymn. Generally the music moves in block chords. The most famous Chorales of all were written by Bach.
Chord -
The sounding of two or more notes at the same time.
Chromatic -
Notes which do not belong to the diatonic scale. For example, in the scale of C major (the white notes on the piano ), they black keys (sharps and flats) are the chromatic notes. Rimsky Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee is a particularly exciting example of a work built around the chromatic scale.
Clef -
Several symbols drawn at the end of a stave, indicating the pitch of the notes written on that stave.
Coda -
(Italian: 'tail'). The tail end of a piece of music. Usually a section which indicates the end of the piece or section is approaching.
Coloratura -
(Italian: 'colouring'). A type of decoration, usually in singing that is ornate and richly ornamented. Dame Joan Sutherland was one of the greatest coloratura sopranos of all time.
Concerto -
A piece of instrumental music for soloist contrasted by an ensemble (either a small group of musicians or a full orchestra). Rachmaninov's epic Piano Concerto No. 2 remains one of the most popular works in the genre.
Countertenor -
The vocal range of a male alto. Close in range to a female soprano. Iestyn Davies explains here.
Crescendo -
(Italian: 'growing') A dynamic instruction meaning to gradually play louder.
D
Da Capo -
(Italian: 'from the beginning'). Usually abbreviated to 'D.C.' at the end of a section of a piece, meaning go back to the beginning and play either to the end (Da capo al fine) or to the sign, which looks like a stylised "S" (Da capo al segno).
Diminuendo -
(Italian: Literally 'diminishing'). A dynamic instruction meaning to gradually play quieter.
Dynamics -
Levels of sound in music. The spectrum of soft to loud.
E
A piece of music in the form of a lament.
Ensemble -
Description of: whether instrumentalists are playing together; a group of performers.
Espressivo -
(Italian: 'expressive'). An instruction meaning that a passage should be played with expression, or expressively.
Etude -
(French: 'study'). An instrumental composition intended to improve or tax certain aspects of technique. Some of the hardest instrumental works are large scale etudes by composers such as Chopin and Liszt .
F
The Italian word for Bassoon.
Flat -
Indicated by a stylised ♭ sign, shows that the note before which it is place should be lowered by a semitone. Flat can also mean that a note is out of tune, sounding lower than it should in this case.
Forte -
(Italian: 'strong'). A dynamic instruction meaning the music should be played loudly. The instruction appears as either: 'f' loud; 'ff' fortissimo, meaning very loud; or 'fff' very loud. The practice has expanded to allow for any number of 'f's, depending on how loud a composer wants something to be played. Here are some examples of when 'fff' really doesn't describe it...
Fugue -
A form in which the composition is contrapuntal. A theme introduces the piece, which is then repeat at different pitches throughout the composition, set in counterpoint to other musical lines within the texture. The Fugue has proven a fascinating medium, even penetrating the world of pop music and Lady Gaga...
G
A lively dance form from the Baroque period, from the English Jig.
Giocoso -
(Italian: 'playful', 'cheerful'). Meaning the piece should be played in a cheerful or playful way.
Glissando -
From the French 'glisser', meaning to slide. An instruction to slide between a group of notes. On the piano, for example, the performer runs a finger down or up the keyboard.
H
Harmony -
The sounding of two or more notes at the same time. A composer may be said to have a 'harmonic language', similar in meaning to saying someone has a particular accent.
Humoresque -
A piece of music with a humorous feel. Notable compositions using the name have been written by: Schumann , Dvořák and Rachmaninov.
Hymn -
A song of religious worship. The protestant tradition of hymn singing comes from the chorales of Martin Luther. Here is Classic FM's collection of 50 classic hymns.
I
Impressionism -
A term describing movements in art and music . Generally French, the impressionist art and music from the late 19th / early 20th Century is characterised by a sense of veiled, blurred images and a palette of rich colour. Both Debussy and Ravel resented their music being described thus , as they felt it suggested their music had little formal and structural value.
Intonation -
The accuracy or lack of pitch in instrumental playing and singing. For example, 'intonation is off here', meaning the tuning is not exact.
J
a lively English dance, usually placed at the end of a Baroque suite.
K
Key -
A musical key is the relation of different chords to each other. The 'tonic' is the subjective sense of 'home', from which musical compositions deviate from, and arrive back to. Relations of different keys to each other give the impression of tension, development and resolution. A 'key signature' is an instruction at the beginning of written music, indicating what the 'home key' of the work is.
L
Largo -
(Italian: 'broad', 'wide', 'slow'). An instruction meaning the music is usually slow in speed, or broad in tempo.
Legato -
(Italian: 'joined'). An instruction indicating that a sequence of notes should be played smoothly, or joined up, as opposed to disconnected.
Leggiero -
(Italian: 'lightly'). An instruction meaning to play lightly and without force.
(col) Legno -
(Italian: 'wood'). An instruction for string players, usually written as 'col legno' (with the wood). This indicates that the string player should use the wooden side of the bow to hit the strings with.
Leitmotif -
A short, recurring musical phrase, usually associated with a character, idea, event or object. This is the musical equivalent of branding. Wagner used the technique extensively in his music dramas.
Lento -
(Italian: 'slow'). A tempo instruction meaning the music is slow.
Libretto -
(Italian: 'little book'). The text of an opera or vocal work, which was traditionally printed in a small book.
Lied(er) -
(German: 'song'). A form of song in the German tradition, exemplified by: Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolff, Mahler and Richard Strauss.
M
Madrigal -
A vocal composition originating in 14th Century Italy. Madrigals are usually of a secular nature, and became very popular in the Renaissance and early Baroque periods.
Major -
A scale which corresponds on the piano to all the white notes, C to C. A C major triad chord consists of the notes: C, E, and G. Generally, major keys sound 'happy' while minor keys sound 'sad'.
Malagueña -
A Spanish gypsy dance from the region of Málaga. Composer Ernesto Lecuona is known for his piece of the same name, and Ravel used the form in his Rapsodie Espagnole.
Mazurka -
A traditional Polish dance. Many composers, including Chopin and Szymanowski have written works using the form.
Mezzo -
(Italian: 'half') The term can be used in a number of contexts. Mezzo-forte / mezzo-piano are dynamic instructions meaning 'half-loud' and 'half-soft' respectively. A mezzo-soprano is a female voice range that is lower than a soprano.
Minuet -
A popular French dance from the mid-17th Century to the end of the 18th Century.
N
A note which is neither sharp nor flat.
Neoclassical -
Neoclassicism is a style of music used by composers in the 20th Century which incorporate Classical and Baroque structures within their works. Stravinsky , Ravel and Hindemith are all composers who experimented with the style.
Nocturne -
A piece of music of a nocturnal mood. Irish composer John Field invented the form in the early 19th Century, which led to its popularisation by Chopin, who wrote 21 nocturnes.
O
Obbligato -
(Italian: 'obligatory') An instrumental part which is essential in a piece of music. Popular in the baroque period.
Octave -
(Latin: 'octavus', 'eigth'). The interval of an eight, eg: from the notes C to C or D to D.
Octet -
A piece of music written for 8 performers.
Ondes Martenot -
(French: 'Martenot waves'). An electronic instrument which produces sound using a keyboard which controls oscillating frequencies. Produced by Maruice Martenot in 1928, the most famous example of its use is in Messiaen's bombastic Turangalîla -Symphonie .
Opus -
(Latin: 'work') A term is generally used in the listing of a composer's works by opus numbers, usually abbreviated to Op. Since the Latin plural opera would lead to unnecessary confusion it is best avoided, although the alternative opuses remains an unsatisfactory substitute. Opus numbers are not always a guide to the date of composition or even to the date of publication.
Oratorio -
(Italian: 'pulpit'). A large scale work for orchestra and voices, usually sacred in nature. Oratorios are narrative in the same way as opera, but are performed without staging, costume, action or scenery.
Ostinato -
(Italian: 'obstinate') A repeated musical phrase or rhythm.
Overture -
An introductory movement to an opera or substantial work. In opera, the overture usually contains examples of the major musical themes that will appear throughout the work - a type of trailer for what is to come.
P
A musical suite, usually for solo instrument or small ensemble.
Passacaglia -
A baroque dance form in which a short melodic phrase, usually in the bass, form the basis of the work.
Pentatonic -
A five-note scale consisting of the black notes on the keyboard. Used in folk music from many countries, it is readily associated with an 'oriental' sound.
Pianoforte -
(Italian: 'soft loud'). Colloquially known as the 'piano'. A keyboard instrument developed int he 18th Century. The piano evolved from the harpsichord, in that the piano creates sound by hammers hitting strings, rather than the strings being plucked. The term 'pianoforte' is a mix of two Italian words, 'piano' (soft) and 'forte' (loud), meaning depending on how much force is applied to the keys, the instrument's dynamic range can be anywhere from very soft to very loud.
Pitch -
The frequency of the vibration of sound. Pitch is measured in hertz, and is generally organised in a system known as 'equal temperament', a system of tuning in which different notes have a standardised pitch ratio.
Pizzicato -
(Italian: 'plucked') A direction to string instrument performers to pluck the strings, rather than using the bow to create sound.
Più -
(Italian: 'more'). A term that can preface an instruction to mean 'more of'. 'Più vivo', meaning 'more lively', or 'Più lento', more slow.
Poco a poco -
(Italian: 'little by little'). An term that can preface and instruction meaning to follow it 'little by little'. For example, 'poco a poco crescendo', meaning, getting louder gradually, little by little.
Presto -
(Italian: 'quick') An instruction that a movement, section therein, or work is fast in tempo.
Q
Quarter-tone -
A division of pitches, smaller than a semitone, which is half a tone. Found generally in some music from the 20th Century.
Quartet -
A group of four players, or a composition for four players.
R
(Italian: 'becoming slower'). Often abbreviated as 'rall...', is an instruction to gradually play slower.
Recitative -
In vocal works, recitative is a moment where a solo voice sings in relatively free rhythm. Usually preceding an 'aria' (the main song), recitative is usually used to illustrate plot and narrative in opera.
Requiem Mass -
A Catholic Mass of the dead. Notable examples include Mozart's major last work, and others by Brahms, Berlioz, Verdi and Faure.
Riguadon -
A French folk dance, typically used in instrumental suites from the 17th and 18th Centuries. In the 20th Century, Ravel wrote a movement named 'riguadon' in his work Le tombeau de Couperin, an homage to the French baroque.
Ritardando -
(Italian: 'becoming slower'). Often abbreviated as 'rit.', is an instruction to gradually play slower.
Ritenuto -
(Italian: 'held back') An instruction to slow down.
Rococo -
In architecture and visual art, the rococo was characterised by a light, decorative French style. In music, the term is applied to a period characterised by highly decorative, elaborately ornate music.
Rondo -
A form with a recurring theme, usually used as the final movement of a sonata or concerto. Mozart's Rondo alla Turca is inspired by Turkish military marching bands from the 18th Century.
Rubato -
(Italian: 'stolen'). An instruction to play with freedom. Rubato allows performers to deviate from strict tempo regularity, and can enhance expressive playing. In essence, by 'stealing' time, or borrowing it, it should be contrasted with strict time, in a musically correct method of atonement.
S
A sequence of notes in either descending or ascending order.
Scherzo -
(Italian: 'joke'). A movement from a work. Originating in the 17th Century, the form usually appears in a Symphony as a fast, light-hearted second or third movement. Beethoven used the form as an alternative to the minuet, and Chopin expanded the form as whole works in his four Scherzi .
Serialism -
A compositional technique developed in the 20th Century by Arnold Schoenberg, as a method of ordering the seemingly chaotic and arbitrary technique to atonality. Serialism uses the twelve semitones of the octave in a particular order, known as a 'tone-row', which serves as a basis on which a work is structured.
Sforzando -
Play with sudden and marked emphasis.
Sonata -
(Italian: 'sonare', to sound). A composition for soloist, or soloist with piano accompaniment. The sonata usually consists of several movements with one or more in sonata form. Sonata-form is a form in which a movement is divided into three sections, exposition, development and recapitulation. The exposition usually contains two contrasting themes, which are then developed in the development, to be re-heard in the recapitulation, ending in a coda.
Soprano -
The highest female voice.
Symphony -
A large scale orchestral work, usually in four movements, in which at least one is in sonata-form. The movements correspond roughly to a pattern of: Opening movement; Scherzo; Slow movement; Finale.
T
Tempo -
(Italian: 'time'). The speed at which a piece of music is played. Tempo indications are given either at the beginning of a piece, or within it. Sometimes tempo is indicated by strict beats-per-minute, or using terminology which can be more flexible.
Tenor -
A male singing voice between bariton and countertenor. The highest of the ordinary adult male range.
Toccata -
(Italian: from 'toccare', to touch). An instrumental work designed to display the technical prowess and proficiency of a performer. Notable toccatas have been written by Bach , Ravel and Prokofiev.
Tremolo -
(Italian: 'trembling'). The quick repetition of a single note, usually used in string playing.
Trill -
A musical ornament, consisting of the rapid sounding of two notes in quick succession.
U
Unison -
The sounding of the same note by two or more musicians or singers at the same time.
V
An expressive technique used on various instruments, created by vibrating the sound.
Vivace -
(Italian: 'lively'). A tempo indication.
W
Waltz -
A dance in triple time. Johann Strauss wrote extensively using the form. Chopin wrote a set of Waltzes for piano. Originally used as music to be danced to, the form was given a heightened respectability thanks to Weber's Invitation to the dance' , which paved the way for the 'concert-waltz', where the form stands alone as an instrumental or orchestral composition.
| i don't know |
Which island's capital is Flying Fish Cove? | Flying Fish Cove, capital city of Christmas Island
All...
Flying Fish Cove, capital city of Christmas Island
Christmas Island is an impressive feat of nature full of natural wonders including red crab migrations, exotic birds and wonderfully deserted beaches who are only disturbed by nesting sea turtles. The island is only 52 square-miles in area, and staying in the capital city of Flying Fish Cove makes it easy to explore all the abundant beauty, nature and culture that makes Christmas Island a once-in-a-lifetime travel experience.
The island is home to some of the world's best scuba diving sites and longest drop-offs. Christmas Island rises from the edge of the Indian Ocean's deepest point, the Java Trench, which contributes to the seemingly never-ending miles of drop-off diving. Most of the spectacular walls are just 20 yards off the shoreline. While diving the warm, clear waters, you will discover an abundance of sea life that includes dolphins, tropical fish, whale sharks and more. The narrow tropical reef that surrounds the island is laced with unspoiled corals and schools of colorful fish like anemones, butterfly fish, wrasse, surgeon and more. Larger locals often spotted by divers include trevally, rainbow runners and tuna. Occasionally, even sharks come up to divers to take a curious look.
The island is also the perfect destination for bird watching. Over 60 percent of the island is covered with national parklands, and its proximity to the equator and South East Asia has created a diverse range of bird species. One of the most prized species is the Christmas Island Thrush, an inquisitive endemic bird whose melodious evening song echoes provides the soundtrack for the tropical, palm-fringed sunsets.
Fourteen species of land crab call Christmas Island home, but the red crab is by far the most famous. The large and brightly-colored creatures migrate to the ocean by the thousands in October and November to breed and release their eggs. For up to 18 days, masses of the crabs travel in waves to the coast, following the same routes every year. In many parts of the island, the roads are closed to protect the critters as they move toward the shore.
Walking through the rainforests that surround Flying Fish Cove is one of the most enjoyable ways to explore Christmas Island. Trails ranging from easy to difficult take hikers past magnificent waterfalls, across undisturbed beaches and through mysterious caves and thick mangroves. Twenty-five tree species dominate the island, and vines, ferns and orchids grow densely throughout the humid atmosphere under the canopy. Of the 135 species of plants on the island, 16 cannot be found anywhere else.
Treacherous limestone shoreline
Flying Fish Cove Geographical Location
Flying Fish Cove, commonly referred to as “The Settlement” on maps, is located on the northern end of Christmas Island.
Approximately one third of the island’s population lives in Flying Fish Cove, an estimated 550 people.
Flying Fish Cove Language
English is the official language of Christmas Island however many inhabitants, especially from older generations, speak Chinese or Malay as their primary language.
Flying Fish Cove Predominant Religion
36% Buddhist
| Christmas Island |
"In ""Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats"", which is the mystery cat and Napoleon of Crime?" | Christmas Island Country Code 61 Country Code CX
About Christmas Island Hide
CountryCode.org is your complete guide to make a call from anywhere in the world, to anywhere in the world. This page details Christmas Island phone code.
The Christmas Island country code 61 will allow you to call Christmas Island from another country. Christmas Island telephone code 61 is dialed after the IDD. Christmas Island international dialing 61 is followed by an area code.
The Christmas Island area code table below shows the various city codes for Christmas Island. Christmas Island country codes are followed by these area codes. With the complete Christmas Island dialing code, you can make your international call.
| i don't know |
Mikhail Fokine was the chief choreographer to which ballet company from 1909 -1914? | Mikhail Fokine (1880-1942)
Home / Andros / Biographies
Mikhail Fokine (1880-1942)
Mikhail Fokine is probably the best known choreographer of the 20th century. His ballets are still in the repertoire of most ballet companies. His staging of his Les Sylphides has been restored to American Ballet Theatre by Sallie Wilson. In my opinion it is a perfect ballet. Fokine originally choreographed Chopiniana (later renamed Les Sylphides) for a performance outside the Maryinsky in 1907, while still a dancer with the Maryinsky company.
Mikhail was born in St. Petersburg April 25, 1880 and studied at the Imperial School, graduated at the age of 18 and entered the Maryinsky Theatre. He was promoted to soloist in 1904. He started teaching at the Imperial School in 1902, and choreographed his first ballet Acia and Galatea in 1905, for a student performance. A year earlier he had submitted a scenario for Daphnis and Chloe to the authorities, expressing his ideas that more attention should be paid to the integration of story, music, scenic design and choreography. In 1907 he created The Dying Swan for Anna Pavlova , which became her most famous solo. The first ballet Fokine choreographed for the Maryinsky Theatre was Le Pavillon d'Armide, and this ballet was also in the repertoire of the first season of the Diaghlev's Ballets Russes, in Paris in 1909. He became Diaghlev's chief choreographer, although, he continued to dance in Russia until 1918.
Fokine was a strong dancer, but he will be remembered most for his great contribution in changing ballet. His ideas and changes were comparable to those of Jean-Georges Noverre and Salvatore Viganò, and he paved the way for Antony Tudor.
Fokine left the Ballets Russes in 1912 because he was jealous that Diaghilev was favoring Vaslav Nijinsky 's choreography. He pursued a career as a freelance artist, working mostly in Scandinavia until he settled in the United States in 1923. He took many trips to revive the successes he had created for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Mikhail restaged his Les Sylphides for Ballet Theatre's first performance in 1940 at New York's Center Theatre.
Fokine married Vera Antonovna, and their son Vitale, became a teacher in New York City. Many members of his family are still involved with dance in America.
Some of the most famous of his 60 ballets are:
Le Pavillon d'Armide
Not to make combinations of ready made steps
Dancing serves as an expression of its dramatic action
Dancers can and should be expressive from head to foot
All the arts should have complete equality
(First published January 1995)
| Ballets Russes |
Which religion celebrates the festival of 'Baisakhi' or 'Vaisakhi'? | Explore The Stories — Chapter — Fusing Dance, Music, and Design: Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes — THE LINE
Fusing Dance, Music, and Design:
Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes
Russian composer Igor Stravinsky described his countryman Serge Diaghilev (1872-1929) as “generous, strong, and capricious…with intense will, a rich sense of contrasts, and deep ancestral roots.” He credited this blend of traits as the source of Diaghilev’s “amazing activity as the inspirer, promoter, and organizer of a long series of artistic events.” Chief among them was the Ballets Russes, the dance company that infused modernism with an explosion of creativity.
From the first performances in May 1909, audiences were dazzled by the dancing and designs of the Ballets Russes. “As far as dance was concerned, the early twentieth century was an ideal moment for change,” notes Jane Pritchard, curator of dance for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and co-curator of the 2010 exhibition Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes, 1909–1929, pointing to the introduction of new elements of movement by the likes of Isadora Duncan and the simultaneous decline of ballet in Russia and Europe. “Growing audiences were looking for new material, and Diaghilev’s new company filled a real vacuum.”
The Ballets Russes first brought Russian ballet to Paris in productions designed by Leon Bakst, who layered jewel tones and Art Nouveau elements to exotic ends. The artist was just one member of Diaghilev’s inner circle—an evolving cadre of advisors, friends, colleagues, and sponsors that generated ideas and served as sounding board. This group included designer Alexandre Benois, choreographer Mikhail Fokine, fashion designer Coco Chanel, artists such as Robert and Sonia Delaunay and, from 1916, Pablo Picasso.
“It was obvious to audiences that the quality of Diaghilev’s productions was superior to that of any rival,” explains Pritchard. “Others could attract the dancers but they did not have the original settings in which to show off their talents, and the his ballets won hands down when it came to music, sets, costumes, choreography, and overall production.” Diaghilev supervised the look of each production, integrating the story, music, choreography, and design with such skill that each Ballets Russes spectacle exceeded the sum of its parts.
Valentin Serov’s 1904 portrait of Sergei Diaghilev, who ballerina Tamara Karsavina likened to Napoleon in his “wonderful gift for detail.”
The Ballets Russes toured extensively during its twenty-year existence. Company dancers are pictured here during a 1916 engagement in New York City.
The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, a Ballets Russes offshoot founded in 1932 by Leonide Massine, performing the choreographer's Rouge et noir, with scenery and costumes by Henri Matisse, in 1939.
As revealed in the sumptuously illustrated pages of Ballets Russes , published by Assouline , the innovative showpieces of the relatively short-lived company had a significant and enduring influence on art, theater, ballet, and fashion. Diaghilev’s ballets also made it respectable for artists to collaborate. Through the life of the company, he employed nearly forty artists to design the sets, costumes, props, and promotional materials. These painters, sculptors, and designers added rich layers of complexity to groundbreaking choreography and more traditional productions, interpreting movements such as Cubism, Primitivism, Futurism, and Surrealism for the stage.
“Diaghilev was responsible for the creation of ballets in which the elements of dance, music, and design fused together, establishing the standards to which subsequent companies throughout the world would aspire,” notes Pritchard. More than a century later, in theaters around the world, audiences are still thrilled by the ballets that he created.
“Diaghilev had the cunning...to combine the excellent with the chic, and revolutionary art with the atmosphere of the old regime.”
Ballerina Lydia Lopokova
Souvenir programs including, at top left, one for a 1915 matinee at the Theatre National de l’Opera. The cover shows an illustration of Mikhail Larionov of Le soleil de nuit.
An undated photograph of Alexandra Danilova in Apollo.
Serge Lifar and Alexandra Danilova in Apollon musagete, 1928.
A scene design by Alexandre Benois for Les Sylphides, a one-act ballet by Mikhail Folkine. First performed at the Maryinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1908, it was presented in Paris in 1909 as part of the first season of the Ballets Russes and danced by Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Vaslav Nijinsky, and Alexandra Baldina.
“There was very little that he did not try, from productions without dancers to multimedia works. Diaghilev could be distant or he could charm, but above all he could radiate extraordinary authority and power, which enabled him to bring together a group of such innovative individuals to create original works of art.”
Jane Pritchard
Pictured from left, Lubov Tchernicheva portrays Cleopatra in the Balanchine ballet Caesar and Cleopatra, ca. 1920; an undated photo of Adolph Bolm and Tamara Karsavina in Schéhérazade; and Vaslav Nijinsky in Le Spectre de la rose, 1911.
The Palais Garnier, built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. (Photo: Nathalie Darbellay/Sygma/Corbis)
| i don't know |
Which sea area lies due east of Dogger and Humber? | List of British Sea Areas
as listed in the weather report for shipping on BBC Radio4
Here's a nice but big (162K) map
I scanned it from the Radio Times, they managed to forget Bailey so I had to edit it in, which is why the lines and font are a bit dodgy there.
Here's one from the Met Office , a lot smaller but not as pretty, but it DOES have Trafalgar on it, and it makes the Lat and Longs more obvious.
South East Iceland: 64N18W..65N14W..63N7W..62N11W (roughly)
Faeroes: 63N7W..62N3W..59N7W..62N11W (roughly)
Fair Isle: 62N3W..61N00..58N00..58N5W..59N7W (roughly)
The above 3 form a diagonal band from the coast of Iceland down to the Greenwich Meridian at the Shetlands on the northern edge, and the Scottish coast on the southern edge. Fair Isle is 5 sided to get back into the normal squarish grid.
Bailey: Between 10W and 15W from South East Iceland down to about 58N
Rockall: Between 10W and 15W from Bailey (58N) down to 53N
Shannon: Between 10W and 15W, from Rockall down to 50N, and including the bits off the Irish coast.
Hebrides: The bit between Faeroes and Fair Isle, the Scottish coast, 10W, and 57N
Malin: Below Hebrides, between Rockall and the coasts, down to the narrowest point between England and Ireland
Irish Sea: The Irish Sea from Malin down to the narrowest point between Wales and Ireland
Lundy: Bounded by the south Welsh and north Cornish coasts, out to about 6.5W
Fastnet: Between Lundy and Shannon, with the south Irish coast above and 50N below
Sole: 6.5W..15W and 50N..48.27N, below Shannon and Fastnet
Finisterre, now renamed Fitzroy: Below Sole
Biscay: From Finisterre to the French coast
Plymouth: The mouth of the Channel to about 8W, Biscay below, Sole to the left
Portland: Up the channel from Plymouth to about 2W
Wight: From Portland to a line from about 50N2E(France) to 51N1E(England)
Dover: From Wight to a line matching the latitude 51N, near enough
Thames: Moving out towards the North Sea, as far as about 52.5N
Humber: Up to 54N, but loses a degree of its eastern extent halfway up
Tyne: A tiny bit about a degree wide along the coast from Humber up to about 56N
Dogger: Tyne to the left, Humber below, 4E at the right, up to about 56N
German Bight: From Humber and Dogger on the left to the continental coast
Forties: Directly above Dogger, ie about 56N..58.5N and 1W..4E
Forth: Between Forties and the Scottish coast, stopping at 57N
Cromarty: Between Forties and the Scottish coast, from Forth up to 58.5N or so, where it meets Fair Isle
Viking: Above Forties with Fair Isle to the west
Fisher: East of Forties and north of German Bight, but only as far as about 57.5N
North Utsire, South Utsire: The last bit between Viking and Forties and the Scandinavian coast
I appear to have listed them in the reverse order to that used by the weather forecasters. Never mind!
| German Bight |
Who had Hampton Court Palace built? | List of British Sea Areas
as listed in the weather report for shipping on BBC Radio4
Here's a nice but big (162K) map
I scanned it from the Radio Times, they managed to forget Bailey so I had to edit it in, which is why the lines and font are a bit dodgy there.
Here's one from the Met Office , a lot smaller but not as pretty, but it DOES have Trafalgar on it, and it makes the Lat and Longs more obvious.
South East Iceland: 64N18W..65N14W..63N7W..62N11W (roughly)
Faeroes: 63N7W..62N3W..59N7W..62N11W (roughly)
Fair Isle: 62N3W..61N00..58N00..58N5W..59N7W (roughly)
The above 3 form a diagonal band from the coast of Iceland down to the Greenwich Meridian at the Shetlands on the northern edge, and the Scottish coast on the southern edge. Fair Isle is 5 sided to get back into the normal squarish grid.
Bailey: Between 10W and 15W from South East Iceland down to about 58N
Rockall: Between 10W and 15W from Bailey (58N) down to 53N
Shannon: Between 10W and 15W, from Rockall down to 50N, and including the bits off the Irish coast.
Hebrides: The bit between Faeroes and Fair Isle, the Scottish coast, 10W, and 57N
Malin: Below Hebrides, between Rockall and the coasts, down to the narrowest point between England and Ireland
Irish Sea: The Irish Sea from Malin down to the narrowest point between Wales and Ireland
Lundy: Bounded by the south Welsh and north Cornish coasts, out to about 6.5W
Fastnet: Between Lundy and Shannon, with the south Irish coast above and 50N below
Sole: 6.5W..15W and 50N..48.27N, below Shannon and Fastnet
Finisterre, now renamed Fitzroy: Below Sole
Biscay: From Finisterre to the French coast
Plymouth: The mouth of the Channel to about 8W, Biscay below, Sole to the left
Portland: Up the channel from Plymouth to about 2W
Wight: From Portland to a line from about 50N2E(France) to 51N1E(England)
Dover: From Wight to a line matching the latitude 51N, near enough
Thames: Moving out towards the North Sea, as far as about 52.5N
Humber: Up to 54N, but loses a degree of its eastern extent halfway up
Tyne: A tiny bit about a degree wide along the coast from Humber up to about 56N
Dogger: Tyne to the left, Humber below, 4E at the right, up to about 56N
German Bight: From Humber and Dogger on the left to the continental coast
Forties: Directly above Dogger, ie about 56N..58.5N and 1W..4E
Forth: Between Forties and the Scottish coast, stopping at 57N
Cromarty: Between Forties and the Scottish coast, from Forth up to 58.5N or so, where it meets Fair Isle
Viking: Above Forties with Fair Isle to the west
Fisher: East of Forties and north of German Bight, but only as far as about 57.5N
North Utsire, South Utsire: The last bit between Viking and Forties and the Scandinavian coast
I appear to have listed them in the reverse order to that used by the weather forecasters. Never mind!
| i don't know |
What is the name of the race of black Jews who formerly inhabited Ethiopia? | Ethiopian race | Article about Ethiopian race by The Free Dictionary
Ethiopian race | Article about Ethiopian race by The Free Dictionary
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Ethiopian+race
Also found in: Dictionary , Thesaurus , Wikipedia .
Ethiopia
(ēthēō`pēə), officially Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, republic (2005 est. pop. 73,053,000), 471,776 sq mi (1,221,900 sq km), NE Africa. It borders on Eritrea in the north, on Djibouti in the northeast, on Somalia in the east and southeast, on Kenya in the south, and on South Sudan and Sudan in the west. Addis Ababa Addis Ababa
[Amharic,=new flower], city (1994 pop. 2,112,737), capital of Ethiopia. It is situated at c.8,000 ft (2,440 m) on a well-watered plateau surrounded by hills and mountains. Addis Ababa is Ethiopia's largest city and its administrative and communications center.
..... Click the link for more information. is the capital and largest city.
Land and People
Ethiopia falls into four main geographic regions from west to east—the Ethiopian Plateau, the Great Rift Valley, the Somali Plateau, and the Ogaden Plateau. The Ethiopian Plateau, which is fringed in the west by the Sudan lowlands (made up of savanna and forests), includes more than half the country. It is generally 5,000 to 6,000 ft (1,524–1,829 m) high but reaches much loftier heights, including Ras Dashen (15,158 ft/4,620 m), the highest point in Ethiopia. The plateau slopes gently from east to west and is cut by numerous deep valleys. The Blue Nile (in Ethiopia called the Abbai or Abbay) flows through the center of the plateau from its source, Lake Tana, Ethiopia's largest lake. The Great Rift Valley (which in its entirety runs from SW Asia to E central Africa) traverses the country from northeast to southwest and contains the Danakil Desert in the north and several large lakes in the south. The Somali Plateau is generally not as high as the Ethiopian Plateau, but in the Mendebo Mts. it attains heights of more than 14,000 ft (4,267 m). The Awash, Ethiopia's only navigable river, drains the central part of the plateau. The Ogaden Plateau (1,500–3,000 ft/457–914 m high) is mostly desert but includes the Webe Shebele, Genale (Jubba), and Dawa rivers.
Ethiopia's population is mainly rural, with most living in highlands above 5,900 ft (1,800 m). Almost half the people are Muslim, while over a third belong to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church; about 12% practice traditional religions. There are a great number of distinct ethnic groups in Ethiopia. The Amhara and Tigreyans, who together make up about a third of the population, live mostly in the central and N Ethiopian Plateau; they are Christian and hold most of the higher positions in the government. The Oromo Oromo
or Galla
, traditionally pastoral tribes who live in W and S Ethiopia and N Kenya. They number more than 25 million. About half are Muslim, about a third Ethiopian Orthodox, and about a sixth Protestant.
..... Click the link for more information. , who make up about a third of the country's people, live in S Ethiopia and are predominantly Muslim. The pastoral Somali, who are also Muslim, live in E and SE Ethiopia. Until the 1980s a small group of Jews, known as Beta Israel or Falashas Falashas
[Amharic,=exiles], Jews of Ethiopia who refer to themselves as Beta Israel (House of Israel). Long isolated from mainstream Judaism, they practice a form of the religion based on the Jewish Scriptures and certain apocryphal books; they also adhere to certain
..... Click the link for more information. , lived north of Lake Tana in Gondar. In the midst of famine and political instability, 10,000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted (1984–85) to Israel, and another 14,000 were airlifted out in 1991. By the end of 1999 virtually all the Falashas who were practicing Jews had been flown to Israel; a number of Falash Mura, Falashas who had converted to Christianity in the 19th cent., were allowed to immigrate to Israel in the next decade.
Amharic Amharic
, language of Ethiopia belonging to the South Ethiopic group of South Semitic languages, which, in turn, belong to the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic family of languages (see Afroasiatic languages). The official tongue of Ethiopia since the 14th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. is the country's official language, but a great many other languages are spoken, including Tigrinya, Oromo, Somali, and Arabic. A substantial number of Ethiopians speak English, which is commonly taught in school.
Economy
Ethiopia is an extremely poor and overwhelmingly agricultural country, with agriculture employing 80% of the people and farm products accounting for almost half of the country's GDP and 60% of its exports (mainly coffee). The great majority of the population is engaged in subsistence farming. The chief farm products are cereals, pulses, coffee, oilseed, cotton, sugarcane, potatoes, khat, and cut flowers. Large numbers of cattle, sheep, and goats are raised, and there is a fishing industry. Because of its degraded lands, poor cultivation practices, and frequent periods of drought, Ethiopia has to rely on extensive food imports.
Industry, which is largely state-run, is mostly restricted to agricultural processing and the manufacture of consumer goods. The main industrial centers are Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa Dire Dawa
or Diredawa
, city (1994 pop. 164,851), Harar region, E Ethiopia. It is a commercial and industrial center located on the Addis Ababa–Djibouti railroad. Manufactures include processed meat, vegetable oil, textiles, and cement.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Nazret. The leading manufactures include processed food, beverages, textiles, leather and leather goods, chemicals, and metal products. No large-scale mineral deposits have been found in Ethiopia; gold, platinum, copper, potash, and natural gas are extracted in small quantities. The country is developing its hydroelectric capacity, which is significant; the electricity being produced is for both domestic use and export.
Ethiopia has a poor transportation network, with few year-round roads. The country's one rail line links Addis Ababa and Djibouti; plans for its revitalization were announced in 1998. The chief ports serving Ethiopia, which became landlocked with Eritrean independence, are in other countries: Djibouti Djibouti
, town (1995 est. pop. 383,000), capital of the Republic of Djibouti, a port on the Gulf of Tadjoura (an inlet of the Gulf of Aden). It is the nation's only sizable town and its administrative center.
..... Click the link for more information. , in the country of Djibouti, and Aseb Aseb
or Assab
, town (1984 pop. 32,457), Eritrea, on the Red Sea. Ethiopia's most important port before Eritrean independence (1993), it continued, through agreements with Eritrea, to handle much of Ethiopia's foreign trade until the border war with Ethiopia brought
..... Click the link for more information. and Massawa Massawa
, city (1984 pop. 15,441), Eritrea, a port on the Red Sea. Before Eritrean independence (1993) it was the main port for N Ethiopia and is linked by rail with Asmara.
..... Click the link for more information. , in Eritrea. The border war that began in 1998 ended Ethiopian use of Eritrea's ports.
The annual value of imports into Ethiopia is usually considerably higher than the value of its exports. The principal imports are food and live animals, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, machinery, motor vehicles, cereals, and textiles. The main exports are coffee, khat, gold, leather products, live animals, and oilseeds. The leading trade partners are China, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Italy.
Government
Ethiopia is governed under the constitution of 1994, which provides for a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of government. The bicameral Parliament consists of the 108-seat House of Federation, whose members are chosen by state assemblies to serve five-year terms, and the 547-seat House of People's Representatives, whose members are popularly elected and who in turn elect the president for a six-year term. The prime minister is designated by the party in power following legislative elections. Administratively, the country is divided into nine ethnically based regions and two self-governing administrations (the capital and Dire Dawa).
History
Early History
Cushitic language speakers are believed to have been the original inhabitants of Ethiopia. They were driven out of the region by the Cushites in the 2d millennium B.C. The Cushites founded a new civilization which probably traded with the Egyptians, according to ancient Egyptian texts. The Egyptian name for Ethiopians was Habashat, which is the probable origin of the name Abyssinia.
According to tradition, the Ethiopian kingdom was founded (10th cent. B.C.) by Solomon's first son, Menelik I, whom the queen of Sheba is supposed to have borne. However, the first kingdom for which there is documentary evidence is that of Aksum Aksum
or Axum
, town (1994 pop. 27,148), Tigray region, N Ethiopia. Aksum was the capital of an empire (c.1st–8th cent. A.D.) that controlled much of what is now N Ethiopia. In the 4th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. (Axum), a kingdom which probably emerged in the 2d cent. A.D., thus making Ethiopia the oldest independent country in Africa and one of the most ancient in the world. Immigrants (mainly traders) from S Arabia who had been settling in N Ethiopia since about 500 B.C. influenced the economy and culture of Ethiopia. Aksum controlled much of the Red Sea coast and had links with the Mediterranean world.
Under King Ezana, Aksum was converted (4th cent.) to Christianity by Frumentius of Tyre. Closely tied to the Egyptian Coptic Church, the established Ethiopian church accepted Monophysitism Monophysitism
[Gr.,=belief in one nature], a heresy of the 5th and 6th cent., which grew out of a reaction against Nestorianism. It was anticipated by Apollinarianism and was continuous with the principles of Eutyches, whose doctrine had been rejected in 451 at Chalcedon (see
..... Click the link for more information. following the Council of Chalcedon (451). In the 6th cent., Jewish influence penetrated Aksum, and some Ethiopians were converted to Judaism.
With the rise of Islam in the 7th cent. Aksum declined, mainly because its land contacts with the Byzantine Empire were severed and its control of the Red Sea trade routes was ended. Thereafter, the focus of Aksum was directed inward toward the center of the Ethiopian Plateau (mainly the regions of Amhara and Shoa), and it was largely cut off from the outside world. Aksum soon lost its cohesion, and Ethiopia lapsed into a period of competition among small political units.
In 1530–31, Ahmad Gran, a Muslim Somali leader, conquered much of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian emperor Lebna Dengel (reigned 1508–40) appealed to Portugal for help against the Somalis (a Portuguese embassy had reached the Ethiopian court in 1520). The Somali war exhausted Ethiopia, ending a period of cultural revival and exposing the empire to incursions by the Oromo. For the next two centuries the Ethiopian kingdom, centered at Gondar Gondar
or Gonder
, town (1994 pop. 112,249), capital of Amhara region, NW Ethiopia, at an altitude of c.7,300 ft (2,225 m). It is a regional trade center and a tourist destination.
..... Click the link for more information. near Lake Tana, was beset by ruinous civil wars among princes (especially those of Tigray and Amhara), was menaced by the Oromo, and was again isolated from the outside world.
Nineteenth-Century Ethiopia
The reunification of Ethiopia was begun in the 19th cent. by Kasa (Lij Kasa; c.1818–68), who conquered Amhara, Gojjam, Tigray, and Shoa, and in 1855 had himself crowned emperor as Tewodros II Tewodros II
or Theodore II,
1818–68, emperor of Ethiopia (1855–68), originally named Kasa or Lij Kasa. He was a commoner and a bold and clever warrior.
..... Click the link for more information. (Theodore II). He began to modernize and centralize the legal and administrative systems, despite the opposition of local governors. Tensions developed with Great Britain, and Tewodros imprisoned (1867) several Britons, including the British consul. A British military expedition under Robert (later Lord) Napier Napier, Robert Cornelis, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala
, 1810–90, British general. In the engineering service in India, he fought in the Sikh Wars (1845–49) and took part in the relief of Lucknow (1857) during
..... Click the link for more information. was sent out, and the emperor's forces were easily defeated near Magdala Magdala
, former name of Amba Mariam
, village, Amhara region, central Ethiopia. Emperor Tewodros II (Theodore II) in the mid-19th cent. used Magdala as the base of operations for his conquest of the surrounding Oromo territory.
..... Click the link for more information. (now Amba Mariam) in 1868. To avoid capture, Tewodros committed suicide.
A brief civil war followed, and in 1872 a chieftain of Tigray became emperor as John (Yohannes) IV. John's attempts to further centralize the government led to revolts by local leaders; in addition, his regime was threatened during 1875–76 by Egyptian incursions and, after 1881, by raids by followers of the Mahdi Mahdi
[Arab.,=he who is divinely guided], in Sunni Islam, the restorer of the faith. He will appear at the end of time to restore justice on earth and establish universal Islam. The Mahdi will be preceded by al-Dajjal, a Muslim antichrist, who will be slain by Jesus.
..... Click the link for more information. in Sudan. The opening (1869) of the Suez Canal increased the strategic importance of Ethiopia, and several European powers (particularly Italy, France, and Great Britain) sought influence in the area. In 1889, John was killed fighting the Mahdists, and, following a short succession crisis, the king of Shoa (who had Italian support) was crowned emperor as Menelik II Menelik II
, 1844–1913, emperor of Ethiopia after 1889. He was originally ras (ruler) of Shoa (central Ethiopia). After the death (1868) of Emperor Tewodros II, Menelik, with Italian support, gained strength steadily. He seized the throne after Emperor Johannes IV died.
..... Click the link for more information. .
Menelik signed (1889) a treaty of friendship and cooperation with Italy at Wuchale. Due to a dispute over the meaning of the treaty (Italy claimed it had been given a protectorate over Ethiopia, which Menelik denied), Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1895 but was decisively defeated by Menelik's forces at Adwa Adwa
, Aduwa,
or Adowa
, Ital. Adua, town (1994 pop. 24,519), Tigray region, N Ethiopia. Lying on the highway between Aksum and Adigrat, Adwa is an agricultural trade center. Adwa was the most important commercial center of Tigray in the 19th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. on Mar. 1, 1896. By the subsequent Treaty of Addis Ababa (Oct., 1896), the Treaty of Wuchale was annulled, and Italy recognized the independence of Ethiopia while retaining its Eritrean colonial base. During his reign, Menelik also greatly expanded the size of Ethiopia, adding the provinces of Harar (E), Sidamo (S), and Kaffa (SW). In addition, he further modernized the military and the government, made (1889) Addis Ababa the capital of the country, developed the economy, and promoted the building of the country's first railroad (financed by French capital).
The Twentieth Century and the Rule of Haile Selassie
Menelik died in 1913 and was succeeded by his grandson Lij Iyasu, who alienated his fellow countrymen by favoring Muslims, and antagonized the British, French, and Italians through his support of the Central Powers (which included the Muslim Ottoman Empire) in World War I. Lij Iyasu was deposed in 1916 and Judith (Zawditu), a daughter of Menelik, was made empress with Ras Tafari Makonnen as regent and heir apparent. In the 1920s, there was tension with Italy and Great Britain, as each tried to extend its influence in Ethiopia. Ras Tafari was given additional powers by the empress in 1928, and on her death in 1930 he was crowned emperor as Haile Selassie Haile Selassie
, [Amharic,=power of the Trinity], 1892–1975, emperor of Ethiopia (1930–74). He was born Tafari Makonnen, the son of a noted general and the grandnephew of Emperor Menelik II.
..... Click the link for more information. I.
Almost immediately he faced threats from Italy's ruler, Mussolini, who was determined to establish an Italian empire and to avenge the defeat at Adwa. A border clash at Welwel in SE Ethiopia along the border with Italian Somaliland on Dec. 5, 1934, increased tension, and on Oct. 3, 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia. The League of Nations (which Ethiopia had joined in 1923) called for mild economic sanctions against Italy, but they had little effect, and an attempt by the British and French governments to arrange a settlement by giving Italy much of Ethiopia failed. The Italians quickly defeated the Ethiopians and in May, 1936, Addis Ababa was captured and Haile Selassie fled the country. On June 1, 1936, the king of Italy was also made emperor of Ethiopia. The country was combined with Eritrea Eritrea
, officially State of Eritrea, republic (2005 est. pop. 4,562,000), c.48,000 sq mi (124,320 sq km), NE Africa. It is bordered on the northeast by the Red Sea, on the southeast by Djibouti, on the south by Ethiopia, and on the northwest by Sudan.
..... Click the link for more information. and Italian Somaliland to form Italian East Africa Italian East Africa,
former federation of the Italian colonies of Eritrea and Italian Somaliland and the kingdom of Ethiopia. The federation was formed (1936) to consolidate the administration of the three areas.
..... Click the link for more information. .
In 1941, during World War II, British and South African forces easily conquered Ethiopia, and Haile Selassie regained his throne. Britain had considerable influence in Ethiopian affairs until the end of the war and administered the small Haud region in the southeast (adjacent to present-day Somalia) until 1955. In 1945, Ethiopia became a charter member of the United Nations. Eritrea was federated with Ethiopia in 1952, and in 1962 it was made an integral part of the country; Ethiopia thus gained direct access to the sea. In 1955 a new Ethiopian constitution came into force, and in 1958 the Ethiopian church became independent of the Coptic patriarch in Egypt.
Despite considerable aid from the United States and other countries, Ethiopia remained economically underdeveloped, with its wealth concentrated in the hands of a small number of large landlords and the Ethiopian church. A coup in 1960 lasted only a few days before Haile Selassie was returned to power. Between 1961 and 1967 there were border skirmishes between Ethiopia and Somalia, and in the late 1960s and early 70s there was considerable fighting between the government and a guerrilla secessionist movement in Eritrea. In 1966, Haile Selassie instituted several reforms, including the granting of more power to the cabinet. Nevertheless, unrest continued among groups seeking more far-reaching reforms.
Ethiopia after Haile Selassie
In a gradual coup that began in Feb., 1974, and culminated in September with the ouster of Haile Selassie, a group of military officers seized control of the government. Haile Selassie's failure to deal adequately with the long-term drought in N Ethiopia in 1973–74 was reportedly a major reason for his downfall. The constitution was suspended, parliament was dissolved, and Lt. Gen. Aman Michael Andom became head of a newly formed Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC). In 1977 Lt. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam Mengistu Haile Mariam
, 1937–, military ruler of Ethiopia (1974–91). Mengistu, an army officer, participated prominently in Emperor Haile Selassie's overthrow (1974).
..... Click the link for more information. became head of the PMAC, which soon diverted from its announced socialist course. A popular movement, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party, began a campaign of urban guerrilla activity that was contained by government-organized urban militias in 1977. Under the Mengistu regime, thousands of political opponents were purged, property was confiscated, and defense spending was greatly increased.
In 1977, Somalia invaded disputed territory in the Ogaden Desert and Bale Province. In addition, Eritrean nationalists were able to gain control of most of Eritrea. However, with massive amounts of military aid from the USSR and troops from Cuba, the government drove the Somalis out of the country (1978) and also retook land in Eritrea. Severe droughts throughout the 1980s resulted in devastating famine and led to widespread flight to Djibouti, Somalia, and Sudan. In 1987 a new, Marxist-based constitution was approved. Ethiopia and Somalia signed a peace agreement in 1988, but internal strife worsened as bitter fighting occurred (1989) in Tigray and Eritrea. Diplomatic relations with Israel, which had been severed in 1974, were restored in 1989 as aid from the Soviet Union and Cuba declined and Ethiopia looked for other potential investment sources.
In 1991 the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition of rebel organizations (led by Tigrayens) under the leadership of Meles Zenawi Meles Zenawi
, 1955–2012, Ethiopian political leader, prime minister of Ethiopia (1995–2012), b. Adwa. After two years of medical studies at the Univ. of Addis Ababa, he helped found (1975) the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), becoming its secretary-general
..... Click the link for more information. , began to achieve real successes and ultimately routed the Ethiopian army, forcing Mengistu to resign and flee the country. The EPRDF organized an interim government with Meles as president. A new constitution, drafted by an elected constituent assembly and approved in 1994, divided the country into ethnically based regions, each of which was given the right of secession. Eritrea had established its own provisional government in 1991 and became an independent nation in 1993.
In 1995, Negasso Gidada became president, a largely ceremonial post. Meles became prime minister after elections that were boycotted by most opposition parties. In early 1996, some 70 figures from the Mengistu regime went on trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity; many of them, including Mengistu himself, were tried in absentia. Ethiopia, despite work toward reforming the nation's agriculture, continues to face problems of famine and widespread poverty. Elections held in May, 2000, resulted in a landslide for the EPRDF.
A border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea broke out in 1998 when Eritrean forces occupied disputed territory. Fighting was largely inconclusive until May, 2000, when Ethiopian forces launched a major offensive, securing the disputed territory and driving further into Eritrea. A cease-fire agreement signed in June called for a truce, the establishment of a 15.5 mi (9.6 km) UN-patrolled buffer zone (in Eritrean territory), and the demarcation of the border by a neutral commission. An estimated 70,000 to 120,000 Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers and civilians died in the conflict. A treaty was formally signed in Dec., 2000, and there was slow progress toward the goals of the treaty in the subsequent months. The border was established in Apr., 2002, by the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The ruling generally favored neither country, but some decisions in favor of Eritrea led Ethiopia to fail to finalize the border.
Ethiopia, despite work toward reforming the nation's agriculture, continues to face problems of famine and widespread poverty. The country is dependent on rainfall to raise its crops, and a drought in 2000–2001 affected some 10 million Ethiopians, with perhaps as many as 50,000 dying from starvation. A new famine threatened the country in 2003 as a result of a drought that began in 2002. The situation improved somewhat by 2004, but several million people were still dependent on food aid. Girma Wolde-Giorgis was elected president in Oct., 2001; he was reelected in 2007. In 2003–4 there was ethnic violence in the Gambela region (W central Ethiopia); there were accusations that the army was involved in some of the attacks.
Parliamentary elections in May, 2005, resulted in substantial gains for the opposition in the lower house, where they won more than 170 seats, but opposition parties accused the government of irregularities in many constituencies; the government also accused the opposition of irregularities in others. When opposition protests occurred in the capital in June despite a ban on demonstrations, a number of demonstrators were killed, several thousand were arrested, and the unrest spread to other areas. Although election board investigators visited constituencies where the results were strongly in dispute, the board ultimately ruled largely in favor of government candidates, awarding Meles's coalition a parliamentary majority. Foreign observers called the vote generally free and fair, but noted that it was marred in some respects and criticized the slowness of the count and the handling of charges of irregularities. Government opponents protested the result through a parliamentary boycott and, in November, street demonstrations; the police killed some 200 protesters. The government arrested hundreds, eventually releasing most of them, but many opposition leaders were not released and were charged with treason and genocide. In response, a number of nations and international organizations suspended (Dec., 2005) foreign aid to the government. The charges of genocide and treason were dropped in Apr., 2007, but more than 80 opposition figures remained accused of attempting to overthrow the government. Many of them were sentenced (July, 2007) to life in prison, a verdict that was denounced internationally; they and most of the rest of the 80 were subsequently pardoned. The government subsequently has continued to suppress the politicial opposition and criticism of its policies.
Tensions with Eritrea escalated in 2005 as both nations bolstered their forces along the disputed border. The United Nations called (Nov., 2005) for Eritrea and Ethiopia to reduce their forces along the border, and expressed concern over Ethiopia's failure to finalize the border; UN sanctions were threatened for noncompliance. A year later the boundary commission said that it would demarcate the border on maps and the two nations would have a year to demarcate the border on the ground, but the 2007 deadline passed with the issue unresolved. In Dec., 2005, a Permanent Court of Arbitration claims commission ruled that Eritrea had violated international law in attacking Ethiopia, and that Ethiopia was entitled to compensation. The UN ended its peacekeeping mission along the border in mid-2008, blaming both Ethiopia (for its failure to adhere to the boundary commission's ruling) and Eritrea (for limiting and interfering with the operations of peacekeeping forces); the last peacekeepers were withdrawn in Oct., 2008. Since then there have been sporadic border-related violence involving the two nations' armies or rebels they support.
In Apr., 2006, Ethiopian soldiers fought with Kenyan forces when the soldiers pursued Oromo rebels across the border into Kenya. Somali Islamists accused Ethiopia of invading Somalia in June after the Islamists secured control of much of S Somalia. Although Ethiopia denied the charge, Prime Minister Meles denounced Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who became leader of the Somali Islamists' shura [council], as a threat to Ethiopia; the sheikh accused Ethiopia of "occupying" the Ogaden.
In July, 2006, there were more credible reports of Ethiopian troops entering Somalia in support of the beleaguered government based in Baidoa, but Ethiopia did not acknowledge this until October, when it said the Ethiopian forces in Somalia were military trainers. In December the Somali Islamists demanded that Ethiopian troops leave or face attack. When fighting erupted, Somali government forces supported by Ethiopian forces drove the Islamists from their Somalia strongholds. Warfare ended in early 2007, but insurgent attacks continued, preventing Ethiopia from withdrawing its forces. In 2008, Ethiopia stated that its forces would remain until stability is assured or a credible peacekeeping force was in place. After a peace agreement was signed between moderate Islamists and the interim Somali government, however, Ethiopia agreed to withdraw, and removed its troops from Somalia in Jan., 2009. Ethiopian forces, however, did occasionally make incursions into Somalia in subsequent months. Flooding in Aug.–Sept., 2008, and again in October, afflicted several Ethiopian regions; several hundred thousand people were affected.
Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia reinvigorated a long-simmering indigenous Somali insurgency in the Ogaden in 2007, and Ethiopia responded with a military crackdown. It also employed local militias against the rebels, leading to accusations of Darfur-like tactics. In addition, the government was reported to have blocked food aid to the region.
In June, 2009, the government charged more than 40 people with conspiring to overthrow the government and assassinate public officials. Most of the accused were current or former military officers; 12 accused were in exile. Berhanu Nega, an exiled opposition leader and alleged mastermind, called the conspiracy charges a fabrication. Most were subsequently convicted; Berhanu (in absentia) and several others were sentenced to death. In Aug., 2009, the Permanent Court of Arbitration claims commission issued its final war damages awards; Eritrea was assessed roughly $174 million to cover Ethiopian claims while Ethiopia was assessed $164 million for Eritrean claims.
The May, 2010, parliamentary elections resulted in a landslide for the EPRDF, which won nearly all the seats, but the campaign was criticized as unfair and marred by intimidation of opposition politicians and their supporters; the opposition also accused the EPRDF of vote rigging. In late 2011, Ethiopian forces again entered Somalia, in a concerted effort in support of the transitional government forces there that continued into 2012. Ethiopian forces in Mar., 2012, also attacked what Ethiopia described as several Eritrean military bases that were used to train Ethiopian antigovernment militants.
In Aug., 2012, Meles died in office; Hailemariam Desalegn Hailemariam Desalegn,
1965–, Ethiopian political leader. Trained as an engineer, Hailemariam held various positions at Arba Minch Univ. (1989–2000). A member of Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement (SEPDM), one of the four parties in the Ethiopian People's
..... Click the link for more information. , the deputy prime minister and foreign minister, succeeded him as prime minister. Mulatu Teshome, Ethiopia's ambassador to Turkey, was elected president in Oct., 2013. The EPRDF won every seat in the parliamentary elections in May, 2015; the opposition again criticized the vote as rigged and unfair. In 2015 and 2015 plans to transfer portions of Oromia state into Addis Ababa's administrative area led to antigovernment protests in Oromia that were violently suppressed by security forces; the plans were abandoned in early 2016.
Bibliography
See C. Clapham, Haile Selassie's Government (1969); E. Ullendorff, The Ethiopians (3d. ed. 1973); J. Markakis, Ethiopia (1974); P. Schwab, Ethiopia (1985); C. Clapham, Transformation and Continuity in Revolutionary Ethiopia (1988); E. J. Keller, Revolutionary Ethiopia (1989); A. Dejene, Environment, Famine and Politics in Ethiopia (1991); G. Takeke, Ethiopia: Power and Protest (1991); S. Uhlig, ed., Encyclopaedia Aethiopica (5 vol., 2003–).
Ethiopia
. K. M
IKHAILOV
The sources of the theatrical culture of the peoples of Ethiopia lie in traditional rituals, such as weddings and funerals, and festivals, such as celebrations of military victory or the choosing of a chief. With the rise of general-education schools at the beginning of the 20th century, the school theater appeared. The first national playwrights, Yoftahe Niguse and Fitaurari Teklehawariat, were educated in Russia and France, respectively. During the Italian invasion in the 1930’s, a theater known as the League of Patriots of the Motherland mounted productions that sounded a call for the patriotic forces to unite. An important event in the development of the Ethiopian theater was a festival of amateur art held in Addis Ababa in 1950. In 1955 the country’s first professional theater opened in the capital. Named the National Theater in the mid-1970’s, it stages plays by contemporary Ethiopian playwrights and by foreign dramatists; its repertoire includes adapted translations of plays by Shakespeare. One of the most recent plays staged at the theater was N. V. Gogol’s The Inspector-General (1976).
Ethiopia
Official name: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Capital city: Addis Ababa Internet country code: .et Flag description: Three equal horizontal bands of green (top), yellow, and red with a yellow pentagram and single yellow rays emanating from the angles between the points on a light blue disk centered on the three bands; Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa, and the three main colors of her flag were so often adopted by other African countries upon independence that they became known as the pan-African colors
Geographical description: Eastern Africa, west of Somalia
Total area: 472,000 sq. mi. (1,127,127 sq. km.)
Climate: Tropical monsoon with wide topographic-induced variation
Nationality: noun: Ethiopian(s); adjective: Ethiopian
Population: 76,511,887 (July 2007 CIA est.)
Ethnic groups: Oromo 40%, Amhara 25%, Tigre 7%, Somali 6%, Sidama 9%, Gurage 2%, Wolaita 4%, Afar 4%, other 3%
Languages spoken: Amharic (official), Tigrinya, Arabic, Guaragigna, Oromigna, English, Somali
Religions: Ethiopian Orthodox 40%, Sunni Muslim 45-50%, Protestant 5%, remainder affiliate with indigenous religions
Legal Holidays:
Jan 19
Ethiopia
a state in NE Africa, on the Red Sea: consolidated as an empire under Menelik II (1889--1913); federated with Eritrea from 1952 until 1993; Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed by the military in 1974 and the monarchy was abolished in 1975; an independence movement in Eritrea was engaged in war with the government from 1961 until 1993. It lies along the Great Rift Valley and consists of deserts in the southeast and northeast and a high central plateau with many rivers (including the Blue Nile) and mountains rising over 4500 m (15 000 ft.); the main export is coffee. Language: Amharic. Religion: Christian majority. Currency: birr. Capital: Addis Ababa. Pop.: 72 420 000 (2004 est.). Area: 1 128 215 sq. km (435 614 sq. miles)
| Beta Israel |
Which company introduced the first instant coffee in 1937? | Ethiopia | Article about Ethiopia by The Free Dictionary
Ethiopia | Article about Ethiopia by The Free Dictionary
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Ethiopia
Also found in: Dictionary , Thesaurus , Acronyms , Wikipedia .
Ethiopia
(ēthēō`pēə), officially Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, republic (2005 est. pop. 73,053,000), 471,776 sq mi (1,221,900 sq km), NE Africa. It borders on Eritrea in the north, on Djibouti in the northeast, on Somalia in the east and southeast, on Kenya in the south, and on South Sudan and Sudan in the west. Addis Ababa Addis Ababa
[Amharic,=new flower], city (1994 pop. 2,112,737), capital of Ethiopia. It is situated at c.8,000 ft (2,440 m) on a well-watered plateau surrounded by hills and mountains. Addis Ababa is Ethiopia's largest city and its administrative and communications center.
..... Click the link for more information. is the capital and largest city.
Land and People
Ethiopia falls into four main geographic regions from west to east—the Ethiopian Plateau, the Great Rift Valley, the Somali Plateau, and the Ogaden Plateau. The Ethiopian Plateau, which is fringed in the west by the Sudan lowlands (made up of savanna and forests), includes more than half the country. It is generally 5,000 to 6,000 ft (1,524–1,829 m) high but reaches much loftier heights, including Ras Dashen (15,158 ft/4,620 m), the highest point in Ethiopia. The plateau slopes gently from east to west and is cut by numerous deep valleys. The Blue Nile (in Ethiopia called the Abbai or Abbay) flows through the center of the plateau from its source, Lake Tana, Ethiopia's largest lake. The Great Rift Valley (which in its entirety runs from SW Asia to E central Africa) traverses the country from northeast to southwest and contains the Danakil Desert in the north and several large lakes in the south. The Somali Plateau is generally not as high as the Ethiopian Plateau, but in the Mendebo Mts. it attains heights of more than 14,000 ft (4,267 m). The Awash, Ethiopia's only navigable river, drains the central part of the plateau. The Ogaden Plateau (1,500–3,000 ft/457–914 m high) is mostly desert but includes the Webe Shebele, Genale (Jubba), and Dawa rivers.
Ethiopia's population is mainly rural, with most living in highlands above 5,900 ft (1,800 m). Almost half the people are Muslim, while over a third belong to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church; about 12% practice traditional religions. There are a great number of distinct ethnic groups in Ethiopia. The Amhara and Tigreyans, who together make up about a third of the population, live mostly in the central and N Ethiopian Plateau; they are Christian and hold most of the higher positions in the government. The Oromo Oromo
or Galla
, traditionally pastoral tribes who live in W and S Ethiopia and N Kenya. They number more than 25 million. About half are Muslim, about a third Ethiopian Orthodox, and about a sixth Protestant.
..... Click the link for more information. , who make up about a third of the country's people, live in S Ethiopia and are predominantly Muslim. The pastoral Somali, who are also Muslim, live in E and SE Ethiopia. Until the 1980s a small group of Jews, known as Beta Israel or Falashas Falashas
[Amharic,=exiles], Jews of Ethiopia who refer to themselves as Beta Israel (House of Israel). Long isolated from mainstream Judaism, they practice a form of the religion based on the Jewish Scriptures and certain apocryphal books; they also adhere to certain
..... Click the link for more information. , lived north of Lake Tana in Gondar. In the midst of famine and political instability, 10,000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted (1984–85) to Israel, and another 14,000 were airlifted out in 1991. By the end of 1999 virtually all the Falashas who were practicing Jews had been flown to Israel; a number of Falash Mura, Falashas who had converted to Christianity in the 19th cent., were allowed to immigrate to Israel in the next decade.
Amharic Amharic
, language of Ethiopia belonging to the South Ethiopic group of South Semitic languages, which, in turn, belong to the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic family of languages (see Afroasiatic languages). The official tongue of Ethiopia since the 14th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. is the country's official language, but a great many other languages are spoken, including Tigrinya, Oromo, Somali, and Arabic. A substantial number of Ethiopians speak English, which is commonly taught in school.
Economy
Ethiopia is an extremely poor and overwhelmingly agricultural country, with agriculture employing 80% of the people and farm products accounting for almost half of the country's GDP and 60% of its exports (mainly coffee). The great majority of the population is engaged in subsistence farming. The chief farm products are cereals, pulses, coffee, oilseed, cotton, sugarcane, potatoes, khat, and cut flowers. Large numbers of cattle, sheep, and goats are raised, and there is a fishing industry. Because of its degraded lands, poor cultivation practices, and frequent periods of drought, Ethiopia has to rely on extensive food imports.
Industry, which is largely state-run, is mostly restricted to agricultural processing and the manufacture of consumer goods. The main industrial centers are Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa Dire Dawa
or Diredawa
, city (1994 pop. 164,851), Harar region, E Ethiopia. It is a commercial and industrial center located on the Addis Ababa–Djibouti railroad. Manufactures include processed meat, vegetable oil, textiles, and cement.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Nazret. The leading manufactures include processed food, beverages, textiles, leather and leather goods, chemicals, and metal products. No large-scale mineral deposits have been found in Ethiopia; gold, platinum, copper, potash, and natural gas are extracted in small quantities. The country is developing its hydroelectric capacity, which is significant; the electricity being produced is for both domestic use and export.
Ethiopia has a poor transportation network, with few year-round roads. The country's one rail line links Addis Ababa and Djibouti; plans for its revitalization were announced in 1998. The chief ports serving Ethiopia, which became landlocked with Eritrean independence, are in other countries: Djibouti Djibouti
, town (1995 est. pop. 383,000), capital of the Republic of Djibouti, a port on the Gulf of Tadjoura (an inlet of the Gulf of Aden). It is the nation's only sizable town and its administrative center.
..... Click the link for more information. , in the country of Djibouti, and Aseb Aseb
or Assab
, town (1984 pop. 32,457), Eritrea, on the Red Sea. Ethiopia's most important port before Eritrean independence (1993), it continued, through agreements with Eritrea, to handle much of Ethiopia's foreign trade until the border war with Ethiopia brought
..... Click the link for more information. and Massawa Massawa
, city (1984 pop. 15,441), Eritrea, a port on the Red Sea. Before Eritrean independence (1993) it was the main port for N Ethiopia and is linked by rail with Asmara.
..... Click the link for more information. , in Eritrea. The border war that began in 1998 ended Ethiopian use of Eritrea's ports.
The annual value of imports into Ethiopia is usually considerably higher than the value of its exports. The principal imports are food and live animals, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, machinery, motor vehicles, cereals, and textiles. The main exports are coffee, khat, gold, leather products, live animals, and oilseeds. The leading trade partners are China, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Italy.
Government
Ethiopia is governed under the constitution of 1994, which provides for a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of government. The bicameral Parliament consists of the 108-seat House of Federation, whose members are chosen by state assemblies to serve five-year terms, and the 547-seat House of People's Representatives, whose members are popularly elected and who in turn elect the president for a six-year term. The prime minister is designated by the party in power following legislative elections. Administratively, the country is divided into nine ethnically based regions and two self-governing administrations (the capital and Dire Dawa).
History
Early History
Cushitic language speakers are believed to have been the original inhabitants of Ethiopia. They were driven out of the region by the Cushites in the 2d millennium B.C. The Cushites founded a new civilization which probably traded with the Egyptians, according to ancient Egyptian texts. The Egyptian name for Ethiopians was Habashat, which is the probable origin of the name Abyssinia.
According to tradition, the Ethiopian kingdom was founded (10th cent. B.C.) by Solomon's first son, Menelik I, whom the queen of Sheba is supposed to have borne. However, the first kingdom for which there is documentary evidence is that of Aksum Aksum
or Axum
, town (1994 pop. 27,148), Tigray region, N Ethiopia. Aksum was the capital of an empire (c.1st–8th cent. A.D.) that controlled much of what is now N Ethiopia. In the 4th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. (Axum), a kingdom which probably emerged in the 2d cent. A.D., thus making Ethiopia the oldest independent country in Africa and one of the most ancient in the world. Immigrants (mainly traders) from S Arabia who had been settling in N Ethiopia since about 500 B.C. influenced the economy and culture of Ethiopia. Aksum controlled much of the Red Sea coast and had links with the Mediterranean world.
Under King Ezana, Aksum was converted (4th cent.) to Christianity by Frumentius of Tyre. Closely tied to the Egyptian Coptic Church, the established Ethiopian church accepted Monophysitism Monophysitism
[Gr.,=belief in one nature], a heresy of the 5th and 6th cent., which grew out of a reaction against Nestorianism. It was anticipated by Apollinarianism and was continuous with the principles of Eutyches, whose doctrine had been rejected in 451 at Chalcedon (see
..... Click the link for more information. following the Council of Chalcedon (451). In the 6th cent., Jewish influence penetrated Aksum, and some Ethiopians were converted to Judaism.
With the rise of Islam in the 7th cent. Aksum declined, mainly because its land contacts with the Byzantine Empire were severed and its control of the Red Sea trade routes was ended. Thereafter, the focus of Aksum was directed inward toward the center of the Ethiopian Plateau (mainly the regions of Amhara and Shoa), and it was largely cut off from the outside world. Aksum soon lost its cohesion, and Ethiopia lapsed into a period of competition among small political units.
In 1530–31, Ahmad Gran, a Muslim Somali leader, conquered much of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian emperor Lebna Dengel (reigned 1508–40) appealed to Portugal for help against the Somalis (a Portuguese embassy had reached the Ethiopian court in 1520). The Somali war exhausted Ethiopia, ending a period of cultural revival and exposing the empire to incursions by the Oromo. For the next two centuries the Ethiopian kingdom, centered at Gondar Gondar
or Gonder
, town (1994 pop. 112,249), capital of Amhara region, NW Ethiopia, at an altitude of c.7,300 ft (2,225 m). It is a regional trade center and a tourist destination.
..... Click the link for more information. near Lake Tana, was beset by ruinous civil wars among princes (especially those of Tigray and Amhara), was menaced by the Oromo, and was again isolated from the outside world.
Nineteenth-Century Ethiopia
The reunification of Ethiopia was begun in the 19th cent. by Kasa (Lij Kasa; c.1818–68), who conquered Amhara, Gojjam, Tigray, and Shoa, and in 1855 had himself crowned emperor as Tewodros II Tewodros II
or Theodore II,
1818–68, emperor of Ethiopia (1855–68), originally named Kasa or Lij Kasa. He was a commoner and a bold and clever warrior.
..... Click the link for more information. (Theodore II). He began to modernize and centralize the legal and administrative systems, despite the opposition of local governors. Tensions developed with Great Britain, and Tewodros imprisoned (1867) several Britons, including the British consul. A British military expedition under Robert (later Lord) Napier Napier, Robert Cornelis, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala
, 1810–90, British general. In the engineering service in India, he fought in the Sikh Wars (1845–49) and took part in the relief of Lucknow (1857) during
..... Click the link for more information. was sent out, and the emperor's forces were easily defeated near Magdala Magdala
, former name of Amba Mariam
, village, Amhara region, central Ethiopia. Emperor Tewodros II (Theodore II) in the mid-19th cent. used Magdala as the base of operations for his conquest of the surrounding Oromo territory.
..... Click the link for more information. (now Amba Mariam) in 1868. To avoid capture, Tewodros committed suicide.
A brief civil war followed, and in 1872 a chieftain of Tigray became emperor as John (Yohannes) IV. John's attempts to further centralize the government led to revolts by local leaders; in addition, his regime was threatened during 1875–76 by Egyptian incursions and, after 1881, by raids by followers of the Mahdi Mahdi
[Arab.,=he who is divinely guided], in Sunni Islam, the restorer of the faith. He will appear at the end of time to restore justice on earth and establish universal Islam. The Mahdi will be preceded by al-Dajjal, a Muslim antichrist, who will be slain by Jesus.
..... Click the link for more information. in Sudan. The opening (1869) of the Suez Canal increased the strategic importance of Ethiopia, and several European powers (particularly Italy, France, and Great Britain) sought influence in the area. In 1889, John was killed fighting the Mahdists, and, following a short succession crisis, the king of Shoa (who had Italian support) was crowned emperor as Menelik II Menelik II
, 1844–1913, emperor of Ethiopia after 1889. He was originally ras (ruler) of Shoa (central Ethiopia). After the death (1868) of Emperor Tewodros II, Menelik, with Italian support, gained strength steadily. He seized the throne after Emperor Johannes IV died.
..... Click the link for more information. .
Menelik signed (1889) a treaty of friendship and cooperation with Italy at Wuchale. Due to a dispute over the meaning of the treaty (Italy claimed it had been given a protectorate over Ethiopia, which Menelik denied), Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1895 but was decisively defeated by Menelik's forces at Adwa Adwa
, Aduwa,
or Adowa
, Ital. Adua, town (1994 pop. 24,519), Tigray region, N Ethiopia. Lying on the highway between Aksum and Adigrat, Adwa is an agricultural trade center. Adwa was the most important commercial center of Tigray in the 19th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. on Mar. 1, 1896. By the subsequent Treaty of Addis Ababa (Oct., 1896), the Treaty of Wuchale was annulled, and Italy recognized the independence of Ethiopia while retaining its Eritrean colonial base. During his reign, Menelik also greatly expanded the size of Ethiopia, adding the provinces of Harar (E), Sidamo (S), and Kaffa (SW). In addition, he further modernized the military and the government, made (1889) Addis Ababa the capital of the country, developed the economy, and promoted the building of the country's first railroad (financed by French capital).
The Twentieth Century and the Rule of Haile Selassie
Menelik died in 1913 and was succeeded by his grandson Lij Iyasu, who alienated his fellow countrymen by favoring Muslims, and antagonized the British, French, and Italians through his support of the Central Powers (which included the Muslim Ottoman Empire) in World War I. Lij Iyasu was deposed in 1916 and Judith (Zawditu), a daughter of Menelik, was made empress with Ras Tafari Makonnen as regent and heir apparent. In the 1920s, there was tension with Italy and Great Britain, as each tried to extend its influence in Ethiopia. Ras Tafari was given additional powers by the empress in 1928, and on her death in 1930 he was crowned emperor as Haile Selassie Haile Selassie
, [Amharic,=power of the Trinity], 1892–1975, emperor of Ethiopia (1930–74). He was born Tafari Makonnen, the son of a noted general and the grandnephew of Emperor Menelik II.
..... Click the link for more information. I.
Almost immediately he faced threats from Italy's ruler, Mussolini, who was determined to establish an Italian empire and to avenge the defeat at Adwa. A border clash at Welwel in SE Ethiopia along the border with Italian Somaliland on Dec. 5, 1934, increased tension, and on Oct. 3, 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia. The League of Nations (which Ethiopia had joined in 1923) called for mild economic sanctions against Italy, but they had little effect, and an attempt by the British and French governments to arrange a settlement by giving Italy much of Ethiopia failed. The Italians quickly defeated the Ethiopians and in May, 1936, Addis Ababa was captured and Haile Selassie fled the country. On June 1, 1936, the king of Italy was also made emperor of Ethiopia. The country was combined with Eritrea Eritrea
, officially State of Eritrea, republic (2005 est. pop. 4,562,000), c.48,000 sq mi (124,320 sq km), NE Africa. It is bordered on the northeast by the Red Sea, on the southeast by Djibouti, on the south by Ethiopia, and on the northwest by Sudan.
..... Click the link for more information. and Italian Somaliland to form Italian East Africa Italian East Africa,
former federation of the Italian colonies of Eritrea and Italian Somaliland and the kingdom of Ethiopia. The federation was formed (1936) to consolidate the administration of the three areas.
..... Click the link for more information. .
In 1941, during World War II, British and South African forces easily conquered Ethiopia, and Haile Selassie regained his throne. Britain had considerable influence in Ethiopian affairs until the end of the war and administered the small Haud region in the southeast (adjacent to present-day Somalia) until 1955. In 1945, Ethiopia became a charter member of the United Nations. Eritrea was federated with Ethiopia in 1952, and in 1962 it was made an integral part of the country; Ethiopia thus gained direct access to the sea. In 1955 a new Ethiopian constitution came into force, and in 1958 the Ethiopian church became independent of the Coptic patriarch in Egypt.
Despite considerable aid from the United States and other countries, Ethiopia remained economically underdeveloped, with its wealth concentrated in the hands of a small number of large landlords and the Ethiopian church. A coup in 1960 lasted only a few days before Haile Selassie was returned to power. Between 1961 and 1967 there were border skirmishes between Ethiopia and Somalia, and in the late 1960s and early 70s there was considerable fighting between the government and a guerrilla secessionist movement in Eritrea. In 1966, Haile Selassie instituted several reforms, including the granting of more power to the cabinet. Nevertheless, unrest continued among groups seeking more far-reaching reforms.
Ethiopia after Haile Selassie
In a gradual coup that began in Feb., 1974, and culminated in September with the ouster of Haile Selassie, a group of military officers seized control of the government. Haile Selassie's failure to deal adequately with the long-term drought in N Ethiopia in 1973–74 was reportedly a major reason for his downfall. The constitution was suspended, parliament was dissolved, and Lt. Gen. Aman Michael Andom became head of a newly formed Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC). In 1977 Lt. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam Mengistu Haile Mariam
, 1937–, military ruler of Ethiopia (1974–91). Mengistu, an army officer, participated prominently in Emperor Haile Selassie's overthrow (1974).
..... Click the link for more information. became head of the PMAC, which soon diverted from its announced socialist course. A popular movement, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party, began a campaign of urban guerrilla activity that was contained by government-organized urban militias in 1977. Under the Mengistu regime, thousands of political opponents were purged, property was confiscated, and defense spending was greatly increased.
In 1977, Somalia invaded disputed territory in the Ogaden Desert and Bale Province. In addition, Eritrean nationalists were able to gain control of most of Eritrea. However, with massive amounts of military aid from the USSR and troops from Cuba, the government drove the Somalis out of the country (1978) and also retook land in Eritrea. Severe droughts throughout the 1980s resulted in devastating famine and led to widespread flight to Djibouti, Somalia, and Sudan. In 1987 a new, Marxist-based constitution was approved. Ethiopia and Somalia signed a peace agreement in 1988, but internal strife worsened as bitter fighting occurred (1989) in Tigray and Eritrea. Diplomatic relations with Israel, which had been severed in 1974, were restored in 1989 as aid from the Soviet Union and Cuba declined and Ethiopia looked for other potential investment sources.
In 1991 the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition of rebel organizations (led by Tigrayens) under the leadership of Meles Zenawi Meles Zenawi
, 1955–2012, Ethiopian political leader, prime minister of Ethiopia (1995–2012), b. Adwa. After two years of medical studies at the Univ. of Addis Ababa, he helped found (1975) the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), becoming its secretary-general
..... Click the link for more information. , began to achieve real successes and ultimately routed the Ethiopian army, forcing Mengistu to resign and flee the country. The EPRDF organized an interim government with Meles as president. A new constitution, drafted by an elected constituent assembly and approved in 1994, divided the country into ethnically based regions, each of which was given the right of secession. Eritrea had established its own provisional government in 1991 and became an independent nation in 1993.
In 1995, Negasso Gidada became president, a largely ceremonial post. Meles became prime minister after elections that were boycotted by most opposition parties. In early 1996, some 70 figures from the Mengistu regime went on trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity; many of them, including Mengistu himself, were tried in absentia. Ethiopia, despite work toward reforming the nation's agriculture, continues to face problems of famine and widespread poverty. Elections held in May, 2000, resulted in a landslide for the EPRDF.
A border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea broke out in 1998 when Eritrean forces occupied disputed territory. Fighting was largely inconclusive until May, 2000, when Ethiopian forces launched a major offensive, securing the disputed territory and driving further into Eritrea. A cease-fire agreement signed in June called for a truce, the establishment of a 15.5 mi (9.6 km) UN-patrolled buffer zone (in Eritrean territory), and the demarcation of the border by a neutral commission. An estimated 70,000 to 120,000 Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers and civilians died in the conflict. A treaty was formally signed in Dec., 2000, and there was slow progress toward the goals of the treaty in the subsequent months. The border was established in Apr., 2002, by the Permanent Court of Arbitration. The ruling generally favored neither country, but some decisions in favor of Eritrea led Ethiopia to fail to finalize the border.
Ethiopia, despite work toward reforming the nation's agriculture, continues to face problems of famine and widespread poverty. The country is dependent on rainfall to raise its crops, and a drought in 2000–2001 affected some 10 million Ethiopians, with perhaps as many as 50,000 dying from starvation. A new famine threatened the country in 2003 as a result of a drought that began in 2002. The situation improved somewhat by 2004, but several million people were still dependent on food aid. Girma Wolde-Giorgis was elected president in Oct., 2001; he was reelected in 2007. In 2003–4 there was ethnic violence in the Gambela region (W central Ethiopia); there were accusations that the army was involved in some of the attacks.
Parliamentary elections in May, 2005, resulted in substantial gains for the opposition in the lower house, where they won more than 170 seats, but opposition parties accused the government of irregularities in many constituencies; the government also accused the opposition of irregularities in others. When opposition protests occurred in the capital in June despite a ban on demonstrations, a number of demonstrators were killed, several thousand were arrested, and the unrest spread to other areas. Although election board investigators visited constituencies where the results were strongly in dispute, the board ultimately ruled largely in favor of government candidates, awarding Meles's coalition a parliamentary majority. Foreign observers called the vote generally free and fair, but noted that it was marred in some respects and criticized the slowness of the count and the handling of charges of irregularities. Government opponents protested the result through a parliamentary boycott and, in November, street demonstrations; the police killed some 200 protesters. The government arrested hundreds, eventually releasing most of them, but many opposition leaders were not released and were charged with treason and genocide. In response, a number of nations and international organizations suspended (Dec., 2005) foreign aid to the government. The charges of genocide and treason were dropped in Apr., 2007, but more than 80 opposition figures remained accused of attempting to overthrow the government. Many of them were sentenced (July, 2007) to life in prison, a verdict that was denounced internationally; they and most of the rest of the 80 were subsequently pardoned. The government subsequently has continued to suppress the politicial opposition and criticism of its policies.
Tensions with Eritrea escalated in 2005 as both nations bolstered their forces along the disputed border. The United Nations called (Nov., 2005) for Eritrea and Ethiopia to reduce their forces along the border, and expressed concern over Ethiopia's failure to finalize the border; UN sanctions were threatened for noncompliance. A year later the boundary commission said that it would demarcate the border on maps and the two nations would have a year to demarcate the border on the ground, but the 2007 deadline passed with the issue unresolved. In Dec., 2005, a Permanent Court of Arbitration claims commission ruled that Eritrea had violated international law in attacking Ethiopia, and that Ethiopia was entitled to compensation. The UN ended its peacekeeping mission along the border in mid-2008, blaming both Ethiopia (for its failure to adhere to the boundary commission's ruling) and Eritrea (for limiting and interfering with the operations of peacekeeping forces); the last peacekeepers were withdrawn in Oct., 2008. Since then there have been sporadic border-related violence involving the two nations' armies or rebels they support.
In Apr., 2006, Ethiopian soldiers fought with Kenyan forces when the soldiers pursued Oromo rebels across the border into Kenya. Somali Islamists accused Ethiopia of invading Somalia in June after the Islamists secured control of much of S Somalia. Although Ethiopia denied the charge, Prime Minister Meles denounced Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who became leader of the Somali Islamists' shura [council], as a threat to Ethiopia; the sheikh accused Ethiopia of "occupying" the Ogaden.
In July, 2006, there were more credible reports of Ethiopian troops entering Somalia in support of the beleaguered government based in Baidoa, but Ethiopia did not acknowledge this until October, when it said the Ethiopian forces in Somalia were military trainers. In December the Somali Islamists demanded that Ethiopian troops leave or face attack. When fighting erupted, Somali government forces supported by Ethiopian forces drove the Islamists from their Somalia strongholds. Warfare ended in early 2007, but insurgent attacks continued, preventing Ethiopia from withdrawing its forces. In 2008, Ethiopia stated that its forces would remain until stability is assured or a credible peacekeeping force was in place. After a peace agreement was signed between moderate Islamists and the interim Somali government, however, Ethiopia agreed to withdraw, and removed its troops from Somalia in Jan., 2009. Ethiopian forces, however, did occasionally make incursions into Somalia in subsequent months. Flooding in Aug.–Sept., 2008, and again in October, afflicted several Ethiopian regions; several hundred thousand people were affected.
Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia reinvigorated a long-simmering indigenous Somali insurgency in the Ogaden in 2007, and Ethiopia responded with a military crackdown. It also employed local militias against the rebels, leading to accusations of Darfur-like tactics. In addition, the government was reported to have blocked food aid to the region.
In June, 2009, the government charged more than 40 people with conspiring to overthrow the government and assassinate public officials. Most of the accused were current or former military officers; 12 accused were in exile. Berhanu Nega, an exiled opposition leader and alleged mastermind, called the conspiracy charges a fabrication. Most were subsequently convicted; Berhanu (in absentia) and several others were sentenced to death. In Aug., 2009, the Permanent Court of Arbitration claims commission issued its final war damages awards; Eritrea was assessed roughly $174 million to cover Ethiopian claims while Ethiopia was assessed $164 million for Eritrean claims.
The May, 2010, parliamentary elections resulted in a landslide for the EPRDF, which won nearly all the seats, but the campaign was criticized as unfair and marred by intimidation of opposition politicians and their supporters; the opposition also accused the EPRDF of vote rigging. In late 2011, Ethiopian forces again entered Somalia, in a concerted effort in support of the transitional government forces there that continued into 2012. Ethiopian forces in Mar., 2012, also attacked what Ethiopia described as several Eritrean military bases that were used to train Ethiopian antigovernment militants.
In Aug., 2012, Meles died in office; Hailemariam Desalegn Hailemariam Desalegn,
1965–, Ethiopian political leader. Trained as an engineer, Hailemariam held various positions at Arba Minch Univ. (1989–2000). A member of Southern Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement (SEPDM), one of the four parties in the Ethiopian People's
..... Click the link for more information. , the deputy prime minister and foreign minister, succeeded him as prime minister. Mulatu Teshome, Ethiopia's ambassador to Turkey, was elected president in Oct., 2013. The EPRDF won every seat in the parliamentary elections in May, 2015; the opposition again criticized the vote as rigged and unfair. In 2015 and 2015 plans to transfer portions of Oromia state into Addis Ababa's administrative area led to antigovernment protests in Oromia that were violently suppressed by security forces; the plans were abandoned in early 2016.
Bibliography
See C. Clapham, Haile Selassie's Government (1969); E. Ullendorff, The Ethiopians (3d. ed. 1973); J. Markakis, Ethiopia (1974); P. Schwab, Ethiopia (1985); C. Clapham, Transformation and Continuity in Revolutionary Ethiopia (1988); E. J. Keller, Revolutionary Ethiopia (1989); A. Dejene, Environment, Famine and Politics in Ethiopia (1991); G. Takeke, Ethiopia: Power and Protest (1991); S. Uhlig, ed., Encyclopaedia Aethiopica (5 vol., 2003–).
Ethiopia
. K. M
IKHAILOV
The sources of the theatrical culture of the peoples of Ethiopia lie in traditional rituals, such as weddings and funerals, and festivals, such as celebrations of military victory or the choosing of a chief. With the rise of general-education schools at the beginning of the 20th century, the school theater appeared. The first national playwrights, Yoftahe Niguse and Fitaurari Teklehawariat, were educated in Russia and France, respectively. During the Italian invasion in the 1930’s, a theater known as the League of Patriots of the Motherland mounted productions that sounded a call for the patriotic forces to unite. An important event in the development of the Ethiopian theater was a festival of amateur art held in Addis Ababa in 1950. In 1955 the country’s first professional theater opened in the capital. Named the National Theater in the mid-1970’s, it stages plays by contemporary Ethiopian playwrights and by foreign dramatists; its repertoire includes adapted translations of plays by Shakespeare. One of the most recent plays staged at the theater was N. V. Gogol’s The Inspector-General (1976).
Ethiopia
Official name: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Capital city: Addis Ababa Internet country code: .et Flag description: Three equal horizontal bands of green (top), yellow, and red with a yellow pentagram and single yellow rays emanating from the angles between the points on a light blue disk centered on the three bands; Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa, and the three main colors of her flag were so often adopted by other African countries upon independence that they became known as the pan-African colors
Geographical description: Eastern Africa, west of Somalia
Total area: 472,000 sq. mi. (1,127,127 sq. km.)
Climate: Tropical monsoon with wide topographic-induced variation
Nationality: noun: Ethiopian(s); adjective: Ethiopian
Population: 76,511,887 (July 2007 CIA est.)
Ethnic groups: Oromo 40%, Amhara 25%, Tigre 7%, Somali 6%, Sidama 9%, Gurage 2%, Wolaita 4%, Afar 4%, other 3%
Languages spoken: Amharic (official), Tigrinya, Arabic, Guaragigna, Oromigna, English, Somali
Religions: Ethiopian Orthodox 40%, Sunni Muslim 45-50%, Protestant 5%, remainder affiliate with indigenous religions
Legal Holidays:
Jan 19
Ethiopia
a state in NE Africa, on the Red Sea: consolidated as an empire under Menelik II (1889--1913); federated with Eritrea from 1952 until 1993; Emperor Haile Selassie was deposed by the military in 1974 and the monarchy was abolished in 1975; an independence movement in Eritrea was engaged in war with the government from 1961 until 1993. It lies along the Great Rift Valley and consists of deserts in the southeast and northeast and a high central plateau with many rivers (including the Blue Nile) and mountains rising over 4500 m (15 000 ft.); the main export is coffee. Language: Amharic. Religion: Christian majority. Currency: birr. Capital: Addis Ababa. Pop.: 72 420 000 (2004 est.). Area: 1 128 215 sq. km (435 614 sq. miles)
| i don't know |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.